Aso App Store Optimization Guide 2020 Pickaso Thetool

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ASO GUIDE 2020

ASO GUIDE 2020


INDEX
48 Visual Assets for Google Play Store and Apple App Store

4 Introduction to the ASO Guide 2020 57 Ratings & Reviews

12 2019 ASO news 64 Conversion Rate

20 ASO On and Off-Metadata factors on the App Store


and Google Play 68 ASO and User Adquisition (UA) campaigns

25 ASO On-Metadata factors 76 Android vitals

32 Google Play and App Store long description 82 Visibilty through SEO

35 ASO & Keywords 88 Seasonal ASO

44 Traffic resources 92 ASO checklist


1
INTRODUCTION TO THE
ASO GUIDE 2020

4
IN 2019, USERS GROWTH FROM 2016 TO 2019

DOWNLOADED 204 BILLION


Worldwide 45% United States 5%

China 80% Brazil 40%

APPS WORLDWIDE India 190% Indonesia 70%

The worldwide number of app downloads in 2019 was of 240 billion 120B 240B

(204,000,000,000), meaning a 45% increase in the 3 last years and a 6% one


in the 2 last ones, excluding re-installs and apps updates (data taken from 100B 200B

App Annie’s report State of Mobile 2020).


80B 160B

COUNTRY-LEVEL DOWNLOADS

WORLDWIDE DOWNLOADS
Most of these downloads are coming from emerging markets such as India,
Brazil, and Indonesia. 60B 120B

App downloads from users from more developed markets such as USA, 40B 80B

Japan, and South Korea have diminished, but users are still looking for new
apps. In 2019, 12,3 billions downloads were reached in the US, 2,5 billions in 20B 40B

Japan and 2 billions in South Korea.


0B 0B

2016 2017 2018 2019

Data: State of Mobile 2020 by App Annie

5
IN 2019, USERS DOWNLOADED 204 BILLION APPS WORLDWIDE

In PICKASO, we believe ASO is the base of any App


Marketing Strategy as, as well as helping to get more free
As for the main stores, in 2019’s last quarter, App Store
organic downloads, it has a direct impact on user
had more than 1,5 million apps available while Google
acquisition costs and, in the end, on business.
Play reached a total of 2,5 million apps in its store,
according to Statista. With this data, your app is right in
the middle of a fierce competition to get to be
3.000.000

discovered by users. How to make an app visible?


2.570.000
2.500.000

WHAT IS ASO? 2.000.000


1.840.000

NUMBER OF APPS
ASO stands for App Store Optmization and this is the 1.500.000

optimization process of an app (the listing as well as the 1.000.000

product) with 2 main goals: increase visibility in Search 669.000


500.000
489.000
and in Browse / Explore in the app stores, and improve
Conversion Rate to visit and to download. 0

Google Play Store Apple App Store Windows Store Amazon Appstore

Image: Number of apps available in leading app stores as of 4th quarter 2019 Statista

6
APP DISCOVERY: A study from ASO Stack reveals that on the App Store, 86%
of the top 100 most searched keywords are branded, and
SEARCH & KEYWORDS that non-branded keywords within this top 100 are linked

TRENDS to mobile games or apps from the categories: “games”,


“vpn”, “free games”, “photo editor”, “music”, “calculator”,
“weather”, among others. This means that users tend to
As we’ve just seen, App Store Optimization (ASO)’s main
search for concrete brands that they have known
objective is to improve visibility in the stores and the
previously through other channels.
organic downloads volume. However, how do users
discover new apps?

65% of App Store installs are generated by concrete


keywords search (generic or long-tail, as well as
branded with which users demonstrate direct
intention).

7
HOW MANY An experiment realized by Sebastian Knopp, Growth and
Product Strategist at appkeywords.net identified that on
SEARCH KEYWORDS the App Store, suggested keywords in the autocomplete

ARE BRANDED? section in Search are also dominated by brands. The study
shows that within the 260 suggested keywords, only 13 of
100%
100% them (5%) aren’t branded.
92%
90%
90%
86%
80.5%
Another data that needs to be highlighted is that 12% of
80%
Daily Active Users (DAU) are looking for apps on a daily
68.33%
70%
basis, and that 50% of them are looking for apps on a
60.75%
60% 58.4% weekly basis. Within a month, Google processes a total of 6
BRAND PERCENTAGE

50%
million unique sentences in search on Google Play Store.

40%

Short and mid-tail keywords are still dominated by brands,


30%
together with very competitive generic keywords. However,
20%
ASO tools can help you to look for keywords for your
10% project, such as TheTool who also enables you to see

0
installs per keywords on Google Play Store. By expanding
Top 10 Top 25 Top 50 Top 100 Top 200 Top 300 Top 400 Top 500

8
HOW MANY SEARCH KEYWORDS ARE BRANDED?

the total number of keywords you are working within the are even reaching concrete categories in the stores. For
On-Metadata fields of your listing, you are expanding the ways these reasons, app marketers now face a new challenge:
your app can rank in the stores as well as how users can make the most of voice search.
discover your app and download it.
To learn more about how this tendency is affecting your
VOICE SEARCH ON APP STORE AND GOOGLE PLAY app’s visibility and ranking in the stores, we recommend you
to read this post from PICKASO where we explain how to
Voice search on App Store and Google Play are increasing
optimize your ASO strategy to be able to adapt to voice
exponentially and are becoming a new variable that you need
search.
to take into account for the ASO optimization of the listing of
every app. The more natural & semantic the language in the
listing, the better the stores will understand the topic of the app
or mobile game.

The appearance of voice assistants, such as Cortana, Siri, Alexa


or Google Home, made that users’ behavior is changing. These
assistants are offering apps in their web search as a result, apps
which are located on Google Play or on the App Store, and they

9
HOW MANY SEARCH KEYWORDS ARE BRANDED?

MOST DOWNLOADED CATEGORIES ON APP STORE AND GOOGLE PLAY

Downloads Customers' expenses Downloads Customers' expenses

Rank Category Rank change Rank Category Rank change Rank Category Rank change Rank Category Rank change
vs. 2017 vs. 2017 vs. 2017 vs. 2017

1 Games - 1 Games - 1 Games - 1 Games -

2 Tools - 2 Social - 2 Photo & Video 1 2 Entertainment -

3 Entertainment - 3 Entertainment - 3 Entertainment -1 3 Social Networking -

4 Communications - 4 Lifestyle 1 4 Utilities - 4 Music -

5 Photography - 5 Music & Audio 2 5 Social Networking - 5 Photo & Video 2

6 Social - 6 Productivity - 6 Shopping - 6 Lifestyle -1

7 Music & Audio 1 7 Communications -3 7 Lifestyle 1 7 Health & Fitness 1

8 Video Players & Editors 3 8 Health & Fitness 1 8 Finance -1 8 Productivity 2

9 Productivity -2 9 Dating 1 9 Productivity 2 9 Books -3

10 Shopping -1 10 Education -2 10 Education - 10 Education -1

Source of the 2 graphs: The State of Mobile 2019, App Annie

10
HOW MANY SEARCH KEYWORDS ARE BRANDED?

All this data is showing us how important it is to work on a


well-defined App Store Optimization (ASO) strategy for your
mobile app or game, different and adapted to each store, with
the objective of increasing visibility (in Search and in Browse /
Explore) and Conversion Rate to download.

