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diegoperezs@gmail.com
TA B L E O F

Contents
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3
INTRODUCTION INCREASING VISIBILITY INCREASING CONVERSION

16 40 162

1.1 Introduction to ASO
Brief History of ASO
Definition of Modern ASO
ASO Team Structures & Roles
1.2 The ASO Stack
The 4 Building Blocks of the ASO Stack
The ASO Stack Report Card
Advice for Strategic Execution
2.1 Increasing Search Visibility
Understanding the Search Algorithm
The Keyword Optimization Cycle
1. Keyword Research
2. Keyword Prioritization
3. Targeting Keywords in Metadata
4. Measuring Keyword Performance
2.2 Increasing Visibility Through
Getting Featured
How to Pitch Your Product to the Stores
Impact of Being Featured
2.3 Increasing Browse Visibility
Outside of Featurings
Top Chart Rankings
Burst Campaigns
Category Switching
Similar Apps
3.1 Main Considerations for
Conversion Rate Optimization
Understanding Which KPI to Use
Conversion Benchmarks Per Category
Optimizing Efforts: Which Store Listing
Elements to Optimize First?
3.2 The Conversion Rate
Optimization Loop
1. Conducting Research
2. Hypothesizing
3. Prioritizing
4. Creating Store Assets
5. Testing: Running A/B Tests
& Experiments
6. Reporting & Analyzing
 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Credits
LOCALIZATION RATINGS & REVIEWS STORE PROMOTIONAL TOOLS PERFORMANCE REPORTING GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH
& SEASONALITY & CUSTOMER INFORMATION DASHBOARDS & ASO TOOLS ADS (ASA)

302 354 392 438 566 634

4.1 Introduction to Localization
Available Languages on the Stores
Localization on Google Play
Localization on the App Store
Example of a Multi-Index Localization
Strategy
How to Prioritize App Localizations
5.1 Why Are Ratings and Review
So Important?
New Apps vs. Established Apps
5.2 Creating a Review Strategy
Ask for Reviews From the App Listing
Controversial Practices
6.1 Store Promotional Tools 7.1 Creating Dashboards for 8.1 The ASA Stack
Performance Reviews
Pre-Registration Pages How Does the ASA Stack Work?
The Challenge of Isolating Organic
Giving Customers a Foretaste of the Installs Campaigns
App
Visibility & Conversion Ad Groups
Promoting Specific App Content on the
Stores Final Words About Interlinked Metrics Keywords
Store-Run Marketing Programs Console & Reporting Tools Tools
Supporting Insights

6.2 Customer Information Tools 7.2 Third-Party Tools The ASA Stack: Conclusion
4.2 The Localization Process 5.3 Choosing the Right Trigger
Data Privacy Sections Platform Tools
Minimum Viable Localization (MVL)
Search Adjustment Tools ASO Tools 8.2 How to Create Synergies
Keyword Research & Localization of 5.4 Designing Your Prompt Between ASA and ASO
Metadata Keyword Discovery Tools
System vs. Custom Prompt Testing Creative Sets
True Localization Is “Culturalization” A/B Testing Tools
Gating the Prompt Increasing Organic Visbility With ASA
Competitive Intelligence Tools
Design
4.3 Custom Store Pages on Google Review Management
Play Voice 8.3 Cannibalization
In-App Rating Prompts
Experience Measuring the Cost of Cannibalization
Screenshot Builders
4.4 Additional Resources
5.5 Replying to Reviews 8.4 Closing Thoughts on ASA

4.5 Introduction to Seasonality

The Importance of Seasonality in ASO 5.4 Measuring Rating and Review
Impact
How to Leverage Seasonality
Analyze User Feedback
A Note on Time-Sensitive CRO
The User Journey

Foreword
Introduction to the
Advanced App Store
Optimization Book
When Apple and Google launched their respective app
stores in 2008, a new field of marketing was born—App
Store Optimization (ASO). Marketers rightly saw the
potential of this new channel and immediately began
efforts to increase the visibility and conversion of their
landing pages within the app stores.
6 7
FOREWORD
In 2016, Moritz Daan, Co-Founder and Partner at
Phiture, Gabe Kwakyi, Growth Advisor and Co-
Founder at Incipia, and over 6 guest authors produced
the first edition of “Advanced App Store Optimization:
The Complete Guide to ASO.” Spanning 370 pages,
the book became a staple in the world of App Store
Optimization.
Authors of the 2018 edition
of “Advanced App Store
Optimization: The Complete
Guide to ASO,” Moritz Daan
(left) and Gabe Kwakyi (right).

Evolution of the
Advanced ASO Book
The first edition of the Advanced ASO Book sold
thousands of copies around the world and in late 2020,
Moritz and Gabe made the 2018 version available
online for free for all ASO practitioners to use.
However, our ever-moving landscape has experienced
various changes since 2018. With algorithm changes,
new features, and more advanced functionalities on
both the App Store and Google Play, the need to update
this leading ASO resource has intensified over the
years.
8 9
With Maggie Ngai, ASO Lead, overseeing the project,
Phiture recruited expert writers from AppTweak
and Haystack Reviews to revamp the ASO Book. This
newest edition of “Advanced App Store Optimization”
spans more than 600 pages and features all the latest
store additions, including information on iOS 15, a
new ASA Stack for Search Ads, and up-to-date tips and
tricks to help ASO practitioners increase visibility and
conversion.
Maggie Ngai, co-author of the
2022 edition of “Advanced App
Store Optimization” and Simon
Thillay, contributor and Head of
ASO at AppTweak.
The following members have also contributed their
time and knowledge to this book:
• Adzsa Hatano, ASO Consultant at Phiture
• Alexandra De Clerck, Head of Marketing
at AppTweak
• Andrea Raggi, Performance Marketing Lead
at Phiture
• Andrew Hart, ASO Consultant at Phiture
• Anton Tatarynovich, Senior ASO Consultant
• Catarina Rosa, Senior Designer at Phiture
• Chun Yee Julia Li, ASO Consultant at Phiture
• Eloïse Clement, Marketing Designer at AppTweak
• Florentin Zachary, Product Manager at AppTweak
• Gawie Joubert, Senior Designer at Phiture
• Georgia Shepherd, Digital Marketing Specialist at
AppTweak
• Haitam Boulaich, Performance Marketing
Consultant
• Ini Müller, Junior Designer at Phiture
• Jonathan Frisch, Head of Data Science at
AppTweak
FOREWORD
• Jorieke van den Broek, Senior Performance
Marketing Consultant at Phiture
• Kahnar Abdulqader, Head of Marketing at Phiture
• Mariano Briozzo, Designer at Phiture
• Mateusz Wrzeszcz, ASO Consultant at Phiture
• Natalie Rozenblat, Senior Performance
Marketing Consultant at Phiture
• Pablo Penny, Managing Director at Phiture
• Parv Bhargava, ASO Consultant at Phiture
• Sarah B. Touimi, ASO Manager at AppTweak
• Sebastian Gallese, Co-Founder at Haystack
Reviews
• Sofia Nardone, Junior Designer at Phiture
• Thomas Schultz-Wenk, Co-Founder at Haystack
Reviews

Get to Know Our
Authors
Moritz Daan is a serial entrepreneur
who had already sold two online gaming
companies when he started his first
full-time ASO role with SoundCloud
in 2014, right when ASO was ramping
up as a marketing function. He began
building out an A/B testing platform for
the online audio distribution platform
to test App Store assets (remember:
in those days, Google and Apple were
not providing native experiments and
third-party services like SplitMetrics
weren’t even around yet). Moritz
soon moved on to take up a Growth
Team Lead position focusing on
international growth at SoundCloud
and, in 2016, started his own mobile
growth consultancy, Phiture, alongside
industry expert Andy Carvell.
10
Gabe Kwakyi is Director of Acquisition
at Phiture, and former Co-Founder and
CEO of Incipia, a mobile app agency that
built and marketed apps for companies
and entrepreneurs. Throughout his
career, Gabe has worked with apps
of all sizes and categories, from indie
developers to high-profile companies
including Canva, Walmart, Playtika,
and PeopleFun. Prior to Incipia, Gabe
cut his teeth into search advertising as
an Account Manager at Microsoft Bing
Ads, helping clients such as Airbnb,
the NHL, and Spotify optimize their
PPC budgets, managing more than $21
million in annual PPC spend.
Maggie Ngai leads a team of over
26 ASO experts who provide top
mobile growth consultancy services
to renowned brands like Adobe and
Headspace. With an array of marketing
and mobile marketing experience,
she’s an expert in mobile growth ASO,
and attends conferences and drives
knowledge sharing in the industry,
together with her team. Her down-to-
earth leadership empowers her rapidly
growing team to develop into renowned
industry experts.
FOREWORD
Simon Thillay is Head of ASO
at AppTweak, ASO Tool for Apps
& Games Driven by Data Science.
Having previously worked as Growth
Marketing Manager at music app
Deezer, he now advises on the
strategies of mobile apps and games
around the world and contributes to
the advancement of ASO knowledge
through practical research and
frameworks, such as A/B/B testing or
brand defense cost modeling in Apple
Search Ads.
11

What to Expect
From This Book
This book is based on the industry-
leading ASO Stack developed by
Phiture, a framework that we explore
in depth throughout this book. Suffice it
to say that the ASO Stack is a one-page
cheat sheet for ASO understanding and
strategy, providing applications for
newbies and veterans alike.
12
In this book, we focus on two main
ASO goals: visibility and conversion.
Visibility includes everything from
keyword optimization to in-app events
(iOS 15) and Browse traffic. Conversion
covers anything that can help to
increase app conversion, from asset
optimization to ratings and reviews
and localization.
With content divided into 8 main
chapters, this book will discuss the
following ASO-related topics:
Introduction to App Store
Optimization
Increasing Visibility
Increasing Conversion
Localization and Seasonality
Ratings and Reviews
Store Promotional Tools and
Customer Information
Performance Reporting
Dashboards and ASO Tools
Guide to Apple Search Ads
FOREWORD
Learn about the history and evolution of App Store
Optimization.
Drive app awareness by leveraging a solid keyword
optimization strategy, getting featured on the stores,
or through other discoverability means.
Learn how to structure your conversion rate
optimization work and conduct effective research,
create impactful store assets, and accurately measure
your changes.
Address a global audience through localization to
grow your user base worldwide. Understand the
importance of (and learn how to benefit from) app
store seasonality.
Learn how to create a convincing strategy to improve
ratings and reviews by choosing the right trigger,
designing your prompts, and replying to reviews.
Understand how to capitalize on the promotional
tools available via app store consoles & developer
tools, including new iOS 15 marketing features.
Discover how to create valuable reporting dashboards
and learn about the range of ASO-related tools that
can facilitate your work.
Deep dive into Apple Search Ads; learn how to use
ASA effectively to improve your ASO strategy.
13
 FOREWORD

Tips for Your

Reading
We’re glad you’re joining us on this
journey to sharpen your ASO skills! We
appreciate your time and promise to
make it worth your while. We start with
the basics and then delve into specific
strategies (with examples), but feel free
to skip around to the information you
need.

Along the way, keep an eye out for
special icons or concepts that represent
topics of particular interest, including:
Beware: Find a helpful tip to avoid and address
pain points and challenges of ASO management.
Pro Tip: Learn a powerful tip that you can’t find
just anywhere.

Case Study: Understand the activities we’re

talking about in action.

Data Study: Unique data you won’t find Happy reading!

anywhere else.

14 15
CHAPTER 01

Introduction
CHAPTER 01
Introduction to App Store
Optimization (ASO)
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Understand the history and evolution
of App Store Optimization.
Brief History of ASO
When Apple and Google launched their
respective app stores in 2008, a new
field of marketing was born—App Store
Optimization (ASO). This new channel
was accompanied by great potential;
as such, marketers immediately
seized this opportunity to increase the
visibility and conversion of landing
pages on the app stores.
As early as 2009, marketers started
leveraging their experience in search
engine optimization (SEO) to theorize
18
Example of an app title from the early days of the App Store. Source: Thomas Petit’s presentation at the 2019 ASO
Conference.
the impact of keywords used in an app’s
metadata on its visibility in store search
results; this also led to the introduction
of the first resources and tools
dedicated to ASO. As only a few apps
at the time realized the importance of
adding keywords to their app title and
selecting (relevant) search terms for
their keyword field, competition was
low and many startups were able to
compete with big brands that failed to
optimize their store presence.
As Thomas Petit pointed out during
his presentation at the 2019 ASO
Conference, this was not without its
drawbacks: With a maximum of 255
characters available for app titles,
those who used this immense space
for keyword optimization were able
to implement extremely long and far-
from-user-friendly titles.
INTRODUCTION
The initial lack of policing from Apple
& Google also left the door open to
some very obvious “black hat” ASO
tactics, such as the overt duplication
of other app titles. This technique saw
store search results filled with dozens
of clones of the same app and made it
difficult for developers to present their
app as an original product.
19
CHAPTER 01
At the time, “boost” campaigns were
also more popular and more prominent,
making it easier for app developers to
gain visibility beyond search results.
Thanks to these campaigns, apps were
able to benefit from sudden increases in
traffic which would then lead to surges
in store rankings.
For those fortunate enough to get the
attention of editorial teams, featurings
would also bring massive influxes of
traffic, often without apps being aware
they were even promoted by the store.
For instance, back in 2013, Duolingo
received 2.8 million downloads in one
week as a result of being featured by
Apple.
However, as the booming interest
in ASO rapidly evolved (especially
in the second half of the 2010s), the
need for store policing from Apple
and Google increased. In 2016, Apple
reduced the length of app titles to 50
characters before changing this to only
30 characters in 2017; at the same time,
a 30-character subtitle was introduced
on the App Store with iOS 11. In turn,
Google also restricted its app titles to
30 characters, increased this limit to 50
characters in 2017, and reverted once
again to 30-character titles in 2021.
20
Much beyond the number of characters (and therefore,
keywords) allowed in an app’s title, over the years Apple
and Google have implemented several considerable
changes that have transformed ASO from a “growth
hacking” tactic into an entire growth channel and
marketing effort.
To list only a few of On the user-facing side, iOS 11
the most noticeable introduced the editorial Today tab and
changes that have the presence of creatives in search
taken place since result pages. While Google Play did
2016: not entirely follow Apple’s layout of
search results, both stores started
providing developers with more
creative flexibility by allowing videos
to be uploaded as part of apps’ creative
galleries and increasing the different
formats available for screenshots. Both
stores also started to venture into app
recommendations with new editorial
placements based on additional
algorithms and functionalities.
INTRODUCTION
On the developer side, store consoles
and advertising platforms progressively
introduced more data specific to users’
store behaviors. Google first added
Play Store data on organic keywords
in 2015 as part of its Keyword Planner
tool before disclosing organic keyword
installs on the Google Play Developer
Console in 2018. On the flip side, Apple
introduced “Search Popularity” scores
for the US with the launch of Apple
Search Ads in 2016; this was quickly
expanded to include data for over 60
additional countries in the three years
that followed.
21
CHAPTER 01
The launch of advertising in the app stores added an extra layer of
complexity to the growing discipline of ASO as app developers were
now faced with a “pay to play” dilemma, complicating the work for
those aiming to measure return on investment for their organic
efforts in the stores.
Changes on the stores over the years—combined with the increasing
investment of resources into the discipline—have led to a complete
transformation of the notion of ASO. Other than its growing level
of competitiveness, the practice has migrated from its initial idea
of “applying SEO principles to app store search algorithms” to its
modern form of “a discipline that encapsulates multiple types of
marketing efforts.”
22
INTRODUCTION
Definition of Modern ASO
Now considering its former definition, the idea of ASO being “SEO for apps” is
incomplete at best once we understand the practice is no longer limited to the
optimization of metadata for the purpose of maximizing an app’s visibility in store
search results. Instead, we offer the following definition as a more appropriate
view of modern ASO:
“
App Store Optimization is the process of improving an
app’s visibility in an app store and maximizing its appeal
to users throughout the app’s lifecycle, with the objective
of increasing the amount of downloads it will receive.
“
By this, we underline that ASO not only aims to maximize visibility in all the
available placements on the app stores, but also to optimize an app’s appeal to
users with the goal of converting views into downloads. In practice, ASO covers
a large spectrum that ranges from the optimization of text and visual metadata to
the use of tactics to encourage users to leave positive reviews and ratings, and also
includes other efforts such as increasing visibility through store featurings.
Through this definition, we see that modern ASO requires multiple fields of
expertise. This affects the formation of ASO teams and the relationships between
the practice itself and other growth channels.
23
CHAPTER 01
ASO Team Structures
& Roles
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Understand common ASO team
structures and the responsibilities
of each role.
ASO Team Structures
The variety of approaches in ASO
demonstrates both an advantage and
challenge of practicing it. Your ASO
activities could include anything from
creating store videos to running data
analyses. This combination of required
skills means that organizations willing
to invest in ASO will usually need to
form a dedicated ASO team and, even
then, may need to call on other in-house
or outsourced resources.
24
Depending on a company’s size, people
involved in the ASO team may be so in a
part-time-only capacity alongside their
larger role or be fully dedicated to ASO.
At the same time, companies may prefer
to completely conduct their ASO efforts
internally or use external resources for
partial or full assistance, depending on
their own resources and ASO knowledge.
As a result, we observe 3 common types
of ASO team structures:
INTRODUCTION
The Task Force The Coordinator The Studio
A group of experts, each with a Most often one single ASO A larger team in charge of piloting
specific role and set of skills, who manager in charge of managing all aspects of ASO, often across
join forces to conduct ASO. a network of internal or external multiple apps and/or locales.
resources to execute the ASO
strategy.
Each team structure has its advantages: While an internal team already knows In fact, participants in
your brand and product features, a freelancer or agency will have more experience the ASO Conference
in the intricacies of ASO and knowledge of other use cases. When deciding between 2021 panel on “How to
dedicating full-time resources or maintaining a multi-function team, the former Structure an ASO Team”
guarantees more time allocated to ASO and is likely to accumulate experience shared that this was crucial
much faster, but the latter can facilitate coordination between ASO projects and regardless of the team
other marketing projects. structure, as they saw the
need for very frequent
Whichever type of team you find yourself in, you’ll want to reflect on its syncs with multiple teams
organizational challenges. You will want to start proactively thinking about alongside the monitoring
ASO solutions so there aren’t any unforeseen roadblocks; in particular, actively of hypotheses and
considering where your ASO team falls within the larger company structure may experiments.
facilitate communication and cooperation with other teams.
25
CHAPTER 01
ASO Roles
As you start to evaluate which ASO team structure
best fits your organization, you’ll need some more
information on the roles and skills that ASO teams
typically employ. Depending on your company’s
business activities, you may have a separate person for
each one of the following roles or combine overlapping
skill sets for one individual.
26
Keyword Research
The keyword researcher finds keyword
ideas from various sources and collates
a full keyword list for an app’s limited
metadata space. They then analyze
changes in keyword rankings based
on ASO metrics and determine next
steps. Keyword research plays a
more technical role and is absolutely
fundamental to app growth.
Copywriting
Copywriters determine the best text
(with the help of keyword research) to
add to your app’s text-based metadata
elements, as well as the text that
may overlay visual elements such as
screenshots. Copywriters can also
support customer service by writing
the text to be used in standardized
review prompts.
Graphic Design
Graphic designers are core to your ASO
activities. ASO design is a mix of data-
and art-driven visual assets that are
key in boosting conversion by making
a stellar first impression. While basic
visuals, like screenshots of an app’s
interface, may sometimes suffice,
custom designs can make a critical
difference in driving ASO results.
Video Production
Video producers help create quality
video content. Their contributions
make apps more enticing to download
and significantly improve an app’s
conversion rate. The catch is that low-
quality videos often harm conversion
rates; this makes an expert eye truly
valuable in leading the task of video
production.
Development
Without developers, we would have
no apps and no ASO. However, the
work of a developer does not end when
the app is published. To ensure an
app succeeds, the developer(s) must
maintain and grow the app by adding
features, fixing bugs, sizing files, or
implementing and leveraging new
technologies made available by Apple
or Google that can benefit users and
present more opportunities for your
app to be featured and gain visibility
in the store. Developers are also most
often responsible for publishing the
latest app updates on the store, which is
the only time you can change metadata
or creatives on iOS (at least, up until
iOS 14). Keeping up with their update
frequency is therefore key to your
ASO efforts.
INTRODUCTION
Data Science & Analytics
Data scientists help measure your
ASO work (such as determining install
rates after optimization), estimate
the share of organic vs. paid traffic in
your store console data, and interpret
performances to best inform next steps.
Continuous optimization is at the heart
of ASO; the information your data
scientists uncover will be essential to
developing your strategy.
Customer Service
Customer service agents capture
negative feedback, resolve customer
issues, address product needs, and
respond to customer reviews. This last
point is especially important, as ratings
& reviews are publicly displayed on the
app stores and hence affect conversion
rates. The feedback and data gathered
by customer service agents can also
help other roles in the ASO team
optimize their work.
Project Management
Project managers coordinate team
members and stakeholders to keep your
ASO efforts on track. It’s especially
helpful to have a project manager when
you are dealing with a large team and/
or localization in multiple countries.
This way, your experts can focus on
their specialty instead of admin work.
27
CHAPTER 01 INTRODUCTION

Paid User Acquisition

Paid user acquisition specialists qualify
large amounts of leads across multiple
ad networks to bring a steady stream
of new daily downloads to your app.
This considerable influx in traffic has
the potential to significantly change
your app’s visibility and conversion
rates, as most store algorithms account
for overall performance and do not
differentiate between traffic sources.
Furthermore, with the growth of native
store advertising, user acquisition
must now, more than ever, use a variety
of strategies that synchronize organic
optimization and paid ads. Remember:
Paid ads affect organic search and the
appearance of store creatives and their
campaign install rates.
Relationship Between ASO
and Other Growth Channels
User Retention
User retention specialists (often Going over the various roles to consider for your
combined with user acquisition ASO team can already highlight the relationship
specialists) have risen in importance between ASO and other growth channels. First and
as Apple and Google’s algorithms foremost, you should consider the co-dependent
increasingly consider user retention relationship between paid user acquisition and ASO.
rather than install rates alone. User However, marketers should also be aware of the
retention specialists use customer interdependency between ASO and other organic
data to inform customer relationship growth channels.
management (CRM) campaigns and
keep users happy and engaged. These From its formation to the latest trends, App Store
specialists can also influence ASO, Optimization has evolved into a multi-layered
having a clear understanding of the At the end of the day, how you structure your team and discipline of its own. This allows us to analyze
product features that are favored by assign responsibilities will depend on your resources. the practice through a comprehensive framework
store visitors and will likely drive the Take stock of the skills you already have on your team that was first introduced by Phiture in 2016:
interest of future users. and be open to innovative combinations. The ASO Stack.
28 29
CHAPTER 01
ASO and Paid UA
As app store ranking algorithms have historically
relied on total download velocity and global
conversion rates (and even retention rates) as some of
their primary factors, ASO managers have long been
aware of the impact of paid UA on their own efforts.
However, this relationship works both ways, as the
costs per install (CPI) for paid UA can be affected by
the consistency between the initial store touchpoint
and the messages displayed on an app page and/or its
ratings & reviews. With the increasing importance
of in-store advertising channels and the apparent
will of both Apple and Google to add full marketing
functionalities to their respective stores, we expect to
see the relationship between paid UA and ASO grow
even stronger in the coming years.
30
ASO and Brand Marketing
With the overwhelming majority of store search
terms being brand names, the impact of brand
marketing on ASO is undeniable. As such, an app’s
store page should reflect the brand beyond the
product in order to reassure brand-focused customers
while also exposing its unique selling point to any
store visitors unfamiliar with the brand during this
“bottleneck” stage of the user funnel. Consequently,
the relationship between your brand team and ASO
team will have to be strong so that your app store
page best displays the app’s benefits beyond product
features and complies with the specific requirements
and best practices of each store.
ASO and Referral Programs
While often left in the hands of product teams,
referral programs are rarely expected to relate to ASO.
Nevertheless, the relationship between referral loops
and ASO can be quite strong, as ASO teams may be able
to identify specific app benefits that could turn users
into product ambassadors. This can be determined by
scanning store reviews or monitoring the increased
visibility and/or conversion after adapting your app’s
metadata based on the focus of a referral program.
Furthermore, with new marketing tools increasingly
integrating store consoles (see Chapter 6), ASO teams
may be able to inform and guide teams that design
referral loops to leverage the latest features released
by Apple and Google.
INTRODUCTION
ASO and Partnership or Influencer Marketing
Once again, while they appear mostly unrelated, there
are opportunities for partnership and influencer
marketing to synergize with ASO. From aligning
messages to utilizing custom pages or working on
cross-app promotions that incite store editors to
feature related apps, ASO efforts and influencer/
partnership marketing can benefit from close
communication and the deconstruction of silos
between teams.
31
CHAPTER 01 INTRODUCTION

The App Store

Optimization Stack

K E Y TA K E AWAY S

Become familiar with the ASO Stack,

understand the building blocks of ASO
strategy, and learn how to evaluate/prioritize
your own activities.
Let’s start by familiarizing ourselves with the App Store Optimization
(ASO) Stack. In later chapters, we’ll dive into specific strategies,
but first, we’re going to build a strong foundational knowledge of We’ll begin to unpack all these elements throughout the
the essential building blocks. If you’re already acquainted with this ASO Book, but first - how did this all start?
framework, feel free to skip ahead.
To give you a little background on how The success of the Mobile Growth Check out
the ASO Stack came to be, it all began Stack inspired Moritz Daan and Gabe phiture.com/asostack
Visibility Conversion when Andy Carvell, Phiture partner Kwakyi to create a standalone ASO to see the latest version.
Get your app in front of more Convince people to download and former SoundCloud mobile growth Stack to provide practitioners with a
people inside the store. your app. lead, created the Mobile Growth similar, easy-to-use framework that
Stack—a marketing framework to help would power their growth activities
apps develop a holistic mobile growth specifically within the app stores. The
Tools Supporting Insights strategy. App developers, marketers, ASO Stack is regularly updated to keep
Improve your app store Understand the impact of and growth practitioners ran with this abreast of changes and innovations
presence faster with ASO tools. outside influences on ASO framework, adding new twists like color within the industry.
outcomes. coding the boxes to track progress.
32 33
CHAPTER 01
The 4 Building Blocks of the ASO Stack
Visibility
How do you get your app in front of
more people inside the app stores?
Increasing your app’s visibility within
the stores is your number one goal. You
want more people to see your app in
their discovery process, whether they
are looking for a new game or searching
for a specific app title. Typical
initiatives to increase visibility include
keyword optimization (KWO), search
ads (these ads are paid but also affect
organic search outcomes), ranking
highly on category/country top charts,
or getting a feature spot from Apple
or Google. Each of these activities is
represented by a box in the ASO Stack.
ASO Stack 2020. Check out Chapter 2 for a deep dive into visibility.
34
INTRODUCTION
Conversion
How do you convince people to
download your app?
Once you get your app seen, you want
to convert this increased visibility
into actual downloads. That’s when
the second vertical of the ASO Stack
comes into play. Typical conversion
rate optimization activities include
improving assets, such as icons,
screenshots, videos, and copy, as
well as undertaking high-quality app
localization. Conversion will feed back
into visibility as Google and Apple’s
algorithms reward apps with higher
conversion rates, so it’s a win-win.
Check out Chapter 3 for a deep dive into
conversion rate optimization (CRO).
35
CHAPTER 01
Tools
How can ASO tools help speed up and
optimize your app store presence?
We all need a little help sometimes;
as practitioners of mobile marketing,
we shouldn’t be afraid to leverage the
latest tech tools for optimal results.
This third vertical of the ASO Stack is
a comprehensive list of ASO tools that
promote more efficient ASO. Since we
are practitioners ourselves, we also
know where the app stores lack in
testing or insight functionalities and
thus recommend tools to bridge the gap.
Check out Chapter 7 for a deep dive into ASO
tools.
36
Supporting Insights
How do outside influences impact your
ASO outcomes?
In the early days of ASO, our focus
pointed towards prospecting, testing,
and iterating. Yet, as app discovery in
the stores evolved, so did our purview.
Today, practitioners must consider
rollout and stakeholder alignment
to avoid blockers or gaps between
expectations and results. These
peripheral activities are essential
to reach your app’s maximum ASO
potential. This fourth vertical is here
to support your mastery of things
like accurate forecasting, paid/
organic marketing team alignment,
prioritization, education, and much
more!
Check out Chapter 7 for a deep dive into
supporting insights from acquisition.
INTRODUCTION
The ASO Stack Report Card
Apply the ASO Stack Report Card to your activities
using the first two verticals of the ASO Stack—
“Visibility” and “Conversion”—which fall under the
“Goals” header. Much like the early adopters of the
Mobile Growth Stack, you can color code the boxes of
the verticals to indicate their status. This will give you
a quick overview of your progress.
This is what the four colors could mean to your ASO
activities:
Green The activity has been well-executed
and produces a strong, measurable
impact.
Yellow The activity is being executed, but with
some difficulties.
Red The activity is failing to deliver
satisfactory results or hasn’t been
measured properly.
Gray The activity does not presently apply to
your ASO strategy. Example of an ASO Stack Report Card.
37
CHAPTER 01
Advice
for Strategic
Execution
Use the information to decide where
your focus should go next. Keep in mind
that ASO is an interconnected system
in which nearly all activities influence
one another: As previously discussed, a
better conversion rate will likely boost
your visibility; in turn, more visibility
yields more insights into your users’
preferences which can circle back into
better CRO. Visually connecting these
concepts in the ASO Stack Report Card
will facilitate a more sophisticated
understanding of your ASO activities.
38
INTRODUCTION
You’re probably excited to act on your ASO Stack
Report Card insights, and that’s great. But before you
do so, we have some advice: Start with the low-hanging
fruit. Consider the impact vs. effort breakdown for
each ASO initiative. Some activities may take a lot of
time and/or effort to produce a measurable impact
while others will start showing results right away
and/or with considerably less effort.
Of course, there will always be some effort required
when it comes to ASO, but your focus should be
on working smarter, not harder. In our experience,
moving from the easiest tasks to the hardest is the way
to go. What’s the low-hanging fruit? Think of activities
that can be done with internal marketing activities,
like KWO, without needing to bring in other functions
like programming or design.
This book actually mimics the simple-to-complex
workflow that we recommend, starting with KWO and
moving to the right across the verticals pictured in the
ASO Stack. Of course, within each activity, there are
often short-term and long-term wins.
39
CHAPTER 02

Increasing
Visibility
CHAPTER 02 INCREASING VISIBILITY

Increasing
Visibility

K E Y TA K E AWAY S Improving your app’s visibility on the app stores is one of the primary
concerns of ASO; as such, it is important to understand the range of
Learn how actions you can take to get your app in front of as many potential
to drive app customers as possible on the stores.

awareness that Following the ASO Stack, we will first explore the concept of
leads to actual “increasing visibility” through four subchapters:
downloads.
Search Feature
Increasing visibility through Increasing visibility through
keyword optimization. featurings on the App Store or
Google Play.

Browse & Explore Store Ads

Increasing visibility through
methods related to casual
Browse and Explore traffic.
42
Increasing visibility through
paid methods.
Source: Phiture.com/asostack
43
CHAPTER 02 INCREASING VISIBILITY

Increasing
Search
Visibility Just about every app can benefit from keyword
optimization (KWO). It’s just a matter of finding
the right keywords. To get there, it’s important to
understand how people search for your app when
they don’t even know it exists.

Asking the following questions can help assess

K E Y TA K E AWAY S whether your app might benefit from KWO:
Leverage keywords
to increase visibility Does your app solve a certain need?
through searches. An example could be “flashlight app” or “baking
recipes.”

Is the market for this app already well-defined? Babbel (left) will see bigger benefits of KWO while Snappii’s app (right)
Do people already know how to search for your will see fewer benefits of KWO.

app? If so, your app can benefit from this category

awareness. An example of a well-defined market
could be “period tracker,” as potential users already
know how to search for this product. On the
other hand, niche apps, such as “plumber invoice
scheduling,” may have to incorporate more generic
keywords. These apps have less-defined markets and
might need to educate users by tapping into similar
but more general keywords like “invoice.”
For games: Does your game belong to a certain
category, theme, or genre of games that people
know to search for?
An example of this could be “puzzle games” or
“card games.”
If the answer to all these questions is no, KWO can still help your app
leverage search traffic to some extent. That said, building awareness
for your app in this scenario will also require supplementary
external/inorganic sources of traffic to rank for similar — but more
generic (and thus more competitive) — organic keywords.
To recap, while nearly all apps may benefit from keyword
optimization, it’s important when setting expectations to understand
that apps that solve specific, well-known needs will see the most
significant visibility results from KWO. This is because, by nature,
keyword searches on the app stores are “short-tail” (e.g., “invoice”)
and less likely to resemble “long-tail” web searches (e.g., “plumber
invoice scheduling”).

