The Covid-19 pandemic was crucial to the growth of technology. People desperately needed mobile solutions to manage important aspects of their lives without leaving their homes. Fintech apps were not an exception. Here are some statistics that prove this:
- Between December 29, 2019, to March 1, 2020, the average weekly usage of finance apps surged by 55% in Japan, 35% in South Korea, and 20% for the United States and China. (Statista)
- 29 of the top 40 global finance app markets grew at least by 20% year on year. (Appsflyer)
- The overall increase in sessions for banking apps in H1 2020, compared with the same period in 2019, comes in at 26%. (Adjust)
- In 2020, users from all over the world installed 4.6 billion finance apps and spent 16.3 billion hours using those apps, which is 45% greater than in 2019. (App Annie)
Finance (fintech) apps are apps that allow you to streamline your financial activities with the help of modern technology. There are the following key types of finance apps:
- Money transfer – for sending money between financial accounts in a matter of seconds.
- Trading & investment – for buying funds, shares, and stocks.
- P2P loans – for the direct, “bank-free” connection of lenders to borrowers or vice versa.
- Personal budget management (finance trackers) – for small businesses and individuals who want to track their expenses and profits.
- Mobile banking – for bank account management.
In this article, we will explore features that are a must for any fintech app and give some tips on how to promote such apps.
5 must-have features for a finance app
No matter the type of fintech app, each of them must provide the following features for better sales and user experience:
- Security. No one will use a fintech app that is not secure, as the users entrust their most sensitive data to it. Such features as two-factor authentication, strong password, and biometric sign-in will show the users that you value their personal information and that they can trust you.
- A simple and intuitive interface. Some finance apps are used by beginners who are new to the finance niche, and the subject of finance itself may seem complicated to them. If a finance app overwhelms the user from the very beginning, they are very likely to leave the app and never open it again. However, seasoned experts would also prefer a straightforward interface that would save them time and give them a seamless user experience.
- Smooth onboarding. This is where the app greets the user and offers them to follow easy steps so that they can get started. Exactly at this point, the user decides if they want to keep the app or uninstall it. As of August 2020, finance apps of all categories had an uninstall rate of 77.3%. A smooth onboarding sequence can help your app retain this percentage and not lose valuable users.
- Personalized experience. This feature gives the users an opportunity to customize the app to their needs and preferences. For example, they can adjust the app’s appearance, change the language, set up the preferred currency, customize the budget categories that they want to manage, etc.
- Visualization of data. Each finance app collects analytics and shows them to the user. The visualization presents this data to the user in the simplest and most convenient way. For example, it can be an interactive diagram with colored parts that the user can tap and view details.
How to promote finance apps: 4 useful tips
Before you start promoting your finance app, it’s important to determine the goals and the size of the potential audience as well as study competitors and related categories. This will help you understand how many installations you need and how to get a good result. Here are some fintech app promotion tips from us:
#1: Consider a soft launch
A soft launch is a small purchase of traffic to test various hypotheses. This is a mandatory step for a new app because at launch you have no data to target. There are only hypotheses that you need to either confirm or refute – and this is done with a soft launch.
The main purposes of using a soft launch are as follows:
- to obtain data on the main metrics of the product;
- to identify and correct errors;
- to finalize the interface;
- to spot any bottlenecks;
- to receive feedback from “live” users;
- to test traffic sources before a “hard” launch.
Read more: Soft Launch Strategy: What It Is and Why Your App Needs It
#2: Define the marketing budget
If you want to test something, you need a sufficient amount of data. For example, 100 installs and 2 payments will give a conversion rate of 2%. This does not reveal the situation objectively and completely. Therefore, to correctly measure the metrics and draw conclusions for optimizing the app, you need several thousand installs.
The budget directly depends on the project and on the market for which it is designed. If it is a large-scale project for a wide audience, for example, an online banking product, then you need to attract a large audience in different locations in order to collect representative statistics. You can determine the required number of installs based on the target audience and the size of the market.
For example, if the number of potential users of your app is 10 million, then for complete statistics you need to purchase several tens of thousands (or even hundreds) of installs because you will not understand anything for 100 users. If your product is, for example, a finance tracker, then you will have a smaller market, and accordingly, to obtain representative data, you will need to purchase fewer users.
Check out our email course to learn more about app marketing.
#3: Optimize the app for the app stores
A set of activities aimed at increasing the position of the app in the app stores is called App Store Optimization (ASO). Internal optimization (title, description, keywords), number of installs, and user reviews affect how favorably the store will treat your app.
ASO starts with the competitor analysis: in which categories their apps are placed, what texts they use in names and descriptions, and by which search queries they are guided. You need to analyze how much traffic you will get if you use the same keywords.
It is important to carry out ASO on an ongoing basis. This way, you can consider various changes in the market – the appearance of competitors, changes in demand for apps, trends, etc. ASO performance is measured by the app’s category and overall top rankings, keyword rankings, and organic installs.