11
2
2019 ASO NEWS

12
2019 ASO NEWS
NEWS DESCRIPTION APP STORE GOOGLE PLAY

Tags A few months ago Google announced you can add 'tags' to your list of
applications depending on the category selected, because they vary for games.

The categories and tags will help users to find new applications on Google Play,
as well as their ranking.

Custom app listings Since mid-2019, it is possible to create up to 5 custom app listings in Google Play
Store, which can be shared for more than one country.

Each country has its own habits, ways of speaking... So it is important to adapt
the texts and visual elements to each of them.

13
2019 ASO NEWS

NEWS DESCRIPTION APP STORE GOOGLE PLAY

New average rating Since August 2019, a new way of calculating the average rating of Google Play
calculation apps has been implemented. Now, recent valuations are granted more
importance while the oldest ones have less impact (still, it does not mean that
they do not matter).

Therefore, it is very important to constantly analyze the ratings and reviews that
our app receives, and always answer them.

Interactions between The 160 characters (30 in the App Name, 30 in the Subtitle and 100 in the
app listing elements of Keywords Field) that are available in the App Store to optimize an app listing with
different languages keywords usually fall short.

Since 2019, the keywords used in app listings in other languages are ranking for
the main language. However, not all languages are ranking in the one for which
we want to improve the positioning of our app. Have a look at this article to know
which language are ranking for which locale.

Therefore, for Spain, Spanish (Spain), English (United Kingdom) and Catalan can
be used, which means that you would have up to 480 characters available to
optimize your app.

14
2019 ASO NEWS

NEWS DESCRIPTION APP STORE GOOGLE PLAY

Google Play autoplay Since September 2019, promotional videos play automatically in the stores
listings of Google Play Store.

It is also the case for some brand search results for some specific brands (not all
of them).

15
ASO TRENDS AND NEWS 2020
NEWS DESCRIPTION APP STORE GOOGLE PLAY

Content customization In App Store and Google Play, more and more apps and highlights are shown to
users in a personalized way, leaving behind a unique interface in which they
showed all users the same recommendations when browsing the stores.

This customization depends on the user’s searches and activity, as well as the
apps / games he has installed on his device.

Native prompt for ratings Like for iOS apps, Google is working on a native prompt to request ratings and
reviews directly from the app without having to go to the store. Everything
indicates that by the middle of this year 2020, it will be available for Android
developers.

16
ASO TRENDS AND NEWS 2020

NEWS DESCRIPTION APP STORE GOOGLE PLAY

Avoid errors and blocks Google made it clear recently that a high error rate significantly reduces Browse /
to get more visibility Explore visibility in Google Play Store. In addition, it also impacts the project’s
keyword rankings since after a decrease of the error rate, you can see an
increase in keyword rankings.

So avoiding errors / blocks / crashes in apps have a direct correlation with the
possibility of being recommended / featured on Google Play Store.

Ratings & Reviews It is not only very important to have a strategy on when to request user reviews,
strategy you also have to define and apply a strategy to answer to these reviews.

Answering all the reviews (especially the most recent ones) will give you a better
image near the users, in addition to improving feedbacks and your engagement
with them, causing them to occasionally re-enter the store to improve the rating
they left in their previous assessment.

This is especially important in the Google Play Store as, since the end of 2019’s
summer, the most recent ratings have the more impact.

17
ASO TRENDS AND NEWS 2020

NEWS DESCRIPTION APP STORE GOOGLE PLAY

Dark Mode The trend in dark mode use in mobiles is constantly growing, so app listings
screenshots need to be adapted both in App Store and in Google Play so that
they keep on being properly visible both on “dark mode” and on “clear mode".

Voice searches Currently, 70% of users with mobile devices use voice searches. But everything
indicates that in 2020, 50% of the searches will be made through voice searches.

More Explore / Browse Increase in Explore / Browse traffic: Top Charts, Featured, Similar Apps,
traffic recommended apps...

18
ASO TRENDS AND NEWS 2020

NEWS DESCRIPTION APP STORE GOOGLE PLAY

New categories Two new categories were added (“Developer tools” and “Graphics & Design”)

19
3
ASO ON AND OFF-METADATA
FACTORS ON THE
APP STORE AND GOOGLE PLAY

20
ASO ON AND ASO ON-METADATA FACTORS
OFF-METADATA FACTORS These factors are the elements that can be edited / modi-

ON THE APP STORE fied by developers or marketers directly from App Store

AND GOOGLE PLAY


Connect and Google Play Console.

DEFINITION

The ASO factors are the elements of the apps that have a direct
ASO OFF-METADATA FACTORS
impact on the ASO strategy, both in visibility (Search and
They ASO Off-Metadata factors that we cannot be controled
Browse / Explore) and in Conversion Rate (to visit and to
directly from developers, although you can have some
download).
influence on them. They almost entirely depend on the
available marketing budget, the market response to your
product and the marketers' expertise.

21
ASO ON Y OFF-METADATA FACTORS ON THE APP STORE AND GOOGLE PLAY

App Name: 30 characters Downloads volume


ON-METADATA FACTORS

OFF-METADATA FACTORS
Title: 50 characters Downloads speed
Subtitle: 30 characters Ratings volume
Short description: 80 characters Average Rating
Keywords Field: 100 characters Ratings
Promotional Text: 170 characters Reviews
Long Description: 4.000 characters Backlinks
Description: 4.000 characters User Engagement
Category
Developer name
Icon
Screenshots
Feature graphic
Video Preview
URL, Package Name or Market ID
In-App Purchase
Android Vitals

22
VISIBLE ASO FACTORS IN
THE STORE LISTING

FEATURED TITLE
IMAGE
DEVELOPER

ICON

APP NAME DOWNLOADS


ICON
SUBTITLE

AVERAGE RATING
TOP
CHARTS RECOMMENDED AGE
VIDEO PREVIEW
LONG
DESCRIPTION
SCREENSHOTS

TOP CHARTS

23
VISIBLE ASO FACTORS IN THE STORE LISTING

DESCRIPTION

SHORT DESCRIPTION

DEVELOPER

 RATINGS 4,3

REVIEWS

PROMOTIONAL TEXT / WHAT`S NEW

24
4
ASO ON-METADATA
FACTORS

25
ASO ON-METADATA
FACTORS ON SHORT DESCRIPTION
GOOGLE PLAY STORE It is the second most important and
impactful field within Google Play’s
product page. It can be filled with up
to 80 characters. It mainly affects ASO
TITLE search and conversion.

/80

In an Android app on Google Play, the Title is one of the ASO On-Metadata
factors that has the most impact. It is important that this field contains the
main keywords of the project, together with the app name or the brand.
There are 50 characters available in this field.

/50

26
ASO ON-METADATA FACTORS ON GOOGLE PLAY STORE

LONG DESCRIPTION

This is the largest On-Metadata field of a about. Nowadays, over-optimization (the


Google Play app, with a total of 4.000 excessive repetition of keywords) is,
characters available, and it has a direct according to us, counterproductive.
impact on ASO visibility both in Search and in
Explore. It is important that the text looks Long Description has a direct impact on ASO
natural and that its content does not only Search, but not that much on Conversion
include keywords for which you which to rank Rate as, according to some studies, less than
but also synonyms, antonyms and related 2% of the users that visit an app listing unfold
words to enrich semantic. This way, Google the Long Description to read its full content.
Play will be able to identify what the app is

/4.000

27
ASO ON-METADATA FACTORS ON GOOGLE PLAY STORE

DEVELOPER NAME

In Google Play’s case, developers can edit and customize the Developer Name that appears
publically on the listings. With a 50 characters limit, it is recommended to use keywords there
to improve their ranking. Also, the use of emojis is allowed to help increase Conversion Rate to
download. It is possible to change the Developer Name (that need to be approved by Google)
so you can try and test it to see what are the impacts of these changes.