44 45
CHAPTER 02
Understanding the
Search Algorithm
Understanding the inner workings of the app store
ranking algorithms is a million-dollar topic. This
subject puts the ASO industry at constant odds
against Apple and Google in attempts to capture clues,
tips, and tricks to better understand the mechanisms
behind store rankings.
There are three things to consider when considering
how the app store ranking algorithms work and
whether your app will rank for a keyword (and if so,
where it will be positioned):
46
Are you eligible to rank for a certain
keyword?
Often, this requires specifying the
keyword in your app’s metadata.
How relevant is the given keyword
to your app?
While influenced by “secret sauce”
factors, this is mostly defined by the
placement of the keyword within your
metadata.
How much ranking strength does
your app have for the keyword?
Strength is defined by factors outside
your metadata, such as install
conversion rate and keyword retention.
Indexing
The app stores index (show in search
results) apps based on the keywords
developers include in the metadata (i.e.,
app title, subtitle, short description,
keyword field, etc.). This is the first core
factor that influences search algorithms.
Like SEO, the app stores will consider
the keywords included in metadata to try
and match an app to a user’s search query.
Therefore, it is important to make sure you
include relevant keywords in these fields
based on users’ search behaviors.
It is also possible to rank for a keyword
despite not specifying that term in your
app’s metadata: Google’s algorithm
employs machine learning, including
embedding neural network models
like skip grams, to determine relevant
relationships between keywords beyond
app metadata (e.g., synonyms, similar
context, misspellings/slang, etc.). The
INCREASING VISIBILITY
algorithm matches similar words and
then the search engine “guesses” the
intention behind a search. This means
that if a search keyword is algorithmically
linked to another keyword found in the
app’s metadata, your app can rank for
that associated search term, even if the
keyword itself is not found in your app’s
metadata.
Apple has a much simpler algorithm than
Google but also allows apps to rank for
several keywords that do not need to be
specified in metadata.
We will discuss how you can choose
the right keywords for your app in a
later chapter. However, besides picking
the right keywords, you should also be
aware of some special rules concerning
indexation on the app stores. We will now
list out some major observations regarding
indexation by the search algorithms.
47
CHAPTER 02 INCREASING VISIBILITY

Apple’s Shortcomings When Ranking Plural or

Compound Keywords

From our experience, Apple does not always rank apps for the For this research, it is very important to
plural or compound versions of singular keywords. While Apple’s look at the number of results.
algorithm is getting better at matching plurals to their singulars,
this process is still far from fully baked on the App Store, In our experience, if one type of
especially regarding non-English searches. To decide whether to variation (e.g., compound words)
include both singular and plural or compound keywords in your closely matches the rank of the root
metadata, it is important to test, rather than assume. word (i.e., the discrepancy is less
than 15%), then it’s highly likely that
First, you should analyze both singular and plural variants of the Apple also matches these variations
root word (e.g., “fox,” “foxes”), as well as compound words (e.g., and that you will rank for both by just
“audiobooks,” “audio books”), using your favorite ASO tool. specifying one. You can see this being
the case for “audiobooks” and “audio
books” (compound) and “podcast”
and “podcasts” (plural). The reason
for these variants never matching up
entirely is the likely existence of other
matching rules at play.
Beware
From our experience, an exact keyword
match weighs more than the matching
rules Apple offers. If a search term is
one of your primary keywords and both
variants bring in substantial volume
(i.e., “podcast” = 68 and “podcasts” =
49), we suggest that you target both
the plural and singular forms in your
metadata for best results. Over the
course of metadata iterations, you
can conduct tests to understand
whether you’re safe to remove plurals;
nonetheless, the safest default mode
in this case is to add both forms of the
keyword.

On the other hand, we see a huge

discrepancy between the singular and
plural forms of “mouse” and “mice.” It
is therefore highly unlikely that Apple
is matching the plural to the singular
for the keywords “mice” and “mouse”;
to rank well for both terms, you would
have to add both variants to your
metadata.
Singular/plural and compound keywords, alongside their search volumes and
results (number of apps that rank for that keyword). Source: AppTweak.
48 49
CHAPTER 02 INCREASING VISIBILITY

The Week-Long Keyword Boost

on the App Store

The first week of your app’s launch is

not only a time to test its credibility
and ability to “flop or fly,” but also the
only time that Apple artificially boosts
your app’s visibility. Therefore, any
marketing efforts during this time will
be more fruitful.

For Apple, it is a guessing game to

understand how good a new app is
or how relevant the keywords in its
metadata are. For the algorithm to be
able to gauge metrics like retention and
conversion rates from different search
terms, in its first week (seven days),
Apple will place your app artificially On the graph, we see an initial boost in keyword ranks during the
high in the search results for keywords first week post-launch, after which the average keyword ranking
drops. Source: Ido Schoonen, ASO Expert at Lab Cave Games.
provided in its metadata.

The week-long boost is To take full advantage of this keyword

relevant for iOS apps only.
In this graph, we see the impact of the first week post-launch
on app unit volume, filtered for App Store Search. Source: Ido
Schoonen, ASO Expert at Lab Cave Games.
boost, you could target vaguely relevant
but super high-volume keywords in the
pursuit of capturing more downloads.
Contrastingly, you could make sure your
app covers the most relevant keywords
from the start so that your performance
history for those keywords starts high,
giving your app a better chance of retaining
your higher rank for these keywords
beyond the week-long keyword boost.

50 51
CHAPTER 02
Ranking
Keyword Ranking Strength
Now, imagine if the app stores were
suddenly to start on a clean slate by losing
all their historical data. How would they
choose to list the results for a search query
of, say, the keyword “photo editor”?
The first step Apple and Google take to
determine search results is identifying
which apps are eligible to show for
the keyword based on the metadata all
apps have provided (indexation). This just
concerns whether the keywords “photo”
and “editor” can be found within an app’s
metadata.
The next step would be to decide how
relevant your app is to a specific
keyword. To unpack this second step, the
algorithms primarily look at the placement
of a specific word in an app’s metadata to
determine relevance. As a rule of thumb,
the algorithms look at:
• How visible the metadata is, with the
title weighing more than the iOS keyword
field, for example.
• How many characters a metadata
element allows.
• How often the keywords appear
throughout your metadata (Google only).
52
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Pro Tip
On Google Play, keywords mentioned
frequently and earlier in the long
description have been found to be
considered more relevant, and thus earn
a better ranking than those found in later
lines of the description. For example,
mentioning the word “restaurant” five
times in the first few sentences of your
long description would allow the Google
Play algorithm to assign your app a better
relevance weight for “restaurant” than
mentioning the keyword the same number
of times but spread throughout the entire
long description.
Regarding the relevance of your metadata
for a keyword such as “photo editor”—
and this holds true specifically for Google
Play metadata and the App Store titles/
subtitles—the algorithm also assigns more
relevance weight if your metadata contains
an exact match.
The following factors are commonly
accepted as keyword ranking signals
throughout the ASO industry: The more app store icons shown in the table, the higher weight Google or Apple seem to assign to it.
53
CHAPTER 02
Other possible ranking factors:
• A few years ago, the short description
was considered to have a greater impact
on rankings than the long description;
however, evolutions in the Google Play
algorithm have led ASO experts to now
believe the latter holds more weight if
keywords are repeated several times.
• While we don’t (yet) have evidence of
reviews being indexed on the App Store,
there have been instances of “keyword
stuffed” black-hat reviews appearing
on the App Store and preceding an
increase in keyword rankings.
54
INCREASING VISIBILITY
“Free”Ranking Keywords on the App Store
• The idea that Google might be able We have found that, on the App Store, your app will be indexed for
to recognize text on the assets added the following keywords without them needing to be specified in
to store listings and then index apps metadata:
for this text has been disproven in
the past. Nonetheless, this concept
remains among the hypotheses of how
screenshots could be leveraged for
keyword rankings.
• A test was run to determine if a
screenshot’s file name could also
impact keyword rankings. However,
changing a screenshot’s file name from
“IMG0001.png” to “new-keywords-
to-rank-for.png” was not detected by
Google and the test failed to cause an
improvement in keyword rank.
55
CHAPTER 02
Keyword Ranking Strength
Earlier, we discussed a theoretical situation in
which the app stores start with a clean slate and no
ranking history. Lacking historical data to improve
the search results, the stores would have to rank
apps purely off their metadata. However, providing
a good user experience is a major priority for both
Apple and Google. As such, to provide users with
high-quality search results, the app stores use
historical performance data to organize the search
results.
Primary Ranking Signals for Apple & Google
App Downloads
The number of app downloads is the strongest ranking
signal on both stores—particularly, the number of
downloads sourced from the keyword in question.
Moreover, download velocity is a major attribute of
overall app downloads.
Downloads are especially important on the App Store.
If the developer of a high-volume music app decided to
add the keyword “audiobooks” to their title, they would
be likely to gain a decent ranking for that search term,
just by virtue of having a lot of overall app downloads.
Because the stores tend to rank high-volume apps for
high-volume keywords, smaller developers should
begin by focusing on long-tail—or otherwise, lower
volume, lower competition—keywords.
56
Here are the major factors, identified by the ASO
community, that influence Apple and Google’s
keyword ranking algorithms, along with a note
indicating which stores utilize each signal:
Ratings and Reviews
Other significant factors for the ranking algorithms
are the star rating and velocity of reviews & ratings.
When these factors are high, they indicate that users
are fond enough of an app to take the time to rate it
or write a review; the effort required to do so makes
this factor even more impactful. Both Google and
Apple have officially commented that star ratings,
user reviews, and the number of ratings are factors
their algorithms consider when ranking apps. A
recently conducted study by Phiture has led us to
believe that ratings on the App Store do not show
direct correlations with keyword rankings. Indirectly
though, through higher conversion rates as a result of
more and higher ratings, this might increase rankings
for the keyword over time.
Conversion Rate for a Keyword
One of the leading indicators of whether your app will
rank well for a certain keyword is how well the app has
historically converted searches for that keyword into
installs as a percentage of total impressions. Apple
and Google want to showcase apps that have a higher
likelihood of being downloaded so users are more
likely to be satisfied with the store experience, and are
thus more likely to return to search for and download
other apps.
App Performance (Google Play)
Announcements from Google indicate that the Play
Store algorithm also factors for app performance
(e.g., crashes/stability or consumption of phone
battery). As such, Google considers bad app
performance as a potential negative signal and may
rank poorly performing apps lower than others.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Retention Rate for a Keyword
Over time, Google’s keyword ranking algorithm has
gradually moved away from depending so heavily
on downloads and download velocity to calculate an
app’s keyword ranking strength. This came to a head
in late 2016/early 2017 when, through a blog post and
algorithm update, Google’s Android team announced
that user retention rate was a much more important
signal for keyword rankings.
While download velocity can still cause initial swings
in keyword rankings, an app’s ability to retain users
that download it after searching for a specific keyword
is the most important long-term signal for keyword
rankings on Google Play. In fact, if your app has a
low retention rate, driving more downloads can be
a detrimental signal and can cause your app to rank
progressively lower for a keyword. This is because a
high number of downloads paired with a low retention
rate provides enough data to suggest your app is not
worthy of being shown to future store visitors using
that keyword, as they are unlikely to use the app for a
long time (compared to other downloaded apps).
57
CHAPTER 02
Additional, unconfirmed algorithm factors
put forward by the industry:
User engagement with app indexing
iOS apps can be indexed on Apple’s spotlight mobile
search user experience, and Android apps (as well as
iOS apps) can be indexed on google.com. This data
offers an off-page signal to determine an app’s quality
and popularity and is therefore within the realm of
possibility for in-store rankings, especially for SEO
keywords that arise within the store. Additionally,
as Apple and Google want to ensure that apps are
adopting the latest technologies, it may be a positive
signal simply to set app indexing up.
58
Video assets
High-quality preview videos are able to provide
users with a better understanding of an app than
screenshots and are recommended as a best practice
by Apple and Google. As a result, the mere presence of
a video could sensibly be used as a favorable signal for
keyword rankings.
Localization
From a user experience standpoint, it would make
sense to rank localized apps before non-localized apps
for a localized keyword search (although this behavior
has not been confirmed).
An app’s average revenue per user (ARPU)
In a similar vein of thinking to Google Ads and Apple
Search Ads (i.e., ads from apps with higher bids are
shown more than ads from apps with lower bids),
Apple and Google earn revenue from paid downloads
and in-app purchases, and could thus reasonably favor
apps that earn a higher revenue per user in keyword
rankings. This sentiment is shared by many across the
industry.
Average app session duration or number of launches
As a more in-depth user engagement factor, the total
time spent on an app or the number of launches could
sensibly factor into keyword rankings.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Beware
Downloads from one country will
not affect keyword (or top chart)
rankings in another country.
That is, even if an app has one
million installs from the keyword
“chat” in the United Kingdom, the
app will not automatically earn
a higher rank for “chat” in the
United States or Canada. However,
the keyword field of some app
localizations can affect an app’s
relevance for keyword rankings in
other countries (see Chapter 4 on
localization for more detail).
59
CHAPTER 02 INCREASING VISIBILITY

The Keyword Optimization Cycle

For those apps and games that do

stand to benefit from KWO, we’ll now
go through how to set up a solid KWO
strategy based on the framework “The
Keyword Optimization Cycle.”

The KWO cycle highlights the four
different stages essential to keyword
optimization. The “repeat” symbol
shown in the middle demonstrates
that the KWO process is iterative
and continuously tweaking an app’s
metadata is essential to its success.
The four stages have been defined for
both app stores, although some steps
are only relevant for one of the two (e.g.,
the keyword field is only relevant to the
App Store).

Based on “The Keyword Optimization Cycle” framework developed by Phiture.

K E Y TA K E AWAY S The four steps of the KWO Cycle

include:
Learn how to establish a solid
keyword optimization strategy, 1. Research all keywords and place 3. Target keywords by adding them to
the most relevant search terms in a your app’s metadata.
following the framework backlog.
“The Keyword Optimization Cycle.” 4. Measure keyword performance,
2. Prioritize the backlog based on calculating organic uplifting.
volume, relevancy, etc.

60 61
CHAPTER 02
Step 1: Keyword Research
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Employ a variety of techniques
to create a backlog of potential
keywords you could include in your
app’s metadata.
62
Before you can start attracting people to your App Store
and Google Play listings by targeting high‑volume,
relevant, and low competition search terms, you will
need to create a large list of keywords. These should
be terms that people could reasonably expect to use to
find your app among search results.
The initial step in this process is to create a fresh
keyword backlog with generic search terms. You
shouldn’t necessarily include your app name or your
competitors’ app name in this keyword list, as you will
naturally add your app name to the metadata and the
app will typically rank first for its name (if that name
is unique).
Next, we’ll cover the various ways you can find new
search terms for your keyword backlog:
• Brainstorming
• Competitor keywords
• App Store autofill
• Apple Search Ads terms
INCREASING VISIBILITY
You can use Excel or your favorite ASO tool to create
your keyword backlog. When using Excel, this backlog
can be just one column, but you can also expand your
research with another column mentioning the source
from which the keyword originated. That source
might be, for example, “brainstorming session,”
“Google Keyword Planner tool,” or “competitor.”
Furthermore, adding competitors’ app names to your
metadata is forbidden on the App Store and Google
Play. Therefore, you should exclude these names from
your research unless the competitor’s brand name is a
generic search term such as “calm” or “booking.”
• Google Keyword Planner tool
• Shuffle keywords
• Reviews
63
CHAPTER 02
Brainstorming
Before diving into tools, try creating your initial
keyword list based on common sense. How would you
search for your own app?
Here are a couple of pointers to get started:
• Think about your app’s main features and benefits.
• Check your website for keywords.
• Ask your colleagues to name some keywords they
would use to search for your app.
Once your backlog includes a base of seed keywords,
you can then move on to more scalable keyword
discovery methods.
Pro Tip
We have found that team brainstorms work well
when everyone must independently come up with as
many keywords as they can in five minutes, with these
search terms physically written down on sticky notes.
Then, collect and group the suggestions by theme.
Even though you will find the most important search
terms come up more often, grouping the keywords
will also help you establish distinct topics and ways in
which people can discover your app.
64
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Competitor Keywords
Of course, you want to make sure that you’re ahead of
(or at least not behind) the competition when it comes
to ASO. Start by analyzing your competitors’ app
titles and subtitles, long and short descriptions, and
screenshot captions to better understand the range of
keywords that might also be relevant for your app. Another method of analyzing your competitors’ Discovering the keywords your competitors rank for
keywords is by using an ASO tool to “spy” on the can uncover new ideas for what you could also include
On Google Play, you can see exactly what your keywords they may be using. Most ASO tools show a in your keyword backlog.
competitors have added to their metadata; on the huge list of keywords for which an app ranks.
App Store, this is a bit trickier. App Store Connect
hides the 100-character keyword field; for this reason,
understanding all the keywords other apps have
implemented in their metadata is a guessing game.
Pro Tip
An easy way to test whether an iOS app ranks for a
keyword is by searching for the app’s brand name (or
another single word you are certain they rank for) plus
the word you want to test. For example, searching for
“Spotify streaming” will help you decrypt whether the
Spotify app has the word “streaming” in its metadata.
“Pizza delivery” or “Chinese food” are keywords that Postmates, UberEats’ competitor,
is ranking for but that UberEats is not. Source: AppTweak (Keyword Research tool).
65
CHAPTER 02
App Store Autofill
One of the best ways to find relevant and
high-volume search terms is looking at
the autofill keyword suggestions on the
App Store and/or Google Play.
Google Play website keyword search.
Some ASO tools also offer autofill data:
AppTweak’s free Keyword Suggestion tool.
66
While you can use your iOS or Android device to
find auto-suggestions on the App Store or Google
Play, you can also check out “play.google.com” from
your computer or access the App Store from your
computer. However, be aware that keyword trends can
sometimes differ between the stores on mobile vs. the
computer.
Apple Search Ads Search Terms
You can find a lot of keywords on the Search
Ads console, regardless of whether you
use Apple Search Ads as part of your user
acquisition strategy. When you run a search
match advertising campaign, Apple provides
a detailed report of all the keywords for which
it showed your ad. All these suggestions form
a good foundation for your keyword backlog,
especially if your core focus is the App Store.
Apple Search Ads’ keyword finder.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
To identify relevant keywords, utilize the
ad group keyword finder. When you create
a campaign on Search Ads and try to add
keywords to the ad group, Apple provides a list
of keywords that are related to the targeted app.
Apple also provides other relevant information,
such as the popularity of respective keywords in
the target country and maximum impressions
per day. This information is aligned with the
Search Popularity (an indicator from Apple as
to how many people search via that keyword,
on a scale of 5 to 100).
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CHAPTER 02
Apple Search Ads suggests specific phrases and
broader search terms.
Apple will return more relevant
keywords if you type in a specific search
term. The list not only covers phrases
that include the search term but
also broader keywords. For example,
based on the keyword “fashion,” Apple
suggests keywords like “fashion game”
and “styling games.”
68
Search Ads automatically matches your app to
search terms that the algorithm sees relevant.
More keyword inspiration can be found in the search
terms report of each ad group, especially in search
match ad groups. In search match ad groups, Apple
automatically matches your app to search terms that
the algorithm sees relevant. This is a signal from
Apple as to the keywords that can potentially drive
downloads to your app and should be added to your
keyword backlog.
Google Keyword Planner Tool
The Google Keyword Planner tool provides web
keyword ideas and traffic estimates and is actually
intended to help you build a Google Ads campaign.
While the traffic estimates are web-based and
therefore not super relevant for ASO prioritization,
the tool can nonetheless provide some generally
helpful keyword ideas for your seed list.
As the Google Keyword Planner tool is part of Google
Ads, you will first need to sign up for Google Ads.
Pro Tip
For those who don’t have access to a Google Ads
account, “Google Trends” is available without needing
to log in to Google Ads or even have a Google account.
Shuffle Keywords
Make sure to expand your keyword backlog with
long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are search
terms that include three or more words and usually
better define the user intent. As a result, long-tail
keywords often have lower search volumes but higher
conversion rates than single keywords.
Pro Tip
AppTweak (2021) found that, of the top 300 most
popular generic keywords on the App Store, 41%
consisted of one word, 49% consisted of two words,
and 10% consisted of 3 words or more.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Once in the keyword tool, you can search for keywords
based on:
• A description of your product/service:
If you enter “food delivery app,” you will get a list with
relevant keywords, many of which will be relevant to
your app and should be added to your keyword backlog.
• A specific product category:
The Google Keyword Planner tool can also create
keyword ideas based on product categories.
For example, someone searching for the keyword
“lose weight” will see a variety of apps ranking in the
search results, ranging from workout apps and calorie
counters to dieting apps. This store visitor might have
to scroll down some while to find an app that truly
meets their needs. However, when searching for “lose
weight walking” or “lose weight tracker,” they might
find that the first 1-3 apps fit their needs and could be
downloaded.
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Long-tail keywords are typically less competitive which also

makes it easier to rank higher. Especially for newer or smaller apps
operating in a competitive space, targeting long-tail keywords with
lower volumes could give you more visibility than targeting highly
competitive single keywords.

Reviews

Scan through your reviews to see how existing users
describe your app or competitors’ apps. For example,
if you own a travel app like Skyscanner or KAYAK,
you might see reviewers frequently using the phrase
“multi-city trips” in their reviews. This might very
well be a search term that should be added to your
keyword backlog if it’s relevant to your app.
Some ASO tools (like AppTweak, AppFollow, or
AppBot), as well as the Google Play Console, provide
reports on the density of certain popular words in
reviews. Some of these tools try to provide a semantic
analysis of these words to provide even stronger
insights as to what users might expect or require from
your app.

Long-tail keywords have lower difficulty scores, indicating that less powerful apps dominate the top search results for these terms.
Source: AppTweak.
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Step 2: Keyword Prioritization
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Evaluate the search terms you found
through keyword research and
generate a prioritized keyword list
based on metrics such as volume,
competition, and relevance.
Starred Terms
It is not difficult to create a search term backlog of
hundreds of keywords. But which keywords make
good candidates to add to your metadata? Which
keywords are the most relevant to your app and have
the most potential to drive traffic? In the following
section, we will explain how you can prioritize your
keyword backlog.
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Search Volume Data
Whether you should include a search term in your
ASO keyword strategy depends first and foremost on
whether people actually search for that term on the
app stores. On the web, Google provides approximate
search volumes to help advertisers spend more on
search ads; however, the App Store and Google Play
have been a “black box” for a long time.
For this reason, in the early days of ASO, experts
used data from the Google Keyword Planner tool
to estimate keyword volume. While this may seem
sensible at first, search behavior on small screens
with onscreen keyboards will, by nature, differ from
desktop searches.
To overcome this, you could filter web data for the
mobile web rather than the computer-based web.
Nonetheless, people still search entirely differently
on the mobile web compared to on the app stores.
For instance, on the web, someone might search for a
“smoked salmon pasta recipe” and indeed, the Google
Keyword Planner tool will pull up thousands of
monthly web searches. However, hardly anyone would
search like this on the app stores. An app store-type
search would look more like “recipe” or something a
bit more specific, such as “pasta recipe app.”
First, we recommend “starring” the keywords in your
backlog that you deem have the highest potential.
This shorter list of “starred” keywords is the list that
you should monitor regularly.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Pro Tip
One useful tactic to assess keyword volume with
Google Keyword Planner or other SEO tools—and
to make their data more relevant for app traffic—is
adding “+ app” to web keywords. People don’t search
much for “plumbers” on the app stores, but they do on
the web. Using web search volume data could mislead
you into thinking there are a lot of users searching
for “plumbers” on the app stores; by adding the word
“+ app,” you will receive more directionally accurate
data.
Fortunately for ASO experts, Apple offers valuable
insights into App Store search behaviors through its
Search Popularity metric.
As previously mentioned, the Search Popularity
metric is a score between 5 and 100 and indicates how
often a keyword is searched for on the App Store. On
the other hand, Google remains a black box and does
not provide any information around Play Store search
volumes.
To get around this, many would revert to Apple’s Search
Popularity score to inform their keyword strategy
on Google Play; however, keep in mind that Android
users do, from time to time, search slightly differently
compared to iOS users. Reasons for this might include
differences in platform features, differing purchasing
power, lower-end Android devices with limited space
or connectivity, or the fact that Google Play offers
more thorough search functionalities that help users
find specific apps quicker.
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Apple’s Search Popularity Score
Caveats
The Search Popularity score is a very
good indicator of how often a keyword
is searched for in the App Store, but
there are a few caveats:
1. Search Popularity returns relative
numbers. Whereas Google Ads offers
insights into absolute average monthly
searches for a specific term, Apple
Search Ads offers an indexed popularity
score from 5 to 100.
2. The Search Popularity score is
exponential rather than linear. This
means that a keyword with a Search
Popularity score of 90 will generate
much more than 3 times the number
of impressions than a keyword with a
Search Popularity score of 30.
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3. The Search Popularity metric only
returns a real search score for keywords
with a Search Popularity of 6 and
above: Likely to discourage advertisers
from bidding on low-volume keywords
to increase ad inventory fill rates,
Apple does not show the difference
between keywords that literally receive
0 searches per month and keywords
with low—but still some—volume.
Therefore, it is incredibly hard to know
if a long-tail keyword should just be
ignored or whether there is something
to be gained from targeting that
keyword.
4. Apple’s algorithm cleans keywords
and groups terms including unusual
characters with the “clean” version
of that term. This would mean, for
example, that all searches for the
keywords “game,” “game?” and “game+”
would be grouped together and Apple
would return a Search Popularity
score for the entire group (the “game”
group). For the “game” group, we can
assume that the keywords “game?” and
“game+” have search traffic scores near
0; despite this, Apple returns a Search
Popularity of 66 which is likely to just
be the Search Popularity for the single
keyword “game.”
INCREASING VISIBILITY
However, an interesting case of this
pertains to the keywords “disney” and
“disney+.” Apple currently returns
the same Search Popularity for both
terms; however, again, this figure is the
sum of traffic for both words. As such,
we cannot be sure of how much traffic
comes from the keyword “disney”
compared to “disney+.”
5. AppTweak has found that 50% of
all keywords on the App Store have
Search Popularity scores lower than
25. AppTweak also found that nearly
all keywords with a Search Popularity
above 80 pertain to brands.
6. These numbers are only available in
markets where Apple has made Apple
Search Ads available. For now, Apple
Search Ads are not available in major
markets like Brazil or Turkey.
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Keyword Relevance

At first sight, it may seem great to rank for a
high‑volume keyword like “movies.” However, for a
Phiture conducted two studies in which they found real estate app, no meaningful impact will come from
that Search Popularity (SP) scores are exponential. ranking for this term, as it is highly irrelevant to the
app’s features and functionalities. Furthermore,
By looking at the Share of Voice and Impressions that adding an irrelevant keyword to your app’s metadata
advertisers on keywords with a certain SP score were would drive a poor conversion rate and is likely to drag
getting, Phiture was able to plot a curve showing the your keyword rankings down. Therefore, you need to
exponential relationship between the SP score and make sure you target relevant search terms in your
the number of daily searches: metadata.
This practice is not always as straightforward as you
might think. For example, you might think that the
keyword “flights” would be a relevant keyword for
apps like Booking.com. After all, people searching
for flights are probably also interested in reserving
accommodation, no? However, when we look at the
search results for the keyword “flights,” we see that
the apps ranking for the keyword are all flight-booking
apps, and thus much more relevant than Booking.com.

Relevance is ultimately determined by whether

your app addresses search intents, as measured by
downloads. Ideally, you should put a relevant number
(i.e., from 0 to 5) on every search term found to bring
in any meaningful amount of search volume. This can
be both objective (based on the downloads per search
term) and subjective (personal judgement of the user
intent behind the keyword). This method is exactly
what we do to filter out the best search terms for our
keyword strategies.

Live Search results for the

keyword “flights” on the US
Google Play Store. The image
Exponential relationship between the SP score and the number of daily searches. shows that all apps raanking
More info on https://phiture.com/asostack/search-popularity-score-impressions-calculator-d39bc5f44911/ in the top 10 positions for the
keyword “flights” primarily
offer flight-booking services.

