The worldwide pandemic lockdowns forced people to change their lifestyles to the “new normal”, and these changes dramatically affected the app business. As people turned to their mobile devices to work, study, and have fun, which increased the competitiveness in the app stores. But, this is not the only surprise 2020 brought to the mobile app publishers, with the IDFA deprecation announced last year and that to be enforced soon in 2021, user acquisition is becoming more important, while app store optimization (ASO) appears to be another crucial factor for app business growth.
Here in this article, you will find effective app store optimization strategies (ASO) that will help you enhance your mobile app growth efforts in 2021. Let’s dive right in…..
- What is App Store Optimization (ASO)?
App Store Optimization (ASO) is a continuous process to improve an app’s rankings and discoverability. The higher an app ranks, the more relevant it appears to users. Plus, the app’s rank directly connects with the number of downloads, a higher rank position gets more downloads for the app. Also, there are numerous other benefits of ASO, like:
- The increase of app’s discoverability
- Generates more traffic to the app
- Increase in the number of app users
- Expands app’s user base
- Boosts app’s organic downloads
- Increase the CTR and revenue
- Reduce user acquisition costs
- Helps to grow your app business
The Challenges and Opportunities of App Store Optimization
The Challenge
The global app market is of the most competitive marketing spaces with nearly 4 million Google Play Store apps and 2 million Apple’s iOS App Store apps. Therefore, successfully acquiring and retaining users for your app is become more challenging than ever.
The Opportunity
According to Apple’s report, half a billion visitors come to the iOS App Store each week, and from them, 65% of iOS app downloads happen through organic searches.
As we discussed earlier, App Store Optimization (ASO) is a continuous process of testing and measuring updates to app store marketing assets, with the goal of increasing rank, visibility and generating more app downloads.
With the announcement of IDFA deprecation, Organic search has become more important than before. As IDFA deprecation reduces the impact of paid advertising because advertisers lose access to users’ data.
So, all these facts allow app publishers to enhance their app performance through App Store Optimization.
App Store Optimization Strategies for 2021
- Choose the Right Keywords
Understand how the keyword difficulty and search volume have changed over time to choose the most relevant keywords that drive traffic for you. So, here are some tips to choose the right keywords.
Make Use of Branded Keywords
You know what? In the global app market, branded search queries dominate the top keyword lists by search volume, in the US, 1 of the top 20 keywords by search volume was branded on iPhones searches. You can target your competitors’ branded keywords through paid ads or fend off your competitors’ keywords by bidding on your own branded search term to maximize your presence on the app search results page.
Leverage Both English and Local Keywords
Surprisingly, in Thailand, Japan, and Indonesia, the top keywords by search volume were English Brand keywords. But, users in Korea tend to search in the Korean language over English, noticeably different from other countries in APAC. Therefore, it’s a good approach to use both English and Local Language Keywords because that’ll help your app to rank for both English and Local Language searches.
Don’t Ignore Misspelled Keywords
You can strategically use the misspelled/breakout keywords to enhance the share of search traffic and boost your app’s visibility in the app stores. Breakout/misspelled keywords indicate the shifts in app stores (apps) demand over time. With the right App Store Optimization process for these breakout/misspelled keywords you can monitor the trends in the market shift and rank your app accordingly.
Use Machine Learning to Find the Keywords Opportunities
Aligning your app offering with the keywords that people are searching for online is important to generate more app downloads from a valuable audience. for this purpose, you can use machine learning tools like App Annie’s machine learning keyword suggestions where you can find optimal keywords by simply typing a few seed keywords. Yes, the machine learning keyword suggestions tool suggests a list of relevant keywords related to the keywords you type and search on the tool.
Get to Know Your Competitor’s Keyword Strategy
Monitoring paid search ads allows you to understand how your competitors are prioritizing keywords in their App Store Optimization and user acquisition strategy. Also, gives you insights into who could be generating CPI’s, and where you may be losing out on your potential audience share.
- Frequently Optimize Your App Updates
Use timely app updates to increase your app discoverability, and also watch out for your competitors’ app updates to get to know their strategies. Here are some app updating tactics.
Frequent and Strategic App Update
Frequent app updates like changes in app icon, name, version, and description can maximize the discoverability of your app with more targeted keyword additions and boost your app store conversions to generate more downloads by highlighting new app features and value propositions. Research data show that non-gaming apps update more frequently than games apps across both iOS App Store and Google Play App Store.
Add Users’ Desired Features
New features updates brought meaningful differences in apps discoverability, and App Descriptions are a prominent place to discuss your app’s new features updates and product offerings. The top 100 apps on Google Play App Store updated their app descriptions associated with new features additions which are 25% higher than top apps on iOS. For Games apps, this was 70% higher.
- Leverage Your App Store Assets
Use your app store assets like user reviews, screenshots, and descriptions to convert your app traffic into app downloads. Here are some ways to maximize the impact of your App Store assets.
Optimize Your App’s App Store Page
By regularly updating your app store page you can enhance your App Store Optimization process. And, your app store page is the first impression the users get about your app, also, your app store page allows users to get information about what your app offers. Including app names, screenshots, descriptions, and short videos in your App Store Page will help you to convert window shoppers to your app users. The following are the key elements you need to add to your App Store Page: your app name, app subtitle (iOS), app icon, app description, keyword field (iOS only), app promotional text (iOS), screenshots, the app featured graphic, app promo video, in-app purchases (iOS), and Google tags (Google Play).