CATEGORY

The app Category in Google Play is a factor that does not directly impact ASO in Search, but
that does Explore. Google Play uses this field, among other things, to know what an app is
about and this has an impact on Similar & Recommended Apps. It is possible to experiment
with the Category to discover which brings out the best benefits in terms of visibility, traffic
and Browse organic downloads.

28
ASO ON-METADATA FACTORS ON
APPLE APP STORE
APP NAME

The App Name is the most important and impactful On-Metadata field on the App Store. This
field needs to contain the most important keywords of the project, together with the name of
the app or of the brand. 30 characters are available in this field.

30

SUBTITLE

The Subtitle, that can include up to 30 characters and was introduced together with the launch
of iOS 11, is the second most important field of ASO for Apple App Store.

It and its main role is to briefly describe the app. It is important that is includes keywords and,
besides having a direct impact on Search ASO, it also does on Conversion Rate to download.

30

29
ASO ON-METADATA FACTORS ON APPLE APP STORE

KEYWORDS FIELD NOT VISIBLE


TO THE USER

The Keywords field of a mobile app or game on the Apple App Store needs to include keywords,
as its name indicates. It has a maximum length of 100 characters and should not contain
keywords that were already used in the App Name or in the Subtitle. It is important not to use
spaces between the keywords, but only comas “,”. For example:
“keyword1,keyword2,keyword3…”

100

DESCRIPTION

Apple App Store’s Description does not impact Search ASO as Apple does not take into account
what appears in this field. However, it does have an impact on Conversion Rate to download,
and most of all the first lines. The most important things from the app needs to be featured
there, such as awards, and you should use a CTA (call to action) there to invite users to down-
loads the app. Up to 4.000 characters can be written in this field.

4.000

30
ASO ON-METADATA FACTORS ON APPLE APP STORE

CATEGORY

Just like on the Google Play Store, the app Category is a factor that does not directly impact
Search ASO on the Apple App Store. However, it does have an impact on Browse visibility.
App Store Connect enables developers to choose 2 categories for apps (Primary and
Secondary) and 2 categories and up to 4 subcategories for mobile games.

PROMOTIONAL TEXT

The Promotional text, limited to 170 characters, was introduced together with the launch of
iOS 11 and does not have any direct impact on Search visibility. This means that the
keywords used in this field will not help the app rank. However, it does have a direct impact
on Conversion Rate to download. For this reason, you need to use this field as a marketing
tool (with CTA, offers, news, etc.) to convince users to downloads the app. Contrary to other
fields of the App Store Connect, the Promotional text can be edited anytime, without
needing to release an update of the product.

31
5
GOOGLE PLAY AND APP STORE
LONG DESCRIPTION

32
GOOGLE PLAY to rank. This technique did work a few years

LONG DESCRIPTION
ago, but this is not the case anymore. Google
Play Store is evolving with time and thanks to
artificial intelligence advanced techniques and
NLP (Natural Language Processing), Google
As commented earlier, and unlike what happens on the Apple
Play Store “understands” the topic of an app,
App Store, the content of the field has a direct impact on Search
which means that the more natural the content
ASO on Google Play Store. As a result, the Long Description
and the more synonyms, antonyms and related
needs to include keywords all along its content.
terms, the best.

This Long Description on Google Play Store offers great freedom


This field can be edited without needing to
to write, create a visual structure and use different elements
send an update in Google Play Console and is
such as emojis, colors & HTML tags (H1, H2, H3, B, I). This will
limited to 4.000 characters. Also, thanks to
enable you to give more ASO weight to some keywords as well
Google Play Store Experiments, it is possible to
as make its content stand out for users to unfold the Long
carry out A / B tests.
Description to read it.

Nowadays, it is not recommended to proceed to keywords


over-optimization, i.e. to excessively repeat keywords we want

33
APP STORE
DESCRIPTION

Apple App Store’s Description does not allow neither emojis nor HTML tags use.
However, some visual elements can be used to help organizing the content better
and thus, help its reading: ,-,·,>,<,*,•.

Unlike what happens with Google Play Store’s Long Description, Apple App Store’s
Description field can only be edited when submitting an update of the app and, in
case you use visual elements that are not allowed, the update won’t be accepted.

34
6
ASO & KEYWORDS

35
ASO & PRIORITIZE
KEYWORDS
STEP 2

Analyze and prioritize keywords according to their


relevance, level of competition and search volume / traffic.
For new apps, it is recommended to work with high-traffic
According to Apple, 65% of the downloads on the Apple App
and low-difficulty keywords.
Store are generated by searches, and on the Google Play Store
this is very similar. For this reason, the app listing needs to be OPTIMIZE
optimized to appear in the best rankings possible for the STEP 3

keywords defined for the project. Optimization of the listing with the selected keywords. The
optimization depends on the store for which you will work on
Keywords optimization in App Store Optimization is a process ASO.
that should be continuous:
MONITOR / MEASURE
STEP 4

INVESTIGATE Search rankings monitoring and analysis of improvement


STEP 1
possibilities.
Create a list of all the possible keywords and combinations of
keywords related to the project. To do so, you need to run a
REPEAT THE PROCESS
market and competition research. STEP 5

36
STEP 1: KEYWORD LOOK AT YOUR COMPETITOR’S
KEYWORDS
RESEARCH
The perfect place to get inspired in terms of keywords for your
app or game are the listings of your direct ASO competitors. To
Keywords research in one of the principal foundations of get a list of keywords used by your competitors (or any other
Search ASO and one of the first steps that needs to be taken application), you can use the Keyword Density feature in The-
when preparing the listing of a new mobile app or game. A right Tool that allows you to analyze the density of the keywords of
keyword research will help defining the keywords that you will any store listing on Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
need to optimize in the listing.
Grant special attention to the keywords used in the most im-
portant fields in terms of rankings according to each Store:
BRAINSTORMING “App Name”, “Subtitle” and “Keywords field” in the App Store,
and “Title”, “Short Description” and “Long Description” for
As a first step for your research, try to write down many Google Play. To study the Keywords field of any app, you need
keywords that may be related to your application or game, to use an ASO tool as it is a private field that is not visible in the
based on the type of app, its category, its features and the listing.
functionality of the app or the problems it solves.

37
STEP 1: KEYWORD RESEARCH

Monitor all the keywords that you consider relevant to your lis- 1.
ting in order to analyze and prioritize them during the next You can use the autocomplete suggestion in the list of
steps of the implementation and to follow-up the next months monitorized keywords in TheTool.
after the first optimization.
2.
The Keyword Suggest tool by TheTool also enables you to
SEARCH FOR SUGGESTED KEYWORDS
get ALL the suggestions in any language and for any
IN THE STORES
keyword.