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Case Study:
Determining Keyword Relevance
Let’s demonstrate how you can determine keyword
relevance using the app “Zillow Real Estate — Homes
for Sale & for Rent.” Grading the relevance of a set of
keywords could look something like this...
• “Houses for sale”: Extremely relevant and high
volume (5/5)
• “Real estate”: Extremely relevant (5/5)
• “Home”: Low relevance (1/5)
• “House”: Irrelevant (0/5)
• “Property management”: Irrelevant (0/5)
As you can see, we can now sort our search terms
according to those that drive the most meaningful
search traffic.
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INCREASING VISIBILITY
As you will see, the more long-tail and specific the
keyword, the easier it is to grade for relevance. It is
harder to understand search intent for short-tail
search terms like “home” and “house”: in the case of
“house,” we are unable to discern whether users may
be looking for a house simulation game, an interior
design app, or an app to find houses for sale.
Once you have graded your search terms, you can start
playing with what we call the “search term score”:
a keyword’s search volume multiplied by its relevance.
Example of calculating a search term score:
Search term: “Home”
• Relevance: 2
• Search volume: 50
• Search term score: (2 x 50) = 100
Search term: “Real Estate”
• Relevance: 3
• Search volume: 40
• Search term score: (3 x 40) = 120
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Retrospective Relevance
Ultimately, you are not the one deciding whether
a search term is relevant or not: The app store
algorithms will do that for you based on search
volume, conversion, and retention.
One method of keyword optimization is to try adding
a keyword to your metadata and then seeing whether
your app ranks higher or lower over the following
weeks.
Keyword Competition
The more apps that compete for the same keyword on
the store, the harder it will be to reach a high rank for
that search term.
To determine how fierce the competition is for a
certain keyword and whether you want to compete for
that term, consider these 3 questions:
• How many apps target the search term?
• How relevant are the top 10 apps for the search
term?
• How strong is the competition among the
top 10 apps?
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INCREASING VISIBILITY
How to Automatically Calculate a
Difficulty Score
If your ranking increases (and especially if you
hit the top 10), you can consider the term to be a Most ASO tools have defined metrics to help you A chance score looks at your own app strength and
high‑relevance keyword. A stable ranking indicates understand the competitiveness or difficulty of a compares it with the top-ranking apps to determine
medium relevance, and a decline suggests the search keyword. This metric may come under the banner whether your app has a chance of ranking for the
term is irrelevant. of different names like “difficulty” or “competition” keyword. Different tool providers adopt different
scores. approaches to calculate this number.
ASO tools can also estimate how hard it might be
for your app to compete on a specific keyword with
metrics like a “chance” score.
The first question (“how many apps target the search
term?”) is relatively easy to answer for the App Store:
If an app is targeting a keyword in its metadata, the
app will be indexed for that keyword. Most ASO tools
show you the absolute number of apps that rank for a
keyword, which can be a good indicator of competition.
On the other hand, Google Play only returns the top
250 apps in the search results. On ASO tools, the
most common search terms will therefore just return
results of “250,” which is less useful when trying to
determine how competitive a keyword is.
Next, you need to research the quality of the top 10
ranking apps for a keyword to determine the level of
competition for that keyword. If the top apps drive
a lot of downloads, it will be harder to knock them Difficulty and chance scores for Booking.com on the US App Store. Source: AppTweak.
off their throne, as the algorithms consider overall
downloads when deciding which apps to rank where.
You can either choose to assess the competition for a
certain keyword by manually calculating a difficulty
score, or you can consult ASO tools to help with this
exercise.
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How to Manually Calculate a
Difficulty Score
If you prefer not to rely on ASO tools, you can try to
manually estimate the ranking difficulty of a keyword.
There are two main factors to consider when sizing
up the competition for a keyword.
1. The top chart rankings of the top 10 apps that
rank for a keyword. Average the top chart rankings
of the top 10 apps to get an overall competitor top
chart strength reading for each keyword. Be sure to
compare countries and categories separately. How far
away from the average rank of those keywords is your
app’s top chart rank?
Current Keyword Ranks
Next, to decide which keywords to use for your ASO
strategy, you should audit your current keyword
rankings to make sure you don’t replace keywords
in your metadata that currently generate a lot of
downloads for your app.
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INCREASING VISIBILITY
2. Determine the volatility of each top 10 ranking
position for a keyword. This involves determining
how many ranking positions each of the top 10 apps
moves for a keyword over a span of 1-12 weeks. If the
top 10 apps move less frequently, this can indicate
that competitors will be hard to usurp. If the top-
ranking spots are highly volatile, this can mean there
is more chance to bump competitors down. However,
this may also indicate high competition, given that
many apps regularly shift into different positions for Audit of Duolingo’s title and subtitle keywords.
Source: Toaster by Phiture.
that keyword.
The keyword table shows that Duolingo should
probably not replace the keywords “learn,” “spanish,”
“french,” or “german,” as these keywords have good
volumes and the app ranks very high for the terms.
However, the keyword “lessons” and the long-
Pro Tip tail combinations receive little volume and could
Generally, while painful to acknowledge, keywords potentially be replaced by higher-volume keywords.
for which your app ranks below the 10th position (i.e.,
11 or worse) are not likely to drive any meaningful
amount of traffic to your app.
With the above in mind, make sure to flag the
high‑volume keywords for which you rank 10th or
higher. This will help you remain vigilant and not make
changes that affect these high-volume, high-rank
keywords when making changes to your metadata.
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Value Estimations of Search
Terms in Your Backlog
Now that you have distinctly assessed the volume,
relevance score, and competition score of each
keyword, there is one last step you may want to
consider to prioritize individual keywords.
This involves calculating a “search term value” score:
Search Term Value =
Volume Score x Relevance Score x
(Maximum Competition / Competition Score)
For example, take the following calculations of search
term value:
From this exercise, we see that the keyword “movie”
scores worse than “movie maker” despite “movie
maker” having a lower search volume. This is because
“movie” scores lower for relevance and higher for
competition.
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NOTE:
The higher the volume score (ranging from
5 to 100), the more the people searching
with this keyword. The higher the
relevance score (ranging from 0 to 5), the
more relevant the keyword. The higher the
competition score (ranging from 0 to 100,
depending on the ASO tool(s) of choice),
the higher the competition.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
A lot of the metadata you can target are heavily
restricted by character length.
As such, you want to make sure you target as many
keyword combinations with as few characters as
possible. A character optimization formula like the
following might help you with this process:
Word Value = SUM (word appearances in total
keyword phrases) / Keyword Length
As we see here, although “editing” has a higher
combined value as it appears in “movie editing,” the
seven precious characters it costs are worth less
in character optimization terms than the keyword
“maker.”
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Search Ads Conversion Data on
the App Store
Apple Search Ads provides great data you need to
consider when prioritizing your keywords for ASO.
Take, for example, a fitness app. You may see that the
term “fitness app” drives a higher search volume than
“weight loss tracker.”
An over-simplified example of the metrics your MMP might return
(prioritizing keywords based on their value to your marketing strategy).
Without an MMP, you can still consider the metrics
that Apple provides. The metrics tap-through-rate
(TTR) and conversion rate (CR) on a search term
level can be a good indicator of a specific keyword’s
relevance.
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INCREASING VISIBILITY
However, with a bit of Search Ad budget and data from
a mobile measurement partner (MMP) or Apple’s iAd
Framework for Apple Search Attribution, you may
see that “weight loss tracker” actually drives users
with a higher loan-to-value (LTV) than “fitness app.”
Therefore, you may want to prioritize this search term
in your ASO strategy rather than the higher volume—
and likely more competitive—keyword, ”fitness app.”
Based on this data, you can shortlist 10 to 20 starred
keywords that drive meaningful traffic to your app
besides your app name and competitors’ app names.
These keywords will be crucial for your app’s visibility
on the app stores.
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CHAPTER 02
Step 3: Targeting Keywords in Metadata
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Discover useful tips and tricks to effectively target
keywords in metadata, including the title, 100-character
keyword field (App Store), short description, full
description, developer name, in-app purchases, and
package names.
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Title
Both Google Play and the App Store search algorithms
treat the app title as the most heavily weighted
metadata element. As such, including a keyword
in your app title will give you the highest chance of
meaningfully ranking for that keyword.
App titles on both the App Store and Google Play can
be up to 30 characters long. Store guidelines indicate
that app titles should be unique, distinctive, and
explain what the app is about. The app name should
not be misleading, and references to app performance,
such as “best,” “#1,” or “leading,” should be avoided.
In the previous chapter, we touched on the idea of
“starring” search terms with high volumes and very
high relevance to your app. One well-placed starred
keyword (or combination of keywords) can help you
significantly increase your visibility. Try to use exact
keyword placements, as these can help with search
term conversion and help your app rank better in the
search results.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
As the space available in app titles is quite
limited, some developers forgo the app name
altogether in favor of maximizing the available
character space for keywords. Generally, this is
not a great idea for apps with strong brands, as
you could lose recognition and perhaps even the
number one ranking spot for branded searches
if trademark protections don’t prevent other
apps from using the brand name in their titles/
subtitles.
Other ways to save space include only targeting
root words (e.g., “run” vs “running”), omitting
commas, and other less crucial grammatical
technicalities (such as using a colon (:) rather
than the traditional dash (–) to separate an app
name and tagline, or an ampersand (&) in place
of the word “and”).
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In addition to being a boon for visibility, adding
keywords to your app title is also by and large a
positive method of conversion rate optimization, as
it can quickly and effectively convey your app’s value
proposition. That said, while a keyword-containing
title can help you better communicate your app’s value
proposition, a keyword-stuffed title may decrease
your conversion rate and therefore also decrease your
keyword rankings. A good example of placing a few
relevant keywords in the title can be seen here, where
keywords help communicate what the Waze app has
to offer:
Even a strong brand with a lot of awareness like
STARZ should understand that not all app store
visitors know the brand, let alone understand the app’s
value proposition. Changing the title or subtitle to
something like “STARZ - Movies & TV Shows” could
not only help to increase visibility but also conversion.
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The character limit can often be very restrictive and
result in app titles with fewer descriptive words due
to longer brand names, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader
as seen here. At times, even the somewhat longer
titles with fewer generic keywords can help users
identify what the app is about and serve the purpose
of keyword optimization.
Waze’s App Store product page incorporates
well‑placed keywords in the title.
Google Play Policy Guidelines
In April 2021, Google announced significant policy
changes for app metadata and new guidelines for
creatives. These updates concerned “guidance to
improve your app quality and discovery on Google
Play.” One of the most significant changes made
to the Play Store metadata policies concerned the
shortening of the app name from 50 to 30 characters.
Starz’ App Store product page does not
incorporate any keywords in the title.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Adobe Acrobat Reader’s App Store listing
incorporates a longer title, with the brand name
only leaving room for two additional keywords.
Additional changes included:
•The prohibition of keywords that imply an app’s store
performance (such as “top,” “best,” or “#1”) in the title,
icon, and developer name.
•Restricting any calls-to-action to incentivize installs
like “download now,” “install now,” “play now,” or “try
now” in the title or icon.
• Banning app developers from promoting deals
through keywords such as “free.”
• No more emojis/emoticons, repeated punctuation,
or all caps.
• Avoiding time-sensitive taglines or captions that
can quickly become outdated.
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Subtitle (App Store)
Alongside the title, Apple allows app developers to
add a subtitle. This subtitle can be up to 30 characters
long and appears both in the search results and on the
App Store page underneath the title.
Following the rule “the more visible the metadata,
the more it weighs,” the subtitle seems to weigh more
than the iOS keyword field but less than the title.
Consult your starred keyword list and consider adding
keywords with high volume and relevance scores that
describe your app’s main features or benefits.
Keyword Field (App Store)
On App Store Connect, you can provide a list of
keywords (a keyword field) for each localization
you select. This keyword field is hidden from the
app product page and helps the App Store algorithm
further understand what your app is about and which
keywords it should rank your app for. The keyword
field can only be up to 100 characters long, hence
it is important to carefully follow best practices to
maximize the available space.
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2 Tips to Optimize App Subtitles
• Don’t repeat keywords in your subtitle that are
already in your title, as they will not carry more weight
from the repetition.
• Avoid using terms that are too generic (e.g., “most
popular game,” “social networking”).
Before adding keywords to the keyword field, it is
important to understand how Apple uses these
keywords to index apps: Apple combines keywords
added to the keyword field, title, and subtitle to rank
apps for long-tail combinations. When selecting
keywords from your backlog for the 100-character
keyword field, choose the keywords at the top of your
priority list while also keeping in mind the keywords
with the most potential to make a lot of long-tail
combinations.
Best Practices for the iOS Keyword Field
• Separate keywords by commas instead of spaces.
• Do not duplicate keywords in the keyword field.
Repeating keywords will not improve their ranking
and is a waste of space.
• Do not repeat keywords that are in your title or your
subtitle. You won’t give extra weight to keywords by
adding them both to your keyword field and your title/
subtitle.
• Order does not matter. A keyword at the end of
your keyword field is just as important as one at the
beginning.
• Separate phrases or long-tail keywords into
individual words: For example, add “photo,filter”
instead of “photo filter” as Apple automatically
makes combinations of all the words included in
app metadata. Furthermore, you’ll have just as
much chance to rank for “photo filter” by adding
“photo,filter” instead of “photo filter.”
INCREASING VISIBILITY
• Only add singular keywords if possible: Apple
recommends only including singular keywords in
the keyword field; however, earlier in this chapter,
we highlighted that Apple does not always correctly
match plural and singular keywords, especially in
foreign languages.
• Avoid using “free” words: Stop words (e.g., the/a/by
etc.), words that can be derived from your category
(e.g., “Health & Fitness”), or other free words defined
earlier in this chapter don’t have to be added to App
Store metadata to be eligible to rank for those terms.
• Less is less: Not using all 100 characters in attempts
to give more weight to keywords that have been
included is a bad idea. You won’t go up in rankings for
certain keywords just because you remove others.
Now return to your keyword backlog. You can move
past any keywords you have already added to your app
title/subtitle and start adding the next highest priority
words to your keyword field.
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Short & Full/Long Description (Google Play)
In this subchapter, we refer only to the two types of
descriptions available on Google Play. While long
descriptions also exist on the App Store, they aren’t
indexed by the App Store algorithm. That said, it is
still important to apply some keyword optimization
logic to your App Store description, as it is indexed on
the web.
Short descriptions on the Play Store are limited to
80 characters, giving marketers more flexibility to
communicate an app’s value proposition compared to
the App Store. Keywords used in the short description
are indexed by the algorithm but, over time, we have
seen they have a smaller impact on rankings than
keywords in the title or high-density keywords in the
long description. To try and maximize the impact of
the short description on keyword rankings, you can
try to repeat (wherever possible) your most valuable
title keywords. In contrast to Apple, Google does
consider keyword density.
Despite the generous character limit (4,000
characters), long descriptions are not very visible
on Google Play app pages. Nevertheless, the long
description does represent an opportunity to promote
your app and highlight its key differentiators.
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Keep the following tips in mind when optimizing your
long description:
• Structure your content in easy-to-read paragraphs
with clear subtitles. This makes it easier for store
visitors to scan your content and find the information
that is most relevant to them.
• Make the first lines count. Few users will scroll all
the way down to read the entire long description.
Make sure to grab their attention and convey your
main message within the first 3 lines.
• Similarly, to maximize the keyword impact of the
full description, try to include your most valuable
keywords in the first few lines. Google allocates more
weight to keywords used in the first few lines than
keywords repeated later in the copy.
• Include mentions, awards, and impactful reviews.
However, be respective of the store’s guidelines and
avoid including any unattributed or anonymous
reviews.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Pro Tip
The long description can hold up to 4,000 characters
and is indexed by Google Play. This might seem great at
first but filling up the entire 4,000 characters will not
necessarily give you an edge in the rankings. In fact,
keyword density is more important to the Play Store
algorithm than the number of times the keyword has
been repeated. For instance, repeating the keyword
“music” 100 times in a 4,000-character description
offers less weight than repeating “music” 5 times in a
300-character description.
There are quite some free tools out there that can help
you calculate the density of your top priority keywords
in the full description.
AppTweak’s free Keyword Density Counter tool.
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Other Metadata
For example, for a language learning
app like Babbel, the available keyword
Developer Name
space in the app title, subtitle, and
The developer name (Google Play) keyword field is not enough to target all
or seller name (App Store) have been available languages the app supports.
found to be indexed on both platforms In its subtitle, Babbel does target the
to target keywords, especially on keywords “learn spanish” and “learn
Google Play. french” for which the app ranks #2.
The app also ranks #2 for “learn
russian,” the title of one of their IAPs.
While it is possible that Babbel is
targeting this keyword in the keyword
field, this specific IAP likely helps the
app rank higher in the search results.

You can update your Google Play

Booking.com’s app listing in Google Play search results.
developer name at any time in your
account settings. This process is
more complicated on the App Store as
developer names are tied to a D-U-N-S
number, so be sure to choose the right
name at developer enrollment.

Babbel’s rankings in the US App

Store for keywords targeted in its
In-App Purchase Names app subtitle and IAPs.
(App Store) Source: Toaster by Phiture.

In-app purchases (IAPs) also appear In-App Event Names

in the App Store search results and are (App Store)
indexed for the keywords used in the
IAP title. Like in-app purchases, the event name Avoid using generic terms such as
and short description of in-app events “game event” or “major update,” as
IAPs usually appear together with the are indexed. This provides another well as claims such as “best” or “#1.”
supporting app in the search results. opportunity for developers to increase Apple also advises against using the
This indicates that IAPs do provide their apps’ visibility by targeting core title to explain the type of event (e.g.,
additional keyword space to increase keywords or adding new ones. Event “film premiere” or “challenge”) as the
your app’s visibility. names can be up to 30 characters long. event badge will display this kind of
Choose a unique and descriptive name information.
for your event.
The event’s short description can
be up to 50 characters long: Use this
placeholder to briefly explain your
Example of in-app purchases ranking in App Store search results. event.
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Package Name (Google Play)
First off, bundle IDs on the App Store are not
something you can rank for. However, you can rank
for the unique package name that you chose for your
app on Google Play.
Daniel Peris from Pickaso wrote a blog post on a
discovery he made regarding Super Mario Run.
The impact of keywords added to the bundle ID is
less outspoken than it used to be a few years ago.
Today, Mario Run still ranks for the keyword “zara”
but its rankings have decreased to position #150.
Nevertheless, many apps and games use this tactic to
repeat the most relevant keywords in the bundle ID,
app title, and description, with favorable impacts on
rankings.
98
A search for “zara” yielded Super Mario Run as
result #11 on Google Play, whereas Nintendo hadn’t
mentioned “zara” anywhere in their metadata. It was
then found that Nintendo had used “zara” in their
package name:
“Zara” in the package name for Super Mario Run (Google Play US).
Pro Tip
While you can change the “manifest package name”
on AndroidManifest.xml, Google Play will treat your
app as a new listing and you will lose its entire history
(reviews, downloads, etc). We therefore recommend
that you think carefully about the keywords
you want to target ahead of launching your app.
A solid naming convention would be
com.brand.title.keyword1.keyword2.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Visual Word Recognition
Visual word recognition refers to users’ ability to
recognize visual words in your app listing elements,
such as the title or screenshot captions. In other words,
if a user searches for “learn spanish,” they are more
likely to convert after seeing visual cues highlighting
that the app offers what they are looking for.
If your app can’t convert impressions from a particular
keyword search into real users, your app’s ranking
score for that keyword will decline.
While your app’s aggregated conversion rate can
represent the general health of your conversion rate
across search terms, it does not always accurately
represent the story at an individual keyword level,
thus possibly obscuring an opportunity for better
performance.
Google Play search results for the search term
“yoga.” All apps include the word “yoga” in their
title and 5 out of the top 6 apps have a descriptive
icon showcasing a yoga pose.
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With the introduction of iOS 14, Apple announced

widgets. Widgets allow iPhone users to customize
their home screens to quickly access information
such as their calendar, weather, activity, etc. As a
result, a lot of new apps were launched to help users
personalize their home screens; search volume for the
keyword “widget” soared.

Rankings for the top weather apps on the keyword “widget” on the US App Store. The Weather Channel ranked the highest The Weather Channel was the only weather app to add the keyword “widget” to its visible metadata (subtitle) and screenshots.
for the keyword. Source: AppTweak.

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Two challenges to visual word recognition
optimization include the lack of keyword-level
organic attribution data, as well as apps being
required to present the same listing for each keyword,
without customization. Therefore, optimizations
must be done using the data available on-hand (such
as keyword rankings and Search Popularity) and
without negatively impacting conversion rates from
other searches or keyword-agnostic impressions,
such as those from ads or top charts.
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The most effective current approach is to sort your
keywords by importance (remember our “starred”
keywords?) and manually review the search results
for each keyword to assess your app’s relative appeal
compared to the competition.
Pro Tip
Similar to optimizing your app’s keyword selection,
when prioritizing search terms, be sure to focus on
the most important terms based on your KPIs. For
example, you can use ASA data to determine which
keywords yield the most subscriptions and focus on
raising your visual word recognition for that keyword
and other high sub-converting keywords.
You can optimize your app listing for search terms for
any of your metadata elements (e.g., screenshots, icon,
description, etc.), but this process will typically use
the following tactics:
INCREASING VISIBILITY
• Include the search term in your metadata. Try to
include the search term in your visible metadata
elements (title, subtitle (iOS), screenshots, or video).
• Speak to the user’s intent behind the search term.
This is a more latent approach and requires more
creativity, such as speaking to the idea of losing
weight or using imagery that relates to dieting for the
keyword “diet.”
• Out-position the competition for that search
term. This approach is similar to general click
rate optimization (CRO) but with a more specific
competitor set. Figure out what messaging or visual
design would make your app more appealing to users
searching for a keyword, such as using a different
screenshot style if your competitors all use the same
screenshot style. But again–be careful to not over-
optimize for one particular search term at the expense
of losing conversions from other sources.
• Make sure your important keywords are not
truncated in your title or subtitle.
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More Keyword Optimization
Tips & Tricks
Before moving on to how to measure the impact of
your targeted keywords, we still want to call out a
couple of tips and tricks on how you can target even
more keywords and drive more searches to your app.
Category Names on the App Store
Selecting your primary category should be done with
careful consideration and needs to be the right fit for
your app. The secondary category, however, is not
something that impacts your store visibility from a
Browse perspective and can be chosen with keyword
visibility in mind.
We checked all the category keywords for volume in
the US and listed them in descending order:
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Target Competitors That Haven’t Developed
an App for iOS or Android
Targeting competitors could have been a good
idea; however, as the search intent would really be
to download your competitor’s branded app, you
are unlikely to be able to convert these searches
into downloads even if you come in second in the
results. Apple and Google also frown upon targeting
trademarked or brand names in your metadata.
However, things are entirely different for competitors
or other apps with a brand name that have yet to
develop an Android or iOS app. You may find that
targeting these names can help drive substantial
search traffic.
Google Play Potentially Indexes Listing
Experiments
In the ASO Stack Slack, Lukas Ballé reported that
keywords in A/B tests are also indexed. Other
members of the community pointed out that while
Google detects brand infringements in titles and
short/full descriptions, this doesn’t seem to be the
case for A/B test variants. What makes this even
more of a breeding ground for black-hat ASO is that
A/B tests can be run on a 0.1% audience. That means
that virtually no one needs to see the keyword-heavy
description.
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Apple Search Ads Paid Bump
Because Apple’s algorithm considers the number
of downloads—and download velocity—as ranking
factors, many wonder whether using Apple Search
Ads to bid on certain keywords will also increase the
organic rankings of these keywords. However, the
answer to this question is not that straightforward.
In general, we have seen there may indeed be small
bumps in organic keyword rankings when app
downloads significantly increase due to heavy ad
spends in the following scenarios:
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• For keywords for which the app already ranks
well: We have seen organic rankings for some apps
slightly increase for keywords for which the app
already ranks in the top 10. Phiture has conducted
tests around boosting high-volume top 10 keywords
to a higher rank and has found only marginal evidence
of being able to influence high-volume, high-ranking
keywords via Apple Search Ads.
• For very general keywords: Rankings for
keywords like “best games,” “new games,” or “popular
games” are not influenced by the standard keyword
algorithm. Instead, rankings for these keywords are
very closely related to category rankings. And this
means that the more downloads an app has (possibly
due to heavy ad spends), the higher the app will rank
for these keywords.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Image Text Recognition
It has been rumored that Google Play (in particular)
can recognize the captions used on screenshots and
accounts for these when deciding which keywords
to rank an app for. There is no waterproof evidence
supporting this claim, but as explained in the section
about visual word recognition, highlighting your app’s
main features in screenshots is a great technique to
optimize your app’s conversion rate and also possibly
facilitate keyword visibility.
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Step 4: Measuring Keyword Performance
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Analyze the impact of your keyword
optimization work and track your
ASO progress with fundamental
metrics and KPIs.
After designing and implementing your ASO strategy,
it’s time to see if all your hard work has paid off by
analyzing the impact. While the most direct goal of
an ASO strategy is increasing the number of organic
installs your app gains, there are a myriad of metrics
that will be useful in tracking your ASO progress.
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INCREASING VISIBILITY
Tracking
Tracking involves using an ASO tool to monitor
the rankings of your keywords throughout your
visibility optimizations. ASO tools track hundreds of
thousands—even millions—of keywords across the
different app stores. Because many tools also offer
historical data for these search terms, it’s a good
exercise to begin tracking your keywords prior to
changing your metadata so you know which keywords
to focus on. Tracking keywords also helps you to
determine the impact of the changes you made not
only for high-level app store analytics data, but in the
more granular specifics of keyword rankings.
Each of these plays a unique role to ensure that you are
on the right track; when you aren’t, they raise warning
flags and point your attention to the right places for
troubleshooting.
Keyword tracking. Source: Toaster by Phiture.
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Keyword Monitoring KPI: Keyword Ranking

Once you have selected your tracking tool, you can
monitor the rankings of your targeted keywords. When
new metadata gets approved and goes live on the App
Store, the latest keyword rankings will update the
same day. Any keywords that are no longer included in
the metadata are likely to lose rankings immediately.
On Google Play, the algorithm can take a little longer
to index your keywords.
Pro Tip
When measuring the success of visibility
optimizations, it is useful to consider the difference
between metrics and KPIs. Metrics are data
points that highlight activity or the lack thereof
(i.e., App Store Impressions); however, they may not
be the most important indicators of success. KPIs
are the data points that are most important to your
goals/objectives and should be used to measure
success (i.e., Installs).
When measuring performance from visibility
optimizations, directly report on keyword rankings
before and after your visibility changes; more
specifically, look for keywords that attain a top 10
rank. As previously mentioned, ranking outside of
the top 10 results will not generally drive a significant
amount of visibility.
Unlike on the App Store, updating your app’s keyword
metadata on Google Play may not always cause an
immediate or significant change in keyword rankings.
Sometimes, Google may even continue ranking
keywords after the phrase has been removed from the
app listing. This is because Google’s algorithm is more
advanced than Apple’s and considers signals such
as the skip-gram analysis and others mentioned in
previous chapters.
While your App Store keyword ranks will update
instantly after you release a new app version, it is
important to note that your keyword rankings will
continue to fluctuate over time and are unlikely to
remain a long time at the position that they first
hit. Monitor how your keyword rankings move for
one week after an app update and then adjust your
keyword selection accordingly after giving your new
keyword rankings sufficient time to adjust.
Other than looking at individual keywords, you
can also consider your aggregate keyword rankings
provided by some ASO tools such as AppTweak,
Mobile Action, or AppFollow.

Example of a
keyword immediately
increasing in rankings
after the release
of a new metadata
update.
Source: AppTweak.
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Visibility Monitoring
Only monitoring keyword rankings is not enough to
measure the impact of your changes. Moving from
ranking at #30 to #3 for a keyword with a volume of
5 will not yield a lot of extra visibility or downloads.
Neither will moving from position #120 to #34 for
a high-volume keyword. Different ASO tools have
developed their own home-grown metrics to help
app developers better understand the impact of their
efforts on their apps’ visibility. Metrics provided by the
app stores themselves can also provide more insights.
AppTweak’s Visibility Score shows the evolution of an app’s visibility after app updates.
Metric (Layer 1): Impressions (App Store)
Impressions are a great initial metric to measure the
impact of your metadata changes. More specifically,
impressions can indicate whether your ASO changes
caused your app to rank for significantly more or
fewer keywords, and whether these ranking positions
were significantly better or worse.
112
An example of this is AppTweak’s Visibility Score
which helps developers understand whether their
app’s visibility in the search results improved after
a metadata update (i.e., did the app gain enough
rankings for high-volume keywords?).
Apple defines impressions as: “The number of times
your app was viewed in the Featured, Categories,
Top Charts, and Search sections of the App Store.
Includes Product Page Views.” You can break down
Impressions by the “Source Type” and filter only for
those that came from Search. Google, on the other
hand, does not report on impressions.
Be aware that each product page view on the App Store
counts as a new impression, meaning that someone
who clicks through to your product page from a search
result will count twice towards your total impressions.
You can monitor “Unique App Store Impressions” to
avoid the numbers from being skewed.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Metric (Layer 2): Product Page Views
(App Store) or Store Listing Visitors
(Google Play)
These are the secondary visibility metrics after
impressions and another important intermediary (or
the only intermediary in Google’s case) to measure
between a user’s first interaction with an app and
having that user download the app.
• Product Page Views are defined by Apple as:
“The number of times your App Store Product Page
was viewed on a device running macOS 10.14.1, iOS 8
or tvOS 9, or later.”
Optimizing for visibility is important but it’s not
• Store Listing Visitors are defined by Google as: enough to stop once you reach your end visibility
“The number of users that visited your store listing goal—this visibility must also be followed by a
who didn’t already have your app installed on any of conversion. It’s easier to see whether this is the case
their devices.” on the App Store than on Google Play; for example, say
that you replace a relevant but low-volume keyword
Measuring the changes made to a Google Play app’s such as “plumber” with a high-volume keyword
impressions can be more nuanced because Google such as “movies,” despite your plumbing app having
only reports on Store Listing Visitors (i.e., “product nothing to do with movies. You might get an initial
page views” in App Store terms), rather than search peak in “app impressions” via App Store search, but
impressions. This means you do not get the full view while this will look great at first, you’ll find that very
of how many people actually saw your app in search few of the people that saw your app in searches related
results, but rather the number of people who tapped to “movies” download it or even click through to your
on your listing. app page.
Pro Tip:
Consider impression velocity (impressions/time
period), product page view (PPV) velocity (PPV/
time period), and download velocity (downloads/
time period) to measure the impact of visibility
optimization in a more forecast-friendly manner.
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Organic Uplift
As previously discussed, the ultimate goal of ASO is
not keyword rankings; these are only used as a quick
indicator of success on the path to organic uplift.
After all, what good is visibility if not to drive
conversions?
In the subsequent section, we will discuss installs
and a few other KPIs you may also want to learn more
about.
KPI: Installs
“Installs” are the classic KPI used to measure the
impact of an ASO strategy; they are a middle-of-
funnel KPI that fall between a store visitor seeing
your app page and having your rankings improve after
acquiring more installs. However, not all downloads
or installs will translate into active users.
• Apple defines First Time Downloads as: “The
total number of first time downloads of your app.”
• Google defines User Acquisitions as: “The number
of users who installed your app and did not have it
installed on any other devices at the time.”
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INCREASING VISIBILITY
You can measure organic uplift from inorganic
downloads in a few ways:
• Manually: Subtract the known inorganic downloads
from all downloads; then, subtract a benchmarked
number of organic downloads. For example, imagine
your app drove 2,000 downloads, of which 500
were inorganic, on a Thursday in March. You could
compare these figures to your Thursday benchmark
of 1,000 downloads from the month prior (February)
to find that you now have an organic uplift of 500
downloads—one new organic download for every
inorganic download.
• Automatically: Implement one of the several ASO
tools that offer estimations for organic uplift.
However, there are many factors outside of your
metadata updates that can impact your downloads
(e.g., advertising campaigns, app featurings, PR,
influencer campaigns, etc.). Both stores do provide
marketers with insights as to where installs come
from by categorizing installs by traffic source (Search,
Browse or Explore, and Referrers). However, on both
stores, the dimension “Search” includes paid installs
from users who performed a search on the store,
including Search Ads. This makes it harder to solely
attribute increases in installs to ASO updates.
Estimating the increase in organic installs generated by each keyword following an
increase in keyword ranking. Source: AppTweak, Keyword Impact feature.
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KPI: Keyword Retention

While installs are the most classic key performance

indicator for ASO, active users have become a de facto
KPI in the industry, as the store ranking algorithms
have become more attuned to engaged users rather
than installs that may turn out to be inactive. Retained
installs are an effective KPI to measure in the Google
Play console as a keyword-level metric to measure the
impact of an ASO strategy.

KPI: New App Store Connect Metrics Other KPIs useful to measure the While your ASO strategy may impact these KPIs in a
impact of visibility work: more indirect manner, these indicators matter more
Since the launch of iOS 15, Apple has provided than ever not only to boost an app’s business model,
developers with more granular metrics that include • In-App Purchases and Revenue but also because the store ranking algorithms account
pre-orders, redownloads and total downloads. You can for user engagement (meaning that your strategy will
analyze whether your app attracts new or recurrent • Ratings & Reviews fail if these metrics decline).
users through keyword optimization: For example, if
redownloads increase after you implement keywords • Retention Rate
related to a new feature, it is very likely that this new
feature could win back users who had previously left.
You could then increase your efforts to promote this
new feature, such as targeting related keywords in the
title and subtitle, highlighting the feature in the first
screenshots and app preview video, and so on.

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Going Into the Next Cycle

The practice of putting all these strategies and tactics
into play is ongoing and iterative.
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Your initial keyword selection will be informed by
Understand the long-term, the research tactics we covered in earlier chapters;
iterative nature of ASO, and learn however, the analysis methods we just discussed
will power tailored optimization based on real
other keyword strategies and marketplace reactions.
considerations.
The iterative nature of ASO is the key to its success
for several reasons:
• Competitor changes: As other apps also change
• Searcher trends: New keywords pop up every day; their keyword selections and rise and fall in
this naturally requires you to tweak your keyword popularity, competitors leave and enter the rankings
selection to keep it relevant. Examples of this include and your own keyword performances will change.
new vocabulary (e.g., “meme”) or seasonal trends This requires adjustments, such as giving up on
and events (e.g., “pumpkin spice latte” in Autumn or keywords that become too competitive or moving in
“Olympics” every four years). on opportunities left by apps that struggle to maintain
downloads or high ratings.
• Related keywords (App Store) and autofill
changes: As keyword patterns and click patterns • Algorithm updates: Occasionally, the ranking
change, keywords move in and out of the “related algorithms on which keyword optimizations are based
keywords” field and autofill selections. These changes shift, causing changes in relevance, ranking strength,
can impact the priority of different keywords in your and even general store eligibility.
keyword list.

The best way to optimize through the change

agents highlighted above is letting the data guide
you. By knowing your metrics and KPIs and using
regular reports to check on your app’s performance
against these data points, you can identify issues
Based on “The Keyword Optimization Cycle” framework, developed by Phiture.
or opportunities and adjust your keyword mix
accordingly.

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Trend-Based Approach to Analytics &
Optimization
When it comes to analyzing and optimizing your
keyword rankings, it is important to not only consider
snapshot data points (i.e., rankings on a single day
or today’s visibility score) but also apply a trend-
based approach. In keyword optimization and ASO
in general, keywords and apps can experience regular
fluctuations in ranking on a very wide scale, from
fleeting changes to year-long trends. If you base a key
decision on one of the more ephemeral fluctuations,
you run the risk of informing your decision using bad
data and decreasing your app performance because of
this.
12 0
Tips for optimizing around trends include:
• Analyze keyword trends over time and calculate a
trailing week, month, and 3-month average. These
longer data points can help you determine trends that
are easy to miss when using snapshot data and identify
which keywords perform consistently well or poorly.
• Analyze data points using an industry benchmark
or use a prior time period when industry data is not
available (by comparing this day/week/month/year
to the previous day/week/month/year).
• Be aware of changes in keywords’ Search Popularity.
ASO tools now show changes in Search Popularity
over time and can help you ensure that your top
keywords have not lost popularity due to changing
trends, autofill adjustments, or other reasons. For
example, searches for the keyword “tennis” may peak
around big events, such as Wimbledon, but decline
between large events.
Remember that successful ASO requires you to devote
time to conversion rate optimization (discussed in
detail in Chapter 3) to yield the best fruit from KWO.
How to Detect an Algorithm Update
Ranking algorithm updates happen periodically, and
when they do, they can cause massive disruptions in
rankings for huge swaths of apps. The main purposes
of algorithm updates are to:
• Create a better app discovery experience for users.
• Rebalance the order of legitimate apps.
• Prevent spamming and other efforts to play the
ranking algorithms (both in the top charts and
keyword results).
AppTweak’s free Algorithm Change Detector highlights an algorithm update on the Google Play Store on August 16, 2020.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Algorithm updates are not isolated events and usually
impact many apps simultaneously. If you see a big
fluctuation in keyword rankings for a large group of
keywords, first investigate whether competitors or
apps with a similar authority in your category also
observed similar fluctuations on the same day. Using
an ASO tool can provide you with quick insights as to
whether keyword bumps are specific to your app or
are more global.
To 100% confirm an algorithm update, ASO
practitioners can use ASO tools that detect algorithm
changes. It is normal for daily keyword rankings to
change slightly, but when there are many unusual
movements, the algorithm detector will automatically
highlight these anomalies. Algorithm updates do not
always happen across countries; these tools will help
you understand in which countries your app might
have been impacted by an algorithm update.
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Examples of Other Frequent
Keyword Strategies
App Bundle Keyword Optimization
Publishers can create app bundles to make it easier
for customers to buy up to 10 of their apps and games
in one single purchase. App bundles rank in the
search results and provide another way for publishers
to optimize their apps’ visibility.
When creating app bundles, publishers need to
provide a bundle name. Apple indicates that the
bundle name plays a critical role in how users
discover the bundle on the store, highlighting that the
bundle name provides an additional opportunity for
developers to target more keywords or re-iterate their
most important keywords. Apple further takes into
consideration the keywords from each individual app
to decide for which keywords the bundle is eligible to
rank.
12 2
INCREASING VISIBILITY
The order of the apps offered in a bundle determines
both the icon and screenshots showcased. By default,
the App Store bundle icon is a combination of the first
four apps (however, the bundle is sometimes given a
custom icon). The bundle’s screenshots will include
the first screenshot from each of the apps.
With your bundle, you are also able to add a custom
description that should provide users with the details
of the bundled offer and the special value buyers will
receive. Bundles also have their own rating & reviews,
yet a bundle’s star rating only shows on the bundle’s
product page. Apple also shows the price the apps
would be if purchased individually, meaning that
users can easily determine whether a bundle is a good
deal or not.
Lastly, bundles are also a way to expose users to a
developer’s total portfolio, making them a great tactic
for cross-selling not just the bundled apps but any app
in your portfolio.
Bundle of paid Adobe apps on the App Store.
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Roadblocking Strategies
Another keyword strategy for developers who have
published multiple apps is called “roadblocking.”
This strategy consists of having several apps target
the same set of keywords in attempts to “occupy” the
top search results. The goal of this strategy is to push
competitors down for these keywords and block—or
at least limit—access to the top search result positions
(hence, “roadblocking”).
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INCREASING VISIBILITY
Roadblocking is particularly frequent among
developers trying to “protect” a popular brand name
by re-using part of the app name for a new product,
or even by creating more apps under the same brand
“umbrella” to prevent competitors from gaining too
much visibility.
Roadblocking is not exclusive to branded terms and
can also be used for generic keywords; however, in
this case, succeeding in blocking competitors from
the search results is more difficult given the generally
higher level of competition.
Live Search Results for the keyword “lose weight”
on the App Store. The apps ranking in positions #3,
#4, #6, and #7 are all from the same developer that
has targeted generic keywords like “lose weight”
or “workout at home.”
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Targeting Core/Satellite Keywords Favoring Conversion Over Keyword Traffic Using Keywords to Build a Brand

Another strategy that can be employed by developers
with multiple apps in the same space is using smaller
apps (“satellites”) to test specific keywords and
evaluate their success before adding them to their
main app’s metadata (the “core”). This strategy,
which can also be leveraged for creative optimization,
is especially interesting for apps that already have
strong brand recognition and that are hesitant to
change their metadata. At the same time, this strategy
offers an opportunity to expand a developer’s reach
by targeting specific long-tail keywords through the
satellite apps.
An example of this strategy was provided by Anja
Obermüller from Runtastic (now Adidas Training)
during the first ASO Conference in 2019. More
recently, some examples of similar strategies include
the Spotify Stations app which may help Spotify cover
more keywords related to radio and music, or multiple
betting apps such as DraftKings covering terms
related to both sports betting and casinos via multiple
apps.
For apps in hyper-competitive categories (e.g., hyper-
casual games) or apps that predominantly drive
installs from external traffic sources (e.g., paid UA,
websites), prioritizing conversion rate optimization
over keyword optimization in textual metadata may
be more impactful to increase the total number of
downloads.
If an app gets a large share of its search impressions
or store listing visitors from a few generic keywords,
consider moving the brand name towards the
end of textual metadata and placing high-volume,
high‑intent generic keywords at the beginning (e.g.,
“Music to Stay Focused by Brain.fm”). This may help
with conversion rate and trigger the aforementioned
visual keyword recognition flywheel, increasing your
ranking for a select keyword.
A smart use of keywords on the product page can
support brand-building efforts for publishers who
aim to increase awareness of their company or app’s
brand.
Understanding the current share of branded vs.
generic impressions is important to estimate the
potential for brand optimization. If a large number
of downloads come from brand awareness, lean into
this. If more downloads come from generic keywords
and the brand share is low (<30%), more focus should
be put on generic keyword optimization and building
brand awareness via Apple Search Ads and/or Google
App Campaigns (GAC), and outside the app stores
(e.g., social media, offline campaigns).

