MARKETING BLOG

Thomas Simoneaux 6/19/17 Thomas Simoneaux 6/19/17

How to Increase Your App's Visibility Through App Store Optimization

With millions of apps available, it has become increasingly difficult for publishers to gain visibility in the app stores. Because of this it is important that publishers understand App Store Optimization (ASO) best practices for both the Apple App and Google Play Stores.

What is App Store Optimization and why is it important?

Learn how to increase your app's visibility through App Store Optimization.

With every search query made in an app store, there are number of possible apps that show up within the results. Similar to SEO for the search engines, ASO is the process of optimizing app store page listings to improve its rankings for the app store search results. A higher ranking in search results should translate into an increase in organic downloads for an app.

What are the factors of ASO?

The Apple App Store and the Google Play Store are unique when it comes to their search algorithms. While keyword usage is important in both stores, how these keywords are taken into consideration is significantly different. Other factors that can impact ASO include listing localization, volume and velocity of downloads, as well as reviews.

For both stores, apps should always tailor their messaging for their target audience and NOT keyword stuff. An app store listing is a marketing and user acquisition piece and should be treated as such. Content on the app store listing page can significantly impact tap to install rate, and should be treated with care.

Apple App Store

For the Apple App Store, the primary factors that impact ASO are the app title, keyword Field, downloads, and quantity and quality of reviews.

Title:

The title in the app a store can have a maximum length of 50 characters. Though the title does have a high character limit, we recommend that apps keep their titles short and only have important and relevant keywords within the title. Having a lengthy title could potentially flag an app due to keyword stuffing, which could block an important app release. Also, it is a best practice to keep important keywords to the front of the title.

Keyword Field:

The keyword field is where any additional keywords, that are not used within the title, can be added. There is a 100 character count limit, and each term or phrase must be separated by a comma. A best practice that we recommend is to not use spaces after a comma, as this is not required and takes up valuable real estate. Just as with the search engine algorithms, Apple’s App Store algorithm is able to recognize a number of different word combinations and phrases in the keyword field. For example, if the terms in the keyword field are “fun game,gem game,jewel,” the algorithm would be able to read phrases such as “fun game” out of this field.

Google Play Store

Title:

For the Google Play Store, the app store title has a max of 50 characters, which is significantly shorter in length than its counterpart.. With this limitation, it is important that Apps only include the highest value keywords into the app title.

Short Description:

The short description field is a quick overview of an app and has a character count limit of 80. Relevant keywords should be included in this section and should give a brief overview of what the app is, does, and be relevant to user’s search queries.

Full Description:

The app’s full description section allows for a maximum of 4,000 characters and is impactful for ASO, unlike the description in Apple’s App Store. This field should be utilized as a marketing tool to app store users and should give a detailed understanding of an app and its features. Keywords from the title and short description can be included in this section, as well as additional keywords. Density wise, we do not recommend using a keyword more than five times, as this can appear spammy and negatively impact an app’s ranking.

Both App Stores

Download Velocity:

For both app stores, download velocity is a key factor that significantly impacts ASO. In combination with on-listing ASO efforts, paid install campaigns, whether through Facebook or other third-party networks, can be used to increase download velocity. This will help improve ASO rankings significantly. Paid install campaigns also can be useful in increasing download velocity.

Reviews:

While the way reviews are taken into account in both app stores can be different, obtaining positive reviews can have a high-valued impact on ASO. Apps with higher quantities of higher-rated reviews regularly outrank apps with lower ratings and less reviews. It is important to note that for the Apple App Store, the reviews for a specific version are taken into consideration, and thus releases should be timed with respect to review counts and ratings. With each release in the Apple App Store, an app’s review count reverts back to zero for that version. Thus if an app is regularly releasing updates, this can actually harm ASO.

Localization:

If an app is in a number of different languages, it is important to have app store pages localized to support that. Every language is different and It is important to do extensive research when considering a different language and understand what are the appropriate keywords for an app. Understanding the correct terminology will make it easier for an app to be found. This same thought process also applies for screenshots. An app listing’s screenshots are one of the first things seen by users. By having localized screenshots, it creates a better user experience and can help increase downloads.