At this point you should already have a long list of keywords


and keyword combinations related with your app, at least 60 /
80 words. You can make this list grow looking at the suggested
keywords in the Apple App Store and in the Google Play Store.
You can do it manually of thanks to an ASO tool such as
TheTool:

38
STEP 2: SELECT AND PRIORITIZE
KEYWORDS FOR THE OPTIMIZATION

Once you have the potential keywords for your app or game, Search Ads is the only “traffic” data that can be used for the
you must analyze and prioritize the ones that will be easy to App Store (only for the countries where ASA is available).
rank for first, and then to get downloads from. Once prioritized, For Google Play, right now, there is no official data given
it is time to optimize the listing. from Google about search volume.

Try to find the perfect balance between low or medium


difficulty and high traffic. If you don’t have a very high
TRAFFIC ESTIMATION AND DIFFICULTY
marketing budget, don’t work on branded or generic

The difficulty indicates the level of competition for a specific keywords with high difficulty.

keyword (the higher the difficulty, the harder to rank for the
keyword). Traffic provides an estimated volume of search for
that specific keyword. Currently, the popularity score in Apple

39
STEP 2: SELECT AND PRIORITIZE KEYWORDS FOR THE OPTIMIZATION

INSTALLS PER KEYWORDS IN Not using enough combinations. More than 75% of

GOOGLE PLAY STORE visits to an app listing are coming from combinations of
long keywords (also known as “long-tail”).
The Installs Per Keyword feature in TheTool enables you to see
exact data (taken thanks to the Google Play Console
Work just a few keywords. We recommend to work
integration) to know which keywords or keywords combinations
with 60-110 keywords for both stores. Still there is no
are bringing your mobile app or game the more installs on
problem with working with hundreds of keywords.
Google Play. Based on this data you can prioritize the keywords
to implement in your listing optimization.
Not being patient enough. The time you will have to
wait to start seeing results will depend on the difficulty
AVOID COMMON MISTAKES of each keyword, on the On-Metadata optimization and
on the Off-Metadata efforts.
Using very generic keywords with high search & traffic
volume. In terms of visibility in the stores, it’s better to rank
in first positions for low traffic keywords than to rank in Top
100-150 for high traffic keywords.

40
STEP 3: OPTIMIZATION

Use the most important keywords in the App Name / Title, in


the Subtitle / Short Description and in the Keywords Field and
make sure you include the rest of the search terms and
keywords combinations in Google Play’s Long Description (this
field is not ranking in the App Store).

Monitoring keywords ranking, their evolution and comparing


this data to your competitors’ one can help you to understand if
there is room for improvement, to define your UA strategy and
to know the impact of your app’s visibility on downloads.

41
STEP 4: MONITOR
KEYWORDS

Once you have identified, analyzed, prioritized and optimized


the keywords in the store listing, it’s time to monitor and get in-
formation sobre their rankings, both for our project and for the
competition. You can do this thanks to TheTool in 93 countries.
STEP 5: REPEAT THE
PROCESS

ASO is very dynamic: new trends, new competitors,


changes in the stores… Also, it is always possible to do a
new Keyword Research, optimize the store listing, carry
out experiment, etc. ASO is a marathon, not a sprint.

42
CHECKLIST FOR KEYWORD
RESEARCH AND ASO OPTIMIZATION

To sum up, this is the list of actions you should follow during Optimize the textual elements of your store listing

the investigation, selection and optimization process for 03 and check keywords density to see if there is room for

keywords on the App Store and Google Play: more optimization. Don’t forget the visual assets as well.

Keyword Research:

01 Brainstorm to identify an initial list of keywords. Track your keywords and compare your rankings with
Find inspiration and study your competitors’ keywords. 04 your competitors ones to get valuable information.
Find suggested keywords and keywords combinations.

Repeat the process!


Analyze and prioritize keywords based on their traffic
05
02 and difficulty, relevance and performance in terms of
number of installs and Conversion Rate.

43
7
TRAFFIC SOURCES

44
TRAFFIC SOURCES
Your mobile app or game needs to have a certain
level of engagement / retention for users.

The ASO formula is based on getting (more) organic downloads. To do However, ASO is not only about downloads.
so, together with a good On-Metadata optimization, you will need to get Together with them, you need to be able to get
non-organic and organic downloads. Downloads are a very important positive ratings and reviews from the users.
Off-Metadata ASO factor and without them, it will be hard to get more
visibility, traffic and organic downloads. Having said that, where can downloads come from?
What are the main sources of traffic of mobile apps
The ASO formula is: and games? Let’s study this in details, knowing that
downloads can be organic (generated by the proper
stores without any external influence) or
non-organic (generated by external influences such
as ads or campaigns in the developer’s own
channels).

Traffic Conversion Engagement

*Conversion is the relation between traffic and downloads.

45
ORGANIC DOWNLOADS

Organic downloads are, as we commented earlier, the ones


that are made from the app stores without any type of
external influence, through Search (keywords) or Browse /
Explore (Featured, Top Charts, Similar Apps, etc.)

NOTE: All of the mobile app or game downloads (or almost all of them)
are made from the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, expect
from the download of APK files for Android devices (normally, these are
apps that Google do not allow in its store), the pre-installed apps and the
downloads that are external to Google Play in the case of some Android
apps (for example, from search results on Google web).

46
NON-ORGANIC DOWNLOADS

Non-organic downloads are the ones that, even if they were Apple Search Ads and Google Ads UAC downloads are
generated from the app stores, were previously externally in- generated from the app stores, but after a click on a paid
fluenced. This occurs in the case of user acquisition paid cam- promotion campaign (external influence), which is why they
paigns (Facebook Ads, Apple Search Adsm Google Ads, TikTok are registered as non-organic downloads.
Ads, etc.) or campaigns in your own channels (Member Get
Member, newsletter / email, SmartBanner, etc.) The same way, downloads generated from web search (SEO)
are also registered as non-organic, as they are not 100%
generated from the store and there was an external
influence, in this case the web search.

47
8
VISUAL ASSETS
FOR GOOGLE PLAY STORE
AND APPLE APP STORE

48
VISUAL ASSETS FOR GOOGLE PLAY STORE
ICON

NUMBER SPECIFICATIONS

1 Final size 512 px × 512 px


Format PNG of 32 bits
Color profile sRGB
Max size file 1024 KB
Shape Full square (Google Play performs the
masking dynamically; the radius will be
equivalent to 20% of the icon size)

Shadow None (Google Play processes shadows


dynamically; see the "Shadows" section
below for how to include shadows in
artwork)

49
VISUAL ASSETS FOR GOOGLE PLAY STORE
SCREENSHOTS

NUMBER SPECIFICATIONS

8 per Format JPEG or PNG 24 bits (no alfa)


compatible Minimum size 320 pixels
device Maximum size 3840 pixels
Aspect ratio 16:9 (horizontal) 2:1 (vertical)

50
VISUAL ASSETS FOR GOOGLE PLAY STORE
FEATURE GRAPHIC

NUMBER SPECIFICATIONS

1 Format JPEG or PNG 24 bits (no alfa)


Size 1024 px × 500 px

51
VISUAL ASSETS FOR GOOGLE PLAY STORE
VIDEO

NUMBER SPECIFICATIONS

1 Duration 30 seconds to 2 minutes

52
VISUAL ASSETS FOR APPLE APP STORE
ICON

NUMBER SPECIFICATIONS

1 Size 1024 px × 1024 px


Format PNG
Color profile sRGB or P3
Transparency No transparency
Shape Square without round corners