Boost Your App Ratings and Reviews
Getting feedback from your app users is a treasure. Your app users can help you find out the strengths and weaknesses of your app, and you can use those insights in your product roadmap. To see whether your app generates a good number of ratings & reviews or not, compare the number of ratings and reviews generated with the number of app downloads generated in a certain period. You can then compare these insights with that of your competitors to find ways to improve your app store SEO performance.
- Expand Your App’s Global Reach
Get to know the different requirements between the Google Play app stores and iOS app stores then customize your ASO strategy to their guidelines to maximize your app’s global reach. Here are some tactics to improve your app’s global reach.
Provide Language Support
Providing language support is one of the important global App Store Optimization (aka aso marketing) strategies to scale your app globally and expand into new markets. On iOS App Stores, non-gaming apps support an average of 6.6 languages while games apps support an average of 9.6 languages. These factors show the importance of language support. So, add providing language support into your global ASO strategy.
Optimize Your App for App Store Submission Differences
Understand the different requirements between the Google Play app stores and iOS app stores then customize your App Store Optimization strategy according to the iOS app store guidelines and the Google Play guidelines. These tiny details can make all the difference in app optimization. For example, your app name should be only 30 characters on the iOS App Store compared to 50 characters on Google Play App Store which is an important difference when using high-value keywords in your app name.
Boost Your Organic App Store Traffic
Being featured on the app stores can have a great impact on your app store page traffic. Each visitor you get on your app store page is an opportunity to convert them to your app user. Do an A/B test for your app store assets and optimize them to give you the best conversion rate from the traffic. Also, combining your app features with app rankings and downloads growth gives you a comprehensive overview of how you stack against the organic app marketing efforts of your competitors that will help you to improve your app marketing efforts.
- Follow Strategic ASO Updates
You can follow strategic ASO ( app store optimization) updates to achieve a good boost in your app organic downloads. Here are some ways to leverage strategic ASO updates.
In-Demand Feature Updates
The app description is the best place to showcase the key features in your app, and adding your app key features in the app description will help you to maximize your app downloads and boost the engagements of your app users.
Strategic Updates for Timed Events
The timely event offers and flash sales for special events and festivals will help you boost your app user acquisition. These kinds of coordinated updates can help you increase your app discoverability and conversion to generate more app downloads.
App Icon Updates
A dramatic app color change or app icon design change can signal a major change in the app to the current users which prompting them to re-engage and explore the new update of the app which automatically increases the traffic and app downloads.
Top 5 app store optimization tools.
There are hundreds of App store optimization tools ( ASO tools ) and app store optimization strategies available online, but not everything will give you the features and options to get the best ASO optimization experience. These are the top five app store optimization apps I tried and work well in every situation. Just give it a try and let me know your feedback?
Conclusion
When people understand the value of your app in their daily lives, there is greater potential for your app downloads. This is where App Store Optimization helps you to increase your app discoverability and visibility to reach more people.
I hope, now, you have gained knowledge about the advanced app store optimization Strategies. By following these App Store Optimization strategies, you can enhance your app marketing strategy. And that will have a positive impact on your app business.
APP Store Optimization
Most frequent questions and answers
1. What is ASO?
App Store Optimization (ASO) is a strategic optimization process that improves an app’s discoverability, visibility, and rankings in an app store. App stores rank each app according to a variety of ranking factors. By successfully optimizing your app with optimal keywords, proper images/visuals, and localized descriptions, you can increase your app visibility and rank higher, also this will drive more app downloads.
2. Why is App Store Optimization Important?
App Store Optimization helps to improve your app’s rankings, visibility and discoverability. The higher an app ranks in the app stores, the more relevant it appears to app users. Plus, the app’s rank directly connects with the number of app downloads, a higher rank position gets more downloads for the app. Also, there are numerous other benefits of ASO, like:
- The increase of app’s visibility and discoverability Generates more organic traffic to the app.
- Increase in the number of app loyal users.
- Expands app’s user base.
- Boosts app’s organic downloads 6. Increase the CTR and revenue of the app.
- Reduce your app’s user acquisition costs.
- Helps to successfully grow your app business.
3. How do I optimize my app store?
App Store Optimization (ASO) is a continuous process of testing and measuring updates to increase your app rank, visibility and generating more app downloads. So, here are the simple steps to optimize your app.
1. Choose the right keywords that drive traffic for your app.
2. Timely optimize your app updates to increase your app discoverability.
3. Optimize your app’s app store page with proper information.
4. Expand your app’s global reach by providing multiple language support.
5. Update your users’ in-demand features in your app.
4. How does the app store measure optimization?
App Store uses the following key metrics to measure your App Store Optimization (ASO). Also, these metrics help you to measure your app success, user engagement, user retention, and conversion. Let’s check out those key metrics:
1. Your App’s Discoverability in App Stores.
2. The Number of Active Users for Your APP.
3. Lifetime Value of Your App.
4. Your App’s User Acquisition Cost.
5. Your App’s Conversion Rate.
5. What are the App Store Optimization Process?
App Store Optimization (ASO) is a strategic optimization process of boosting your app’s visibility, discoverability, and ranking within the app stores while increasing your app’s conversion rates.
The two primary app stores are Apple’s iOS App Stores and Google Play App Stores for Android. When you opt for App Store Optimization Services, the service provider helps you rank your app high in the app store search results through an effective ASO process also the App Store Optimization helps you to increase your app’s Click Through Rate (CTR) and app downloads.
