Personally when I worked in Apps it was a giant rabbit hole. Be prepared to spend a lot of money on marketing to generate traffic if you want to get your app ranked higher. That market is extremely competitive…

Armink said:
how to go about this without spending too much money?

There isn't a way that I know of. I've put thousands of dollars into campaigns for clients and even then… more money had to be spent.

Armink said:
for small budgets?

How do you define a small budget?

Armink said:

@Rutin I really don't have a figure in my head but lets say $800?

For $800 you would be better off running your own social media campaign as it wont be enough to get a decent 3rd party involved that will actually be able to make a difference for you. You have to consider they take a cut for their expertise, and time which also includes marketing content they produce.

I also would stay away from those offering “install services” where you pay for bots to install your app and to artificially increase your count. The same applies to reviews and such.

Why not get on Social Media and spend every day posting about your app to build awareness, and engage with your target audience? Build a brand around your app? LinkedIn might be a good platform for this as your app is educational. I've done this myself and built great traction but it takes time to build a following. Once you have that following you'll find getting people over to try it out a lot easier which will increase your installs and up your score.

The key when posting is to not just promote your app outright, but to post showing your expertise in whatever subject your app is about, and continue to show value. Then you want to spend time engaging with your target audience. Indirect marketing is a two-way street and requires a lot of time. Then I would mix in direct marketing by paying for promotion as you go.

Normally if I was to dump 25,000−50,000+ into app promotion it's not for an app that doesn't generate revenue. It has to be for an app that has micro transactions and provides a way to pay for itself over time. Due to the high competition if your app doesn't sell anything and isn't directed at a large percentage of the people who use mobile apps you'll find yourself sinking money for little to no return and most likely going into the negative.

Make sure you have a good landing page as well for your app. You'll have to work at this everyday… so consider if your app even justifies the time you have to put forth for promotion.

Armink said:

Thanks again for responding to my post @rutin.

I have heard from others that I need to start building up my social media presence. I just don't know how to go about that if I am honest.

I was thinking perhaps if there was a way to see what similar apps have done on the Social Media throughout their lifecycle to get to the top of the ranks, it could serve as a good roadmap for me. Is that a reasonable place to start?

Sure! We call that market research. What I would do as well is create a content plan which works towards your goal: Higher Installs. As this is your target work backwards and create a strategy.

With social media you just need to be consistent and provide value to your audience. Building your presence (brand) will take some time. The only shortcut to time would be to dump a ton of money for exposure, otherwise you have to work the system like everyone else.