53
VISUAL ASSETS FOR APPLE APP STORE
SCREENSHOTS

NUMBER SPECIFICATIONS

10 per 6.5" 1242 px × 2688 px 2688 px × 1242 px


(iPhone XS Max, iPhone XR)
compatible
device
5.8" 1125 px × 2436 px 2436 px × 1125 px
(iPhone X, iPhone XS)

5.5"
(iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7 Plus, 1242 px × 2208 px 2208 px × 1242 px

iPhone 8 Plus)

4.7"
(iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, iPhone 7, 750 px × 1334 px 1334 px × 750 px
iPhone 8)

54
VISUAL ASSETS DE APPLE APP STORE - SCREENSHOTS

NUMBER SPECIFICATIONS

10 per 4" 640 px × 1096 px 1136 px × 600 px


640 px × 1136 px 1136 px × 640 px
(iPhone SE)
compatible
device
3.5" 640 px × 920 px 960 px × 600 px
640 px × 960 px 960 px × 640 px
(iPhone 4s)

12.9"
(iPad Pro (2nd generation & 2048 px × 2732 px 2732 px × 2048 px

3rd generation))

11" 1668 px × 2388 px 3288 px × 1668 px


(iPad Pro)

55
VISUAL ASSETS DE APPLE APP STORE - SCREENSHOTS

NUMBER SPECIFICATIONS

10 per 10.5" 1668 px × 2224 px 2224 px × 2224 px


(iPad Pro, iPad Air)
compatible
device
9.7" High resolution 1536 px × 2008 px 2048 px × 1496 px
1536 px × 2048 px 2048 px × 1536 px
(iPad, iPad mini)

9.7" Standard resolution 768 px × 1004 px 1024 px × 748 px


768 px × 1024 px 1024 px × 768 px
(iPad, iPad mini)

56
9
RATINGS & REVIEWS

57
RATINGS & REVIEWS Google Play average rating is global and calculated for all
the countries in which the app is present; in the App Store,
on the contrary, each country has its own average rating.
The ratings and reviews that users leave in an app's listing are
one of the most important ASO off-metadata factors, It is important to design a good strategy when asking
because they directly impact store visibility (Search and the users for ratings, because both volume and
Explore) and Conversion Rate to download. Not only is it appreciation can change dramatically if we do not detect
important that the application has good reviews and a high which are the ideal moments to request it. For example, it
average rating, but the algorithms also take into account the is not recommended to request reviews very early in the
keywords that users include within their reviews (especially user experience, when he has not yet had a minimum use
in the Google Play Store). of the app or game. It would be a good time after the user
made an in-app purchase, logged in several times,
What impacts users opinion the most is the product, at every confirmed a reservation, got to complete several levels of a
level: quality, features, errors, etc. This is why, together with game, etc.
asking for ratings and reviews to users as a strategy, you also
need to take GREAT care of the product as it is the base of the
whole business.

58
RATINGS & REVIEWS

The most important thing is to ask for the rating during a The ideal is to get natural ratings above four stars and for
"happy moment" in the app use. This is when users are the this, it is recommended, in addition to having a good
most inclined to leave positive ratings or reviews. In addition, product, to have the minimum amount of ANRs and errors.
we can try to “divert” negative ratings of 3 or less stars to a
private channel of communication with the app so that they We recommend enhancing the reception of ratings and
are not effective in the store. This way, we can try to solve the reviews with the use of the iOS 10.3 User Feedback
problem the user is facing directly and personally, and prevent Prompt, with which the user can leave a rating without
the average rating from decreasing. leaving the app (his homonym for Google Play is expected to
arrive during the year 2020). We can also use the
By analyzing and answering one and two stars ratings, not only development of an in-home SDK or third-party SDKs.
can we find and understand why users are not satisfied, but we
can also ask for a change in their rating to make it becomes
positive. Likewise, it is important to answer all comments,
positive and negative, as much as possible.

59
RATINGS & REVIEWS

Reviews are a very interesting information channel for app rating received after a “Do you like the app?” and a “We know
developers. They help to detect if the application suffers from a you love our app, please rate us!”, with which you can induce
bug, users provides them with ideas of product innovation, a positive feeling assessment and increase the total ratings
which can be taken into account for future updates and provide volume. As always, test until you find the way that gives
you with new keywords that you are not working on yet. you a better and more effective result.

Another successful move in your ratings strategy is to make

RECOMMENDATIONS:
the most of the pre-launch of your app in a beta-testers
environment. In addition to enabling to avoid negative
Answers to user reviews must be personalized and you ratings related to bugs and crashes, it also enables
should avoid any template, although you can have a series of developers to get very valuable and honest feedback on how
generic answers for thanks comments or bugs / errors to speed to improve the app / game before launching it.
up the process.

The way and language that we use when asking for ratings
is very important. You can see a big difference between the

60
RATINGS & REVIEWS

It is important to focus on negative feedback that includes pos-


sible improvements or that detects bugs, and the ones that are
featured with the most “likes”. The first reviews that appear
as featured on your Product Page are crucial and have the
greatest impact on your app’s conversion rate. Be sure to
answer featured reviews, even if users only say they are satis-
fied.

Finally, we also recommend reporting offensive reviews and


spam that can damage the reputation of your game / app wi-
thout any reason.

61
HOW TO GET POSITIVE
RATINGS & REVIEWS?

Having a good product that covers an existing need on the market.

Avoid publishing an app full of bugs not to lose potential users.

Manage users’ unsatisfaction by offering a direct and private answer channel.

Make use of “Review Prompts” inviting users to give their feedback to improve their experience
through an in-app message.

62
RATINGS AND REVIEWS:
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN APPLE APP STORE
AND GOOGLE PLAY STORE

APPLE APP STORE GOOGLE PLAY STORE

The user can leave its rating directly without having to visit With the change of algorithm in August 2019, most recent
the store and leave the app thanks to the native prompt. valuations have a greater impact than historical ones.

The ratings and cumulated average score can be reset. Up to four featured reviews are shown in the mobile app
or game listing.
A highlighted review is shown (and you have to swipe right
to see the rest). A new rating can be requested with each new update.

A new rating can be requested 3 times a year or after each


update of the app software version.

63
10
CONVERSION RATE

64
CONVERSION RATE When we analyze the Conversion Rate, some factors
come into play in which we can influence to a greater
or lesser extent:
Conversion Rate is the ratio that measures the number of
installs that an app receives among the total number of Conversion Rate depends largely on the total traffic that
visitors that gets to the store listing. In the case of App Store reaches the app listing and the quality of this traffic. For
Connect, it also allows you to measure the ratio between this reason it is important to differentiate Conversion
installs and impressions, although this data for Search and Rate by traffic source, to know from which source
Browse traffic sources can be distorted by the fact that the user the best traffic is coming and the one that converts
can install an app without the need to pass by the store listing, best to download, so that we can quickly detect if any
the volume of installs being greater than that of visits to the particular traffic source is bringing us traffic from worse
listing. quality to act accordingly.

