Everything you need to get set up for a successful launch and get discovered
Launching your app is a significant milestone — but what happens in the weeks before and immediately after launch determines whether your audience finds it, downloads it, and comes back. This guide walks you through everything you need to have in place before your app goes live.
Think of this as your pre-launch checklist, expanded. Each section explains not just what to set up, but why it matters and what good looks like. By the time you've worked through this guide, you'll have the technical foundations, the marketing channels, and the team alignment you need to give your app the best possible start.
This guide is designed to be used alongside the App Marketing Post-Launch Playbook, which picks up where this one leaves off — covering the ongoing rhythms, strategy, and seasonal planning that keep your app growing after launch.
TIP: Before you start: one question to answer
What do you want your app to do? Before setting up any of the tools in this guide, make sure your team has agreed on a primary goal or goals — drive ticket sales, serve a specific audience, deepen engagement, or expand reach. That decision shapes how you use everything that follows. If you haven't had that conversation yet, start there. The Post-Launch Playbook has a strategy diagnostic in Step 1 that can help.
App marketing doesn't sit with one person — it touches email, social, digital advertising, content, and CRM. Before you set up any of the tools below, make sure the right people know they're involved and what they're responsible for.
Email marketing: Add deep links to all launch emails; plan the launch announcement campaign. Needs access to branch.io account.
Social media: Plan organic launch campaign; add deep links to all app-related posts. Needs access to branch.io account.
Digital / paid media: Set up App Store ads and Meta retargeting campaigns pre-launch. Needs access to Apple Search Ads, Meta Ads Manager, Meta Pixel.
Web / digital content: Implement popover code snippet; create app landing page. Needs access to Website CMS, branch.io.
CRM / lifecycle: Build launch audience segments; plan first push notifications post-launch. Needs access to CleverTap or equivalent.
Data / analytics: Set up branch.io tracking; confirm app events are firing correctly. Needs access to branch.io, analytics dashboard.
WARNING: The most common pre-launch mistake?
Telling the operational team about the app too late. If the people responsible for email, social, and digital ads only find out about the launch in the week it happens, they can't set up the tools, create the content, or build the campaigns that will make the launch land. If they don't already know about the app, tell them now! Give everyone in the table above at least 4-6 weeks of lead time ahead of the launch.
Deep links are the connective tissue between all of your marketing channels and your app. Every email, social post, digital ad, and website page that references your app should use a deep link — not a generic app store URL. Without them, you can't track what's driving downloads, and you lose the ability to send users directly to the right place inside the app.
Use branch.io to generate all your deep links. A branch.io link detects whether the user has the app installed and routes them accordingly — directly into the app if they do, to the correct app store if they don't.
Create your branch.io account and connect it to your app before launch.
Pre-launch and at launch: Deep links should lead only to the app store, so new users are taken straight to download.
Post-launch: Switch deep links to route directly to specific content inside the app — event pages, the home screen, a particular category. Adjust the destination depending on what you're promoting.
Create a dedicated deep link for each channel: one for email, one for social, one for your website popover, one for paid ads. This lets you see exactly which channel is driving downloads and revenue in your branch.io dashboard.
Analyze revenue, sales, and installs by deep link in branch.io. This data tells you which of your marketing efforts are actually working — don't skip it.
NOTE: Deep links in practice
Every time your email specialist writes a campaign that mentions the app, there should be a deep link in that email — not a generic "download here" button, but a link that goes directly to the relevant content. The same applies to every social post, every digital ad, and every page on your website that references the app. If there's no deep link, you're leaving attribution data on the table.
Your website is one of your highest-traffic channels — and most of your website visitors are already your audience. The popover is a small banner that appears at the bottom of the screen on mobile devices, prompting visitors to open or download the app. It's one of the highest-converting tools in your pre-launch setup and one of the easiest to implement.
The popover works because it catches users at exactly the right moment — when they're already engaged with your content on their phone. A well-implemented popover can significantly increase your web-to-app conversion rate with minimal ongoing effort.
Implement the popover code snippet on your mobile website before launch. This is a one-time technical task — you will need access to your website's code to insert the code snippet on the correct pages, which we will provide for you.
The popover should be visible on all pages of your website that are relevant to the app: event pages, the homepage, ticketing pages, any page where a mobile visitor might want to open the app instead.
The popover deep link should use a branch.io link so you can track how many downloads and how much revenue it drives. Analyze this in your branch.io dashboard alongside your other channel links.
WARNING: Don't wait until launch day
The popover code snippet should be implemented in the weeks before launch, tested on multiple devices, and confirmed working before your app goes live. If it's not ready on launch day, you're missing conversions from day one.