When localizing an app, it is also important to take into consideration the different use cases. Just as each language is different, so is how a user might utilize an app. Highlighting the appropriate use cases in screenshots, as well as the description, can help increase downloads.

Final Thoughts

To recap, it is important to take each ASO element into consideration when working on the app store listings. Investing the time into seeing what works best, and discovering new keywords, can greatly improve keyword ranking and organic download velocity.

If you’re looking to take your app marketing efforts to the next level, contact us at Appyness today. We specialize in creating unique and ROI-positive campaigns that maximize our our clients’ budgets. Whether you’re looking to get your app users in the United States or looking to expand into Western Europe or China, the Appyness team can help. Contact us today to Find Your Appyness!

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Thomas Simoneaux 4/25/17 Thomas Simoneaux 4/25/17

Mobile Marketing Trends of 2017

There are more than 11 billion mobile devices in the world with that number is projected to increase to more than 16 billion by 2020. In 2016, there were over 1500 apps published in the Apple App Store and 6000 in the Play Store each day. Ads on mobile devices accounted for more than half of Google’s ad revenue last year, and that trend is expected to increase.

While every publisher hopes that their app will be the next Snapchat or Candy Crush, the sheer volume of newly published, as well as active apps, is making it increasingly difficult for new apps to be discovered. Here are some of the tactics that the Appyness team will be focusing on in 2017 for our clients, as well as some current and upcoming industry trends.

App Store Listings Localization

Localization is key for any app that is looking to expand its user base beyond its native country and language. It is important for publishers to understand that content, keywords, and even use cases for an app, can be different for users depending on their specific demographic. For example, on an app that I previously worked on in the utility space, the purpose of the app for a user in China was vastly different than a user in France. This differentiation was reflected in the app store listings’ content, screenshots, and even the copy on the app’s website by language.

Knowing your demographics and use-cases for ALL users is key for not only improving your App Store Optimization (ASO) efforts around the world, but also if you are looking to enter into new markets. It is important to understand that localization goes further than just a specific language and keywords. That being said, according to Apple, simply having your content translated, along with your App Store Metadata, can greatly improve how your app is received by others cultures.

App Store listings localization also goes beyond the Google Play store. This is especially true for Android. Outside of the United States and other Tier 1 Western Markets, there are countless numbers of other third-party app stores, such as Yandex, which is a popular app store in Russia, as well as Aptoide (Europe), and Myapp (Tencent) (China). Claiming and optimizing listings on these third-party stores can greatly expand your app’s reach.

At Appyness, we use Sensor Tower to monitor our clients’ ASO performance. From keyword ranking to competitor updates, Sensor Tower can keep track of your efforts in multiple languages.

Apple Search Ads
Last year Apple launched Apple Search Ads for the App Store. Unlike iAds, an in-app advertising platform abandoned by Apple in late July, Apple Search Ads are Cost Per Install (CPI) campaigns that are placed directly into the Apple App Store itself and allow agencies, such as Appyness, as well as app publishers, to easily create and manage CPI campaigns.

Similar to Google AdWords, campaigns can be created with ad groups that are granular in structure, have broad and exact match keywords, and even have negative keywords. One key feature about Apple Ads is that for publishers that self-managing their own campaigns, there isn’t a need to create ad copy. Ads that are served in Apple Search Ads’ platforms are automatically populated from an app’s individual app store listing. This eliminates the needs to create multiple ads and ad copy, which helps make the management of campaigns be less time consuming

The platform also makes it easy to create ad groups based off of geographic areas, age, and gender, which can be useful for A/B testing very specific user segments and demographics, while measuring conversion rate and cost per installs. At Appyness, this has yielded some surprising results and eliminated assumptions about different user segments for some of the apps that we’ve worked on in the past. In addition, Apple Search Ads have had an overall cheaper CPI then other platforms, while also producing higher quality downloads.