This ratio allows you to know the effectiveness of the listing of It is common that the traffic that comes from Paid
an app when it comes to convincing a user to download it. The Marketing campaigns is of better quality since the
higher the Conversion Rate (CvR), the greater the effectiveness user, when getting to the listing, has already shown
of the listing when converting visitors into installers. an initial interest in the app. If the traffic of these
campaigns is not generating a good Conversion Rate, it

65
CONVERSION RATE

A very good way to try to improve the Conversion Rate,


especially as far as visual elements are concerned, are
may mean that the targets of these campaigns are not the the experiments (A / B test) that Google Play Console
most appropriate, or that the listing is not optimized. allows you to carry out. Try different creatives, both in
terms of messages / CTA / copy as well as colors and
Once a user reaches the store listing, visual elements are of visual composition, which will allow you to discover what
great importance to convince him to install the app. users like the most and to adapt your app listing to their
According to a market study, less than 40% of the visitors of preferences to increase Conversion Rate and thus,
the product page of an app remain there for more than achieve a greater number of installs.
three seconds, so it is crucial to get their attention in this
short period of time. To get the user interested in your In the case of the App Store, in order to perform
product and make them click on the listing or download experiments or A / B tests of the visual assets of the
button, the icon, the screenshots and the video (in you listing, you will have to use external tools such as
having one) and the feature graphic (only on Google Play) SplitMetrics, StoreMaven or TestNest, among others.
play a very important role. These are the elements that have You can also use the “Creative Assets” of Apple Search
more relevance, since the texts do not have as much weight Ads campaigns.
in the first impact.

66
CONVERSION RATE

rating for a better one can generate great confidence in


the other users, in addition of an improvement of the
The third key factor for the Conversion Rate is the average average rating of the app.
rating the app has in the stores, as well as user reviews. App
stores are still a marketplace in which a user interested in a (*) It is common that the greater the amount of traffic, the lower the CR, but
this is not necessarily bad, since you will be getting more traffic to the app
product (in this case an app) will take into account what
listing and therefore more installs.
other users think about it. An average score lower than a 4*
is usually a problem when it comes to achieving an
adequate Conversion Rate, as well as if there is a high
number of bad reviews by other users.

An adequate customer support strategy, in which interest is


shown to help the users to solve their doubts or complaints,
and once resolved the user is encouraged to change its

67
11
ASO AND USER ACQUISITION (UA)
CAMPAIGNS

68
ASO AND USER ACQUISITION Going deeper into the relation between ASO & UA, a
synergy can be reached between the two strategies (even if
(UA) CAMPAIGNS it depends on a lot of factors) to manage a sustainable and
long-term organic growth for your app of mobile game.

One thing is clear:


ASO & UA share the same objective: strengthen business.

Successful app developers share one same thing: they


understand that in the world of apps, there is a direct link
between paid campaigns (UA) and the results that can be
obtained with ASO (the organic funnel).

For example, the lower the UA campaigns cost, the better the
visibility of the app within category rankings and overall (Top
Charts) as well as keywords ranking. This way, the lower it costs
to get a user / an install from paid campaigns and the most
downloads you can generate, the more organic visibility your
app will get.

69
ASO AND USER ACQUISITION (UA) CAMPAIGNS

The increase in paid installs also increases your organic


traffic:
PAID USER ACQUISITION (PAID UA) IS STRONGLY RELATED TO

ORGANIC TRAFFIC
The total installs volume impacts the category ranking of
your app or game, which can positively impact your
To reach an effective balance between ASO & UA, it is necessary
explore traffic as well. The higher is an app ranked in Top
to understand how paid campaigns can impact the global
Charts (category or overall), the more Browse / Explore
organic visibility of your app or game.
downloads it will receive.
NOTE: Paid UA downloads are not the only ones impacting visibility in the
stores. It always happens with organic downloads and the ones generated Paid traffic (UA) is also related to search results. The more
through your own channels. This means that all the downloads have an
total downloads, the better the keywords ranking and the
impact on ASO.
visibility in rankings, which favors the best opportunity for

Organic traffic includes an audience that comes from keywords the app to be discovered through users search for

search and users browsing the stores (Explore). keywords related to the product.

With an average of 60% of installs coming from organic traffic, it


is crucial to study how this valuable source of traffic can impact
your UA strategy.

70
ASO AND USER ACQUISITION (UA) CAMPAIGNS

acquisition channel that is used (Facebook Ads, Google


Ads, Apple Search Ads or display networks, among others).
This relation can vary according to some factors, such as the
quality of the sources of traffic, if it is an app or a game, its For each generated paid installs, there is a gain in organic
category and the relative ranking in each of the Top Charts. installs. The key is to find the perfect balance of how
much you need to invest in acquisition to improve the
volume of organic and non-organic downloads, without
HOW CAN YOU PERFECT THIS BALANCE IN YOUR FAVOR?
investing more than optimal numbers for conversion. To
reach this, you need to monitor competition (for example,
Let’s start by looking only at the first point: the total volume of
in which category are they and their ranking in Top Charts)
daily installs from paid traffic determines the app ranking in
and the factors that impact this correlation:
Top Charts (in its category and in overall). As a consequence,
the users have more opportunities to find your app when
browsing the store, which is a big step to get more organic UA investment.
downloads. Downloads distribution per channel.

Category ranking of the app.


However, the number of necessary downloads to reach a
Total installs, paid installs, search installs, browse
certain ranking changes according to the app or game, its
installs.
operative system, the market and the current
circumstances. It depends on the competition and the

71
ASO AND USER ACQUISITION (UA) CAMPAIGNS

Another important consequence of this relation is that the


effective cost per install (eCPI) and how it decrease thanks to
The optimization of the store listing, and especially of the visual organic traffic. For example, if 1.000€ was invested in Facebook
assets, is even more important as it allows to get more installs Ads and 1,000 installs came, the cost per install (CPI) = 1€.
without increasing traffic (Conversion Rate) and thus make the However, thanks to the organic traffic that came as a result of
most out of the investment in paid UA. these acquisition campaigns, the effective CPI (eCPI) is calculated
dividing the total investment per the total of installs (organic and
One important thing to take into account is that the quantity of non-organic).
organic installs received from Top Charts does not increase in
a linear & proportional way. An increase in UA investment Thus, coming back to our example, if 1.000 organic installs were
does not directly imply an increase in rankings, keywords also generated, eCPI = 0,50€, ie. half of the CPI. The relation
visibility or total organic downloads. And it’s even quite the between the increase in investment and organic installs isn’t
opposite: the higher the app in Top Charts, the hardest to reach linear either. Every mobile app or game is different…
a higher ranking because of the exponential relation between
rankings and installs. This means that it is necessary to analyze
the combined impact of ASO & paid strategies to get a perfect
balance between investment in acquisition and organic uplift.

72
APPLE SEARCH ADS & ITS RELATION TO
KEYWORDS OPTIMIZATION

In 2016, Apple introduced Apple Search Ads to improve the app or game with the specific brand name). This especially
discoverability of the apps for potential users segmented by happens when the app appears in position 1, 2 or 3 for
keywords, localization, gender and if they installed or not a these keywords.
concrete app previously. This tool is quite effective to increase
the volume of installs and to control the reach of specific Nevertheless, if you use this tool well, you can definitely
keywords.

However, it can happen that organic installs cannibalize


themselves and that we end up paying for users that already
had the intention to install a specific app himself through
search in the store.

Cannibalization is a risk for the keywords that the app is already


ranking high and for branded keywords (when users look for an

73
APPLE SEARCH ADS & ITS RELATION TO KEYWORDS OPTIMIZATION

increase organic traffic and your results. We recommend that


you increase the bidding of the keywords for which the app
ranks in lower positions as well as generic keywords (which
would be mid or long-tail keywords).