App Store advertising — particularly Apple Search Ads — is one of the most cost-effective ways to drive new downloads from users who are actively searching for apps like yours. It requires a small amount of setup time before launch but delivers consistently strong results relative to other paid channels, especially in the first months when organic discovery is still building.
Store ads work so well for arts organizations because of intent. A user searching "orchestra app" or your organization's name in the App Store is already interested — you're not interrupting them, you're appearing at exactly the moment they're looking for you.
Start with Apple Search Ads — this is where you'll see the highest impact for the lowest spend. Google Play ads can follow once you've established your Apple baseline.
During your soft launch phase: Set up your Apple Search Ads Advanced account. This gives you full control over targeting, keywords, and budget.
At launch: Start a Search Results campaign with a modest budget. You don't need to spend much to start — the goal is to capture users who are already searching for you.
Add keywords covering your brand name, musical genres you program, and relevant competitor names. Review and refine these after 2-3 weeks based on performance data.
Adjust your budget after the first 2-3 weeks once you can see which keywords are converting and at what cost.
TIP: A note on budget
App Store advertising doesn't require a large budget to be effective, especially for arts organizations with an established audience. Many clients start with a few hundred euros or dollars per month and scale based on results. The key is treating it as a line item in your existing digital marketing budget — not a new, separate spend — and adjusting it based on the cost-per-install data you get back.
Your existing audience is your most valuable launch asset. They already know you, trust you, and are most likely to download and use the app. Your launch announcement campaign is how you tell them it exists — and give them a compelling reason to try it.
The goal of your launch announcement isn't just awareness — it's conversion. Every announcement should give your audience a clear, specific reason to download and a deep link that makes downloading as easy as one tap.
Create a dedicated app landing page on your website. This is the central destination for anyone who wants to know more before downloading — what the app does, who it's for, and how to get it. Include App Store and Google Play badges with deep links.
Plan an organic social media campaign for launch week. A series of posts showing what the app does, why it's useful, and how to download it. Use deep links in every post.
Send a dedicated launch email to your full audience. Make it benefit-led: what can they do in the app that they can't do as easily anywhere else? Include a prominent deep link button.
Use channel-specific deep links in every announcement — one for email, one for each social platform, one for the website landing page. This lets you see which channel drove the most downloads at launch.
Continue announcing the app beyond launch week. New subscribers, new season announcements, and major programming moments are all opportunities to remind your audience the app exists.
Meta retargeting ads let you reach people who have already visited your website or interacted with your app — your warmest potential users. Because these ads are shown to people who already know you, they convert at significantly higher rates than cold audience campaigns.
The Meta catalogue ads feature is particularly powerful for arts organizations because it automatically pulls your event listings and creates ads around them — meaning your retargeting campaigns can stay current with your program without requiring manual updates for every new event.
Pre-launch: Implement the Meta Pixel on your website. This is a one-time code snippet that your web team installs — it's what enables retargeting by tracking which users visit your site.
At launch: Run a custom manual app install campaign targeting your website visitors. This reaches the people most likely to download because they've already shown interest in your programming.
Post-launch: Connect your app events to Meta catalogue ads. This enables automatic retargeting ads that show users the specific events they've browsed or purchased — highly personalized and high-converting.
Retarget both web and app users with catalogue ads once your app has enough users to build meaningful audiences.
Define your audience segments and set your budget after 2-3 weeks, once you have enough data to see which audiences are responding.
In the week before your launch, run through this checklist to make sure everything is in place. If anything isn't ready, flag it to your team at easy-connect — some items have dependencies that take time to resolve.
branch.io account created and connected to app
Deep links created for each channel: email, social, website, paid ads
Popover code snippet implemented and tested on mobile devices
Meta Pixel implemented on website
Apple Search Ads Advanced account set up
App store listing complete: description, screenshots, keywords
App events confirmed firing correctly in analytics dashboard
App landing page live on website
Launch email drafted, deep link tested, send date confirmed
Social media launch posts scheduled with deep links
Apple Search Ads launch campaign set up and ready to activate
Meta launch campaign set up and ready to activate
In-app welcome message drafted for new users
All team members have branch.io access
Email specialist has deep links for all planned campaigns
Social media manager has deep links for all planned posts
CRM owner has first push notification planned for 2-4 weeks post-launch
Internal app meeting scheduled for 30 days post-launch
NOTE: What comes next
This guide gets you to launch. The App Marketing Post-Launch Playbook takes you from there — covering the monthly rhythms, seasonal planning, team alignment, and quarterly reviews that turn a successful launch into a successful app.
Your easy-connect contact is available throughout this process — to review your setup, help you plan your launch campaign, and work through any of the steps in this guide with your team.
