# Where can you advertise a mobile app for free? > Every place a mobile app can get real visibility without ad spend in 2026: store optimisation, directories, launch sites, communities and free ad slots. Published 2026-09-01 · 5 min read · advertise-a-mobile-app, advertising, mobile-apps Canonical: https://bidsurvivor.space/blog/where-to-advertise-a-mobile-app-for-free --- Search for where to advertise a mobile app for free and you mostly get lists of ad networks that are very much not free. This is the other list: places where visibility for an app costs work instead of money, ordered by how much each one actually returns. (Disclosure: written by [BidSurvivor](https://bidsurvivor.space), which appears once below, labelled.) ## The store itself comes first App Store Optimisation isn't advertising, but it outperforms most advertising for free apps: the majority of installs still start with a store search. Apple's own guidance on [App Store search](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/search/) says which fields its search reads — the name, the subtitle, the keyword field — and it is worth taking literally. Before promoting anywhere, your title, subtitle and first two screenshots should say what the app does in the words a stranger would search. Everything below sends people to that page — a weak page wastes every channel on this list. The practical version, for either store: 1. **Name and subtitle carry the search terms.** "Splitwise-style" is not a term anyone types; "split bills with roommates" is. 2. **The first two screenshots are the whole pitch.** Most people never scroll. Show the result, not the onboarding. 3. **The first line of the description** is the one that shows before "more". Say what the app does and for whom. 4. **Ratings.** Ask inside the app, once, immediately after the moment the app delivered something. Never on first launch. 5. **Localise the listing** for any country that shows up in your analytics at all. Store search is per storefront, and the competition for the same phrase in Portuguese is a fraction of the English one. ## Free channels that produce installs **Launch platforms.** Product Hunt remains the big one for apps with a story; Uneed and Fazier are gentler and less crowded. Free to post, and the return tracks preparation almost perfectly. A comparison of the smaller sites is in [Product Hunt alternatives](/blog/product-hunt-alternatives). **App directories and "best apps" sites.** Dozens exist; most send near-zero traffic but create backlinks that help your store page and site rank. Submit to the ones that themselves rank in search — that's the whole filter. **Reddit and niche communities.** The highest-variance free channel. Answer real problems in subreddits where your users complain; the app mention comes second or not at all. One good post can outperform a month of paid installs; self-promotion posts get removed. The organic half of Reddit, and the paid half, are separated out in [Reddit ads for startups](/blog/reddit-ads-for-startups). **Your website's own SEO.** Apps with a companion site rank for problem searches ("how to split rent with roommates") that store pages can't. One genuinely useful article per problem your app solves. Be realistic about what search sends now — clicks are reported down sharply on queries where an AI Overview appears ([Search Engine Land](https://searchengineland.com/google-ai-overviews-cut-search-clicks-report-471497)) — but a page that answers a specific question still gets the people who want more than a summary. **A free auction slot — ours, so verify it.** [BidSurvivor](https://bidsurvivor.space) is an ad board selling two twelve-hour slots a day. The first brand into an empty slot pays $0 — no account, no card — and every visitor starts with $100 of house credit for outbidding (floor $1.00). For an app, it's a free way to learn whether web traffic clicks through to your store page at all, with [the numbers published](https://bidsurvivor.space) rather than promised. Honest scale note: this is a young board; treat it as a measurement, not a firehose. ## Two things that look free and are not **Install-exchange and review-swap groups.** "You install mine, I install yours" produces installs from people who will never open the app, and reviews from people who never used it. Both stores' policies prohibit manipulated ratings, and both stores are good at spotting the pattern. The best outcome is a set of numbers you cannot trust; the worst is a removed listing. **"Free" ad credits with a card on file.** Several networks offer a starting credit that runs out into a live campaign you have to remember to stop. Free until it isn't. If you take one, set a hard spending limit on the account the same day. ## A measurement setup that costs nothing "Free" channels are the ones where founders never find out what worked, because there was no invoice to prompt the question. Fix that before posting anywhere: - **Give every channel its own link.** App Store campaign links and Play's install-referrer parameters exist for exactly this; if you have a companion site, UTM-tag the links to it instead and let the site do the counting. - **Write the number down weekly.** Installs per channel, in a spreadsheet, by hand if necessary. Six weeks of that is worth more than any dashboard. - **Count opens, not installs, where you can.** An install that never launches is a vanity number. The difference between the two — and why the second is the one to steer by — is in [vanity metrics vs real clicks](/blog/vanity-metrics-vs-real-clicks). ## What "free" costs Time, mostly — and the discipline to measure. A reasonable week for a solo founder: two evenings on the store listing, one on directories, one launch post prepared properly, and a standing habit of answering questions in two communities. That is a lot of hours for zero dollars, and it is still cheaper than the alternative, which is paying for installs before you know whether the listing converts. When one channel converts repeatably, that's the one worth the first real dollars — the arithmetic for that moment is in [how to market a side project with no budget](/blog/market-a-side-project-with-no-budget), and the wider list of free routes, for products that are not apps, is in [free advertising for startups](/blog/free-advertising-for-startups).