Remember that even if an app’s metadata is optimized

with conversion in mind, it is likely that this metadata
will still include some important keywords that depict
the app’s key value propositions, for which the app will
be indexed and have a good chance of ranking high.

Finally, if your strategy focuses on conversion rate

optimization, readability should be prioritized over
keyword stuffing. Good titles look concise and organic
(e.g., “Adobe Scan: Mobile PDF Scanner”).

Live Search Results (App Store) for the keywords “Draft Kings” and “Spotify.”
Satellite apps present an opportunity to target a wider set of keywords or test different keyword/
creative strategies before adding them to the core app’s metadata.

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CHAPTER 02
App Naming
To succeed on the app stores, an app’s title needs
to balance considerations regarding both branding
and keyword optimization. From our experience,
most apps from big brands adopt similar approaches
when naming their apps—balancing branding and
keyword optimization.
As character space is limited for app titles, publishers
are finding creative ways to incorporate generic
keywords into their app names to ensure they are
ranking high for the keywords that are of most value
to their apps. Some examples include:
• Spotify: Discover new music
• MasterClass: Learn New Skills
• Booking.com: Hotels & Travel
128
For new apps with no brand awareness, this practice
is especially important. Creating app names that
incorporate keywords related to the app’s functionality
(e.g., “editor,” “reader,” “tracker,” etc.) is an easy way to
help the app rank high for its most valuable keywords.
Some apps even place the generic keywords before
the actual app name; for instance, we can find the
following app names on Google Play:
• Meditation for Sleep and Calm | Down Dog
• Dating, Meet Curvy Singles. Match & Date @
Wooplus
When picking a brand name, consider shorter
generic words that would leave enough title space for
keyword optimization (e.g., “Mimo: Learn Coding/
Programming”). Furthermore, make sure that the
app title has no punctuation, grammatical, or spelling
errors. The title should include relevant keywords
while remaining legible, so avoid keyword stuffing.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Remember the Developer Name Brand Attack
If the publishing company’s name differs from the app If a competitor’s name is (or contains) a generic
name—and if both are important to rank for—there is keyword such as “Booking” or “Weather,” targeting
no need to duplicate the publisher’s brand name in the the keywords in your own metadata is a low-risk
app metadata. strategy to capture a share of users searching for
these competitors. Additionally, Apple Search Ads
The developer name is indexed on both the App Store should be considered for brand defensive and attack
and Google Play. This means that even if a brand name strategies on the App Store.
(e.g., “Microsoft” or “Adobe”) has not been included in
the app’s title, the app will still rank for these branded
keywords.
That said, the developer name is not visible in search
results on the App Store; as such, not including it in
the app title may negatively impact conversion rates
if users aren’t able to immediately recognize an app as
part of a brand’s portfolio.
Removing the brand name from the title makes space
for keyword optimization; however, the brand should
then be leveraged in the app icon to keep conversion
rates stable.
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CHAPTER 02 INCREASING VISIBILITY

Increasing Getting featured by one of the major app stores is like

Visibility
hitting the jackpot. If Apple and/or Google promote
your app, your visibility—and (usually) downloads—
can skyrocket. With 1.5 billion devices connected to

Through the App Store and Google Play, you could be looking at
download numbers in the millions.

Getting There are several ways to get featured, from landing a

spot in the “New apps we love” section to being shown

Featured as an “editors’ choice” banner. Either way, the visibility

gained from being featured is invaluable.

K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Google Play Feature Types
Understand the • Editors’ Choice: Apps/games selected by Google
various strategies Play store editors.

that can help increase • Hero Banner: An app/game showcased alone

your app’s chances of with its feature graphic.
getting featured. • New/Updated Apps/Games We Love:
A set of new/updated apps/games.

• Collections: A set of apps that follow a

common theme.

Examples of Google Play feature types.

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CHAPTER 02 INCREASING VISIBILITY

App Store Feature Types

• Editorial Stories: A set of several apps/games that
follow a common theme.

• App/Game of the Day: An editorial story featuring

an app/game with a few paragraphs of text.

• Collections/The Daily List: A roundup of apps/

games curated by Apple.

Both stores provide distinctive sections for apps and
games in efforts to serve their users with the right
kind of content. The App Store also has a “Today”
page next to the Apps & Games section.
The “Today” tab deserves a bit of extra attention, as it
can drive a lot of extra attention to your app/game. As
the default tab on the App Store, it represents prime
real estate for visibility; even users who only intend
to search for a particular keyword or specific app will
still be exposed to the daily featurings.
On this page, you’ll find apps, games, themes, or
developers showcased in greater detail than on the
other featured tabs. In fact, the average size of a
placement on this tab is about three times larger than
those on the “Games” or “Apps” tabs; this expanded UI
allows developers to tell a full and engaging story with
space for multiple visual assets. Stories on the Today
tab range from “App of the Day” and “Game of the
Day” to exclusive premiers, new releases, or a fresh
look, and are curated by a team of Apple editors.

Example of the Today, Games and App editorial sections of the App Store.

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Getting featured as App of the Day or Game of the

Day is the ultimate goal for many developers. Having
analyzed all the apps featured as App and Game of
the Day on the App Store (2020-2021), we found the
following insights:

• Apps in the Education, Health & Fitness, and

Entertainment categories are featured as App of the
Day the most often and for longer periods.

• Apps in the Developer Tools, Navigation, and

Utilities categories are featured as App of the Day the
least and for shorter periods.

• 11 apps were featured as App of the Day for 4 days or

more.

Count of unique apps per category

featured as App of the Day on the App
Store, August 31, 2020 - August 31, 2021.
Source: AppTweak.

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CHAPTER 02 INCREASING VISIBILITY

• Games in the Action and Adventure

categories are featured as Game of
the Day the most often and for longer
periods.

• Games in the Music, Word, and Trivia

categories are featured the least and for
shorter periods.

• 25% of all featured games were

featured as Game of the Day for 2 days
or more.

Count of unique games per category featured as

Game of the Day on the App Store, August 31,
2020 - August 31, 2021. Keep in mind that Games
can be listed in two categories on the App Store.
When a game is featured as Game of the Day, it is
counted as part of both categories.
Source: AppTweak.
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CHAPTER 02
Considerations to Get Featured
The Human Factor
Both stores invest heavily to optimize user experience.
They want to make it easier for users to find what they
are looking for and discover new apps and games.
Both stores have editorial teams that create stories
and collections that feature great developers from
all around the world. For this reason, we recommend
that you actively pursue platform representatives to
increase your chances of being featured, whether you
are launching a new product or updating an existing
one.
13 8
The Algorithmic Factor
Many featurings on Google Play are pre-generated
by algorithms that try to determine common factors
between apps to then match them with users’
interests. While many signals considered by these
algorithms will be outside of your immediate control,
optimizing certain metadata elements, such as your
app’s category and Google tags (and possibly specific
keywords), can help you get featured in certain
collections on Google Play.
Outstanding Apps or Games
As the stores want to provide the best user experience
possible, they will only recommend the best apps and
games. As such, getting your app featured really starts
with building a great product.
Apple editors will consider an app’s appeal, overall
quality, and user experience; apps that are innovative
and solve a unique problem have a greater chance
of getting featured. For games, Apple editors also
consider the gameplay, graphics, performance, and
narrative/story. Furthermore, Apple likes apps and
games that regularly submit new updates and are
quick to adopt new iOS features. For example, apps
that support dark mode or widgets might have a higher
chance of getting featured.
Google Play representatives will only consider games
that comply with all policy practices and that meet
core quality guidelines. Google Play values apps
and games that provide a smooth and intuitive user
experience, with healthy Android vitals. Apps and
games should be supported on all different Android
devices and address issues like battery consumption
and data costs.
As both stores only consider high-quality apps and
games, they will also consider an app’s ratings and
reviews. AppTweak (2021) found that apps and games
featured in the Today tab on the App Store have a
median rating of 4.5 or higher. So, for your app to get
featured, you also need to prioritize a solid rating and
review strategy.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Strong Brand Positioning
To paraphrase a seminal book on branding,
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, your company/
product needs to stick to a unique and very coherent
statement about what it is and what it offers to people.
Successful brands automatically trigger visual and
thematic connotations that position them as a “go-to”
for specific markets or needs. This clear positioning
is critical to separate your product from the fold and
is ultimately what will help it to stick in the minds of
Apple’s editors.
Storytelling
The App Store Today tab feels more like a news site
than an e-commerce platform, and that’s how you
should treat it. On Google Play, you also need to be
able to package and pitch your content to editors in an
attractive, relevant, and engaging way; this could look
like offering behind-the-scenes coverage or “how to
play” guidelines.
Basically, trying to get featured requires you to go back
to the roots of PR. You may even want your (in-house
or agency) PR professionals help you understand the
most compelling parts of your product. Remember—
the store editors are just as busy as anyone else; the
more work you can do for them, the easier you make it
for them to feature your app.
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CHAPTER 02
Nurturing Relationships
Nowadays, it is vital to have a good relationship
with your store account representatives. The simple
advice here is to treat representatives as your most
valuable business partners and always be respectful
and helpful: Offer them the opportunity to test your
product in advance, collect feedback (listen, don’t
defend), suggest exclusive content, and ask for their
recommendations on the best use of new Apple or
Google technology. Take what they say to heart, even
if it’s critical, and try to implement their suggestions.
After all, they are experts—their advice is valuable.
14 0
Submission Tips
Before you submit your story to Apple or reach out
to Google Play, it is very important to be prepared so
you can maximize this opportunity. It is critical to
know that even if your app has been featured before
(once or multiple times), you can still proactively
contact your representatives to seek further featuring
opportunities. Here are a few tips when submitting
your app to be featured:
INCREASING VISIBILITY
• Optimize your store listing page, including the title,
subtitle, short description, icon, and screenshots.
You only have a second to impress store visitors and
convert them into downloads. Keep things simple but
inspiring.
• Make sure to include landscape screenshots on your
Google Play listing. Google will use these screenshots
to showcase games in different placements throughout
the store.
• Localize your app and game for your target markets.
Apple and Google will only consider properly localized
apps and games for featurings.
• Tell Apple/Google a great story about your app,
highlighting the solution that your app brings to the
table alongside its features, key performance metrics,
and user engagement/retention.
• If you receive a featuring invite from Apple, before
you submit your app, prepare awesome visuals for
editorials as Apple often showcases the UI and in-app
content within these editorials. Consider creating an
asset library of your UI and visual assets to minimize
your efforts for the future.
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How to Pitch Your

Product to the Stores
Pitching your product to the App Store and Google
Play can play a big part in getting featured. So, let’s
talk about how to construct and fine‑tune your
presentation for optimal results.

The Anatomy of Your Presentation The Anatomy of Your Pitch

Prepare a maximum of 3-4 slides and be sure to
illustrate the problem your app solves, how your
product solves this problem, and the audience that
will benefit from it.
Remember—design matters! Create a template that
can be efficiently updated as new updates come
in. Make sure to use an Android phone bezel when
presenting to Google, and an iPhone bezel when
presenting to Apple. Of course, you should always
use app screenshots that feature the correct platform
(App Store/Google Play).
Your pitch should cover several important topics to
demonstrate your product’s value:
• KPIs on your app’s success and how these KPIs are
relevant to your business. For example, where Uber
might use “number of rides” as a KPI, YouTube might
use “watch time.”
• A usage report on engagement and retention.
Pro Tip
Use longer retention periods (three months to a year
or longer) if it’s possible for your business.
• Marketing plans could include influencer marketing
or other social media campaigns and global media
outreach. Be sure to highlight any opportunities you
see for featurings either with the App Store or
Google Play.

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CHAPTER 02
Impact of Being Featured
The first page that App Store visitors see upon opening
the store is the Today tab; on Google Play, store
visitors are first taken to the Games or Apps “For you”
section. Considering this, it is clear that featurings are
a very strong discoverability tool—even more so than
category rankings.
In principle, being among the apps or games featured
on the app stores can increase your app’s visibility and
help your brand awareness efforts. Getting featured
gives your app value on the stores and in the eyes
of users by testifying to your app’s trustworthiness
and quality. On Google Play, getting an “Editor’s
Choice” badge on your store listing can be a powerful
conversion incentive and beneficial to your app
growth. Featurings are also a great way to re-engage
customers.
Estimated impact on downloads for featurings in several
placements on the Today Tab. Source: AppTweak.
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Many featured apps or games can be downloaded
directly from the Today tab on the App Store or from
both stores’ respective Games/Apps tabs without
redirecting to the app page; as a result, featurings help
shorten and facilitate users’ journey to your product.
Thanks to this, you can generally expect your Browse
impressions or Explore Store Listing Visitors to
increase after being featured. Ideally, this increase in
impressions would also cause your downloads to spike
and could then drive a (temporary) increase in your
category rankings. This heightened visibility may also
lead to an influx in reviews and ratings which, due
to their weight in the store algorithms, could further
increase your app’s visibility. Regarding boosts in
keyword visibility after being featured, we have not
yet observed a significant effect (with the exception of
keywords like “best” or “top”).
INCREASING VISIBILITY
The graphs below outline the impact of an example
app’s featurings on downloads and category rankings.
The app’s featuring history is highlighted as follows:
• September 1st: App was featured in the list “Apps • October 9th: App was featured as “App of the Day”
for Kids” in the Today Tab. in the Today Tab.
• September 6th: App was featured as “App of the • October 17th: App was featured in the list “Apps
Day” in the Today Tab. for Kids” in the Today Tab.
• October 2nd: App was featured in the list “Apps • October 18th: App was featured in the list “Apps
for Kids” in the Today Tab. for Kids” in the Today Tab.
• October 8th: App was featured in the list “Apps for
Kids” in the Today Tab.
Estimated impact on category ranking for featurings in several
placements on the Today Tab. Source: AppTweak.
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CHAPTER 02
Factors That May Influence
the Impact of Being Featured
The real impact of being featured strongly depends
on the type of editorial collection: Apps and games
featured as App/Game of the Day can expect greater
results compared to those featured as part of a list. For
example, if featured apps are shown one by one with
some editorial text splitting the users’ attention,
the copy and UI will play important roles in conversion.
However, when the featured apps are shown as part of
a list, the icon, title, subtitle, and order/placement are
important conversion drivers.
Other factors that influence the effectiveness of a
featuring include the content and text length of an
editorial, or the number of other apps that appear in
the editorial. These factors will influence whether
store visitors scroll down and see an app: generally,
the lower the position, the lower the visibility.
Featurings are also rendered more effective when the
app is relevant to the editorial’s context. For example,
the meditation app Headspace can expect to gain
more after being featured in a “rest and relaxation”
collection compared to less relevant topics.
14 6
Left: Featured apps displayed individually in a story.
Right: Featured apps displayed within a list.
Apple editors are particularly interested in
showcasing promising new apps or games on the
Today tab; the Play Store’s Indie corner highlights the
best games from indie developers. Therefore, being
featured can also help drive visibility and downloads
to apps from smaller studios or during their launch
phase. Many featurings also highlight important
updates and limited-time events, thus helping your
retention efforts and allowing you to re-engage some
of your less active users.
Headspace Case Study:
Learnings & Impact
To understand the true impact of being featured, let’s
look at Headspace, an app that has been featured on
the App Store multiple times.
1. No negative effect on Browse conversion rate
When Apple featured Headspace in its editorials, the
app experienced a significant surge in traffic. However,
this did not decrease the “Browse conversion rate” as
some feared. In fact, Headspace’s “Browse conversion
rate” increased by 125% during the featuring.
2. High impact of “relevance” on app unit growth
Headspace found that when the editorial featuring
spoke more directly to the app’s key value propositions,
the app units grew at a faster rate. For example, when
Headspace appeared in editorials about stress relief
or relaxation like “A more relaxing way to run,” its
app units multiplied by 2 to 3.5 times. However, when
Headspace appeared in more general editorials like
“Bike better with Apple watch,” its app units only
increased by 15-50%.
INCREASING VISIBILITY
3. Daily list was not so impactful
You might expect the impact of being featured in
“The Daily List” to be similar to the impact of featuring
in an app collection. However, despite ranking in the
first position, Headspace only saw a 70% increase in
app units via Browse, which isn’t a significant uplift.
4. The higher your app is featured in an app
collection, the better
Even though apps featured in a collection are
competing for visitors’ attention, it is still an effective
means of driving traffic and downloads. In fact, it seems
to work just as well as general editorialfeaturings.
Despite this, Headspace’s results were heavily tied to
its placement in the collection. When Headspace held
the 2nd place spot in a collection, its expected app
unit increase was between 180-220%. However, when
Headspace ranked in the 4th position, the expected
app unit increase dropped to 35% and down to just
8% when the app ranked 5th. Today, the challenge of
ranking high in a collection is even more significant,
as cover images are no longer used to illustrate the
collection’s content—instead, the first two apps are
shown immediately.
Source: Phiture’s Headspace case study.
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Measuring the Impact of

Being Featured

Featurings can have a significant impact on app traffic

and downloads. You can try to manually estimate the
impact of featurings on impressions and downloads
using the following method:

1. Define a baseline period of 14 days before the day of

the featuring.

2. Calculate the average daily app downloads via

Browse for the baseline period.

3. Define an influence period (i.e., the timeframe of the

featuring). This can range from 1 day to multiple days.

4. Calculate the average daily app downloads via

Browse for the influence period.
5. Subtract the average daily downloads for the
baseline period from the average daily downloads
for the influence period. The outcome is the amount
of additional app downloads you can attribute to the
featuring.
ASO tools can also help you more easily measure the
impact of your app’s featurings over time and compare
it with your competitors.
To prevent fluctuations in your app’s category
rankings and downloads after being featured, develop
a long-term, sustainable ASO strategy around this.
You should keep in mind that featurings may provide
a strong boost in visibility and downloads, but this
will be most significant during/immediately after
the period of the featuring. This means that as soon
as the featuring ends, your visibility and downloads
may naturally drop. Therefore, ASO is the main way to
build a long-term growth strategy.

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Increasing
Browse
Besides increasing your visibility through keyword
optimization or being featured on the store, you can
also try to increase your visibility through other
Apple and Google calculate their top chart rankings Note that velocity means that downloads or revenue
based on the velocity of either downloads (top free/ acquired more recently impact the app’s ranking more
paid) or revenue (top grossing is only applicable to heavily.

Visibility Browse methods like being placed on the top charts

and/or similar apps. We will now discuss how you can
Google). Google Play includes additional factors in
their top chart rankings, including user engagement Top charts are volatile. New apps and games are

Outside of
potentially influence these placements through burst and game-specific signals such as star rating. launched at a rapid speed and can shake the top charts
campaigns or category switching. We will then discuss up considerably. Of the top 100 most popular apps on
other discovery methods, such as related or similar Top Free Chart: Measures the velocity of downloads. the App Store (2020-2021), we found that only 40% of

Featurings apps.
Top Paid Chart: Measures the velocity of downloads
for paid apps.
apps ranked in the top 100 for one whole year. The top
charts on Google Play are even more volatile; less than
25% of apps ranked in the top 100 for an entire year.

K E Y TA K E AWAY S

Learn how to drive

optimum traffic from
top chart visibility and Top Chart Rankings
other discoverability
Both the App Store and Google Play display app
means. top charts, wherein the top-performing apps are
ranked along several dimensions, including category,
country, and monetization. Yet, the way in which each
store displays rankings and group categories differs
significantly.

Average number of days spent in the top 100 of the “All” Category on the US App Store
and Google Play, August 31, 2020 – August 31, 2021. Source: AppTweak.
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CHAPTER 02
Choosing a Category for
Your App or Game
The goal of many app marketers is to rank higher in
the top charts. However—at least on the App Store—
ranking high in your app or game’s category will
not provide that much extra visibility, and ranking
optimization might not be the best way to increase
Browse visibility on the App Store.
To find the top charts on the App Store, a user must
scroll all the way to the bottom of the Apps or Games
tab, choose their category of interest, and then scroll
all the way to the bottom again to see the ranking. On
Google Play, top charts are a bit more visible via the
navigation at the top of the screen.
152
Nevertheless, your app category tells the store about
the nature of your app and provides the algorithm with
more information regarding when and where to index
your app in search and Browse results. Therefore, it is
recommended to select your category carefully.
You can choose two categories (primary and
secondary) on the App Store; on Google Play, you can
only list your app in one category. On both stores,
games can select a subcategory (or two on the App
Store) associated with the specific type of gameplay.
Keep the following tips in mind when choosing your
app category:
• Your app’s purpose: Your primary category should
best describe the app’s main function or subject
matter.
• User intent: Understanding your audience will help
you identify the category in which they will likely look
for your app. Will they consider your product as more
of a “social networking” app or rather a “photography”
app?
INCREASING VISIBILITY
• Look at similar apps: Research how similar apps
are categorized. Do you want to be listed in the same
category as these apps or not? If you would like your
app to be shown alongside competitors’ apps in
suggestion collections, it is recommended to choose
the same category as your competitors.
• Competitiveness and volatility of each category:
How many daily downloads do the top ranked apps
receive? Could you match that number one day? How
stable are the apps at the top? Are new apps or games
able to break through and outrank those at the top?
• Category keyword(s): Is the category keyword a
priority in your keyword list? If so, you should consider
listing your app or game in that category to maximize
ranking opportunities.
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Developers can select up to 5 tags on the store console;
Google recommends choosing tags that are “most
obviously relevant to the app” and that “describe the
content and functionality of the app.” In the same way,
some developers have suggested it may be preferable
for apps to use only two or three tag slots rather than
all five, as tags represent specific signals for Google’s
algorithms. As such, they serve to deepen Google’s
understanding of an app’s functionalities and themes
rather than broaden its scope or visibility.
Google Tags
Google also seems to automatically assign relevant
tags to certain apps and games. Interestingly enough,
we found that some of these tags don’t even appear in
the list of tags that developers can choose from on the
Google Console.
After analyzing the top 100 most popular games on the
Play Store, we found that the most displayed tags were:
“Single Player,” “Casual,” “Offline,” and “Stylized.”

Besides choosing a category for their app or game,

developers can also choose to add tags on Google
Play; these tags serve to improve app discoverability.
In short, Google uses tags to cluster apps by topic or
functionality. Google then uses this information to
showcase more relevant apps in sections like “similar
apps” or certain collections on the home page. Google
has also indicated that tags can impact the peer groups
with which developers compare their apps.

Google tags also show in search results—next to the

app’s developer name and alongside the number of
downloads and ratings. Therefore, ASO practitioners
should also consider how Google tags can impact
conversion. In this example, we see the way in which
tags help the game Block Words Search stand out,
easily highlighting that users can play the game offline.

Google Play Search Results for the keyword Most used Google Play tags in the Games (All) category in the US, August 31, 2021.
“word games.” Most games use the tag “word,” Source: AppTweak.
but Block Words Search has also added the tags
“word,” “casual,” and “offline.”

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Category Switching
To generate more visibility from Browse/Explore
traffic, you might want to attempt a category switch at
some point. The question then becomes whether your
app would make sense in a different category and if
it can generate the downloads needed to rank higher
than it does currently.

As such, the category switch should fulfil two criteria:

• Relevance: It’s important to ensure your app is in
a category that represents its features and benefits.
• Downloads: Do you have the downloads needed
Burst Campaigns to rank in the new category’s top 10?
ASO tools can help you understand how many daily
downloads an app needs to rank in the top 10 of a
category.
Note that category changes apply to all locations, so a
switch to achieve higher ranks in one locale will also
need to make sense in other important locales.

Burst campaigns are a means of user acquisition that
take advantage of a quick surge in cheap downloads to
rise in top chart rankings, with the goal of using this
increased visibility to drive quality organic downloads.
The burst campaign essentially manipulates the top
chart algorithms which heavily weigh downloads and
download velocity. Because of this, Apple and Google
frown on these campaigns and they are considered
a black—or at least gray—hat tactic.
As the name would suggest, “burst” campaigns are
only designed to improve an app’s top chart ranking
for a very short period of time; as a result, download
retention is less important. For this reason, burst
campaigns typically play on incentivized downloads
(i.e., users who earn credits for another app in exchange
for downloading your app). These downloads cost
very little and are, therefore, easily accessible for
advertisers.
However, Google explicitly forbids incentivized
installs, saying: “Developers must not attempt to
manipulate the placement of any apps in Google Play.
This includes, but is not limited to, inflating product
ratings, reviews, or install counts by illegitimate
means, such as fraudulent or incentivized installs,
reviews & ratings.”

Estimation of how many downloads a game needs to rank in the top

10, 50, or 100 in the United States, United Kingdom and France.
Source: AppTweak.

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Similar Apps

At the bottom of most app listings, you
will find a section called “You Might
Also Like” (App Store) or “Similar
Apps” (Google Play). These are a series
of apps suggested by the app stores;
they are often closely related apps that
might appeal to users browsing through
a particular app listing.
While there is not much information
available as to how Apple and Google
curate their “similar apps” collections,
they probably account for keywords,
user data, and tags (Google Play). For
the App Store, we have seen that Apple
often uses “similar apps” collections to
provide lesser-known apps with more
visibility.
On the App Store, the “You Might Also
Like” apps are rather hidden (situated
at the bottom of the App Store listing)
making their impact on visibility rather
low. On Google Play, the “Similar Apps”
collections appear at the bottom of the
app page and sometimes directly in the
search results. However, it is very difficult
to influence your appearance in these
collections and to know for which keyword
searches a collection featuring your app
will appear.

Example of Apple’s “You Might Also Like” suggestions at the bottom

of Headspace’s app listing. Right: Example of Google’s “Similar Apps”
suggestions for Disney+.

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Increasing
Conversion
CHAPTER 03 INCREASING CONVERSION

Increasing Conversion

K E Y TA K E AWAY S

Understand the available methods

to convert visibility into actual
downloads.

Keywords and features are arguably the more attractive verticals

of the ASO Stack, yet these activities are ultimately meaningless if
they fail to convert.

Without a stable or improving conversion rate, top-line impression

gains earned through increased visibility will not necessarily yield
long-term opportunities for success, given that Apple and Google’s
algorithms both consider conversion rate in keyword rankings.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO)—increasing conversions—is

any activity that “converts” impressions or store listing visitors into
downloads.
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To begin, let’s familiarize ourselves with the product Description

assets you will have to manage on the App Store and
Google Play to implement CRO tactics.

Title, Developer Name & Subtitle (Subtitle—App Store Only)

Google Play icon/title/developer name (left), App Store icon/title/subtitle (right).

Short Description (Google Play Only)

Google Play short description below “About this app,” linking to the long
description.

Google Play description (left), App Store description (right).

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Screenshots Feature Graphic Custom Background

(Google Play Only) (App Store Only)

Google Play screenshots (left), App Store screenshots (right). Google Play feature graphic as the video thumbnail. App Store custom background.

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App Video What’s New In-App Purchase

(App Store Only)

Google Play video (left), App Store video (right). App Store What’s New (top). Google Play What’s New (bottom). List of available in-app purchases.

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Main Considerations
for Conversion Rate
Optimization

K E Y TA K E AWAY S

Understand store conversion rates,

objective benchmarks against which you
can compare your own app’s performance
and set the right targets to aim for. Understanding Which KPI to Use

The first element to consider is that conversion rate measurements

are not identical between the App Store and Google Play:

App Store
On the App Store, users can download apps directly
from App Store search results and other navigation
screens without necessarily having to access the app’s
product page. As a result, you should consider three
different conversion rates to measure your app product
page’s performance on the App Store.

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Click-Through Rate
Page Views (unique) / Impressions (unique)
If your goal is to maximize the traffic going to your
product page, this ratio will help you measure the
share of store users that tap on your app after seeing
it appear anywhere on the store. Keep in mind that
this ratio does not measure the actual number of
downloads, but only the behaviors between one App
Store screen and another.
App Page Conversion Rate
First-Time Downloads / Page Views (unique)
This second ratio represents the number of new app
downloads that should have originated from your
product page. Keep in mind that selecting “first-
time downloads” rather than “installs” in App Store
Connect will help you exclude re-installs from users
who had already downloaded your app. Furthermore,
consider using this ratio to measure the conversion
of referral and paid advertising campaigns that lead
directly to your app’s product page. However, be
careful when using it for Search, Browse, or blended
traffic: Since App Store users are able to download
apps straight from search results without having to
ever open the app’s product page (this is also true for
most other Browse sections of the App Store), this
ratio can be greater than 100% if the majority of your
installs originate directly from the search results, for
instance.
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Conversion Rate (Install Rate)
First-Time Downloads / Impressions (unique)
This ratio is the one most commonly referred to when
speaking of “conversion rate” on the App Store, as it
measures any downloads coming from new users
compared to the number of times your app was seen
in the store (in the case a user would see the app in
search results and then open the product page, only
one impression will be counted for that user as long
as you select “impressions (unique devices)” instead
of “impressions” in App Store Connect). You may also
see this ratio referred to as the “install rate.”
Search Conversion Rate
First-Time Downloads / Impressions (unique)
filtered by Source Type = Search
In our view, this is the most important conversion rate
to optimize for, as it’s the one influenced the least by
other factors, such as a change in paid UA strategy or a
sudden impression spike due to a featuring.
INCREASING CONVERSION
Google Play
On the other hand, the Google Play Console does not
include a breakdown of impressions vs. pageviews, but
instead provides a single “Store Listing Conversion
Rate” defined as: “The percentage of store listing
visitors who installed your app. Does not include
visits or installs from users who already have your
app installed on another device” and calculated as the
ratio between Store Listing Acquisitions and Store
Listing Visitors.
These measurement differences lead to large gaps
between an app’s conversion rate on the App Store
and the same app’s conversion rate on Google Play.
In other words, conversion rates on the App Store
measure the percentage of users that download the
app having seen it anywhere on the App Store. On
Google Play, conversion rates show how efficient the
app’s assets are in convincing users to download the
app, as the user has already shown interest in the app
by clicking on the icon or app name. Given the fact
that users have already shown interest in the app
before we calculate the conversion rate, conversion
rates for Google Play often looking much higher than
for the App Store.
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Conversion Benchmarks Per Category
Before setting your goals based on conversion rate
benchmarks, you should understand that there
is no uniquely “good” conversion rate; a “good”
conversion rate varies depending on many factors,
including your app’s category, the country in which
you want to optimize conversion, and even your app’s
monetization model.
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INCREASING CONVERSION
Google Play’s conversion rate benchmarks.
While Apple does not provide conversion rate For example, AppTweak leverages a large amount of
benchmarks for iOS apps, Google provides this data App Store Connect data to provide aggregated and
directly in the Google Play Console, filtered specifically anonymized conversion rates per category on the App
for the other apps registered in a certain category and Store. On the following pages, you will find the average
country. conversion rates, install rates, and click-through rates
per app category.
Concerning App Store conversion rate benchmarks,
App Store Optimization tools such as AppTweak
and AppFollow can help understand appropriate
benchmarks per app category.
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Average App Page Conversion Rate (App Store, US) Average App Page Click-Through Rate by Category (App Store, US)

AppTweak provides average conversion rates per category (App Store, August 31, 2020 – August, 31, 2021, all apps).

Average App Page Install Rate by Category (App Store, US)

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The data from AppTweak
illuminates a few interesting points:
Several categories, such as Food & Drink or Travel,
have higher than average impression-to-download
rates (install rates); at the same time, these categories
are far below average concerning pageview-to-
download rates (conversion rates), indicating a higher
percentage of downloads from search and Browse
results.
While no category has an install rate greater than its
click-through rate, the large differences between the
former and latter show how app users in certain
categories tend to act more decisively from
a search impression, whereas users in other
categories tend to dig deeper into the product
page to learn more before making a decision.
For categories with above-average install rates and
below-average click-through rates (like Productivity
or Social Networking), this means that product page
elements appearing in the search results (icon, title,
subtitle, price, ratings, first 3 screenshots, or app
preview) are even more important, as users tend to
download these apps without visiting the full product
page.
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Looking specifically at the differences between
impression-to-pageview rates (click-through rates)
and pageview-to-download rates (conversion rates),
we also see that apps in certain categories such as
Magazines & Newspapers or Games - Music have
a hard time leading users to their product page but
convert those who do very efficiently. On the other
hand, apps in categories such as Games - Casino or
Food & Drink do a good job of encouraging users to
find out more about their products but struggle to
convert this interest into downloads. This means
that depending on your app’s category, you will have
to consider which metadata elements are most
important to focus your CRO efforts on.
These observations then raise the question of whether
users who arrive on the product page from search
results do so just to confirm their first interest,
or whether these users are looking for specific
information to help make the decision to download the
app or not.
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Optimizing Efforts: Which Store • In their “ASO Benchmark and Trends

Listing Elements to Optimize
First?
When selecting the app assets to optimize for
conversion, the “big three” visual elements generally
have the most impact (although the results of recent
studies may conflict with this).
2020” report, SplitMetrics found
that optimizing the App Store icon
can lead to an average CVR uplift of
22.8%, while optimizing screenshots
can generate an average uplift of
21.7%, and video optimization
drives an average uplift of 16.6%.
On Google Play, screenshots typically
have a greater impact than icons—on
average, optimizing screenshots leads
to 24.3% CVR uplift compared to
20.2% for the app icon. Furthermore,
optimizing videos on Google Play has a
slightly higher impact than on the App
Store, with an average CVR uplift of
17.4%.

• According to Storemaven’s “Complete

App Store Optimization (ASO) Guide
(2021),” the app video has the biggest
potential impact, with optimization
driving 40% uplift on the App Store
and 24% on Google Play, whereas
screenshot work delivers CVR uplifts
of 28% and 13% respectively, and icons
18% and 11% respectively.
• Both A/B testing services share the
rule of thumb that optimizing the app
title and other text metadata tends to
impact conversion optimization less
(optimizing the app name drives an
average CVR uplift of 8% according to
Storemaven, and 14.4% (App Store)
or 14.5% (Google Play) according to
SplitMetrics).
This final conclusion remains in line with most industry
best practices; however, given that A/B tests do not measure
overall gains in traffic, the question arises around the true
impact of textual optimization on downloads. With past
studies (such as Storemaven’s) finding that only 2% of users
on the App Store and 5% users on Google Play read an app’s
full description, we have observed an increasing polarization
of ASO strategies focusing their CRO efforts on creative
optimization, whereas metadata optimization aims to increase
traffic. Nevertheless, the variance of studies and results
underlines an important principle in CRO—no element should
be disregarded or ignored. While prioritization is important, a
proper CRO strategy should ultimately touch all aspects of an app
listing.