Increase app usage and revenue through messaging
According to an article published by TechCrunch, 62 percent of people use an app that they have downloaded less than 11 times, and 23% will only launch an app one time. With over half of users having such low interaction with apps that download, it is difficult to get users to use the app and to turn them into revenue.

One of the most useful tactics that we’ve found to increase app usage and engagement has been the use of automated in-app messaging and push notifications, based off of users’ behavior within the app, or in some cases - lack of usage of the app. By using solutions, such as Localytics, apps are easily able to create messaging programs to increase app usage and engagement. Targeted groups can be highly segmented, such as by country, recent (or lack thereof) app usage in the last X amount of days, completed a specific in-app event, or even bey app versions. We’ve had a lot of success reaching those one and done users and getting them to complete desired actions, including converting them into revenue streams.

Expand acquisition efforts through other messaging apps
The explosion of messaging apps in the last couple of years has greatly shaped how users use their mobile devices to communicate. Apps like Snapchat and WhatsApp are now some of the most popular messaging apps and have also been turned into revenue streams for publishers and apps looking to gain new users. For example, in Snapchat stories, advertisers are able to place a 3 to 10 second video ad directly after a user views their friends story. When a user swipes up on the Snap Ads, they can be directed to download a brand's app, their mobile site, or an extended version of the video ad.

While this is a new trend, that being said, publishers should be very careful to not go overboard with their ads. Similar to social networks, users see messaging apps as part of their own space and too many ads can actually be detrimental to an app’s brand.

App acquisition extends beyond more that just perfecting app store listings and executing mobile ad programs. Paid search advertising and SEO now have the ability to drive app installs and revenue as well. A website is an extension of an app’s presence from the app stores and should be part of any app’s acquisition efforts. Here are some of the key factors that the Appyness team are focusing on, outside of the app stores, for 2017.

Site load time on mobile devices
The increase in mobile usage is coming from more than just apps. According to a report done last year by Hitwise, roughly 58 percent of online searches made in the US came from a mobile device. Similar to desktop, users are wanting to get the information that they are looking for faster. Research done by Google states that the average mobile site loads in about 6.9 seconds, but 40% of users will leave a page if a site times longer than 3 seconds to load.

A few great tools for keeping track of both your mobile and desktop load times are Pingdom and Google PageSpeed Insight Tool.

Look into Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
Google’s AMP is an open source project that is designed to help publishers create “websites and ads that are consistently faster, beautiful and high-performing across all devices and distribution platforms.” Similar to above, Google’s AMP is designed to help improve load times and create a better user experience.

While AMP is a Google product, Google has stated that by using AMP, sites will not see a direct impact on SEO. However, site speed is still a major factor in SEO. If an AMP is faster and can reduce the number of bounces coming from a site, then Google will see that page as more valuable and it’s likely to get a higher placement.

Decrease the use of popup ads
Popup ads can be a great way to generate revenue off of a site. Whether they are utilized to promote specials or abandonment offers to new customers or to generate signups for customer newsletters, popup ads are a tool used by many sites to drive acquisition. However, as of early 2017, according to Google Webmaster Central Blog, popup ads can now be detrimental to SEO efforts.

In recent years, for on-page SEO, Google has placed an higher emphasis on the overall user experience. Popup ads have been shown to greatly increase a mobile sites bounce rate and create a poor experience for users on mobile devices. In a sense, they act as an impediment for users to be able to find relevant content quickly, which creates accessibility issues, as popups usually covers the main content. Google states that “pages where content is not easily accessible to a user on the transition from a mobile search results may not rank as high.” Popup ads tend to be intrusive and can cause a site to be penalized.

Focusing on the overall user experience, both within apps, as well as on apps’ websites, will be keys to success for apps looking to drive acquisition and growth in 2017. An app’s presence extends beyond the typical stores, such as Android, and channels such as SEO and PPC can drive significant amounts of revenue.

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