As we’ve shown before, you don’t need to spend millions on Super Bowl ads—you can just ride the hype.
Case in point: Perplexity didn’t pay for a Super Bowl ad, but it still saw a surge in installs.
How? It ran a contest, giving users a shot at winning $1M after they downloaded the app and answered five questions during the game.
Downloads shot up from 30,000 to 45,000—a 50% increase—and Perplexity jumped from number 257 to 49 in the US App Store.
The beauty of this strategy is, by getting people to download the app, it directly showed new users how Perplexity works—something many brands struggle to do in ads. Hmm…
Speaking of app downloads: For the first time in over a year, Instagram failed to claim the top spot.
TikTok dethroned it with 49M downloads in January. Instagram still holds second place, followed by Facebook, WhatsApp, and ChatGPT.
All apps in the top 10 saw an increase in downloads compared to December except Threads, which dipped slightly. However, it still held strong at number nine.
Overall, there were more downloads in January than in December, giving 2025 a strong start for apps in terms of new users and engagement.
Lots of promise if you’re promoting apps or using these channels. Lots of competition, too…