To achieve this, you will need to experiment. Make changes in


your ASA campaigns and analyze the organic installs that the
app / game receives. If you notice a negative correlation, it
could be because of cannibalization. On the contrary, if organic
traffic increases, the strategy is working.

74
ASO & UA: THE POWER OF A user attracted to an specific sale offer can fall out of the
funnel if, when getting into the store, he does not find this
CREATIVE CONSISTENCY sale offer reflected in the listing. On the contrary, if the
expectations that were created correspond to the store
presence, conversion rate to download will increase.
The third aspect of the relation between ASO & UA are the
benefits of creating a cohesion through the whole An endless optimization loop can be created and
acquisition funnel, which has an impact on the whole effort of conversion rate can increase by working on improving the
the marketing strategy. different fields of the store listing and maintaining a
creative consistency with acquisition campaigns.
The acquisition plan starts when a determined value
proposition is made in a campaign so that users click on an ad. To conclude, we can say that when ASO & UA work hand
From this moment, App Store Optimization is essential, as well in hand, the final result is better than the sum of their
as creative consistency: the value proposition that has been individual results.
promoted in the acquisition campaigns must be reflected in the
store listing, especially in the visual assets. A unique message
all along the funnel increases conversion rate and thus reduces
acquisition costs.

75
12
ANDROID VITALS

76
ANDROID VITALS

Android Vitals is a Google Play initiative to improve the


ANR error rate Failure rate
stability and performance of Android devices. When a
0,47% 1,09%
user runs an app, its Android device records several Last 30 days Previous 30 days Inappropriate Last 30 days Previous 30 days Inappropriate
behavior limit behavior limit

metrics: the stability of the app, the starting time of the


app, the battery usage, the processing time and the SEE DETAILS SEE DETAILS

denials of permissions. Google Play Console adds this


Batery

data and displays it in the Android Vitals control panel:


compared to
Metrics Last 30 days Previous 30 days other applications

Excessive background Wi-Fi network


searches
0,12 % 0,13 % 0,12 % SEE DETAILS

Stability

compared to
Metrics Last 30 days Previous 30 days
other applications

ANR error rate 0,02 % 0,03 % -0,01 % SEE DETAILS

Failure rate 0,03 % 0,03 % -0,03 % SEE DETAILS

77
ANDROID VITALS

The data panel mainly highlights the "Crash Rate" and the "ANR keywords ranking in search results.
Rate", which are the fundamental aspects to which developers
should pay the most attention and to which Google give the Below, you will see the results of some customers of
most importance. The other data that we can see in this panel PICKASO for which we have been able to observe this type of
should also be monitored to ensure that it does not have a behavior.
negative effect on the app, as well as on the visibility in Google
Play Store.

An above-average crash rate negatively affects user experience,


which can end up generating bad ratings in the store listing.

In addition, during the last months we have been able to obser-


ve that Google is penalizing apps that exceed what they have
called the “bad behaviour threshold” when it comes to maintai-
ning their visibility within the store. In terms of Explore traffic,
Google penalizes them by decreasing their presence in similar
apps and featurings, and in terms of Search traffic lowering

78
INCREASE OF VISIBILITY IN SIMILAR APPS
AFTER REDUCTION OF CRASH RATE

The SVRank is a metric available in TheTool, the ASO tool that In the following example, we can see how an app that did not
shows, for any country, the position of an app in the Google have any visibility due to a crash rate superior to 4% begins
Play Store, classified by the “strength” of their referring apps’ to appear in Similar Apps and its SVRank increases
profile. It means that the better SVRank, the greater the considerably by reducing this crash rate to reach a
visibility in Similar Apps and therefore the higher the explore percentage below the bad behaviour threshold limit set by
traffic that will go to the listing of the app. Google.

1 150

10k Top 1 SVRank


20k

REFERRING APPS DISTIBUTION


30k Top 2 Referring apps
100
40k
Top 3
SVRank

50k

60k

70k
50 Top 4
80k

90k
Top 5
100k 0

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79
PENALTY FOR AN INCREASING
ANR RATE

In this second example we can see how at the end of September, due to an error in the app where the content did not load
correctly, the errors were increasing drastically, and this increased the ANR rate as well. The effect of this rise in ANRs was a
Google Play penalty for the position of the keywords that the app was ranking for. Once the error was solved, on October 20th, the
keywords began to recover their positions and we can see how, over time, they even improved the positions they had before the
increase in errors.

600

Top 1 Ranked keywords

400 Top 5
RANKED KEYWORDS

Top 10

200 Top 50

Top 100

0
Top 250

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80
PENALTY FOR AN INCREASING ANR RATE

In the App Store, we have not been able to see such a direct
correlation between the increments of crashes and the visibility
of an app. But, although App Store does not seem to take into
account the crash rates as a ranking factor for now, the frequent
blocks and errors in an app will also affect the ratings and
reviews, so it is equally important to keep them as low as
possible, also because negative ratings and reviews do have an CONCLUSION
impact on ASO.
Google penalizes apps that exceed what they call "bad
behaviour threshold". Therefore, if you have experienced
that the organic installs of your app have fallen dramatically
or that Explore and / or Search traffic have reduced and you
do not know exactly why, check your Crash Rate and the ANR
Rate, and make sure that they are below the limit set by
Google, since if they are above this, Google has most likely
penalized your app.

81
13
VISIBILITY
THROUGH SEO

82
VISIBILITY Web searches from mobile devices have increased so
quickly in the last years that they already surpassed all the
THROUGH SEO searches made from any other device. According to
“Ditendria”, 52% of the total of internet searches comes
from mobile devices.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and ASO (App Store Optimi-
zation) can be distinguished as 2 different disciplines, but they One of the most relevant things to consider is that all the
both have a lot in common. It’s more, SEO has a great relevance apps available on Apple App Store and on Google Play
in your ASO strategy, since that all users may find your app Store have a public URL which Google tracks, indexes and
through web searches made from a mobile device. positions in web search results for some searches made by
iOS and Android devices. These results can show up
depending on the intentionality of that search from the
user and simple apps results or “App Packs” are displayed.

SEO ASO

83
TYPES OF ORGANIC
SEARCHES RESULTS IN
WHICH APPS ARE SIMPLE RESULTS
DISPLAYED these are the most common ones in searches concerning a
specific app. These “snippets” contain the name of the app,
the total number of ratings, the accumulated average rate
and a snippet which describes the app, together with a
download button.

This type of results usually appears after making searches


related to the brand of a concrete app (like for example the
proper branded name of the app).

84
TYPES OF ORGANIC SEARCHES RESULTS IN WHICH APPS ARE DISPLAYED

APP PACKS

Los App Packs are groups of apps suggested in Google search


results in mobile searches.

Usually, 3 relevant apps are displayed for the keyword that was
searched (query sent by the user to the browser), but there is
also an option to drop down the results to see more relevant
apps. These results take great importance when dropped down
to see more apps as they then take all the screen space of the
device.

All these results are delivered based on the type of device


Each app result that appears in this packages contain its app the user is using, meaning that iOS devices will display App
name / title, its icon, its accumulated average rating and the Store apps results; while Android devices will display
total number of ratings. results from Google Play.

