Top mobile app marketing agencies: how to build your own shortlist and what to ask each one

The best mobile app marketing agency for you is the one that has run your kind of app, shows you its numbers in your account, and lets you own every ad account and data source. A ranked list of top agencies cannot tell you that. Build a shortlist of three, ask each the questions below, and pick on evidence of how they work, not on a league table.

The five jobs an app agency covers

"App marketing" is several disciplines under one name. Most agencies are strong at two or three. Know which you need before you speak to anyone.

1. App store optimisation. The title, subtitle, keywords, screenshots, preview video and ratings on your store listing. This decides how many people who find the app go on to install it.
2. Paid user acquisition. Ads that drive installs, run on the app store's own search ads, on Google's app campaigns, on Meta and on other networks. The skill is creative testing and budget moves, not button pressing.
3. Retention and lifecycle. Push notifications, in app messages and email that bring installed users back. Retention is where the money is made, because an install that never returns has no value.
4. Measurement and attribution. Setting up a mobile measurement partner, event tracking and the link between ad spend and in app actions.
5. Creative production. The videos and static ads that paid channels run. Creative is the biggest lever in paid acquisition and wears out the fastest.

Decide what success means before you shortlist

Install volume is the number agencies like to report, and the number least connected to your business. Choose the metric that matches your model and put it in the brief.

App type	Metric to set
Subscription	Cost per trial start and trial to paid rate
Ecommerce or marketplace	Cost per first purchase and return on ad spend
Game with in app purchases	Retention at day 1, day 7 and day 30, and revenue per user
Utility or service	Cost per registered user who completes setup

How to find candidates

Look in four places: agencies listed in the official partner programmes of the ad platforms you plan to use, agencies whose case studies show apps in your category, recommendations from founders you know, and the agencies that publish original data about app marketing, which signals they study the work. Then check each one's claims against their public footprint, such as whether their own site and their own clients' apps are easy to find.

A word on lists. Rankings of top agencies differ from site to site. Check whether a list explains how it ranks and whether the agencies on it pay to appear. A list is a source of names; the evidence comes from the calls.

Questions that separate agencies

• Which apps like mine have you run, and can I speak to one client?
• What did you change in the first 60 days of your last onboarding, and what did it do to cost per install and retention?
• Who sets up and owns the ad accounts and the measurement partner account?
• How do you test creative, and how many new variants a month do I get?
• How do you report, and will I see numbers in the ad platform and in my own analytics?
• Who works on my account day to day, and what is their experience?

An agency with a real process answers these in specifics. Vague answers about proprietary methods tell you to keep looking.

Fee models

You will meet three. A flat monthly retainer suits steady work. A percentage of ad spend is common for paid acquisition, and it gives the agency a reason to raise your budget, so cap it and review it. A performance fee tied to a cost per action can work if the action is well defined and you control the tracking. Whichever you pick, a provider offering guaranteed installs or guaranteed rankings is selling you something else, since the store and the ad platforms decide delivery.

Contract terms that protect you

1. You own the ad accounts, the store developer accounts and the measurement partner account. The agency gets access, never ownership.
2. All creative made for you belongs to you on payment.
3. A notice period of 30 days, with a clean handover of accounts and data.
4. Ad spend is billed by the platform to you, not passed through an agency account, where possible.
5. A named lead on your account, with a monthly review call on the calendar.

A 30 day test before a long commitment

Ask the final two agencies for a paid pilot: one channel, one budget, one metric, 30 days. Compare how each one sets up tracking, how fast it ships creative, and how clearly it reports. Agencies that resist a pilot tend to resist scrutiny later. For the wider marketplace of agency types and how to judge their work, see what to hire a marketing agency for and how to brief a performance marketing consultant.

What a good first report looks like

Ask each agency to show a sample report from a past client with the name removed. A useful report reads from spend to outcome: spend, installs, cost per install, then the in app events that matter, such as registration, trial start or first purchase, and then retention at day 1, 7 and 30. It splits the numbers by channel and by creative, so you can see which ad earned the result.

It also says what the agency will do next and why. A report that lists numbers and ends there leaves you to do the thinking. A report that closes with three tests for next month shows you a team that works from the data. Ask to see the creative testing log too, since the pace and logic of tests is the best predictor of improvement.

What buyers ask an assistant before they download an app

Many people now ask ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity which app to use for a job before they open the store. The answer names a few apps and cites the review sites and articles it read. An app that is absent from that answer loses installs that no ad bought and no store listing changed. AI Knows Us tests what the assistants say when a user asks for an app like yours, and the free scan at aiknowsus.com shows whether yours is named and which sources the assistants lean on.

Questions about hiring a mobile app marketing agency

How much does a mobile app marketing agency cost?

Fees depend on scope and the agency. Ask for a written scope and fee model from each shortlisted agency, and compare the total cost including ad spend management fees.

Should I hire an agency or a freelancer?

An agency suits a programme across several channels. A freelancer suits one defined job, such as store listing work. See the guide on when a freelancer or an agency fits.

When should marketing start for a new app?

Before launch: build the store listing, a waitlist and the tracking, so that launch week has data to learn from.

What is a mobile measurement partner?

A third party tool that links ad clicks to installs and in app events, so you can see which campaign produced which user.

How long before I can judge an agency?

Judge process in the first 30 days and cost per valuable action by day 90, which is long enough for retention data to settle.