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Phiture’s CRO Loop

framework

K E Y TA K E AWAY S

CRO can feel like a mystical process—what is the secret

ingredient to transform page views into downloads?
Discover how the CRO Loop framework will help
structure your CRO activities to bring some method to
the “magic”—two parts science, one part art.

Let’s break it down into six steps:

STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3

Conduct Research Hypothesize Prioritize

STEP 5 STEP 6
STEP 4

Create Assets Test Assets Measure & Report

We’re going to unpack each step in the subsequent chapter; whether

you’re an ASO newbie or expert, you’ll find helpful information to
start or revamp your CRO work.
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Step 1

Conducting Research Looking Inward

Looking inward is to focus on your app and the
people who are going to be using it. It’s crucial to
really understand your app’s offering, how it’s going
to provide value to your users, and how that value
proposition should be communicated.
K E Y TA K E AWAY S

Familiarize yourself with the many sources of
knowledge that will help you be well-equipped
for effective conversion optimization work.
Value Proposition
To start any considerations in this area, you should
be aware of two principles that are fundamental to
develop or analyze your value proposition:
1. Your app’s features are not the same as your value
proposition.
2. Your value proposition is the foundation of any
further optimizations; if you haven’t done so yet,
you should really invest the time to craft a good
value proposition for your business, as this will
benefit many aspects of your work—not just ASO.
Always consider your ideal group of customers that
would land on your store listing. Communicate the
benefits users receive by using the app and how these
benefits will help them solve their problems or make
their lives easier. If you are in a highly competitive
vertical, you can also think of the things that make
your app unique and better than / different from its
close competitors (especially if your brand awareness
is lower).
To conclude, a good value proposition...

Proper research involves studying your competitors,
learning about your target market, and analyzing
your app’s characteristics, all to determine the
most important information/value propositions to
communicate on your app listing.
Research can take multiple forms. To better
understand the available methods, we generally
divide them into three categories:
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Looking Inward
Scrutinize your app, it’s users, and its
store presence.
Looking Outward
Leverage ASO best practices and
market/competitor research.
Looking Skyward
Understand external factors, like the
COVID-19 pandemic, in your plans.
It’s always good to evaluate whether it would be better • Takes less than five seconds to read and
for your messaging to focus on your app’s features or understand.
its value proposition. A feature is a “functionality” • Aligns with your target audience’s preferences.
that your app provides, such as a calorie counter or • Communicates the benefits your app offers.
document scanner. A value proposition, however, is • Stands out from competition by showcasing a
the benefit that your app offers to its users, like unique value.
facilitating diet tracking or keeping documents
organized. While communicating a feature might
require fewer words, you might make a more
compelling case for your app if you decide to highlight
its value proposition. In the case of the latter,
remember to make it as clear and easy to understand
as possible; short and succinct works best.
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• Which features do your users care about? You can check how
much time they spend on a particular feature or which features
are used most frequently. Focus on concisely communicating
about these key factors in the user’s decision-making process.

• Which features do your users not care about? Increase the

effectiveness of your app listing by skipping these features, or
placing them below more important features.

• What needs/wants do your users have? Communicate how

your app addresses these uncertainties, desires, or other
consideration points.

• How would your users speak about these features? What

vocabulary do they use? What education level do they have?
Speak to them in the terms that will resonate the best.
Screenshots with well-designed value propositions (Shazam, Headspace, Spotify).

Feature Usage Review Research

Your research data should include which of your app’s
features are used more than others, and you should
optimize your store assets accordingly. Highlighting
your most popular feature in your first or second
screenshot will impact conversion more than tucking
the feature away in the long description. Your store
assets are also a good way to test new features; let’s
say you start to showcase a brand-new feature in your
assets and then see your conversion rate increase.
This is a great indication you are onto something good
(assuming you’re running a “clean test”—more on this
later).
Remember that user preferences may differ from
country to country, so you should always try to closely
examine the data to get the most reliable results.
While analyzing your customers’ feature preferences,
these questions might help you find the most valuable
insights:
Reviews and their value are quite often underestimated, despite
them being a great opportunity to understand your value proposition
and your users’ needs, and get first-hand feedback on what works
and what needs to be improved. Be sure to take a moment to read
(not skim) a good handful of the top user reviews. Take notes on
them, identify any other frequently mentioned comments, and think
about how to integrate these into your messaging. There are also
plenty of ASO tools that aggregate reviews by custom topics, identify
existing trends, and break down these topics into groups divided
by sentiment (such work can also be conducted in the Google Play
Developer Console). If you have thousands of reviews but no time
to manually go through all of them, these tools might become quite
handy to save time in your analysis.

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However, you can usually conduct review research
manually by creating a breakdown of the most
common reviews grouped by sentiment or main topic.
Create an Excel sheet that will allow you to store,
group, and highlight the most valuable opinions. By “content,” we don’t
This will help you fully leverage these one-of-a-kind only mean music, pictures,
insights taken straight from your consumers’ minds. or video.
User Testing
For ASO purposes, a common method of user testing
involves asking users to search using a term for which
the app in question ranks in the top 5 search results
(be careful not to communicate for which app you
are researching in order to eliminate as much bias
as possible). Then, ask the participants for their
thoughts on the first 5 results: What do they think
are the apps functions? What do they like or dislike
about the listings? What stands out in certain apps
compared to others? The most valuable results will
come from user testing conducted in person, but a
cheaper and simpler option is to do this online with
one of the many available user research / survey tools.
User reviews for Netflix.
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Popular Content
Let’s say you have a music streaming app that is
available in multiple countries. You should regularly
look at analytical data to understand what most people
listen to in each of your locales. Perhaps heavy metal
is consumed far more than pop in one locale; it would
be smart to reflect this content preference in your
store listing. By “content,” we don’t only mean the
music, pictures, or video that you host on your app—
you may be able to promote other popular content
related to your app’s features, such as the search
functionality. For example, a flight scanning app may
showcase a holiday background in its screenshots:
If this background is of the African savanna despite
most users actually searching for flights to Thailand,
you may be missing a trick.
Brand Alignment
Do your screenshots in the app store reflect what
you’re putting into your ads? A store listing that looks
and feels like an extension of the ads that lead there is
going to build trust. Conversely, iIf there’s a complete
misalignment between the two, you will see that your
conversion rate will decrease. This is called marketing
alignment, and as an ASO practitioner you will need to
check in regularly with your performance marketing
team to create this alignment in the user journey.
Brand alignment talks about how well your store
listing encompasses your company’s values, beliefs,
mission, vision and the brand itself. It is not only about
the designs you create, but also about making sure your
app, its store listing, and your customer interactions
uphold the brand’s promise by communicating one
consistent and ongoing story.
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The PET-ASO model consists of three main layers; each one

The PET-ASO Model
The PET-ASO model is Phiture’s variation of the
“Persuasion - Emotion - Trust Design” model by
Human Factors International, a well-known and
freely available resource that provides a glossary of
persuasion principles that can help drive conversion,
whether for e-commerce purchases, new store listing
letter signups, or app installs.
While user-centered designs traditionally focus
on usability, in many cases—and especially on the
app stores—creating a clear, well-organized, and
aggregates different principles to utilize when designing your
creatives or copy:
Persuasion Emotion Trust
thoughtful design is not enough. To encourage store
listing visitors to install your app, you need to influence
their motivation and trigger the desired “install”
action through appropriate persuasion techniques.
Persuasion
Hence, Phiture designed the PET-ASO model to help
creative teams working on store listing optimization Persuasion—the first layer of the model—is based on well-known and established
come up with ideas and concepts for experiments that principles described for the first time by Robert Cialdini in his book “Influence:
aim to influence visitors’ motivation, and leverage The Psychology of Persuasion” (1984). Since then, this book has been widely
proven and tested persuasion techniques without considered as a staple for marketers interested in persuasion techniques, and later
guesswork. on, something everyone interested in conversion optimization should know and
read.

This layer consists of 6 principles:

Authority Social Proof

Use a figure of authority to drive trust.
Credible testimonies are more likely
to persuade visitors to install your app.
Authority is not only about using an
image of someone famous—it can also
be a trusted, industry-recognizable
organization or a featuring badge.
Framing
By placing the app in a specific context
that is positively perceived by visitors,
we can control the impression the app
gives out, as perception is influenced by
the information we receive.
Raise trust by showing positive
feedback from actual users, typically
in the form of customer reviews and
testimonials, the number of users, or
the number of app experts.
Reward
Offer rewards for downloading the app
(extrinsic motivation). Be careful: This
technique is limited by the fact that
(a), people won’t be persuaded if they
see a better reward elsewhere and (b),
it can destroy people’s more enduring
intrinsic motivation.

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Limited Duration/Scarcity
By indicating that subscriptions are
limited in duration, these subscriptions
will be desired more, and increase
conversion. Be careful not to create fake
scarcity (e.g., saying there are limited
premium accounts available when this
is not true), as your users will pick up on
this. Emotion

Trigger Emotions are thought to be one of the main factors that influence our decisions,
Users will feel more motivated when deriving from the so-called “Old Brain,” which is said to be more important in the
guided with small steps demostrating decision-making process than rational thinking. The “emotion” layer consists of
what progress looks like. the following principles:

Be careful not to overuse the above
principles when working on and
leveraging persuasion, as your store
listing may start to look untrustworthy
or even lose its credibility.
Users will feel more Aesthetic
motivated if small steps First impressions are very important
help to guide them. in encouraging the visitor to install the
app. A polished and thoughtful design
will make a good first impression and
motivate users to give it a try.
Behavioral Processing
Objects or products are better when
they support human tasks and
behaviors as intended (e.g., “book in
just 3 clicks,” “meditate for just a few
minutes a day”).

Delight Goal Setting

Add friendly, humorous, or personable
text and images; people will react well
to unexpected and playful elements.
Knowledge of Results
It is easier to motivate users when they
have feasible, specific goals.
Simplicity
By emphasizing the simplicity of
actions as well as providing easy-to-
understand messages, we can prompt
more visitors to install the app. We
have seen that simple designs can
really stand out in an environment in
which busy graphics and clutter are
commonplace.
196
Guide users to set clear goals and
address their ability to achieve these
goals, while providing compelling
indicators and regular encouragement.
Optimal Challenge
Provide users with small, achievable
challenges that they can solve with
the app to appease the natural human
desire to accomplish assigned tasks.
Fresh Start
By highlighting opportunities for
new beginnings on store assets, you
can motivate visitors to initiate goal-
oriented aspirational behaviors and
install the app.
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Trust
Trust is an extremely important factor that can ruin your conversion rates and
effectively hold store listing visitors back from downloading the app, if neglected.
Depending on the sector and category your app belongs to, make sure to cover
the most significant FUDs (fears, uncertainties, and doubts) that visitors may
have while visiting your store listing and considering downloading the app. If you
manage to build trust and confidence, users will perceive your app as more reliable
and safer, which is extremely important in a world that is full of data leaks and
shady digital products.
Here is the most important tip on using this model and
leveraging it in your daily ASO work: The model is not
about blindly copying all components and trying to fit
each one in your app’s creatives or text; this would be
less effective in increasing conversion.
Instead, you should analyze your app’s sector, check on
competitors’ store listings and see which techniques
they leverage, identify your app’s strengths and
weaknesses, understand its value proposition and
unique selling points, and eventually decide which
model components to focus on and design experiments
around.
It’s a good idea to stick to Phiture’s CRO Loop and
always test the hypotheses and concepts you create
beforehand (e.g., through Google Play experiments or
Apple’s product page optimization). You should also
measure the performance of your hypotheses after
they have been implemented (i.e., through a sequential
analysis), no matter how strongly your confidence is
that they will increase your conversion rate.

Below, we list the principles that make up this third layer of the model:

Design Quality Certifications

If your store listing assets show Highlighting an award/certification
attention to design quality, people are can help increase trust for your app and
more likely to install the app. drive conversion.

Quality Content Current Content

Relevant, curated, and personalized
content from a reputable source will
establish deeper trust than generic or
click-baity content would.
Testimonials
Apps can obtain, select, and publish
testimonials on their app store listings
in order to inspire confidence through
an external (and thus, more objective)
source.
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Promote trust by ensuring there is
plenty of good, up-to-date content on
the app. Out-of-date content gives
the impression of an app that is rarely
updated and not downloaded very often.
Affiliation
Being affiliated with a large, trustworthy
organization gives the app more
credibility.
Screenshots leveraging (in order of appearance): Authority/social proof (Flighty), certifications (Jour), affiliates (Spark Mail), social proof
(Nordnet).
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Looking Outward
Looking outward involves shifting the gaze from the
app in question to the broader environment around
it—in other words, best practices in the category and
the app stores in general as well as the competition
(both direct and indirect).
200
ASO Best Practices
Best practices evolve over time as new trends, styles
and approaches fade in and out of acceptance. It’s
important to constantly evaluate what you consider a
best practice against the category, competitors, target
market, and user personas. Keep in mind that there is
no one-size-fits-all solution; however, there are some
general guidelines that we’d always consider as a first
port of call for most apps.
INCREASING CONVERSION
Below, we list some of the most commonly leveraged
examples of best practices that usually—but not
always—work quite well for a variety of apps:
Legibility
This is mostly applicable to screenshot captions.
If you add graphics or text to your screenshots, it’s
important to remember that they’ll be viewed on
a small screen. Even our largest smartphones and
tablets are several times smaller than the desktop
monitors we usually design on. The font size is only
one part of the equation: Font choice, contrast, and
letter spacing all play a role too.
Icon
A good icon must tick several boxes, but a good place
to start is to include your app’s name in it. If you have
a massive brand, an icon without the name may be
recognizable to most store visitors, but for the vast
majority of apps, adding the name to the icon is a
reliable way to build trust and increase conversion.
Text Formatting
Using basic HTML to bold text or change colors in
your long description will also help your app stand out
from the crowd.
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Market Intelligence
It’s important to remember that
different locales have different
aesthetic trends, visual metaphors,
religious attitudes, demographic
breakdowns, and understanding of
symbols, like emojis. If your app is a
social media platform, for example,
don’t show profiles with traditionally
British names on your Brazilian store
listing. Similarly, certain characters
and mascots that work well in one
locale may not work in another. It’s
critical that as ASO practitioners, we
stay abreast of these trends and make
sure that what we show and say on
the app stores won’t come across as
random, misplaced, or offensive.
Yet another aspect you should consider
when analyzing the market is getting
an overall understanding of seasonality
trends. This will help you plan your
experiment roadmap accordingly
and ensure your app is ready with its
optimized store listing assets for the
high seasons.
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There are many kinds of seasonality
you should be aware of, from holidays
to weekly trends. You should not only
consider seasonality to plan your
experiment roadmap but also on a
conceptual level, as this understanding
may help you generate new ideas for
upcoming experiments in a specific
theme. For example, fitness apps usually
experience huge spikes in downloads
in January following the resolutions
made for the New Year; because of this,
many fitness app developers update
their store listings to capitalize on
this seasonal interest, usually with a
positive impact on conversion.
Certain visual styles and tones of voice are
specific to different markets. For instance,
mascots are widely used in Japan but
are not that effective in other markets.
Furthermore, different countries and age
groups can have different understandings
of the same emojis.
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Competitor Intelligence
Regularly check up on the store presence of your
most direct competitors. Keep asking yourself: What
are my competitors saying? How—and why—do
they communicate this? Take screenshots of their
app listing each time they make changes or enlist
the help of an ASO tool such as AppTweak to track
their updates over time. Keeping tab of competitor
movements on the App Store and Google Play can
provide valuable insights for your own app.
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INCREASING CONVERSION
Looking for Best-in-Class Competitors With
Whom to Compare Your CRO Efforts
Alongside determining which CVR metric to
benchmark and which asset to optimize first, you
should also start identifying competitors and/or
best-in-class apps to monitor for inspiration when
optimizing your app’s creatives.
Beyond monitoring your direct competitors and
studying the creative changes they make, looking
in and outside your category for best-in-class
creatives can be a very useful but complex challenge.
Throughout 2020, AppTweak studied the number of
updates done to metadata and creatives per category
and per locale on Google Play. Their results showed
that:
• The largest number of total changes across all
categories was observed by apps in English-US,
followed by English-UK, Arabic, Germany, and
Portuguese-Brazil. French-France, Russian,
Japanese, English-Australia, and Spanish-Spain
also followed to complete the top 10.
• In the US, games were more active than apps
when changing all types of store elements—
except for the short description. Games were also
more active when changing app videos, icons, and
screenshots compared to apps.
• On average, games made around 4 more changes
per year to icons and videos than apps, and over
2.5 more changes to screenshots per year.
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• When looking at the most active app categories
for metadata updates, AppTweak found that:
◊ Entertainment and music apps made the most
changes to their descriptions.
◊ Personalization, photography, and weather
apps were the most active in updating feature
graphics.
◊ The most icon changes occurred in the Shopping
and Dating categories.
◊ The most screenshot changes occurred in the
Photography category, followed by the Shopping
and Video Player categories.
◊ The most short description updates were
observed in the Photography category, followed
by Personalization and Social.
◊ The Personalization and Finance categories
observed the most video changes in 2020,
followed by Books & Reference, Communication,
Shopping, Sports, and Video Players.
206
• Looking at the most active game categories for
metadata updates:
◊ Casino games led all game subcategories for the
number of changes to store listings (with the
except of the full description—casino games
came second here, after word games).
◊ After casino games, board games, card games,
and word games were the most active categories
in creative and metadata updates.
Metadata Frequency Update (iOS)
AppTweak also studied metadata update frequencies
for almost 400 apps on the App Store between August
31, 2020, and August 31, 2021. AppTweak found
that over three quarters of all apps updated their
screenshots at least once.
The app icon and description were the most regularly
updated elements (besides the app version), with
42% and 26% of apps (respectively) updating these
elements at least 3 times in the year. Almost 100% of
apps updated their version at least 3 times throughout
the year.
To further understand how to identify potential
conversion rate optimization leaders, AppTweak
INCREASING CONVERSION
also studied how many changes (over 1,500) apps and
games, grouped by downloads, made on the US App
Store in 2020.
Their results indicated that apps with fewer
downloads tended to update their textual metadata—
title and subtitle in particular—more frequently.
Interestingly, apps with more downloads were the
most active in updating screenshots and particularly
videos. As a result, when looking for trendsetters to
monitor for new conversion rate optimization best
practices, consider looking beyond apps ranking
in the overall top charts; take the time to find more
innovative players by investigating the rankings of
specific categories.
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Looking Skyward
Keeping your finger on the pulse of things outside
of your app—ASO as a whole, digital marketing in
general, and even current global affairs—can be very
beneficial to provide you with ideas for experiments
and improvements, as well as presenting opportunities
to quickly react to changes in the world around you
and adapt your store listing accordingly.
Blogs & Resources
If you like to stay on top of everything that happens
in the ASO world, you probably already have a list
of your favorite ASO communities, blogs, experts,
and resources. Below, we list some of our top picks;
however, there exists a whole range of resources that
freely share insights from leading ASO experts.
The Outside World
What is happening in current affairs that could
influence how people perceive your app’s store
presence? In politics? Commerce? Technology? The
environment? Public health? Being able to respond
quickly to the circumstances that affect your business
will help you gain a competitive edge inside the stores.

• AppTweak’s ASO Blog

• ASO Slack Blog
• ASO Stack-Slack Group
• Business of Apps
• Growth Gems Newsletter
• TechCrunch
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Step 2

Hypothesizing
K E Y TA K E AWAY S

Many people start with CRO by “throwing things at

the wall to see what sticks.” While this can sometimes
work, learn why the best CRO is guided by hypotheses
or logical thought processes that provide context and
justification.

A hypothesis in ASO should be a statement or theory about the results you think an
experiment will generate, and why you think it will generate these results. It works
by pinpointing the changes the target market desires to make on the store listing
and predicting the outcome of this variation, ensuring your experiments are not
aimless or random.

A good hypothesis always satisfies these three requirements:

As such, your hypothesis could look something like this:

1. It mentions a specific action: The action is exactly what you’re changing;
for example, “including building materials in the app’s screenshots.” We believe that (1) adding a tasty pizza to the You should approach your experiments
screenshots will (2) increase the conversion as iteratively and selectively as
2. It mentions a specific result: The result is what you expect the action to possible. If each experiment changes
do (and since we’re talking CRO, the result is likely to be “drive downloads” rate because (3) research shows that pizzas five variables, it will be very difficult
or “increase conversion”). are the most popular delivery item within to pin down what is responsible for
any changes in your conversion rate.
3. It mentions a specific reason: The reason should lead back to your
our food delivery app. Pick a single element to test for each
research; for example, “because this app is designed for construction experiment, and let the results inform
workers.” your next steps.
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Step 3

Prioritizing
K E Y TA K E AWAY S

Hypothesis prioritization in ASO generally follows one

rule: The more powerful the experiment, the higher the
priority. In this section, you’ll discover a model that can
help prioritize your conversion hypotheses.

Once you have invested time and energy into researching for experiments and
transforming these ideas into hypotheses, you will have gathered a bank of
potentially successful hypotheses. The RICE scoring model can be very useful for
this. RICE is an acronym for the four factors we use to evaluate each project idea:
Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort.

Reach Confidence
How many people will be affected by How confident are you that this
the change? experiment will be successful?

Impact Effort
If successful, how much would this How much time, budget, and working
experiment move the needle? hours will this experiment require? Also
consider the number of stakeholders
you will need to involve.
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Step 4

Creating Store
Assets
K E Y TA K E AWAY S

Deep dive into the practicalities of conversion

optimization for each asset on the App Store
and Google Play.

While basic CRO focuses on improving one asset at a time, some of the most
powerful CRO increases can come from improving the way your elements convey
a message as a whole. For example, your branding should resonate through all
elements in a cohesive manner, and your most important or key differentiators
should be mentioned in both your screenshots and your description.

After you have crafted your messaging and decided
the imagery to employ, it’s time to let your creativity
shine. When creating variations of your app’s creative
elements, ensure each of them is:
Unique
Changes too subtle for the average
person to notice will be useless to test.
Informed by your research and
hypotheses
You’ve spent the time identifying
assumptions about methods to increase
your conversion rate and direct your
creative process; don’t abandon now!
After prioritizing your CRO
hypotheses, consider what elements
of your app listing are best suited to
test each hypothesis and whether you
can connect one hypothesis across
multiple elements for better cohesion.
Each element will naturally work very
differently, and as such, presents an
opportunity to experiment with your
hypothesis from different angles to
increase the power of your store listing
as a whole.
In the following sections, we dive deeper
into optimization for each store asset
(adopting a structure based on each
asset’s expected impact on conversion,
from most to least). Additionally, we
begin by discussing any knowledge that
applies to assets both on the App Store
and Google Play (if applicable), before
providing specific information about
assets on the App Store and Google Play
distinctly.

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Use your brand

Leverage your brand’s most
From left to right: Babbel,
recognizable symbols, elements, and
TripAdvisor, and Norton app
colors. Including the wordmark can icons (App Store, December
also establish trust by helping store 2021).
App Icon visitors recognize the app or connect it
to your brand.

In general, one of the most important aspects of CRO is

considering competitor apps in your research, rather Include identifiers
than solely designing creatives in isolation. Yet, this
is even more important with regard to app icons, as Utilize graphic elements or illustrations From left to right: Smule, Apple

icons are often the only visual element shown to store that visually explain your app’s value Maps, and Inframe app icons
(App Store, December 2021).
visitors to communicate an app’s presence (e.g., in the proposition in a simple and intuitive
top charts on either store or in Google Play generic way.
keyword search results).

Analyzing how your icon is positioned against other Know the category,
app icons is the best tactic to determine how to make but break the mould
your icon even more appealing and win over visitors From left to right: Grammarly,
with more success than the competition. Understand the relevant visual Clubhouse, and Transit app
language in the category but avoid icons (App Store, December
There are many different styles of icon design. mimicking other app icons too closely; 2021).

Consider these three best practices when optimizing try to stand out from your competition
the design of your app icon: in a meaningful way.
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Google Play App Icon

The app icon is the most visible—and only—creative

element in Google Play keyword search results, making
app icons on Google Play much more important for
CRO than on the App Store. For this reason and due
to stylistic differences between the stores, app icons
on the Google Play Store have traditionally often been
more visually complex than App Store icons, to help
show off relevant imagery that describes the app’s
main purpose and helps differentiate an app from its
competition.

However, in attempts to clean up the Google Play Store,

Google Play app icons became the subject of stricter
App Store App Icon rules and regulations concerning creatives in 2021.
From September that year, Google prohibited the use
While this element remains important for apps that of emojis, misleading or irrelevant symbols (e.g., calls-
earn a large volume of App Store Browse impressions, to-action encouraging users to download the app),
the App Store icon is less important for search and keywords that imply an app’s store performance
impressions than the Google Play icon. (e.g., “top”, “best”, or “#1”) in app icons. These changes
brought creative policies on the App Store and Google
On the App Store, your app icon will also appear in Play closer, making it more difficult for apps on the
each of your promoted IAPs, increasing the visibility Play Store to stand out from the competition in search
Over (now GoDaddy) App Store app icon. Over (now GoDaddy) Google Play app icon
and importance of legibility. results compared to before.
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C A SE STUDY
Icon Design
Sports apps on Google Play (December 2021).
Sports score apps on Google Play use much more
letter brandings in their icons than distinct sport-
related imagery; however, some apps do make use of
common sports figures: a trophy, a variety of balls,
and sporty silhouettes. Colors lean more towards
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INCREASING CONVERSION
While the App Store apps below are mostly dominated
by large brands, their icons still allow users to
recognize well-known brands (e.g., Snapchat or
Duolingo).
red or blue, and most apps use colored background
fills to contrast against a white font. These app icons
are fairly distinct, yet they seem to miss out on the
opportunity to showcase the apps’ main use cases
(scores/numbers).
Top apps on the App Store (December 2021).
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CHAPTER 03
App Title
While 99% of the time, the app title is primarily used
for keyword optimization, you can run experiments to
determine whether a keyword-optimized title can also
effectively convey the app’s main value proposition
and boost conversion rates. Unfortunately, you cannot
A/B test titles on the App Store or on Google Play, and
must instead use a third-party A/B testing tool (we
provide several A/B testing tool options in Chapter 7:
Performance Reporting Dashboards & ASO Tools).
Pro Tip
You can simulate an A/B test for your title by releasing
a new title on a localized app page that shares
the same language as your core audience, but is a
second- or third-tier market. Measure the changes
in performance via a sequential analysis and use the
results to directionally forecast how the same change
would affect performance in your core market.
222
SmartNews is a strong brand in the US,
but a lot of people may not be familiar
with the app’s functionality. Adding
“Local Breaking News” to its title not
only helps with keyword searches but
also with conversion.
INCREASING CONVERSION
Identify the most used and valued keywords in
your market by referring to your user research, user
reviews, or performance marketing campaign data.
Pro Tip
You can also run ad tests to inform your title
experiments. For example, if a Facebook ad running
with the headline “SmartNews - Local Breaking
News” outperformed “SmartNews - Breaking US &
World News”—and if the former was also appropriate
for keyword optimization (KWO)—the first should be
used as the app title.
In general, when optimizing your app’s title, ensure
the most useful keywords to describe your app are
positioned earlier in the title, and are thus least at
risk of truncation (in other words, call on visual word
recognition).
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CHAPTER 03
App Store App Title
App titles on the App Store are written in a larger
font than subtitles and are therefore more likely to be
read first by users. Furthermore, the app title is not as
prone to truncation in App Store Browse results as the
subtitle.
Pro Tip
The number of characters displayed before an organic
App Store title truncates in search results has been
observed to be between 23 and 25 characters. As a
result, make sure your core keywords and app name
are placed within the first 23 characters.
224
The top charts for paid apps depicting the
truncation of app titles and subtitles (App
Store, US).
A generic Google Play keyword search.
INCREASING CONVERSION
Google Play App Title
An app title on Google Play is more vital to conversion
than on the App Store to explain to users what the
app is all about, given the absence of screenshots and
subtitles in Google Play keyword search results.
Up until September 2021, app titles on Google
Play were permitted a maximum of 50 characters,
representing more space than app titles on the App
Store (not including subtitle space). This extra space
provided developers with more flexibility and ample
opportunity to target high-volume keywords on the
Play Store. However, the aforementioned policy
changes on Google Play saw app titles shortened
from 50 to 30 characters (now the same as on the App
Store).
Furthermore, Google banned keywords encouraging
users to take action (e.g., “update now”) from the app
title, alongside the prohibition of emojis, emoticons,
and repeated special characters. These metadata
changes also saw text incentivizing installs/promoting
deals banned from Google Play app titles, alongside
keywords that imply an app’s store performance, and
repeated punctuation or all caps.
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Subtitle (App Store Only)

Offering an additional 30 characters and appearing
anywhere the app title appears, subtitles on the App
Store are useful both for KWO and CRO. Again, like
the title, the most important factors for subtitle
CRO involve finding the right keywords and avoiding
truncation. However, subtitles tend to not truncate
for longer in App Store search results than titles,
yet truncate sooner than titles in App Store Browse
results.
For the subtitle (and title), where possible, try to
optimize your letters based on width, such as using
“is” vs. “ms.” Here, we see that this method enables the
Visage app to earn a fully untruncated 27 characters in
an App Store search result with the subtitle “essential
beauty shot maker,” the GasBuddy app earns a fully
untruncated 24 characters in an App Store Browse
result with “for the perfect pit stop,” and Footballguys
Fantasy Football earns a lesser 18 characters in top
charts with “dominate YOUR Fant.”

Beware
The number of characters
before an organic App
Store subtitle truncates
is shortest in top charts,
average length in a
Browse featuring, and
Pinterest uses its subtitle to clearly communicate GasBuddy displays a 24-character subtitle. Footballguys displays an 18-character subtitle.
longest in search results.
Visage displays a 27-character subtitle.
what store visitors can expect from using the app.

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Short Description (Google Play

Only)
This 80-character text field does not appear in Google
Play search results but appears before the user
expands the app listing to view the full description.
Google Play short descriptions are vital to encourage
users to either download your app or learn more by
continuing on to the full description.

​​
While short descriptions are important for both
keyword rankings and increasing conversion, ASO
most often considers the main purpose of the short
description as boosting conversion rates. That said,
including a few very important keywords in the short
description can be a good way to improve your app’s
ranking and increase conversion rates by explaining
what your app is in terms that users search for.

Together with screenshots, short descriptions are

well-equipped to convey your app’s key messaging, as
descriptions are centrally located above the fold and
right underneath the install button.
Google Play short description and
screenshots sitting above the fold on the app
page.

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CHAPTER 03
Screenshots
When creating screenshots, a best practice is to not
assume that users will scroll through each individual
image. Be sure to order your screenshots by putting
those that explain your most important features
and benefits first. This way, if users don’t scroll any
further, you will have still cast your app in the best
light possible.
Pro Tip
Don’t forget that the content on your screenshots (i.e.,
images of your in-app content) should also be a part of
the CRO Loop. Test different screenshots or content
on the screenshot to see which photos produce the
best results.
Some tips to get the most out of your screenshot CRO
include running tests for the following elements:
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INCREASING CONVERSION
Caption styles
Investigate how your store performance
changes when captions are overlaid
directly on the top/bottom of the image
vs. on the background (traditional
style), when the caption font size or
style is changed, or when captions
resemble call-outs located in different
areas of the screenshot.
Flow
Change the order of your screenshots.
Content
Change the in-app content of your
screenshots, such as focusing on
features or experiences that are more
popular with users.
Background styles
Try a solid color, real-world imagery, a
gradient, or abstract background.
Custom design styles
Explore connected-style designs,
superimposed icons, call-out graphics,
or multiple devices in one screenshot
image.
Display styles
Test a screenshot without captions, a
screenshot with overlaid captions, a
screenshot of a partial or fully visible
phone, or a screenshot embedded in
real-world imagery such as a person’s
hand.
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CHAPTER 03
App Store Screenshots
Until the advent of the auto-played preview video,
screenshots were often considered the most
important all-around App Store asset, due to the fact
that they appear in search results.
According to SensorTower, nearly 60% of global App
Store downloads come from searches, pretty close
to the figure found by Apple. As the majority of users
discover your app through search, it is important to
understand how screenshots are displayed in search
results.
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INCREASING CONVERSION
Portrait screenshots now show in three tiles on App
Store search results (only the first two screenshots
show in search results in the presence of a preview
video, and screenshots show after the preview video
on the product page), and are second in terms of
impact on conversion rate compared to the app
preview video. If you provide landscape screenshots
or an app preview video, only one tile of screenshots
will show in search results.
Percentage of apps and games with screenshots in portrait mode. Source: AppTweak (2021).
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C A SE STUDY

Screenshot Design

Visual Pop-Off

The pop-off style may prove useful

if you want to zoom in 2-3 times to
highlight parts of an app’s UI that may
be harder to distinguish at a normal
size. The pop-off style can also be used
to draw attention to parts of the screen
that users may otherwise miss; an issue
intensified by the addition of a third
screenshot and smaller overall real
estate in App Store search results.

Tinder’s screenshots on the App Store (December 2021).

Preliminary tips to optimize
your screenshots include:
234
• Connect the first three screenshots with design
or phase elements, like a color gradient or the sun
rising in three parts.
• Use very short captions and large, legible font
styles to ensure your captions are readable in the
small search result size.
• Use visuals that are easy to discern in the smaller
screenshot size (i.e., less complex).
• Save space by adding images alone, rather than
formatting them onto a phone interface.
Afterpay’s screenshots on the App Store (December 2021).
Connected Style
It is likely that use of the connected-
style screenshot rapidly increased with
the addition of a third screenshot, given
the stronger and broader canvas to
convey progression compared to just
two screenshots.
Afterpay combines the connected
screenshot style with text to tell more
of a story than a caption alone. On
smaller screens, the connected style
can be used to boost text size and retain
the use of text as a major component of
the messaging strategy.
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Google Play search for

Snapchat—screenshots show for
brand names in search results.