85
LINK BUILDING: THE IMPORTANCE
OF BACKLINKS IN SEO AND ASO

Besides, as the URL of the store listings are indexing, you need It’s important to know that for all link building strategies,
to take into account one of the most important strategies in there’s a couple of things you need to take into account:
SEO for ASO: link building.

WHO LINKS YOU?


Link building are all the actions carried out to get links
(backlinks), preferably in a natural way, to the app URL in App It’s very important to get links from webs that are related
Store or Google Play (Google Play more more importantly), to your app and that are have an important presence in
which come from third party webs. This way, you can improve the sector.
SEO for iOS and Android apps and ASO for Android apps.

86
LINK BUILDING: THE IMPORTANCE OF BACKLINKS IN SEO AND ASO

ANCHOR TEXT
HOW MANY LINKS DO YOU HAVE? The anchor text is the visible text of a link. This visible text
provides information to the user who is reading the text to
Having a lot of links to the store listing does not imply a direct
give him more value information but also to place a
increase in its positioning. They must be quality links - if else,
keyword to strengthen. For instance, this text about “SEO
they won’t have any positive impact. Also, the increase in links
for apps” links to an article of our blog. A link is not always
to the store listing must be logical, as it is not very natural that
put on a text but it can be linked to a picture. In this case,
in very little time, the number of links increases drastically.
ATL will be the attribute with the “Anchor Text” function.

DR Referring domains CONCLUSIONS


Ahrefs Rank
88 4.38K -9
20 Backlinks Live 3.74K
The more and better links a store listing gets, the more
Historical 5.64K
visibility it will get in Google web both for iOS and Android
UR 31K +483
apps, and the better the ASO positioning in Google Play
82 Live 16.2K
Historical 79.9K
Store.

*Data taken from Ahrefs for the app Super Marion Run on Google Play

87
14
SEASONAL ASO

88
SEASONAL ASO Thus, you can work ASO as part of your marketing strategy
for each season, in 2 ways:

In the app stores, just like on other markets (both online or


offline), demand fluctuates by category depending on the time KEYWORDS OPTIMIZATION
of the year. It seems obvious that the search popularity of (SEARCH)
certain keywords is influenced by the period of the year, so
Adding seasonality to your ASO keywords strategy can help
taking advantage of these opportunities by applying some
you benefit from higher search popularity for certain
changes to your app listing can help you generate extra
seasonal terms and even show your app to audiences you
downloads in some types of mobile apps.
cannot reach during the rest of the year. During certain
periods of the year, users change the way they interact
Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Black Friday, seasonal sales or
with app stores. In fact, there are seasonal trends for
sports events (the World Cup, Champions League…), among
search terms: some of them are obvious and linked to
others, represent great opportunities in terms of optimization
holidays such as “Christmas”, but also others less obvious
for thousands of e-commerce app published on the stores.
terms, linked to a longer period, like “tax return”.

89
SEASONAL ASO

discounts related to this campaign.

Once you find relevant keywords for your product, you can also (*) Did you know that in Mexico, Black Friday is not celebrated but “Buen Fin”
(Good End) is?
use them in Google Ads or Apple Search Ads search campaigns.
However, keep in mind their cost will be higher in seasonality
periods because a lot of advertisers will be bidding on these
specific keywords.

VISUAL ASSETS OPTIMIZATION


- CONVERSION RATE

Same happens to the visual assets of your listing: creating them


with seasonality in mind can have a positive impact on
Conversion Rate to download. If, for example, you want your
app to rank for the Black Friday campaign, you can accompany
your keywords strategy with a screenshots update, with visual
elements such as discount percentages, or even with an app
icon update with some graphic elements that allows users to
understand that if they download the app, they will find

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SEASONAL ASO

In the following graph extracted from Google Trends we can view how relative search popularity from “buen fin” (in red) in
Mexico is indefinitely superior to that of “black friday” (in blue), and the periods for both searches do not match 100%.

black friday buen fin

100

75

50

25

5 may. 2019 8 sept. 2019

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15
ASO CHECKLIST

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ASO CHECKLIST

Identify your keywords list and broaden it with keyword Add one or two Top Keywords to your App Name / Title

01 suggestions to get mid and long-tail keywords to rank for. 04 together with the brand name. This will help your app to
start being visible on the stores (Search).

Use an ASO tool, such as TheTool, to track keywords in


Use Short and Long Description (Google Play), Subtitle
02 Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Select the ones
05 and Keywords Field (App Store) to add keywords to reach
with the highest traffic and the lowest degree of
the most common terms searched by user.
competition.

Analyze your competitors’ apps and take a look at their

03 user reviews to find more keywords and ideas to


implement to improve user experience.

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ASO CHECKLIST

Spend time to create the perfect icon: try with different Create an engaging video and add it to your listing, the

06 background colors, apply unique identifying elements 09 first seconds are crucial!
within your category and make it different from those of
your competitors. It is really important to work with a
strong brand identity within your app’s visual assets. Use real images of your app’s interface and encourage

10 users to download it with a Call To Action highlighting


your product’s benefits.
Make the most out of all the available screenshots and

07 use short and direct sentences as well as Call To Action


(CTA) to catch the attention of the users that arrive to the
Do A / B Testing in all the visual elements to identify the
store listing.
11 best option to get the best CvR (Conversion Rate) to
download and / or visibility.

Show your app’s best features in the 2 first screenshots

08 and in the first autoplay video.

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ASO CHECKLIST

Encourage users to post positive feedback (ratings and Listen to users and use their feedback to improve your

12 reviews), identify loyal users and motivate them to rate 15 product and / or identify bugs that your app might be
your app at the right moment (“sweet moments”). experiencing in some mobile devices or software
versions.

Provide your users with a Customer Service page or a Update your app frequently, at least once a month.

13 Support chat to avoid negative feedbacks in your app 16


listing and offer them individualized and customized
assistance.

Get backlinks from webs to your store listing in Google

17 Play Store and Apple App Store to increase its visibility in


Reply to negative reviews quickly so that users can change web search rankings and in ASO ranking in Google Play.
14 their feedback and increase your store public average
rating.

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ASO CHECKLIST

Localize your app listing, and if the conversion works,

18 think about localizing all the content of your app as long


as the product allows it. For example, a content app or a
game with lots of texts.

The main ASO KPIs are the organic downloads and the

19 revenue.

ASO is a process that needs to be monitored and

20 optimized steadily!

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OUR TEAM

DANIEL PERIS MIRIAM PELÁEZ FRAN LÓPEZ RUBÉN BAQUERO JUANMA CANO DIDAC ESTEBAN ALEJANDRO MELERO
CEO CMO & Co-founder COO CTO Head of Growth & UA Front-End web developer ASO Specialist

FRANCESCA JOELE GABI BAELLA JUAN SÁNCHEZ ANTONIO RABANERA DANIEL FLORES MAURICIO AWAK CRIKY PÉREZ
Mobile Account Manager ASO Senior Back-End Developer & IT Mobile Account Manager Growth & UA Specialist Art Director Creative Marketing Manager

JORDI BERTRÁN MAUD PANIER BORJA GARCÍA-PEÑA CARLOS PÉREZ ALEX HOSTALET XAVI PASCUAL
Graphic Designer Comms & Events Manager ASO Specialist ASO Specialist Motion Designer UX/UI Designer &
Front-End Developer

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THANK YOU!

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