Interview with Tim Armoo from Fanbytes
Timothy Armoo is the 24-year-old CEO of Fanbytes, a mobile video advertising platform helping brands like Warner, Apple Music, and Sony reach teens through Snapchat and TikTok influencers. Fanbytes’s campaigns have seen themselves featured in Forbes, Huffington Post and The Times with Forbes describing them as “rewriting the rules of social for Gen Z”. Fanbytes is Timo’s 3rd company, having started his first company at 14 and selling his second company at 17-year-old.
Get to know more about him!
Quick Quiz Tim Armoo – Fanbytes
Tim will join us on Friday 7th of June at the W Barcelona Hotel. Do not miss the chance to learn from him!
1. How and when did you arrive to the mobile industry? Why did you decide to stay and work on this sector?
I got into the mobile marketing industry two years ago at 21 after selling my previous company – a media company at 17. I decided to work in this sector because I believe it’s where real inventiveness and growth hacking is. Mobile marketers are some of the most innovative people on the planet and this level of innovation is very energizing.
2. What project are you working on now?
I currently head up Fanbytes, we help apps to drive downloads and installs through a network of social punishers and influencers on Snapchat, Instagram and Tiktok. Started it two years ago and we’ve grown quickly working with the world’s largest brands like Deliveroo & Apple Music to help them drive downloads and engagement with a younger audience.
3. What is the most important professional quality an app marketer can have?
A growth hacker mindset, the margins to win in mobile marketing are so small that a positive attitude to innovation and hacking is the most important skill you can cultivate.
4. What KPIs do you control every day? Which ones are the most important?
As CEO I mix between the top of the funnel and bottom of the funnel metrics – it’s a big mixture. Sometimes I’ll be looking at our traffic metrics or another day be looking at revenue. It largely depends on what gives you the highest leverage at the given time.
5. What problem do you face in your every day as an app marketer?
Twofold: I think the first is constantly being innovative but linked with that is the communication of that innovation to the marketplace. We pioneered the mass use of memes inside mobile creatives as a means to reach a younger audience. However, marketing that to the world was a challenge at the beginning because it seems counter-intuitive to the flashy well done graphics they are used to. However once we proved it with some great case studies, we were off to the races and everyone came running to our door.
6. What is the best option to monetize a mobile app?
I don’t have a particular preference as I’m not involved in the monetization space but I definitely think that the one that adds the most value is the one that wins. I’m against interstitial advertising which disrupts the users experience, that fundamentally doesn’t naturally help.
7. What advice would you give to a company or startup before launching a mobile app?
Begin with the answer of how you’re going to win with this audience based on something seriously different. A lot of apps aren’t really different they’re just “meh”.
8. What are the biggest challenges facing the mobile app industry?
The biggest is the need to stand out. The mobile industry is now pretty much every industry so with the rise in competition means an impetus to stand out.
9. What trends will mark 2019?
App marketing will increase in personalization to each user. Currently, web advertising in incredibly personalized using the latest advertising techniques however mobile marketing is lacking. I see this changing in 2019.
10. How do you keep up to date with all the news in the app marketing industry? What sources do you consult?
11. To finish, what apps or games have surprised you in the last year?
I’ve been a big fan of Quora and how they’ve slowly eaten away at Wikipedia’s market share. I’ve also been obsessed with Tiktok and how it’s creating a whole new dimension in how the younger audience communications.