When creating screenshots for Google Play, it is important to consider

Google Play Screenshots two important facts:

The fact that screenshots (up to eight)

are the last visual element seen on a
Google Play store listing (behind the
icon and feature graphic/promo video)
means that screenshots on Google Play
are less impactful in CRO than on the
App Store. Nonetheless, screenshots
are still the most direct method by
which an app user can preview the
app experience (other than the promo
video), meaning they are still critical to
CRO.
236
Average number of screenshots for apps and games on Google Play.
Source: AppTweak (2021).
1 2
Unlike their App Store counterparts,
Google Play screenshots are not very
visible. To see an app’s screenshots on
Google Play, the user must first go from
the search or Browse results where the
icon is the first visual element to get
to the store listing. The exception to
this is when users search using a brand
name—in this case, the screenshots
also appear in search results.
As a result, Google Play screenshots do
not need to capture a user’s attention;
instead, the main focus should be on
educating the user about the app and
communicating why they should care
about it. In this regard, custom design
is less important for screenshots on
Google Play, and may even backfire.
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C A SE STUDY
Google Play Screenshot
Designs
Custom Backgrounds
Custom background screenshot styles
are one of the safer design styles;
they allow the app to show creativity
while also introducing minimal risk of
obscuring the screenshots themselves.
Alternating Design
If your purpose is to capture attention,
alternating the design or style of each
screenshot does a good job; however, it
also makes screenshots appear busier
and less cohesive which can strike the
wrong chord with an app’s branding.
Additionally, given that Google Play
screenshots are used less to capture
attention, this style of design can
introduce more risks than benefits in
conversion optimization.
238
PicsArt’s screenshots on Google Play (December 2021).
DICE’s screenshots on Google Play (December 2021).
eBay’s screenshots on Google Play (December 2021).
Zillow’s screenshots on Google Play (December 2021).
INCREASING CONVERSION
Connected Style
As previously mentioned, connecting
screenshots is a common approach in
ASO to be able to control messaging
with a larger surface area for text and
design creativity. The downside of
this style is that it may alert users’
sense of being “advertised to” more
than “standard” designs by reducing
the number of images of unique app
features, ultimately reducing users’
confidence to objectively decide
whether the app solves their needs.
Story Style
Zillow takes an innovative approach
by using landscape images to tap into
a larger surface area per screenshot;
thus, the app executes a story-style
screenshot design with longer captions
that don’t also require legibility to be
sacrificed. Zillow also incorporates
a gradient background color to add a
more polished touch.
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Video

App Store
App Preview Video

Compared to screenshots, preview videos offer a

lot more depth to your story as to why users should
consider adding your app to their home screen. If you
have more than one preview video, only the first will
show up alongside the first two screenshots (or only
one landscape video with no screenshots).

Over-Designed Style
As the name implies, this screenshot
style is hardly just a set of images. In
each set, there are minimal screenshots
of a device interface, with screenshots
incorporating more elaborate designs.
While certainly eye-catching, this
screenshot style is also extremely busy
and more likely to turn users off than
showcase the app in a clear and concise Kids Astronomy by Star Walk’s screenshots on Google Play (December
manner. 2021).
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Some best practices for preview videos include:

> In the age of short-form video popularity via TikTok,

Snapchat, and Instagram, it is important to not assume
that users will watch your entire preview video. Make
sure that the most important messages and features
are mentioned as early as possible, that the pace of
the video is not too slow, and that your video uses
animations and cutscenes to hold users’ attention for
as long as possible.

> Add captions to ensure users watching the video

without sound can still read the messages, and use
larger text sizes to ensure captions are legible even in
the smaller search results view.

> Videos are especially common and popular for certain

store categories including Games, Health & Fitness,
and Photo & Video; however, it is not safe to assume that
a preview video will outperform static screenshots for
all apps. Do your research to determine whether or not
to use a video. Use product page optimization (iOS 15)
to assess the conversion rate of using a video vs. not
using one, measure the percentage of apps in your top
keyword/category results to see whether these apps
validate whether users prefer videos to screenshots
only, and assess whether these preferences vary
across countries.

> If your app has one or a couple of highly relevant and

searched for keywords, consider using those keywords
in the captions for visual word recognition. Percentage of apps with an app preview video on the App Store. Source: AppTweak (2021).

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Google Play Promo Video

Videos on Google Play are loaded

into the app’s store listing page via a
YouTube link and can be optimized in a
similar way to on the App Store.

In addition to the previous tips for

iOS promo videos, ASO marketers on
Google Play have the special ability to
leverage YouTube analytics to hone in
on and optimize for drop-off points in
Percentage of games with an app preview video on the App Store. Source: AppTweak (2021). video watch rates.

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Full Description
Most app descriptions include some sort of combination of the
following sections. Try creating each of these sections and testing
different variations/locations in your full description:

Description opening hook General description of the app

Feature Graphic (Google Play

Only)

The feature graphic (a 1024x500 banner) is the app’s

poster frame in the presence of a promo video. Feature
graphics have traditionally been a favorite for CRO on
Google Play, being placed at the top, in a prominent
position on the store listing. In the past, they were an
open canvas with which app developers or marketers The feature graphic is the poster frame of the Opening hook of Spotify’s App Store Flo’s full description on Google Play (2021).
could do what they liked. app’s promo video on the store listing page. description (December 2021).
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Highlight app features App use cases Highlight the target Description of how the app Company administrative
audience works information (privacy,
subscriptions, etc.)

Twitch’s App Store description (2021). Rain Rain’s App Store description (2021). ANTON’s App Store description (2021). Badoo’s App Store description (2021). PictureThis’ App Store description (2021).

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Also consider some of the following A/B-
test-ready ideas for your app’s description
to improve your conversion rate:
• Test changes in font formatting/section headings/
white spacing/content density.
• Add, remove, or change the order of major sections.
• Include social media/support links.
• Use an active voice when describing features and
try adding use cases that resonate with your target
market’s intent. For example, instead of the phrase
“grocery list items,” use the sentence “add items to
your grocery list, like milk, eggs, and bread.”
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App Store Description
The first several lines of your description will be displayed under
your promo text (if set), and before the “more” button.
The first five lines are the most important part of descriptions on
the App Store, but the entire description is also important to a key
subset of potential users. These people are engaged enough to want
to learn more about your app beyond the screenshots or the first five
lines, and some will read the description in its entirety. These people
may be:
1
High-quality users: People who invest As keywords in this metadata element
this much time into deciding what app are not indexed, the main goal of
to download are likely to have a higher description optimization on the App
overall value than the non-branded- Store is to strike the right balance
keyword searcher who hits “download” between effectively conveying your
three seconds into their search. messaging and doing so in the most
concise manner possible. This
difference represents an advantage that
2 an App Store description possesses
Not quite ready to download your app over a Google Play description, as the
if they want to know more beyond what App Store description can be written
has been provided in the screenshots. freely, without the pressure of inserting
Therefore, your description may be keywords to influence rankings.
vital in convincing these users to
download.
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CHAPTER 03
Google Play Full Description
While the Google Play full description is the same
number of characters as on the App Store (4,000),
the full description on Google Play is far more
important for keyword visibility because it is indexed.
A significant advantage of descriptions on the Play
Store for CRO centers around text formatting.
Developers can use rich formatting (HTML) to make
their Google Play full description stand out from the
crowd in searches and on the app page. For example,
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Promotional Text (App
Store Only)
When present, the 170-character
promo text is displayed above the
first several lines of the App Store
description and can be edited without
submitting new app versions. While
screenshots usually earn the most
focus in CRO, don’t forget that all users
who visit your app’s product page will
also see your promo text.
Use promo text to offer information
that gets users even more excited about
your app, such as upcoming features,
special pricing, or other time-sensitive
messages.
the Boomerang app reported a 16% conversion uplift
after formatting its Google Play description. While we
haven’t often seen these high conversion uplifts after
optimizing the description, we have seen conversion
increases after making clever use of rich formatting.
You can also use rich formatting to emphasize the
structure of your description by accentuating chapter
headings, for instance.
INCREASING CONVERSION
What’s New
Similar to the number and type of
languages an app supports, an app
with a steady update history can be a
major signal of quality, not just by the
cadence of the updates but also by the
care put into wording each “what’s
new” update. On the App Store, each
“what’s new” is also logged in the app’s
version history, providing users with
a look into what the app developers
spent time addressing in each version.
A version history filled with bug
fixes tells the story of an app that is
probably less valuable and problem-
prone than an app with a rich history of
feature additions and other significant
improvements.
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App Store What’s New

Try some of these tactics to get
the most out of your “what’s
new” text:
• Explain the new functionality that was added and why people
should care.
• If possible, explain what issues were fixed in “bug fixes.” If you
fixed a bug that many users were pained by, communicate that a
major issue was addressed.
On the App Store, the “What’s New” section occupies a location
that is likely to be read by inquisitive users. It can indicate the
development team’s activity to show users how often the team
cares enough about the app to make improvements (along with the
version history, which is a catalog of prior entries in the “What’s
New” section). On the App Store, “What’s New” can also be updated
without requiring an app update. This section is displayed in the
“Updates” section of the App Store, and can easily be read by users
who have downloaded your app.

• Comfort new and existing users alike by affirming your

commitment to them (communicate a specific update frequency
if you have one).

• Offer appreciation to the people that use your app.

• Add funny or witty comments—they might even go viral! For an

example, conduct a Twitter search for “Medium iOS update” to
see how the Medium app manages its “what’s new” text and has
its messages shared online.

• Be clear and concise. Use as few words as possible to focus users’ Duolingo’s What’s New (2021).
attention on what matters.
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Developer Name
For companies with existing brand awareness, the
developer name can be a way to increase conversion
rates by leveraging brand equity. Additionally, a well-
chosen developer name can entice people to tap
through and view the developer’s other apps. While
the developer name is very difficult to change once set
on the App Store, it is very easy to change on Google
Play.

Google Play What’s New Beware

The “What’s New” section on Google Play is not
indexed for keywords and only appears on listings
for users who have already downloaded the app. As a
result, this element is one of the least important for
CRO on Google Play.
The “What’s New” section on Google
Play appears just above the short
description for users who have already
downloaded the app.
For smaller developers who use their personal
accounts to distribute an app on the App Store, this
personal account may be less trusted by the store
than a strong brand.
One tip to leverage your developer name for CRO is to
consider the pros and cons of adding a legal business
entity type to the developer name. For example, a
GmbH is internationally less familiar than an LLC/
Inc.

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App Store Developer Page
Developer pages on the App Store do not offer
much control in terms of optimization; however,
the most recently updated apps appear at the top of
the developer’s complete list of apps. Furthermore,
developer pages that include an arrangement of
the developer’s app icons can appear in branded
searches—above the first organic result but below
Search Ads results.
258
Rovio’s developer page with a custom
background for app types and showcasing of
Rovio’s latest release.
Rovio’s developer page with a custom
background and showcasing of Rovio’s
featured app.
INCREASING CONVERSION
Google Play Developer Page
Developer pages on Google Play are not only more
engaging than on the App Store but also entirely
within the developer’s control.
Developers can upload the following elements to their
developer page:
• A header image
• A developer icon
• Promotional text
• An app to feature on the page
On Google Play, optimizing the developer page is
very much in the app developer’s best interest. It can
lead to free cross-promotional downloads as well as
increased credibility among users, which can help
acquire other users’ initial downloads.
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Custom Page Background
(App Store Only)
Apple gives select top developers a bit more creative
freedom to design their App Store pages. These lucky
ones are asked by Apple to provide “product page
art assets” which allow developers to add a feature
graphic and a background color to the app page.
Product Page Art Asset Needed
Apple requests that these selected developers:
Please provide evergreen artwork with generic elements
for your app’s product page. Include a title treatment/
logo within the file that is scalable both up and down as a
Photoshop ‘Smart Object.’ Please note that the primary
background color in your featuring art template will
match the product page color.
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INCREASING CONVERSION
diet
Visual Word Recognition A Google Play keyword search for “diet.” Each app plays on some
form of connection with the keyword “diet,” either in the icon
imagery, developer name, or the app title.
Taking a step back from assets, let’s return to the
concept of visual word recognition, a very important
concept for CRO.
Your app’s visibility is made up by many individual
impressions across the app stores as a whole, from
featuring spots to the top charts, to keyword search
results and product page views. Yet, for most apps,
the majority of organic visibility and downloads come
from a handful of high-volume, high-rank keywords.
Optimizing your app’s conversion rate for your top
opportunity keywords is low-hanging fruit and often
an easy way to unlock more downloads with minimal
effort.
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CHAPTER 03
The first step in optimizing your app for top keywords
is actually identifying your top keywords, as outlined
in Chapter 2: Increasing Visibility. Optimizing for
these top keywords doesn’t have to be a standalone
strategy that replaces your branding or other
messaging. The goal is to use keywords that people
are searching for and looking to see whether your app
provides a relevant answer/solution, in the same way
that dynamic ads in AdWords work to improve click-
through rate (CTR).
Your job in ASO is to present the user with a silver
platter response highlighting that your app is the
best solution to their need; using the same language
through which the user found your app is a great way
to do just that.
262
C A SE STUDY
Visual Word Recognition
With Keepsafe
The photo locker app Keepsafe offers
a case study highlighting the role of
visual assets in visual word recognition
optimization.
Here, we see that the top keywords
for Keepsafe include “photo locker,”
“private photos,” and “album vault.”
We also see that these keywords are
included across the app’s screenshot
captions as well as in a prominent
position in the text description. By
taking this simple action, Keepsafe
INCREASING CONVERSION
increases its chances of capturing
searcher attention and immediately
assures store visitors that Keepsafe is a
relevant app for their needs.
Compare this approach with that of
“burying the lead”— forcing users to sift
through other, less relevant descriptive
keywords that don’t relate as directly to
the user’s keyword search (i.e., negative
content weight from the “Research”
step of the CRO Loop).
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Different pricing models

have different levels of
friction in conversion.

Revenue Model
Beyond the frame of store assets, we also see that
the revenue model employed by your app can have a
significant influence on your conversion rate. Pro Tip
Paid apps can test lowering their prices as part of time-
In addition to considering the pros and cons of each limited discounts; this is an easy and temporary way to
main revenue model from a business standpoint, also increase both downloads and your app’s ranking while
consider the pros and cons from a conversion rate and leaving the app’s expected price point unaffected.
conversion eligibility standpoint.

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In-App Purchases (App Store Only)
Let’s return to the discussion of assets with in-app
purchases.
In-app purchases (IAPs) are very important in
both KWO and CRO, given that up to 20 IAPs
can be promoted on an app’s product page and in
search results, alongside the app’s icon, name, and
description.
On Google Play, in-app purchases do not show on app
pages and thus have little impact on CRO.
• The IAP name can be up to 30 characters.
• The IAP description can be up to 45
characters.
• The IAP icon should be a 1024x1024 PNG
or JPEG file.
266
Best practices when optimizing your IAPs
for CRO include:
Create an IAP icon that is appealing, understandable
as a visual description, and able to convince users to
continue reading about the IAP or the app itself, just
like the regular app icon.
Use the right name—it should be descriptive and
appealing enough to convince users to buy or read
more, just like the app title.
Add a description which must explain the value
proposition and use case of the in-app purchase, just
like the app description but with 99% fewer words.
Screenshot of Picsart’s in-app purchase result
in search results.
INCREASING CONVERSION
Promoting In-App Purchases
You can choose to promote up to 20 IAPs on your
product page at a time, with additional IAPs approved
and ready to promote. This gives you the flexibility
to adapt the IAPs on your product page at any time
based on your business needs—for example, if you’re
planning to launch a limited-time price promotion or
offer exclusive content.
Try using the most popular keywords that relate to
the IAP in its description to increase visual word
recognition. You can also try using bite-sized data
points that help users understand why their experience
using your app will be better after unlocking your IAP.
For example, try implementing social proof (e.g., real
figures indicating how often people buy that IAP), a
comparison of what the IAP provides compared to
normal app use (e.g., “100x more gems than in a typical
day”), or indicate that the IAP has been featured on
the App Store (if applicable).
Pro Tip
Your app’s icon will always inhabit the bottom left-
hand corner of your IAP icon, so ensure it’s okay to
obscure any imagery in the bottom left-hand corner
of your IAP icon.
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Bumble’s IAPs are all named the same while some of Tinder’s IAPs have more descriptive names.

C A SE STUDY

Naming In-App Purchases

Here, we see a text-based example

of a more and less descriptive set of
IAPs for two competing apps: Tinder
and Bumble. While Bumble doesn’t
differentiate between its IAP names,
Tinder allows users to understand
more about what each purchase is, just
by looking at the name. That said, not
all of Tinder’s IAP names are clear and
descriptive, also requiring users to be
familiar with terms such as “super like”
or “boost.”
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Step 5

Testing:
Running A/B Tests In this section, we will cover a few different

& Experiments
ways to run your A/B tests. First, consider
these tips:
When creating a test, be sure to use a homogeneous
context/cohort to ensure that differences in
performance are a result of the test variations, rather
than differences between the users viewing the test
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
variants. For example, run experiments in only one OS
or country, as users of each OS or from each country
After creating elements loaded with the right are likely to have unique reactions.
messaging and imagery, it’s time to set up a
test to see how your hypothesis and assets Try not to test too many changes at once—this can
confuse you in matching a change to its corresponding
performed against your expectations. performance outcome (e.g., was it the color, visual,
text, or symbols that produced the outcome?).

Be careful not to end tests early or without enough

data. Often, test results may begin by favoring one
variant, only to shift to another variant and ultimately
declare the latter as the winner. If you cannot afford
This step in the conversion optimization process should be approached with caution and care; to drive enough traffic to run a statistically significant
if you don’t set a test up properly, your results may be contaminated, offer low confidence levels, test, be cautious when applying the results.
yield inconclusive or false-positive results, and/or generally mislead you when identifying the
best conversion decisions to make. Are you running any paid campaigns that might affect
your results? The changes in your paid campaigns
could attract different user segments. As user
Running an A/B test 1. Organize your assets into test variations. preferences change, the results will also skew towards
involves three steps: this new group of users.
2. Drive people to your test and split them into similarly structured
samples. Is it Christmas already? Valentine’s Day? Seasonality
can drastically change the results of your tests based
3. Determine when your test has produced statistically significant on the service you provide. Make sure you plan your
results, or when you are otherwise confident in the results. After tests for a time you are confident there won’t be any
this step, you can move onto the final step of the CRO Loop: unusual uplifts or drops to get the most accurate
Analyzing the results. result possible.
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Average number of A/B tests conducted by the top 100 apps on Google Play (January 1, 2021 -
August 31, 2021).
Testing Bold Things
Vs. Incremental Changes
One of the best ways to make significant conversion
rate gains via A/B testing is to test big, bold changes
with each variation (e.g., trying a completely different
app icon) over incremental changes (e.g., changing
the size of the app icon or adding a small element to
the bottom right-hand corner). However, making a
habit of testing bold changes does not come without
its concerns.
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INCREASING CONVERSION
Pros of bold A/B testing: Cons of bold A/B testing:
Easier to uncover big gains by trying For Google Play experiments, bold
novel approaches that may work better A/B testing can negatively impact
than the current iteration. regular performance if the test variants
perform worse. Test with a lower
Keeps your app listing fresh by percentage of traffic when trying bold
experimenting with the latest trends changes to mitigate potentially negative
(e.g., animated device designs) to fend test results.
off the stagnation that can arise from
keeping an app listing the same for Often requires significant extra
months or years. resources (e.g., design) to execute, with
unknown payoffs.
Facilitates brainstorming, research,
and discovery that can benefit If the changes are very bold and very
other areas of development/design/ different (i.e., many material changes),
marketing beyond the app listing. it can be difficult to diagnose what
aspect of the change caused the
Changes are easier to spot for users and performance variation.
therefore more likely to lead to large
performance variations outside of the Bold testing requires more effort to
margin of error, meaning bold A/B tests queue up new variations for future A/B
tend to deliver conclusive and reliable testing.
results faster.
The pros and cons of incremental changes are essentially the inverse of those for
bold A/B testing, as testing incremental changes allows for an easier interpretation
of results and more scaling opportunities (for instance, validating one simple
hypothesis in a specific country often leads to testing the same hypothesis in other
countries); however, it also tends to uncover smaller gains and the results land
easier within the test margin of error.
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Testing Combinations of Changes
In some cases, you may want to try
testing a group of changes at once, such
as a complete revamp of your entire
store listing.
While it is a best practice to test one
thing at a time, testing a combination
of changes has its benefits, such as
having a higher chance of producing a
statistically significant test outcome
or creating an improvement where the
sum of the parts is greater than the
parts individually, as in the case studies
on cohesive messaging.
In this case, it is important for
analysis purposes to track exactly
what you change and ensure you have
a hypothesis or reason as to why each
change should improve performance.
This exercise will also help you ensure
that each change is well-founded
2 74
and makes sense when taken as a
whole, rather than combining several
individually good ideas that may not
match well.
If possible, you should continue testing
to see whether you can uncover the
effects of individual changes and
increase your overall confidence. Try
reverting each of the changes to see
whether the results lead to similar or
worse results to uncover insights for
further tests.
If your test is a success, celebrate it!
But do not consider a negative result
as a complete failure; it can still help
you better understand what customers
(don’t) respond well to. As long as your
tests are founded in research and set
up to help you continue iterating your
optimizations, you are making good
progress.
Running Tests via Google Play
experiments
The Google Play experiments engine is one of the best
and most common A/B testing tools for ASO. Not only
do Google Play experiments use actual store traffic
(making the test non-biased compared to tests a user
has been led to after engaging with an ad), but they are
also free to use, provide insights about D1 retained
installers, calculate a statistically significant winner,
and make applying variants extremely easy to do.
However, some of the major disadvantages are that
Google Play A/B test results do not necessarily
reflect results on the App Store—in addition to user
differences between each platform, the stores’ search
UX and app listings are also significantly different—
use only a 90% confidence interval as a bar for
statistical significance (whereas industry standards
set the bar at 95%), and do allow for the selection or
INCREASING CONVERSION
disclosure of sampling methods, meaning random
sampling of traffic might create an imbalance between
the traffic sources in each sample and lead to false-
positive results.
Therefore, a solution to flag potential false positive
and true positive results when using Google Play
experiments is to create “A/B/B tests,” as suggested
by Simon Thillay during the 2020 ASO Conference.
Repeating the new variant for two different samples of
the same test will lead to mostly similar results across
both B samples for true positive results, whereas
diverging results between both B samples would
suggest gains or losses in conversion are more likely
the fruit of sampling differences than a consequence
of how users react to the new variant.
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Pro Tip
Don’t forget to consider the impact
of weekly and yearly seasonality or
attempt to speed through testing—
make sure to let your A/B tests run for at
least a week, especially if you’re testing
more than one variant. For example, in
the case of Google Play experiments,
performance can often start one way
and flip over time as uninstall/active
user data is collected. Furthermore,
if you run more variants, the traffic
the variant receives will come from
different sources of your total traffic
(e.g., keywords) which changes over
time, meaning that performance can
swing from day to day rather than
demonstrate the variant’s true impact
on performance.
2 76
Running Tests on the App Store
Experimentation is not that straightforward on the
App Store. ASO practitioners have long relied on
third-party fake landing pages or before-and-after
tests (also known as sequential analyses) to get some
understanding of user preferences. Creative Sets in
Apple Search Ads were probably the most popular
option before Apple rolled out its native A/B testing
tool on the App Store, the long-awaited product page
optimization with iOS 15.
INCREASING CONVERSION
Running Tests via Product Page Optimization
(after iOS 15)
After years of anticipation, Apple released its own
testing tool for app publishers to A/B test different
assets and make confident decisions based on the
results. Product page optimization is a helpful tool
for ASO practitioners to understand the impact of
different page elements on conversion rates on the
App Store.
The feature was released on October 27th, 2021, and
gives ASO specialists the chance to test all visual assets
(icons, screenshots, and preview videos). Testing up to
4 variations is allowed—1 current variation and 3 new
variations—and developers are able to split audiences
based on the number of variations being tested, pretty
similar to on Google Play.
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Running Tests via Third-Party A/B
Testing Tools
Third-party A/B testing tools offer more control over
A/B testing parameters, provide more data on user
behavior, and can be used for App Store listings and
even search result pages.
Nonetheless, third-party tools can be expensive and
require developers to drive traffic from third-party
sources to the experiment, which may skew test
results by harboring different install intents than live
App Store traffic. Third-party A/B testing tools will be
covered later in this e-book, but the main A/B testing
tools include:
278
INCREASING CONVERSION
Other Ways to Run A/B Tests
In addition to running an actual A/B 1
test, there are a few other methods to Before being replaced by custom product pages in
experiment on a store listing: January 2022, using Creative Sets in Apple Search
Ads allowed developers to “A/B test” creatives by
changing the order of screenshots and videos in the
gallery that appears in the ad placement of iOS search
results. With few users scrolling to the end of an app’s
creative gallery on the store product page, Creative
Sets were a nice hack to test which screenshots or
videos (three portraits or one landscape) to display
first; however, this method was limited to screenshots
and videos only. Furthermore, sampling was limited to
paid search traffic and test results could be biased by
the inherent propensity of users exposed to a Creative
Set to download the app based on their initial search
query. For instance, the performance of a Creative
Set in converting people that searched for your app’s
brand name could not be compared to the conversion
SplitMetrics rate of generic keywords, as people searching for your
Good breadth of product (e.g., provides app tend to be inherently more likely to download
Search Ads A/B tests). it than people finding it through a generic keyword
search.
Storemaven 2
Premium product suited for larger apps with By running ads, such as Facebook Ads or Google
larger creative departments. Universal App Campaign. While the results will
not be nearly as reliable as a true A/B test, ads can
allow you to test different messaging, text, and visual
creatives, and are useful to provide research and
direction for future A/B test variations.
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3
By running a country-by-country experiment (i.e.,
by pushing new screenshots live in Australia but not
in the US) and comparing the conversion rates after.
4
Experimentation can also be done by simply pushing a
change live with a new app version and measuring the
impact on performance before and after. While this is
a riskier approach and takes more time to potentially
reverse on the App Store than on Google Play (by
way of the approval process), live testing is the most
surefire method to ensure test results yield a positive
outcome. When measuring performance changes
pre- and post-update, it’s important to take several
precautions to ensure the most accurate analysis:
• Use the same period to compare performance
(e.g., the same number of days before and after
the change, such as the Monday-Sunday before
and the immediate Monday-Sunday following the
change) to try and ensure performance differences
are not due to trends in seasonality.
• Do not make any other changes to your app
listing or keywords that could cause noise when
analyzing the impact of your experiment.
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INCREASING CONVERSION
Pro Tip
When testing changes to your default
app store page, be careful when
analyzing test results whereby a
share of the audience may come from
various countries and not only from
the intended locale that also serves
as a default. For instance, developers
testing changes on their English-US
page might experience traffic from
Europe or Asia skewing test results if
the English-US page is set as the default
global language for their app. Changing
the default country or using custom
store listings on Google Play are the
two main available options to avoid this
issue.
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Step 6

Reporting
& Analyzing

K E Y TA K E AWAY S

Learn how to accurately report on and analyze Reporting may then produce the data
the results of your CRO work, considering showing that, in this example A/B test, a
blue background has a 22% conversion
fundamental store metrics and KPIs. rate, while your control white
background has a 20% conversion rate.
The analysis would take this data one
step further to focus on the actionable
outcome of the data produced in the
report. Below are a few entirely different,
yet entirely logical, conclusions that
could be drawn based on the analysis of
the prior report.
However, be aware that while reporting
(data) is inherently objective, analysis
(insights) is subjective—it depends on
the conclusions drawn by the person
interpreting the analysis.

Conclusions

After your test is complete comes possibly the most For example, while your hunch may be that “changing 01. 02. 03.
important, yet oftentimes tedious, part of managing the icon’s background color to blue will succeed in The test improved The test did not produce 10% is not a great enough
a CRO strategy: Reporting and analysis. Reporting driving more traffic” and may lead to a full store listing conversion rate by 10% a statistically significant increase
produces data—the raw input—and analysis spins update without you running a test, a data-driven difference in conversion
that data into insights. These days, data is the best decision could involve running an A/B test with 25% Recommendation rate due to not being based Recommendation
way to make decisions compared to the hunch-driven of your total store traffic to confirm whether this is Apply the test on enough traffic Try another test
decision-making of the older, “Mad Men”-esque era of the case, before making a decision that affects 100% of
marketing. This is because data is objective and less your store traffic. Recommendation
prone to bias or other factors that can skew analyses Continue testing to reach
and resulting decisions. a statistically significant
sample size

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After applying the results of an A/B test to

While not implementing the results of this test may
not cause harm (given the information, it will likely
not result in a performance change), it does represent
an opportunity cost of trying something else.
At the same time, implementing the results of a test
with a poor analysis may indeed be harmful; for
instance, if the analysis failed to consider the full
picture (e.g., applying an icon change that started very
positively due to a high install rate, but ended up very
negative due both to a poor retention rate and having
initially sampled a set of high-converting users).
Thankfully, A/B testing tools take most of the heavy
lifting out of measuring test results. When running
a test on a third-party tool, look out for a variant’s
chance to outperform the control or the result in
Google Play listing experiments or the App Store’s
product page optimization. Keep in mind that while
other metrics, such as scroll depth, time-to-tap
installs, or total time on page may be interesting, the
ultimate goal for an A/B test should be to earn more
installs as a percentage of total eligible visits.
284
your live store listing, be sure to measure
the results of the report. Tips for measuring
results include:
Beware
Changes to your marketing efforts can
introduce noise when analyzing the
efficacy of your CRO activities. Try to
minimize other activities that can also
impact your CRO. If this is not possible,
mark the periods where noise is to be
expected and draw performance data
from other periods to reduce the impact
of noise in your analysis.
Report on the conversion rate before and after making
the change to your listing, and determine whether the
expected test results held true once applied. However,
be aware that performance report data may lag by
several days, and changes may also take some time to
be fully executed.
Report on changes in your app’s performance against
trends in conversion rate benchmarks to make sure
your test has outperformed the benchmark, rather
than just improving results in an upmarket.
Don’t only report on changes in your app’s installs but
also in your chosen downstream KPI. While KWO is
more likely to change your KPI’s performance than
CRO, it is possible that acquiring more or fewer
downloads from a particular subset of your listing
visitors can also cause your KPI levels to change. Keep
your KPI at the top of your mind when analyzing any
marketing optimizations.
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If you report on your A/B test
and see no change or a declining
performance, you may consider one
of a few options:
286
01.
Neutral results
02.
Results that begin significantly
negative, but gradually improve
03.
For results that show a sustained,
declining performance, take one of
the following actions:
INCREASING CONVERSION
Wait for more data to see whether a positive or negative performance
is revealed before making a decision.
Wait to see whether the performance continues improving to a
positive point before disrupting the change you implemented. If
performance worsens, take defensive actions.
Revert to the prior control
While being the safest and perhaps most appealing option, reverting
to the control is not always guaranteed to immediately revert
performance to its prior levels, as your app’s visibility is based on
historical data so the most recent poor performances will also affect
the performance of the control variant.
Run another test
Run another test based on the latest insights and push significant
budget to this test to quickly garner enough data to make a confident
decision. The risk here is that it is not guaranteed the new test will
produce better results, and these will take some time to produce,
during which time your performance will remain low. Choose this
option if you learned something significant in the latest attempt.
Apply the next-best variant
The risk here is that the likelihood this variant will outperform is
lower than the currently underperforming variant, so only take this
route if the next-best variant also tested well.
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Pro Tip
Consider the fact that negative test
results can be a good sign: With
significantly poor performances, you
uncover something that has a significant
impact on your overall performance. By
process of elimination, you can work
your way up to a change that produces
a positive impact! Lower significance
intervals can cause lower confidence
in test results, so seek high significance
intervals and large performance
changes for best results.
288
After applying the results of an A/B
test, be sure to measure performance to
ensure that the performance yield has
improved. When uncertain about the
reliability of a successful test, running
a B/A test can also help increase
confidence in the outcome (testing the
prior winner/control against the newly
applied winner).
INCREASING CONVERSION
For the local marketplace app 5miles, our research
involved several different threads of insights:
C A SE STUDY On 5miles’ Google Play listing, we first
realized that the traditional caption style of
CRO with 5miles one or two sentences on top of screenshots
underperformed screenshots without any
caption at all; however, we also saw that one
competitor had made use of a caption style
that blended captions into the screenshots
themselves.
We saw strong trends in products that
were listed very frequently on the 5miles
marketplace. We hypothesized that the
products shown in the screenshots would
have a strong impact on performance if linked
to such frequently posted products on the
5miles marketplace.
We drew a conclusion based on competitor
research that people in buy/sell mode wanted
captions focused on features that help them
to buy or sell faster/easier, rather than more
generic branding or social proof.
One of 5miles’ new screenshot test variants.
With this information, we set up a series of progressive
A/B tests on Google Play experiments to test several
new caption styles, caption text, and photos focusing
on different popular products sold on 5miles. The
result was a brand-new screenshot style that was not
only successful on Google Play but also on the App
Store!
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CHAPTER 03 INCREASING CONVERSION

Reporting on Conversion Rate

Optimization

When considering how to measure the impact of

your CRO efforts, the best numbers to consider are
naturally ratios and relative data points, as CRO is
about improving your app’s efficiency.