Read more: 4 Common App Store Optimization Mistakes to Avoid
#4: Build a community around the app
Having a community around your app is a prerequisite for gaining trust and turning your users into brand ambassadors. You can build a community on one of the social media platforms, but this has proven to be rather risky and expensive. Social media are great for getting organic traffic and you shouldn’t write them off completely. However, in order to improve user engagement, retention and monetization aspects of your finance app you should create your own community. The loyal core of the audience will be paying off your effort for a long time. Here are some of the benefits you can get:
- Access to information. By observing communication in your community, you can learn about the shortcomings of the product and the consumers’ wishes. Moreover, community members help resolve each others’ queries, thereby reducing the burden on your customer support team.
- A sense of belonging and support. A community offers your users a needed sense of belonging by providing a place for them to share their thoughts and feelings around a shared interest while receiving support from other members who may be going through similar challenges as well.
- Reach to the audience. Companies that own a community get 100% reach to their users while for social media platforms, the organic reach for example on Facebook is down to 5.2% and declining every year. As a result, brands have to pay for ads to reach their own followers that they have built over years.
Finance apps like Venmo and Spendee have already adopted the concept of communities and it works just great for them.
To learn more, check out our free ebook about building and managing your own community!
10 most popular finance apps
Let’s take a look at some popular finance apps according to downloads from the app stores.
Cash App
Founded in 2013 in New York, Cash App is a multipurpose finance app that currently has four key functions:
- Send – the ability to send payments to anyone.
- Spend – the ability to get a customized debit card.
- Bank – the ability to speed up the direct deposits and receive paychecks earlier than usual.
- Invest – the ability to easily invest in cryptocurrencies and stocks.
Venmo
Venmo is a digital wallet and social payments app that is intended for sharing and splitting purchases with friends. The app resembles a social media platform but with financial transactions. The social elements are represented by animated stickers and emojis, which the users can add to payments. It’s even possible to show the payment to everyone, just to friends, or keep it private – just like with social media content. Additionally, the app offers the ability to pay in apps and online, pay local businesses, and order a debit card.
HomeBudget with Sync
HomeBudget is an expense tracker that enables you to analyze your expenses and income in the form of charts and graphs. The app includes Family Sync. This advanced feature allows several devices within a single household to exchange expense and income information as well as work together on a shared budget. As a result, family members can conveniently manage their common budget together from any desktop or mobile device.
Monefy
An easy-to-use app that allows you to monitor not only individual but also family expenses. Monefy syncs data from all devices, and you can download reports to Dropbox to control your budget. All transactions are sorted by category and displayed on a large pie chart on the home screen.
It is possible to form statistics of the offered budget instead of all incomes. For example, if you want to permanently set aside a certain amount from each salary, you can simply not fit it into your monthly budget, and the app calculates the costs without this amount. Monefy also has a screen widget with statistics of expenses by month.
Money Manager
A key feature of this app is the recognition of checks. You do not need to enter the data yourself: just take a photo of the check, and the app will analyze it and determine the appropriate cost category.
The home screen sorts the tabs by time periods, and the transactions display the account, type, amount, category, and other information that you can enter. Pie charts and graphs make it much easier to monitor your budget.
There is also map management, budget planning for individual categories, and the use of a double-entry system. If you use several currencies at the same time, you do not need to constantly convert them – the app will do everything for you.
Wallet
The service offers automatic updating of banking operations and synchronization with your bank. Clear graphs and financial reviews provide a detailed understanding of the financial situation through bank accounts, credit cards, debts, and cash. You can share selected accounts with family, friends, or colleagues. Everyone can join from any platform – Android, iOS, or web. And for enhanced control, you can set limits on your own costs.
Spendee
The interface of this app somewhat resembles a social media feed. Spendee presents your income and expenses in the form of beautiful infographics, so you can easily understand what is happening with your money. The app also automatically calculates the daily budget based on the available amount per month and supports the automatic import of transactions from online banks.
You Need a Budget (YNAB)
YNAB connects directly to your financial accounts and receives real-time account balance information. At YNAB, every dollar that you plan to earn requires attention, so you should immediately choose what to do with it – spend or save. The app also provides many training materials in the field of financial management. It helps its users build a budget, better understand their habits, and learn to save.
Goodbudget
This app allows users to track household expenses by using the envelope method. It means that users distribute a certain amount of their income each month into specific categories (or digital “envelopes”), such as products, rent, and debt. This makes it easy to prioritize expenses and plan ahead. For people who don’t have a general budget, this is a good first step to understanding how and what they spend their money on.
My Finances
With My Finances, you can manage multiple accounts, plan future expenses, and view the complete history of your financial activities. You can also view revenue and expenses as a graph as well as synchronize and send them to your Google Calendar. Your information is securely stored in the cloud storage, and the app can back up the data that you can restore on a new device. If you want, you can set up notifications, sync with Google Calendar and the app will notify you to pay off a debt or credit.
Wrapping Up
Today, finance apps are even more popular than they were a couple of years ago because the pandemic has increased the demand. Therefore, to survive in this competitive market, your app needs to have certain distinctive features and follow specific marketing strategies. We hope that this article has given you a clue on how to promote a fintech app and what it must include. Good luck!