KPI
Metric Impressions to downloads conversion rate (App Store)
Impressions to product page views click-through rate OR Store Listing Visitors to Store Listing Acquisitions
(App Store only) conversion rate (Google Play)

For apps on the App Store, this
top-of-funnel metric is mainly useful
to understand the ability of your app
preview video in encouraging store
visitors to take a deeper look. This
can help you determine how well your
app preview video does at drawing
users deeper into your product page;
however, because a product page view
does not always generate an install, this
should just be considered as a metric
and secondary to an install-related KPI.
Beware
Changing both keywords and your
app’s store listing at the same time can
make it difficult to determine whether
a change in product page view CTR
or install conversion rate happened
because of your new keyword mix or
because of your CRO changes. Try to
keep either your visibility or conversion
stable when making a change, and only
change one CRO element at a time for
best measurement confidence.
This fundamental ratio KPI for
measuring CRO performance revolves
around the (unique) visitor to install
conversion rate on the App Store or
Google Play. Making improvements to
your listing is ultimately done with the
goal of increasing the chance that each
visitor (most accurately measured by
impressions or store listing visitors)
will decide to install your app.
Make sure to measure the conversion
rate per source level: Search and Browse
(App Store) or Explore (Google Play).
Keep two important factors in mind
when reporting on your conversion
rate:
1. Shifts in impressions or store
listing visitors can also cause
changes to your conversion rate,
independent of your CRO efforts.
For example, changing keyword
rankings due to competition
changes, algorithm updates, or
seasonality can all affect your
conversion rate independent of
any change on your store listing.

2. Because users can download apps

directly from search results on
the App Store, this is the lowest
common denominator when
measuring conversion rate.
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CHAPTER 03
KPI
Product page views to downloads conversion rate
(App Store)
While the impressions conversion
rate is the best metric to measure
the performance of your CRO efforts
overall, to measure changes that
only affect your product page on the
App Store, it is necessary to measure
the product page view to downloads
conversion rate. Elements that
relatively affect your product page
view conversion rate include your
promotional text, description, forth
screenshot and onwards, What’s New,
the app info (awards, chart, size, etc.),
as well as the header image on your
app’s product page, your promoted in-
app purchases, and the bundle the app
is included in.
292
When measuring the product page view
to downloads conversion rate, be aware
that any advertising efforts directing
users to your product page will skew
this conversion rate ratio more than the
impressions to downloads conversion
rate.
Beware
Your app may have a higher number of
downloads than product page views,
as users can directly install your app
from search results. Therefore, it is
recommended to use the impressions
conversion rate instead of the page
views conversion rate.
INCREASING CONVERSION
App Store conversion rate shown in the App Analytics dashboard. Source: App Store Connect.
KPI
Installs
The classic metric for measuring the impact of
visibility improvements is also an important KPI
to measure CRO success. While install conversion
rate helps measure efficiency, the ultimate goal of
ASO revolves around increasing install volume. Over
time, not only will improvements in CRO raise your
conversion rate, but also the number of installs your
app receives. As a result, keyword rankings can be used
to point to the success of CRO; as your app climbs up
the rankings by converting more visitors into users,
it also earns more favorable organic rank placements
from the keyword algorithm.
In the metrics view in the App Store Connect “App
Analytics” dashboard, Apple uses a gray line to
indicate when app or iOS updates occur, helping you
hone in more quickly on the right dates.
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CHAPTER 03 INCREASING CONVERSION

KPI
Google Play conversion rate vs. peers

Google Play’s conversion rate vs. peers is a great

quality signal to determine how your performance
stacks up to the competition. The benchmark reflects
“the difference between your app’s conversion rate for
the selected time period and your peers’ median,” and
you can select the peer group to compare with. This
can often be more useful than comparing against your
app’s own performance, as ASO is very much involved
in positioning your app against the competition for
better performance. Additionally, as a comparative
data point, the conversion rate benchmark can help
you determine whether your visibility optimization
efforts are likely to bear sustainable fruit or not, as
a low conversion rate will cause your visibility to
decline over time.

The simplest method of reporting on CRO

performance (or visibility improvements) is to create
a weekly/monthly log of store performance data and
use this historical data as your benchmark.

By using benchmarks for “normal data,” you can also

create a system that saves analysis time by indicating
whether performance is normal on a daily, weekly,
monthly, and yearly basis, or whether something is
off and requires a deeper review. Abnormalities in
performance uncovered by reporting can also raise
a red flag for issues related to factors outside of your
direct control, such as identifying potential issues in
ratings/reviews or shifts in competitors or the store Google Play conversion rate vs. peer data
algorithm. (app name and category data removed).
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CHAPTER 03 INCREASING CONVERSION

Reporting on CRO
You can also use data from the App Store Connect
and Google Play Console to correlate with keyword
metadata and conversion rate optimization changes,
affirm or debunk your hypotheses, and inform future
hypotheses. As an example, given the graph below, you
see changes in conversion rate and would like to make
sure that this uplift was caused by your screenshot
updates.

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CHAPTER 03 INCREASING CONVERSION

The successful screenshot update should cause an immediate uplift in conversion

rate while impressions remain stable. However, it is important to note that
seasonality factors and external noise would not be removed from a paired t-test,
so it is also important to make sure you do not compare periods also influenced by
offline campaigns, PR, and so on.

An easy, simple, and common way to

do so is to conduct a causal impact
analysis, comparing the average volume
of influenced metrics right before and
after the changes are implemented. By
using a paired t-test, you can compare
the data differences before and after for
each subject, thus accounting for user
behavior throughout the week. When
computing data, it is important to
have a good length of time for both the
baseline and influenced periods: at least
two weeks = two cycles. For instance,
Use of an ASO tool can help you measure the impact of your ASO efforts and other factors on your
the example above compares app units
downloads and category rankings. Source: AppTweak.
(downloads) and impressions from Oct
24th (Sat) to Nov 6th (Fri), and Nov 7th
(Sat) to Nov 20th (Fri).

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CHAPTER 03 INCREASING CONVERSION

Portfolio Approach
Optimizing Against Your Other Apps

Developers with multiple apps on the App Store or Google Play possess a unique There is also an important caveat to be
opportunity to optimize against their portfolio, generate applicable learnings that aware of when optimizing against apps
can benefit all apps, and thus produce a self-virtuous growth of knowledge. targeting different types of users: The
learning outcomes will always carry
Even if the apps exist in different categories and cater to different target users, the risk of being influenced primarily
there are still many mutually beneficial tests and learnings that can be discovered by user intent, rather than the test you
using the portfolio optimization approach, such as: have run. To overcome this, you should
test your learnings against the app you
• Testing the impact of different • Probing nuances of how the keyword want to apply it to before doing so, to
general screenshots or app preview and top chart ranking algorithms ensure that the hypothesis holds true.
video designs (e.g., screenshot on operate via standardized tests.
a real phone interface, screenshot Along these lines, you can also test for
on an animated phone profile, • Testing different messaging learnings of one app across the App
screenshot only). styles for IAPs (e.g., use case vs. Store and Google Play; but again, be
straightforward description vs. sure to test the learnings on the other
• Testing the structure and layout of data points). platform before assuming they will
your description. hold true.

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CHAPTER 04

Localization &
Seasonality
CHAPTER 04 LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y

Introduction to
Localization

K E Y TA K E AWAY S

Address a global In 2019, Deezer, a French music streaming service, identified
audience through Turkey as its next target market. The company engaged Phiture
and conducted research on this new market and used key findings
localization to create visual- and text-based assets that would speak to relevant
to grow your cultural trends. As a result of its localization efforts, Deezer went
from being an unknown music streaming service to a market leader
audience beyond
in Turkey with the following results:
your initial
geographical base. • 61% uplift in App Store downloads after the first round
of`keyword optimization.
• 53% uplift in Google Play downloads.
• 2% increase in organic conversion rate.
Positive results after localization are not unique to Deezer. In
2014, Soundcloud began localizing keywords in key markets and
experienced a large uplift in downloads, including 376% month-
over-month growth in downloads in Russia and 264% growth in
South Korea.
From these two examples, we can see the high-impact potential of
app localization. Despite this, many apps have not (yet) implemented
localization as a consistent ASO strategy. After conducting an
analysis of the top 20 apps in various categories and markets on the
App Store (2020), it was found that only around 50% of apps had
localized their subtitles, while just a little over 80% had localized
their long descriptions.

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CHAPTER 04 LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y

Percentage of the top 20 apps per category and country with localized subtitles
(App Store). Source: AppTweak, December 2020.

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CHAPTER 04 LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y

Percentage of the top 20 apps per category and country with localized long descriptions (App Store).
Source: AppTweak, December 2020.

308 309
CHAPTER 04
Counting almost 1.5 billion speakers around the
world, English is often perceived as the international
language; however, as large as this number seems,
this only represents 20% of the world’s population.
Although certain developed countries, such as France
and Germany, are highly proficient in English, most
users (around 65%) still prefer to search for online
content in their native language and use domestic
keywords to browse the app stores.
The most spoken languages worldwide (native and second language speakers in millions).
Source: Statista, 2021.
310
Even in Australia, store visitors will search for
“pokies” instead of “slot machines.” As such, having
a localized app store presence helps developers
break cultural and linguistic barriers, succeed in new
markets, increase conversion, and boost their chances
of being featured on the store (some local editorial
teams even make app localization a requirement).
LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
In this chapter, we’ll take you through
several important localization topics
that can improve your visibility and
conversion strategies. These include
understanding the mechanisms behind
app store localization, choosing the
languages to localize your app in,
minimum viable translation, and other
localization tips and tricks.
3 11
CHAPTER 04 LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y

Available Languages on the

• On the App Store, you can localize your app in up
App Store & Google Play to 39 languages or locales.
• Google Play supports up to 77 locales
for localization.

“Locales” are the languages (represented by two- You can set one primary locale on both stores (usually
character codes in lower case) matched to a country en-US or en-UK). By doing so, you specify the default
(represented by two-character codes in upper case). locale the store will revert to when users browse the
We use the term “locale” rather than “language” to store in a locale that your app is not localized for.
be able to differentiate between dialects in the same
language; for example, US English appears as “en-US”
while British English appears as “en-UK.”

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CHAPTER 04
Localization on Google Play
If you don’t provide translations for your textual app
metadata on Google Play, users can choose to view
an auto-translated version of your content. Google
automatically translates your app’s short description
and provides a “translate” toggle button in the top
right-hand corner of the page for users who want to
read the long description in their native language.
Google will also automatically index your app for
many keywords in local searches without you having
manually translated your metadata.
314
LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
Beware
While the Google Translate algorithm is constantly
improving, it is not perfect and automated translations
on the Play Store can lead to weird, undesirable
outcomes. This can especially be the case for brands:
If you decide to keep your store presence English-
only, it might be worth checking the quality of the
auto-translations in your core languages and fixing
any errors.
Google’s auto-translate feature will also translate
parts of your keyword corpus. If you rank for “shop
healthy” in English, it is likely that you also rank for
“gezond shoppen” in Dutch, even if you have never
translated or published something in Dutch on the User experience for Google Play’s listing translation (French, Belgium).
store.
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CHAPTER 04 LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y

Localization on the App Store

The App Store is a bit more rudimentary and does
not provide auto-translations. As a result, if you want
users to view your app page in their native language,
you have to manually translate your metadata in the
App Store Connect console for each language you
want your app page to be available in.
More interesting for ASO is that keywords in at least
two locales can be indexed in each App Store territory.
For example, in the United States, the Apple algorithm
will consider the keywords added to the English (US)
and Spanish (MX) app pages when indexing your app.
We ran a few tests using fake keywords, such as
“enuk1201,” for an English (UK) localization and
tracked these keywords across the different App Store
territories to better understand which locales are
indexed in which territory.
Several conclusions were drawn from this test:
• In the United States, apps rank for keywords
included in both the Spanish (MX) and English
(US) app listing.
• With the exception of Canada and the US, apps
globally rank for keywords included in the English
(UK) localization (when English (UK) is set as
the primary locale) or English (US) localization
(when English (US) is set as the primary locale).
• Keywords included in the English (UK)
localization are not indexed in Japan, whereas
keywords in English (US) are.
• Keywords in English (UK) seem to be indexed in
Australia and New Zealand in the absence of an
English (AU) localization.

It is also worth noting that, at the time of this book’s
publication, apps also rank globally—except in Canada
and the US—for English (AU). It is not really clear why
Apple would do this, hence this should be handled
with caution as Apple might reverse this phenomenon
at some point.
ASO experts can take advantage of this multiple locale
indexing and try to rank their app on a wider variety of
keywords.
For example, an app that has a great presence and user
base in the United States but low brand recognition
in Mexico could forgo translating its app listing into
Spanish. Instead, it could include English keywords
in the Spanish (MX) localization. The app would then
rank in the US App Store for the keywords added to
both the English (US) and Spanish (MX) localization.
Indexed and non-indexed languages across different App Store territories for our localization test.
Beware
Keywords are not combined across localizations, meaning that if you
have “learn” only in the English (US) keyword field and “Spanish”
only in the Spanish (MX) keyword field, you will rank for “learn” and
“Spanish” in the US, but not for “learn spanish.”

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CHAPTER 04
Example of a Multi-Index
Localization Strategy
Let’s imagine that you develop a food recipe app
supporting a variety of meals from vegetarian dishes
to meaty BBQ dinners. The app is in English, and its
core market is the United States.
Incorporating so many recipes makes it difficult to
add every relevant keyword to your app’s 30-character
title, 30-character subtitle, and 100-character
keyword field. This is where a multi-index localization
strategy comes into play.
The first step is adding the most relevant and searched
for keywords to the app’s English (US) metadata:
Example of a multi-index
localization strategy.
318
Next, add other relevant English keywords to the app’s Spanish (MX) keyword
field; you could even include English keywords in the Spanish (MX) title and/or
subtitle to target even more English keywords.
Above, we see that the most relevant Spanish keywords
have been added to the title and subtitle. However,
other recipes US users might look for have also been
added to the keyword field, in English. We also see that
the keyword “recipes” was repeated in the Spanish
(MX) keyword field despite already being included
in the US metadata. This allows the app to target
the long-tail keyword “salmon recipes” as keyword
combinations are restricted to singular locales. As
such, if the keyword “recipes” had only been added to
the English (US) metadata and “salmon” only to the
Spanish (MX) metadata, the app would only rank for
the individual keywords “recipes” and “salmon,” but
not the for the combination “salmon recipes.”
LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
Example of a multi-index
localization strategy.
While this practice is frowned upon by Apple, so far, no
rejections from Apple have been publicized. However,
in general, it is best to (at least) localize the title and
subtitle to appeal to local users. Even if your app is
not available in Mexico, keep in mind that the large
Spanish-speaking population in the US may be more
likely to search for your app using Spanish keywords.
Nonetheless, if Spanish speakers are not your main
target audience, this methodology can help you rank
for more English keywords in the US.
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CHAPTER 04 LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y

List of App
Store Territories
With Cross-
Localization
Benefits

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CHAPTER 04
How to Prioritize App
Localizations
There are a lot of languages to
choose from when localizing your
app—so where should you start? Of
course, this depends on your broader
internationalization strategy which
should incorporate many different
factors, such as total addressable
market size, monetization capabilities,
your app genre, and available internal
resources.
322
However, you could also start by
looking at the languages in which your
app is already popular. Consider your
app analytics to see how many new or
active users your app has per language
and country, as well as the markets
from which your app receives the most
downloads and ratings & reviews.
Tracking your competitors and the
markets their apps are localized for can
also indicate favorable markets for your
own app. To go a step further, you could
also look at external data to consider
revenue per market and market growth
rate.
LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
Note: Data broken down
by language is not available
on App Store Connect;
instead, you should base
your localization choices on
statistics broken down by
“territory” or “region.”
Developers often opt to start with FIGS
languages (French, Italian, German, and
Spanish): These languages are considered
top choices for app localization as they
reach a wide range of potential users
in mature markets with high shares of
revenue and purchasing powers. Recently,
Portuguese and Russian (FIGS PR) have
gained a lot of interest in addition to
FIGS languages. As for Asian studios,
these typically start localization efforts
for Asian languages—CJK in particular
(Chinese, Japanese, and Korean).
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CHAPTER 04 LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y

The
Localization
Process
K E Y TA K E AWAY S

An impactful app localization strategy goes

beyond simple translations.
Discover the different steps that constitute
a strong localization process.

The localization process consists of four levels:

minimum viable localization (MVL), localization
of metadata, culturalization of creatives, and
culturalization of in-app content.

The steps essential to app localization.

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CHAPTER 04
Minimum Viable Localization
(MVL)
An MVL is the first level in the app localization process
and the minimum you can do to gain initial traction
in visibility and conversion. It consists of translating
your app’s metadata, description, and keywords into
your target market’s main language and can provide
signals as to whether you should divest or invest in
further localization for that market.
App Store
Automated translations are frowned upon by Apple
as well as by store visitors. Despite this, automated
translations can sometimes be useful when entering
a new market for the first time, which is why they are
referred to as minimum viable translations.
If you do not have much confidence in the quality
of automated translations, you can consider only
applying auto-translations to the App Store keyword
field, as this metadata element is not visible to users.
An auto-translated keyword field will not impact your
conversion but will help your app rank on relevant
keywords in the target market’s primary language.
Some initial localization for keywords using Google Translate.
326
This specific example is interesting as it also
demonstrates why you should be careful when using
Google Translate for visible assets: While the concepts
have been translated correctly, the app-specific
meaning has been lost in translation. For example,
Google provides “Filmredakteur” as a translation of
the keyword “film editor”; however, this translation
actuallyconcerns the job title, not the generic term ,
which you probably wouldn’t know if you didn’t speak
German!
For example, if you wanted to understand whether
a German market would be interested in a movie
recording/editing app, you can start by entering the
main keywords (identified in English) into Google
Translate.
The keyword ‘Filmredakteur’ generates minimal results on the App Store in Germany.
Source: Toaster by Phiture.
Google Play
On the other hand, we would advise against relying
on automated translations on Google Play. By default,
users can already choose to view an auto-generated
translation of your app page (see section “Localization
on Google Play”), and Google automatically indexes
apps for translations of their main keywords.
LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
You should go one step further to research how each
translated keyword will look on the App Store using a
live search or an ASO tool. In the case of the keyword
“Filmredakteur,” we can quickly understand that
not many apps (=2) are trying to optimize for this
keyword. This indicates that users would not typically
search the stores using this keyword, suggesting it is
not an interesting term to target in app metadata.
Adding auto-translated metadata as if they were
professional will not help for keyword indexing and
may only decrease your conversion rate. Therefore,
we would advise you to add professional translations
for the title and short description (at least) as these
are the most visible and impactful elements in terms
of conversion rate. For this, you could use a service
like Gengo.
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Keyword Research &
Localization of Metadata
An MVL is beneficial, but as we saw with
“Filmredakteur,” its effectiveness is limited in terms
of search visibility. To boost your app visibility in a
new market, it is vital to conduct keyword research
and optimize your app for that specific locale.
To do this, you should create a keyword list in the
target language to identify relevant, high-volume,
low-competition search terms to add to your app’s
metadata.
DeepL Translate’s different translations of “recorder” in German and example sentences.
328
Building a keyword list in a foreign language is not easy.
Begin with an initial list of the most relevant keywords
in your app’s default language and use a translation
tool like DeepL Translate to identify the different
translations of each term and the applicability of
each. Let’s look at our previous example of a movie
recording/editing app and the keyword “recorder.” In
this case, the most relevant translation in German is
“Rekorder” (“Blockflöte” is mostly associated with
music and not film).
LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
Be sure to analyze your competitors’ metadata To help you save time and expand your keyword
(especially titles and subtitles/short descriptions) to research, you could again rely on an ASO tool; most
get an idea of the most appropriate relevant keywords have a variety of keyword research tools that can help
for the local market. Another way to find relevant you build a large keyword list in no time.
keywords is to consider the exact autofill suggestions
that Apple displays in the search tab for these
keywords. For example, if the keyword “Filmrekorder”
(film recorder) is one of your focus keywords, your
research should mainly focus on the root keyword
“Film.”
Exact autofill suggestions that Apple displays in the App Store search tab; auto-suggestions are among
the strongest sources of keyword ideas. Source: AppTweak (2021).
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Once you have assembled your list of relevant To complete your keyword research,
search terms in the target language, try to think of you should perform a live search for the
all the possible keyword combinations, including high-volume keywords. This allows you
broad keywords and long-tail keywords (niche to identify the apps that currently rank
keywords). One way to do this is through ASO tools in the search results so you can better
that incorporate “keyword shuffling” features which understand whether these keywords
provide all the high-volume, long-tail combinations of are relevant to your app.
different keywords:

From your final list of relevant German

keywords, you should then select the
keywords you want to target in your
metadata and determine where each
keyword should go (title, subtitle, short
description, keyword field, etc). To make
sure your message is conveyed well, we
recommend having these suggestions
reviewed by a native speaker from
your target country because direct
translations will not suffice.
Keyword shuffler for the terms “Film,” “Filme,” (films) “schneiden,” (editing) “machen,” (making) and “drehen” (shooting). Live search results for “Film schneiden”
Source: AppTweak. (film editing).

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CHAPTER 04
True Localization is
“Culturalization”
Localization does not just mean keyword optimization
but also working on your app’s creatives and in-app
content. This is called “culturalization” and consists
of developing custom app store pages for different
locales based on that specific market’s unique beliefs,
views, and values. This step requires in-depth
research about the local audience—for example, their
preferences/expectations concerning app designs
and simply the way they engage with different apps.
Percentage of apps and games in the top 100 with screenshots localized for different countries
on the App Store. Source: AppTweak.
332
However, the proportion of apps that localize their
creatives varies from country to country. For example,
AppTweak (2021) found that 93% of the top 100 apps on
the Italian App Store had localized their screenshots,
whereas only 64% of apps had done the same on the
Taiwanese App Store. AppTweak also found that 85%
of games had localized their screenshots for Germany,
compared to only 50% of games for Hong Kong.
Here are some elements to keep in mind when
localizing your app’s creative elements:
• Use language that resonates with the local culture
(i.e., slang or other colloquialisms) instead of direct
translations. Many elements, such as cultural and
linguistic nuances (i.e., grammatical structures,
tones, etc.), need to be considered in the translation
process to make sure your message is appropriate for
the target audience.
• Use the correct references and formats in your
graphics and text. Some very important elements to
keep in mind are units of measurement (e.g., miles vs.
kilometers), currencies (e.g., commas vs. periods for
prices), and dates (MM/DD/YYYY in the US vs. DD/
MM/YYYY in Europe).
LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
• When adding captions to screenshots, use a font
that provides full support for the target language
instead of one that doesn’t support the whole
alphabet or characters (especially for non-Latin
languages).
Depending on the language, some fonts read better
than others; for example, the best fonts for Korean
Hangul are Dodum and Nanum due to their high
readability and full support for Korean characters.
Also, fonts may be associated with specific purposes
in different markets. For instance, handwritten
fonts are usually used in Japan for short and sharp
sentences or exclamations, while Gothic fonts are
typically used for normal expressions.
Screenshots for PayPal on the
US App Store incorporate a
$ currency sign and a period
(e.g., $32.77); on the French
App Store, screenshots
incorporate the € sign and
a comma (e.g., 32,77€).
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• Optimize for specific local holidays and seasons. • Follow local trends. For example, adding overlaid
• Use local locations and models in A commonly used practice involves tweaking the text to app icons in Japan can help to mark special
screenshots to make the app feel like it app icon (only possible with custom store listings occasions, milestones, and big updates; including
was made specifically for local users. on Google Play) and/or screenshots (possible with special emojis on app pages in Korea can help to
Google Play’s custom store listings and the App Store’s increase conversion rates.
• Use cultural references specific custom product pages, explained in Chapter 6) to mark
to local audiences. Some colors different seasonal events. For example, to account for
and numbers have contrasting summer in the Southern Hemisphere which falls at
connotations depending on the the same time as winter in the Northern Hemisphere,
country; for example, red is associated many shopping apps tweak their screenshots to reflect
with luck and prosperity in China and is upcoming collections for the different seasons.
therefore incorporated into many local
app creatives.

Screenshots for Tinder on the US and Brazilian App Stores call on

local models and popular names.

• If possible, highlight cultural symbols

and/or architecture (e.g., the Statue of
Liberty or the Eiffel Tower) in creatives.

On Google Play, Google Maps increases its local relevancy in the Different ways games use their icons to mark special occasions on
UK and Spain by adding pictures of well-known buildings. the Japanese App Store.
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• Optimize your store listing

(including the order of screenshots) • If your app offers customer support in a country’s
for features that resonate most local language(s), showcase it! This will motivate
with local users; people in different users to download the app knowing that they will
markets tend to prefer specific app be taken care of if they encounter any difficulties.
features over others. As such, keep
in mind that these preferences • Prompt users for local ratings & reviews, especially
change from market to market if you currently have none. Users are more likely
and be sure to showcase preferred to read reviews left in their own language due to
features on localized listings. heightened relatability.
Babbel’s first App Store screenshot shocases languages differently
in the US (left) compared to France (right). In the US, the app also
showcases the number of subscriptions.

• Keep your original app title to These tips will help with the “culturalization” of your
strengthen your brand—add it app page and make a significant difference—however,
next to localized elements (which culturalization does not stop here. Users might be
could also be your title) to increase disappointed if they discover that the app they just
engagement. For example, in Asian downloaded does not support their local language. As
markets, many games localize their a result, the next step would be to also “culturalize”
title while also keeping the English your in-app content and text.
version either in parentheses or
separated by a dash.
Localization is a continuous process of regular
testing. Conducting in-depth research about a new
market will help you better understand trends and
cultural differences. However, just doing this one
time is not enough! You also need to constantly test
new hypotheses and creative assets (A/B tests) before
they go live on the stores to have a better idea of what
works (and what doesn’t work) in that market and the
elements that resonate most with local store visitors.
Different ways games localize their titles
(App Store, China).

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CHAPTER 04
Custom Store
Pages on
Google Play
When you localize your app store listing, you can
typically only reach users based on their device
language and region preferences. This presents
unique challenges for apps that want to showcase
country-specific elements on their app page; for
example, a food delivery app that is localized for the
French language might want to showcase different
restaurants on its screenshots to users in Belgium vs.
France. Google Play has a solution for this challenge
called “custom store listings.” A detailed description
of store promotional tools can be found in Chapter
6—here, we will reference the feature within a
localization context.
338
LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
Because custom store listings target users based on country, you are
not limited when adapting your message to users in the same region
but from different countries. For example, a special discount offer
only available in France could be presented on a custom store listing
targeting France, whereas promoting this discount on the main
store listing would risk Belgian or Moroccan users seeing it as they
may also be sent to the French-France main listing if their devices
are set to French.
Google’s custom store listings allow developers
to create alternative product pages of their app by
uploading assets and text to be shown to users based
on their store country or app install state (also applies
to pre-registered users). The aim of this feature is
to provide marketers with better accuracy to target
users with specific offers and value propositions.
The French app Heetch localizes its screenshots
for Belgium.
While users in France see maps of Paris (above),
users in Belgium will recognize the streets of
Brussels (below). In its screenshots for France,
Heetch also showcases a shorter average waiting
time (“2 minutes”) and adds terminology more
relevant to Paris (“en ville et en banlieue” =
“in the city and in the [Parisian] suburbs”).
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Additional
Localization
Resources
Localizing your store presence can add
quite a lot of overhead costs—it can
be extremely inefficient to develop an
app at the same time as translating its
content into many languages. Teams
working with a lot of localizations
should automate some of this overhead
by using tools such as Launchmatic
(app screenshot generator) or Crowdin
(cloud-based localization technology).
340
During the 2020 ASO Conference in
Berlin, Ilia Kukharev, Head of ASO at
Aviasales, explained how the brand
has created a seamless flow for 40+
languages with a weekly release cycle
using automated localization on
Crowdin. With this automated process,
the company has been able to reduce
the time needed for translations from
15% to just 1%, saving a lot of valuable
time.
LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
FURTHER READING:
For more specific information on
screenshots, check out Tim Jones’s blog
post: Grow Your App Internationally
with Screenshot Translations, which
explains how to use Launchmatic to
instantly translate app screenshot text
into every single available App Store
and Google Play language.
3 41
CHAPTER 04
Introduction to
Seasonality
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Understand the importance of
(and learn how to benefit from) app
store seasonality when conducting
ASO work.
Where app localization considers the impact of space
on your ASO strategy, seasonality considers the
impact of time. Naturally, user habits and preferences
impact store search behaviors. This can be reflected
in fluctuations in downloads for different apps at
different times of the week, month, or year. As a result,
seasonality refers to the process of updating your app
metadata and/or creatives to best reflect seasonal
events or holidays.
342
The Importance of Seasonality
in ASO
It is important for ASO practitioners to at least
recognize the impact of seasonality on store behavior
at different times throughout the year.
For example, we know that downloads for the Health
& Fitness category generally peak around the New
Year—this is a time where people are very motivated
to work out and improve their lifestyles (especially
after the Christmas period) and, as such, are more
likely to download apps that help them reach their
New Years’ resolutions.
Seasonality coincides with app localization as
different events are relevant to different locales:
for example, public holidays such as Christmas or
Easter are not particularly relevant in all countries
around the world. Such cultural differences should be
considered when adapting your app product page and
aiming to further engage store users.
Yearly fluctuations in download estimates for the Travel category
on the US App Store. Source: AppTweak.
LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
On the other hand, downloads for travel apps generally
increase around the arrival of the summer months; at
this time, many users are preparing to book flights,
hotels, and vacations, and again, are likely to download
apps that facilitate their searches.
User behaviors between different categories also
fluctuate daily. Looking at the Games (All) category,
we see that downloads increase more at the weekend
when users have more time to play and engage in
leisure activities; during the week, users are normally
more preoccupied with school or work. On the other
hand, users tend to download apps in the Utilities
category in the middle of the week, as these products
serve to facilitate users’ daily lives.
Weekly fluctuations in download estimates for the Games category
(orange line) and the Utilities category (red line) on the App Store.
Source: AppTweak.
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CHAPTER 04
How to Leverage Seasonality
in Your ASO Strategy
To leverage seasonality in your ASO strategy, it is
recommended to update your app’s textual metadata
and/or creative assets to attract and engage users with
references to relevant seasonal events. This helps
to position your brand as proactive, reactive, and
creative.
However, before immediately updating your product
page, it is always recommended to A/B test your
metadata on the App Store or Google Play. A/B tests,
discussed in more detail in Chapter 3: Increasing
Conversion, are experiments run on your app page to
understand the text or creatives to which your target
market reacts best.
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LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
Trivia Crack updated its App Store screenshots for seasonal events
to engage users and promote new game modes.
They can be particularly useful to help you understand
if / how updating your app page according to seasonal
events will resonate with your audience: for example,
some users might consider seasonal updates as
a marketing ploy while others might respond
particularly well.
Trivia Crack updated its App Store icon for different seasonal events
to make its app stand out in search results.
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In general, to try and leverage

seasonality in your ASO, you should:
• Take advantage of seasonal trends
• Evaluate consumer behaviors for to boost your app’s downloads; for • Combine ASO with • Be creative and
your category by month or day of example, offer holiday promotions other marketing follow local trends.
the week. or new content related to the event efforts.
on your app/game.

Shein regularly updates its screenshots to match its app page with in-app content, deals, and collections. Shein regularly updates its screenshots to match its app page with in-app content, deals, and collections.

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A Note on Seasonal or
Otherwise Time-Sensitive CRO

There are many instances where there arises a
time-sensitive opportunity to improve visibility
and conversion rates by taking advantage of current
events or trends. Major seasonal events or holidays
are principal examples of these, but others include
political events (e.g., presidential elections), large
sporting events (e.g., the World Cup), and shifts in
popular culture.
Search volume for keywords related to these seasonal
events temporarily soars in the app stores. For
example, in the weeks leading up to the 2021 Super
Bowl, search volumes for the keyword “super bowl”
grew from, on average, 10 to 45 in the US. Search
volumes for the keyword “black friday” also soar each
year to reach a volume between 50 and 60 on the US
App Store.

While some time-sensitive opportunities may last for

several weeks or months, optimizing for them should
be viewed as a luxury, rather than a necessity. Taking
advantage of a time-sensitive event represents a risk
due to:

• These opportunities may not be as pervasive
throughout the general app market compared to
the intent of keyword searches or an app’s category.
• There is less data available on how to cater to
trends compared to the regular rhythm of business.
As a result, you should only attempt to optimize for
these opportunities if your overall performance is
sound, if the trend matters to your target market,
and if you are able to test your optimization before
applying the results to your live app listing.

• Such trends are also often ephemeral, meaning

that the learnings gained can easily become
obsolete.
Search volume history in the US App Store for the keywords “Superbowl” and “Black Friday.” Source: AppTweak.

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CHAPTER 04
Example of a Successful
Seasonality Strategy: CBS Sports
CBS Sports is an example of one app that successfully
leverages seasonal events to increase its visibility
and optimize its page to make it more relevant for its
users. For major seasonal events, the app doesn’t only
optimize its screenshots to better match user intent,
it also tries to benefit from the increase in search
volume by updating the subtitle.
CBS Sports has updated its App Store subtitle several times to benefit from seasonal events such as the
Super Bowl, Masters, Champions League and more. Source: AppTweak.
350
LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y
On January 22, CBS Sports included the keyword
“Super Bowl” in its subtitle and updated its
screenshots. The app’s rankings on the keyword
“Super Bowl” jumped to eventually reach the number
one position. ESPN, on the other hand, did not
implement the same kind of strategy and lost rankings
on the keyword during the Super Bowl season.
Example of different screenshots for the CBS Sports app on the US App Store.
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CHAPTER 04 LO C A L I Z AT I O N & S E A S O N A L I T Y

After updating its metadata for the Masters in April

2021, CBS Sports also managed to rank #2 on the
keyword “masters.” ESPN did not rank for this
keyword at all.

Keyword ranking history for the keyword “Super Bowl” for CBS Keyword ranking history for the keyword “Masters” for CBS Sports
Sports vs. ESPN (US App Store). Source: AppTweak. vs. ESPN (US App Store). Source: AppTweak.

Successfully optimizing your app for seasonal events

requires a thoughtful strategy, including many of
the best practices outlined earlier in this book. Only
updating screenshots or just adding a trending
keyword to the keyword field will not be enough to
make a true impact.

352 353
CHAPTER 05

Reviews and
Ratings
CHAPTER 05
Why Are Ratings and
Reviews So Important?
K E Y TA K E AWAY
Understand why ratings and
reviews are vital to a solid
app growth strategy.
Ratings and reviews are the key public
indicator of your app’s health. App
ratings and reviews play a crucial role
in driving app downloads. Ratings are
important: Users are never keen to
install an app with a rating below 4.0
stars, and given the intense competition
on the app stores, even an app rated
below 4.5 stars is at a disadvantage
compared to higher-rated competition.
Apple and Google are more likely to
feature and promote a highly rated app;
your app will rank higher in your target
category (e.g., Arcade, Social, Music)
compared to lower-rated competitors;
and last but not least, by fixing your
app’s negative reviews, you will make
356
your users happier and less likely to
uninstall your app.
Both ratings and reviews are important
and serve the same function for users,
but in different ways. Ratings convey a
quick, quantitative measure of an app’s
quality, while reviews offer a more
substantive, qualitative measure. An
app’s star rating is the most important
single data point affecting an app’s
download conversion rate, while
reviews display the true value your app
offers to users. The ASO Stack Slack
community suggests that 100 high
ratings have a larger impact on your app
metrics than one review.
New Apps vs. Established Apps
There are two major phases of an app’s
lifecycle regarding ratings and reviews.
The first phase is the launch of a new app,
where you have few ratings and reviews
but you need more social credibility.
You may not have many users, so getting
more ratings and reviews is a challenge.
And since your app just launched, you
are still addressing initial bugs and
product issues.
Ratings and reviews are the lifeblood of
a fresh app on the app stores. Positive
ratings win over users skeptical of a new
app and validate that the app is worth
their time to download. As an added
bonus, positive reviews broaden the
target keywords for when users search
for your app. The more target keywords
contained in positive reviews, the
better your app discoverability is. Users
are thus more likely to stumble upon
your app via a search on the app stores.
“Maintain a strong rating” is the mantra
of an established app. You may have
many users, but you need to maintain
a consistently high rating while
combating low ratings and negative
reviews. You may have multiple
competitor apps with high ratings, and
you need to differentiate yourself by
maintaining an even higher rating. To
keep an app at the top of the charts, a
high rating is needed.
R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S
Once you have amassed many reviews,
negative reviews leave you clues about
how disgruntled users feel. Even with
the best of apps, unhappy users will go
out of their way to leave low ratings and
negative reviews. First and foremost,
helping these users will be your number
one long-term goal. If users leave a
negative review, they are not the only
ones having that particular issue, and
you will inevitably make a better app
by solving the root causes of their
complaints.
We know satisfied users are lazy. Happy
users will not (usually) go out of their
way to rate and review the app. As you
establish your app, you also need to
establish a plan that encourages a steady
stream of happy users to leave high
ratings and positive reviews, keeping
users discovering and installing your
app… Instead of your competitors.
No matter what phase your app is in,
this chapter will give you the insights
to increase your install conversion
via a high rating and maximize your
keywords via glowing reviews. Special thanks go to
Sebastian Gallese and
Thomas Schultz-Wenk from
Haystack Reviews for this
chapter on optimizing your
app’s ratings and reviews
strategy.
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CHAPTER 05 R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S

Creating a
Review Strategy
If you do not have a basic review strategy in place, the most
important step is to simply start asking users. As you optimize your
review strategy, there are numerous decisions to consider, and we
will explore these in the next sections.

K E Y TA K E AWAY
Learn how to create a strategy deciding where,
when, and how you will ask users for reviews.
Decide if you will actively prompt or passively
entice users to rate your app.
You need to plan how to help your
happiest users rate your app. A strategy
to combat negative review bias is
essential because your satisfied users
are unlikely to go out of their way to
organically rate your app. While happy
users rarely take the time to write a
glowing review, upset users, on the
other hand, immediately turn to app
store reviews as a place to vent, ask for
support, and warn other users about
issues within your app.
Before we dive into where and when to prompt users, it is helpful to
understand the two approaches when asking users for a rating:
Passive Active
You can add a simple “Rate Using the system-provided
the app” button in a less in-app-rating prompt or a
conspicuous area of the app. custom pop-up, you can more
These typically feel more aggressively ask the user to rate
“native” within the app and the app. Since these prompts
blend in with the surrounding often overlay the screen, most
user interface. A passive apps show these prompts at
prompt will result in fewer the end of a successful user
ratings than an active prompt journey when no further user
but is generally less invasive to interaction is needed.
the user experience.

A typical strategy to ask for reviews, which you have likely implemented, is:
The passive versus active choice: Depending on the size of your user
1 2 3 base, your typical user lifecycle, and your user experience, a more
passive or more active strategy may be warranted. For example, a
Where When How
casual game with quick users and high churn may opt for an active
Find the moment in the Near this happy location, Show the user an in-app strategy to ensure users rate the app before quitting the game. In
app which brings users find the least disruptive rating or ask the user to contrast, a subscription app with a large user base and very loyal
the most joy. moment to ask the user rate on the app store. users may warrant a more passive approach to solicit ratings without
to rate. bothering long-term customers.

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Screenshots showing, from

left to right, where Google While developing rating features is
Podcasts, Reddit, and easier compared to more complex
Quickbooks fall along the features in your app, your rating
spectrum of passive vs. active strategy will have an outsized outcome
prompts. for your company. Consequently, the
proper implementation and testing of
this feature are of great importance.
Tools for ratings and reviews analysis:
Apple, Google, and third-party ASO
tools all allow you to manage ratings
and reviews. You will use these tools
to monitor your review performance
and assess if you are hitting your
rating targets. For the sake of brevity,
we include only a few tools below, but
we recommend using the tools you are
already most familiar with:

Passive In-Between Active

Once you decide how you will ask users to rate, the next sections
will help you finalize your strategy:

• Pick smart rating triggers

• Craft the right messaging and flow for the rating experience
• Reply to prominent user reviews

Custom code versus third-party tools: Implementing the rating logic

in your app will likely require a developer to add code to your app.
Another alternative is to rely on third-party messaging platforms
like Braze, Leanplum, Firebase, etc., to deliver custom rating
prompts to users.

360 3 61
CHAPTER 05
Ask For Reviews From the App Listing
You can also use your app listing to ask for reviews.
While not all users read the app listing, this is a low
effort activity to generate new reviews, especially
when the latest release adds significant new functions
that users will appreciate.
Encourage new users to leave a rating by asking them
to download the app and then rate it at the bottom of
your app description.
362
Every app is different, and what works for one may
not work as well for another. It’s all about figuring out
what makes your app stand out compared to other
apps in your category. Think about ways to draw a
connection between those features and the reasons
why users should leave you a rating.
R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S
Controversial Practices
If your app lacks reviews and ratings or has a low The ASO Slack community also reports bots leaving
average rating and poor reviews, you may be tempted nonsense five-star reviews on random apps, which
to use controversial tactics to improve your rating. could trigger action from Apple or Google if they
suspect your app of foul play. If you ever see a
Some of these shadier tactics include incentivizing suspicious review left on your app, the best approach
users to leave a five-star rating in exchange for an is to simply report the review to Apple or Google.
in-app offer or using paid services to generate fake
reviews. Be aware you may be banned from the stores
for manipulating reviews. That means that if you’re
caught, you’re out of the game—no more app listing or
downloads.
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CHAPTER 05
Choosing
the Right Trigger
K E Y TA K E AWAY
Discover how to choose smart triggers by
prompting users when they are happiest,
starting simple and increasing complexity if
needed, and avoiding unhappy users by not
prompting too often.
Triggers dictate when to show a rating prompt to the
user. Triggers are the most influential factor in asking
users to leave a review. If you trigger the prompt at
the wrong time, you waste a valuable chance to gain
a positive review. But if you trigger the prompt at the
right time, users are more likely to rate your app.
Do not feel overwhelmed by the potentially infinite
number of triggers within your app. Even if you had
not priorly thought about this, you likely already know
the best trigger to find your happiest users. As part of
this process, list the most logical triggers for your app
and implement the top triggers that you think will
perform the best.
364
Simple Usage Triggers
The most common triggers are usage triggers. These
triggers fire when the user has performed a specific
action a certain number of times or for a specific
number of minutes/hours/days. These are the most
basic kind of triggers and are perfect for an initial
rating strategy.
Number of actions
Prompt users to rate once they have
reached a certain number of app
launches, buttons pressed, or screens
seen. This ensures a highly satisfied
user sees the rating prompt with enough
repeated experiences. Examples:
• 10 app launches
• Pressed the “Complete Purchase”
button four times
• Reached the high score screen
twice
R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S
Duration
Prompt users when they cumulatively
use the app for a specific duration.
This ensures a highly activated user
understands the app’s value and has
had enough time to truly experience the
app. Examples:
• Three total hours of watching
movies
• 25 total minutes of active gameplay
These simple usage triggers target a
wide audience, allowing you to show the
rating prompt to a high volume of happy
users.
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CHAPTER 05 R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S

User Journey Triggers

As users progress through your user funnel, they eventually reach an “aha moment”
using your app. An ideal user journey trigger asks the user to rate at this location.
This type of trigger is more complex to plan and implement than a simple usage
trigger, as it occurs after the culmination of multiple events. This is an advanced
rating strategy and the most impactful way to request a rating from a user. Examples:

The triumphant gamer A special dinner reservation

As users play your game and struggle
through multiple levels and, in this
case, die three times and have to start
the game over, finally, on the fourth
attempt, a milestone is achieved. It is
here that we present the rating prompt
to the user, as their emotions have
dramatically swung from frustration to
joy. You know from your user metrics
that they are now “hooked” and will
keep coming back to the game.
A user reserves a table using your
restaurant reservation app. However,
this is no ordinary reservation—the
user diligently scanned for multiple
minutes trying to find the perfect spot,
noted that this reservation was for a
special anniversary dinner, and now
found a lucky reservation at a very
popular restaurant that is usually
booked months in advance. As this is a
golden opportunity for the user, it is the
perfect opportunity to ask the user to
rate the app.

Pro Tip A prompt appears after a successful

reservation.
Think about the size of your user base,
how many users reach each ideal user
journey, and continue to tweak and
optimize these more complex triggers.

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CHAPTER 05
Anti-Triggers
There are certain times when it is best to avoid asking users to rate the app. Use
logic to not ask at a time that will lead to the user ignoring the rating prompt, or
worse, rating the app poorly.
Here are a few examples:
• Do not prompt users if they have
experienced a crash in the last week
or recently filed a support ticket.
These users are upset with your
app—they will not have positive
feedback.
• Depending on your user lifecycle,
wait for one to seven days after
users have downloaded the app
before you ask for a rating. Users
need enough time to evaluate your
app’s benefits.
368
• Do not bug users who have seen
the rating prompt in the last 30-90
days (unless there has been a major
update). These users already had
a chance to rate, they don’t need
another opportunity.
• If users say they are not interested
in rating the app, don’t ask for a
rating for at least 30 days. Let users
rate when they have the time in the
future.
R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S
Other Triggers
Here are a few miscellaneous trigger
approaches that may work for your app.
• Major update. You can encourage
users to rate your app after a major
update. For example, highlight the
amazing new feature in this release
before asking them to rate.
• Simple feedback triggers. Add a
simple “feedback” button in your
app settings. If users have positive
feedback, you can ask them to rate
later.
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Trigger Quotas
Apple and Google both set a limit on the number of
times users can see a system in-app rating prompt.
For Apple, the limit is three occurrences per app
within a 365-day period. For Google, the limit is once
during a short period of time (for example, less than
a month). Android developers have confirmed this
once-a-month limit is generally correct, although the
documentation states it can be changed by Google
Play without any notice.
Given this quota, a common-sense approach is to
show an in-app rating, at most, once every four
months. This is a good general approach since you
avoid annoying users with too many rating requests
and users who have used the app for four months are
likely to be satisfied.
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R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S
As with all things, balance this approach given:
Frequency Expectations
If they use the app only once a year to If it is a premium subscription app,
complete taxes, you may want to show users may only tolerate one request per
the rating multiple times within a rating per year.
short span if they dismissed a previous
prompt.
Release cycle Rating goals
If you release a new version each week, If you maintain a very high rating, you
you may need extra help from users to may only need users to rate the app
show a high rating for new versions. once a year.
Apple, in particular, allows you to reset
ratings per app version. Similarly, if you
are about to launch a substantial release
update, you may want more happy users
rating a specific release regardless of
when they last rated the app.
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Client vs. Server Triggers
A more advanced technique is to
consider storing the rating prompt
trigger logic on your server rather than
on your client’s. This allows you to
easily update the logic for the triggers
without needing to update your app.
For example, you can initially configure
your server to ask users to rate the
app after 10 launches. You could later
change this value on your server to 5
app launches to see if you achieve more
ratings. And most importantly, you will
not need to wait for a new app update to
make this change.
You can use a tool like Firebase Remote
Config to tweak these server-side
values and experiment with even more
advanced concepts like A/B testing
different trigger values.
In this scenario, you could show the
rating prompt after 10 app launches
to users in country A and after 5 app
launches to users in country B. You
could then note the change in ratings
for each country during this A/B test.
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R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S
Personalized Triggers
In late 2021, users on Android devices started seeing
ratings specific to their registered country and device
type. The trend of personalized ratings for users
means there is less emphasis on a global rating for
all users; instead, users in some countries may see
higher ratings while other users see lower ratings
for your app.
This presents an opportunity for rating triggers. A
simple example is if you discover your app rating is
low in one country but high in other countries. If you
currently trigger a small percentage of your happy
users to rate your app, you may want to direct a larger
percentage of your happy users in the low-rated
country to rate the app. Personalized triggers allow
you to target users that see a low app rating while
leaving other users unaffected.
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Measuring Triggers
The final section of this chapter goes into detail about measuring
rating effectiveness. There are two approaches specific to triggers:
indirect and direct measurement.
Indirect measurement
Since it is impossible to measure if users actually rated
your app once they are on the system in-app request
or directed to the App Store, you can try to correlate
your trigger changes to fluctuations in rating data. For
any change you make to triggers, simply note the date
users encountered this change, and then note changes
to the volume or distribution of ratings.
If you see a significant change in ratings in App Store
Connect or the Google Play Console, you can infer
causality. While this approach is likely to be good
enough if you only make a few changes each year, it
only works well if there is a substantial change in
ratings and you can never be 100% certain a change in
ratings was due to the change in trigger (e.g., maybe
a large marketing event or new feature drove users to
give very high ratings in the same time period).
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R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S
Direct measurement
The direct measurement approach is helpful,
especially when A/B testing triggers. For any change
to your triggers, instead of showing the system in-
app rating request or directing users to the App Store
(which does not allow you to measure users’ actual
actions), you show a sentiment rating to these users
that you can measure.
For example, let us say you currently trigger a rating
request if users like 15 artists in your music app, but
you wish to see if you will get higher-quality ratings if
you set the trigger threshold to liking 10 artists. For a
small percentage of your users (for this example app,
let us assume 1% is enough to constitute a successful
A/B test), instead of showing the rating screen, 0.5%
of users will see a screen that asks “Do you like this
app?” at 10 likes, and 0.5% of users will see the same
screen at 15 likes.
You can then directly measure how each user group
responds. And if your data supports the hypothesis
that the level of app satisfaction is the same for users
at 10 versus 15 likes, you can go ahead and change the
rating trigger to 10 likes for all users.
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CHAPTER 05
Designing Your Prompt
K E Y TA K E AWAY
Design your prompt experience, deciding
between system or custom prompts, whether
you should gate your prompts, and the optimal
design, voice, and experience for your users.
The design, messaging, and implementation of your rating prompts
dramatically influence the rating experience for users. Oftentimes,
teams spend great amounts of time thinking through custom
triggers but less time thinking through how to optimize their prompt
appearance.
The visual design, messaging, and experience of the prompt directly
impact your rating prompt’s success. Do not make the mistake of
neglecting this step!
376
System vs. Custom Prompt
Deciding between the system in-app request versus a
custom prompt is one of the most important choices
related to user experience. The system in-app request
is the standard approach Apple and Google offer app
developers to display a small pop-up within the app.
This allows users to quickly rate and review the app
without leaving the app. You do not have control over
how the pop-up looks or the content of the pop-up,
and can only control when the pop-up is triggered.
A custom prompt offers you full control over the
content and messaging of the rating request. However,
users must leave the app in order to rate or review the
app on its store page.
Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages.
For the most basic method, starting with the system
in-app request is the easiest approach. It requires no
additional design and most users are familiar with
the system rating request. Users rate the app with
less effort, as they only need to tap two buttons to
quickly leave a rating and then resume their activity,
all without leaving the app.
R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S
Custom prompts require more design effort, but
they can be customized to blend in with your app
experience without interrupting the user experience
with a pop-up. They are unique to your app and can
be designed to be more eye-catching than a standard
request. Custom prompts do require the user to leave
the app to rate it though, which can dissuade users
from leaving a rating or review. Custom prompts are
also not subject to a limited quota per year (see the
previous section “Trigger Quota”).
While many apps have reported receiving a higher
volume of ratings after implementing the system
in-app request, it is worth experimenting with both
approaches to see what suits your users best and
which approach brings you the highest quality of
ratings and reviews.
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Gating the Prompt
One common prompt experience is to filter users
before they arrive at the prompt to ensure the users
that do arrive at the rating prompt are the most likely
to reward your app with a high rating. Triggers are
an important component of this process, but you will
also need to decide if you will gate the rating request.
Gating is the process of asking users questions about
their sentiment of the app, and then only if they
respond with a high sentiment score, do you show the
rating request. The most common example of this is
to show a dialog with a question like “Do you like our
app?” or “How likely are you to recommend our app,
on a scale of 1 to 10?” If users respond with a “Yes” or
a rating above 7, these users then see a request for a
rating. If users respond “No” or mark a rating below 8,
users see a question to solicit private feedback so as to
avoid negative feedback appearing on public reviews.
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R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S
There are two things to keep in mind when Regardless, if you want to be extra cautious, you have
implementing gating as part of your rating experience. two alternatives. One is to gate custom prompts. This
The first is that gating lengthens the rating funnel. practice is condoned by Apple and Google as you
While gating is more likely to drive highly motivated simply “deep link to the App Store page.” The second
users to rate the app, it presents more work for users is to implement delayed gating. This practice asks
to perform prior to writing a review. In an ideal world, users their sentiment for the app, and then—days
you already know users are extremely happy based later—shows the system in-app request.
on where the prompt is triggered, and gating is not
required.
And while Apple and Google have ambiguous app
developer policy language surrounding system in-app
requests, at the very least, these companies discourage
gating if using the system in-app requests. Apple
specifically uses language such as “don’t use buttons
or other controls to request feedback.” We also asked
members of the ASO Slack community if any had
faced negative repercussions from Apple or Google
for gating. Their responses suggest that the possibility
of Apple or Google taking action against your app for
gating a system in-app request is very low.
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Design
Design refers to the visual user interface (UI) of your
prompt. Here are a few tips to improve your rating
prompt design:

• Visually appealing UIs grab users’ attention. Improve

engagement with your review prompt by working with a UI
designer to add on-brand touches with custom colors, fonts, and
icons. These make your prompt feel less intrusive to your users
and users are less likely to immediately dismiss the prompt.

• Think about a fun animation to display the review prompt and

entertain your users. This will grab their attention so they are
enticed to interact with the prompt.

• In a sentence or two, explain why you’re asking users for a review.

Be succinct and don’t write a novel. This allows users to quickly Source: appfuel.com
decide if they want to rate the app.

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Experience
Experience refers to the actual user flow of the
prompt. Here are a couple of tips for improving your
rating prompt user experience:

Voice
• Keep the number of steps to a minimum. Instead • Allow users to express dissatisfaction and
Voice refers to the messaging and “feel” of the prompt. What do of asking users if they like the app and then asking contact you if they are not truly happy. Not all
users take away from reading your prompt? Here are a few tips for if they want to rate the app, simply ask if they like users that see your prompt will be happy so you
improving your prompt’s voice: the app. Later, you can set a trigger to show an want to provide an alternative option to rating
in-app rating at an appropriate time. You will lose the app. You would rather users let you know
out on happy users rating the app if you make why they are discontent in a private support
• Address users as special, valued customers, or them perform too much work all at once. ticket than in a public, negative review.
with personable nicknames that are unique to
your app (e.g., “Hey Power Redditor!”).

• Use an appropriate tone for your app. For most

apps, a polite tone (e.g., “Mind leaving us a
review?”) works better than an aggressive tone
(“Rate us 5-stars!”).

• Track which actions triggered the prompt and

mention those actions in the message to draw
attention to the value received. For example,
if users arrive at the prompt after achieving a
high score, the prompt can mention: “ what a
great score!”

• Tell users how much leaving a review helps your

app and new users. For example, a music app Unique voice.

could write: “Your review helps music lovers like

you discover exciting new artists.”
Experience flow.
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CHAPTER 05
Replying
to Reviews
K E Y TA K E AWAY
Learn how to effectively reply to reviews
by targeting featured reviews, re-engaging
users, and showing a genuine desire to help
dissatisfied users.
Reviews on the app stores are the public indicator of the
overall user opinion of your app. While we have covered
asking for ratings in depth, it is also important to help
users who took the time to write reviews. As part of
this strategy, replying to reviews is an opportunity to
improve the public sentiment of your app by showing
you are engaged with users and trying to help unhappy
users.
When replying to reviews, there are three things to
keep in mind:
384
The one-to-seven ratio
This means that if you receive a single one-star review,
you now need seven five-star reviews to average a
4.5-star rating. It is worth the effort to work with
unhappy users to improve their reviews; otherwise,
you will need a much larger quantity of five-star
ratings to offset a poor review.
Social influence
Most potential users check reviews before deciding
whether or not to download your app. Your positive,
helpful reply to a negative review can influence
whether users decide to download your app or
not. When you respond to negative feedback, you
help potential users know your team is proactively
improving the user experience.
R AT I N G S & R E V I E W S
Reviews on the Google Play
Console.
Re-engage the user
Your response to a reply helps to
re-engage users with your app. While regaining a
single user might not be extremely impactful for an
app with millions of users, for some apps, this might
be very worthwhile:
• The negative reviewer converts from a detractor
to a promoter, updates the review, and thus
influences many potential new users.
• Some users are “whales” (i.e., the users spend a
disproportionately high amount on your app vs.
average users) and are therefore well worth the
effort to re-engage.
Apple and Google empower app developers to analyze,
manage, and reply to reviews. Take advantage of the
free tools they offer. Your ASO tool of choice is also
likely to include review management features. Explore
your favorite tool and see how it can help you reply to
and manage reviews at a larger scale with ease.
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Bad reply
Using the same template message for different people.

How to Reply to Reviews

Effectively

• Apologize for their inconvenience! Users

are upset, and no matter what the root
cause of the problem is, users believe your
app did not live up to its promised potential.

• Be personable. Address your users by name

when possible. This is a human-to-human
interaction.

• Whenever possible, address users’ specific

concerns and how to solve these issues. Tell
users if you will be releasing an upcoming Example of a bad reply.

update that fixes the problem, or if you are

actively working on a fix.
Good reply
Adressing their specific complaint or request.
• Provide users with a support email so they
can send more detailed information to your
team.

• Answer the most featured or upvoted

reviews that live on the front page of your
app on the app stores first. These are the
reviews the majority of users see first and
are of the highest priority.

• Do not respond to every review with

the same template. This will result in a
less genuine response, which users will
notice. Show that this is not an automated
message, but a real person addressing their
unique concern.
Example of a good reply.
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Measuring Rating
and Review Impact

K E Y TA K E AWAY

Use data from Apple, Google, and

other sources to measure the
success of your reviews and ratings
strategy. Track and optimize users’
rating journeys.
Ratings and reviews are a vital metric for your
company to track. There are many examples of large,
successful companies with millions of users where
the CEO still reads app reviews each day and monitors
rating trends. Since ratings and reviews act as a public
barometer of the health of your app, tracking changes
in these metrics is important.
Where to start: App Store Connect and the Google
Play Developer Console are the primary sources of
truth for your data. Start here when establishing
baseline metrics for your ratings and reviews. You
can even visualize and download historical data to see
how your ratings and reviews have changed over time
across versions of the app, countries, devices, and
various user segments. Many third-party tools offer
basic ratings and review data, but it should always be
compared to first-party data from Apple and Google
where possible.
Metrics to track: Track the volume of ratings/reviews,
the distribution of ratings (from one star to five stars),
and the actual text of the reviews.
The volume is important since you will want to
maintain a steady stream of users rating your app. You
will want to make changes to your app to gradually
increase the rating volume.
At the same time, you will also want to ensure the
distribution of your ratings remains on the higher end
of the one-star-to-five-star spectrum. This may seem
obvious, but if you get more users to rate the app, you
want to ensure the majority of those users are leaving
you high ratings. Otherwise, a spike in low ratings will
render a spike in high ratings moot.

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Analyze User Feedback

Lastly, analyze the actual feedback users leave in
reviews. Several app growth tools monitor and track
basic sentiment data but try to manually read as many
reviews as possible so you can assess major pain
points.

Public reviews tend to be polarizing in either being

The User Journey
overly negative or very positive, but they provide
useful insights into what users like and dislike, as well
as what new features users would like to see. Always While it is not possible to measure whether a specific
listen to your users! user rated your app five stars or left a positive review,
it is important to measure your rating and review
Show off positive user feedback to boost your outcomes and the user journeys prior to leaving a
marketing efforts. Happy users will highlight the best rating or review. You can then see how the changes
features of your app and encourage more users to to your rating prompts and triggers influenced your
download it. app’s rating performance historically.
For example, imagine your app receives 20 ratings
each day with a 4.1-star average. Let’s say you change
your rating flow to entice more users to rate, and
then notice the following week you receive 30 ratings
each day; you may be able to attribute this increase
in ratings to your change. Since a variety of factors
influence change in ratings (e.g., a new app release), it
is not possible to isolate these factors from your hard
work—but at the very least, we can infer outcomes.
For a user journey, it is important to track the screens
seen and buttons pressed in the rating journey. The
entry point into the rating journey will let you know
Review Sentiment Analysis highlighting the number of ads as a pain point for this
game. Source: AppTweak.
how users entered the rating flow.
For example, if you have a rating prompt trigger when
users press the “Listen” button five times, track the
number of presses on the “Listen” button and attribute
the start of the rating journey to the user pressing the
“Listen” button. You can then experiment with how
rating journeys perform if users press the “Listen”
button three times vs. six times in the future. This will
help you answer the question, “Were these users more
or less likely to rate?”
For example, if you have a multi-prompt journey
and you ask users to rate your app only if they have
indicated on a previous prompt that they like your app,
you absolutely want to track which screens were seen
and which buttons pressed. This will allow you to build
a user journey to see where users are dropping from
the flow, as well as experimenting with messaging and
changing (or reducing) screens to see if you help more
users succeed in the journey to rate your app.

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CHAPTER 06

Store
Promotional
Tools &
Customer
Information
CHAPTER 06
Store
Promotional
Tools &
Customer
Information
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Learn about the
promotional tools
available via the app store
consoles & developer tools,
and review how the App
Store and Google Play now
present privacy data and
search adjustment tools.
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S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
Among the changes that have added complexity
to ASO in the past few years, a major shift has
accompanied Apple and Google’s addition of new
tools and programs allowing developers to market
their apps directly on the stores and beyond. With
Apple and Google having moved from very user-
centric approaches to developing new features for
their stores, this highlights two major developments
in the app industry: First, the need for Apple & Google
to better justify the share of revenue taken from all
transactions made on the store; second, their own
interests to reaffirm the stores’ role as the only place to
discover apps (in opposition to third-party platforms,
such as social networks, that had previously perfected
advertising solutions for paid user acquisition).
This second aspect carries the most importance, as
it also explains the stores’ recent addition of privacy
information sections and search adjustment tools
that continue the tradition of developing new features
to benefit the end user. In this chapter, we will first
review the marketing tools available on store consoles
for developers to improve their app performance in
and outside the stores, before presenting the App
Store and Google Play’s latest features for consumer
information.
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CHAPTER 06
Store
Promotional
Tools
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Understand store pre-
registration pages, the
available tools to give
customers a foretaste of your
app’s functionalities, how to
promote specific content for
specific user segments, and
essential information about
store-run programs.
396
According to Statista, between 2,000 and 5,000 new
apps were published on the App Store alone every
month during the first half of 2021; the total number
of apps available on the App Store and Google Play is
also estimated to be over 3 million on each platform.
Not only has the mobile app industry become
saturated, apps have become more complex, with
many developing multiple services that can appeal to
a variety of user segments.
As a result, many apps aim to build anticipation before
their release by targeting multiple user segments with
custom messages, promoting specific app benefits and
features, or even creating synergies with other apps to
facilitate user acquisition. While the app stores have
historically been the one place for users to download
apps, their historical structure of “one app - one locale
- one page” had led most of these efforts to occur
before target users even reached the store.
However, recent changes in the digital advertising
ecosystem—including new privacy changes
introduced by Apple with iOS 14.5—have made ad
targeting more difficult and pushed for the adoption
of more contextual advertising.
S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
As such, Apple and Google have started to add more
marketing functionalities to promote apps in and
around their respective app stores in efforts to
convince developers to reinforce their efforts in store
ecosystems. For instance:
• Apps and games that can rely on pre-existing fan • Groups of apps able to create synergies may
communities may benefit from pre-registration form bundles to nudge users to download all
pages allowing future users to be notified apps at once or purchase paid subscriptions
once the app becomes available for download. that grant benefits across multiple apps.
• Developers looking to demonstrate their app’s main • Eligible apps and games may also request to become
user benefits through live experiences can make part of specific store programs meant to offer
smaller versions of their apps available to users particular advantages to store users.
before requiring them to download the app in full.
• Apps willing to promote specific offers and In this chapter, we’ll take you through the multiple
messages to particular user segments can create tools made available by Apple and Google for each of
custom store pages or promote specific in-app the aforementioned cases.
content, whether in the form of events or in-app
purchase packages.
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CHAPTER 06
Pre-Registration Pages
App Store Pre-Order
App Product Pages
Apple allows developers to create an app product page
ahead of their app’s official release as a way to promote
the product before launch and build excitement
among users. Users who choose to pre-order an app
are notified on the day of the official release; the app
is then automatically downloaded on the device from
which the pre-order was made, as well as all other
devices associated with the user’s Apple account if
they have activated the “automatic download” option.
Both free and paid apps are eligible to be pre-ordered
provided they are being offered on the store for the
first time. This means that an app already published
in some countries cannot be offered for pre-order
in other countries, or that apps already available for
iPhone and iPad cannot be made available for pre-
order on Apple TV.
398
The process to make an app available for pre-order
is almost exactly similar to the immediate release of
a new app, except developers now have to select “pre-
order” and indicate a release date (between 2 and 180
days after). As such, developers have to submit their
app’s first build and some initial metadata for Apple’s
review, as well as indicating the territories in which
the app will be available.
S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
Pre-order app release setup in App Store Connect. Source: Apple.
Once Apple has approved the app, a limited version
of the app’s product page is created inside the App
Store. This page displays the app’s metadata as well
as its expected release date; an “order” button also
replaces the usual “get” button. Developers can then
use the app’s product page for their various marketing
campaigns and the page may also start appearing in
App Store search results.
Furthermore, developers may update the app’s build
or metadata by submitting new versions in App
Store Connect, or modifying the release date from
the “Pricing & Availability” section of App Store
Connect. They can also track the performance of app
pre-orders in the “Sales and Trends” section of App
Store Connect with three dedicated metrics: number
of orders, canceled per-orders, and net pre-orders.
Developers are also able to review the performance of
their pre-order page through a dedicated dashboard
and find reports in the “Analytics” section of App
Store Connect where impressions, pageviews and
pre-orders (taps on the pre-order button) can be
monitored and broken down by device, source, and
territory.
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Google Play
Pre-Registration Campaigns

Google Play pre-registration campaigns provide a

fairly similar user experience as pre-order pages on
the App Store; nonetheless, some notable differences
can be seen:

• Pre-registration campaigns can only last for
90 days.
• Developers can only use pre-registration
campaigns once they have provided some
information about the app’s content, with
regards to the app’s safety and compliance with
Google Play policies and legal requirements.
• Developers are limited to having up to two
apps or games in pre-registration on their
Google developer account at one time.
• Developers may limit their app’s pre-
registration campaign to certain devices.
• Developers have the possibility to set up a gift for
pre-registered users in the form of a free in-app
product.
• After the app launches, pre-registered users
receive a push notification letting them know
the app is available for their device; however,
automatic downloads will only apply to eligible
devices and if the developer has taken the
appropriate steps. Accounts belonging to
children under 13 and managed enterprise
accounts are ineligible, while apps over 150MB
will only be downloaded and installed over
WiFi, regardless of the user’s install settings.
• Console metrics around pre-registration
campaigns include “pre-registered users”
(the number of users who have pre-
registered) and “conversions” (the number
of pre-registered users who installed
the app within 14 days after its release).
• Apps can use pre-registration campaigns
in countries where they are not yet
available regardless of whether they have
already been released in other countries.

• Developers can also use Google Play Instant to
make an extract of an app or game useable during
the pre-registration campaign to further build
excitement among their user bases.
Apps that offer a reward as part of an active pre-
registration campaign are marked with a gift icon
and the text “reward” next to the “coming soon”
tag when they appear in Google Play search
results or featurings.

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Giving Customers
a Foretaste of the App

Much like for any type of product, convincing
people to download an app often requires them to
be convinced of the benefits of using it. As such,
marketers like to identify the experiences that have
the best chances of converting undecided customers
into convinced users during what many call the “aha
moment.” While marketers of physical products can
hand out free samples to push customers toward their
“aha moment,” digital products and services do not
necessarily have the same opportunities.
In the case of apps, however, Google and Apple have
each developed functionalities that aim to help
developers recreate the “free sample” strategy, making
small versions of apps available to users before they
have to download the app in full. Let’s review the
inner workings of each platform’s tools, as both their
requirements and functionalities differ.
An app’s store listing page using Google Play Instant technology
and an install prompt.

Google Play Instant

Available since October 2017, Google Play Instant
apps are partial versions of an app or game that users
can access to discover its functionalities before
downloading the app itself. Instant apps rely on
Android app bundle technology, with the requirement
that the combined download size of the code and
resources within all instant-enabled modules be
under 15MB (in other words, if they offer multiple
instant experiences for the same app, the combined
size of all instant experiences must be less than
15MB).
Google Play Instant apps are accessible through an
app’s Play Store listing which displays a “try now”
button next to the install button, or alternatively
through a website banner. Once in the instant
experience, users may be exposed to an install prompt
inviting them to download the full version of the app
without having to return to the Play Store.
Developers may choose to limit the availability of
their instant experiences to certain countries or
regions where their app is available. Developers can
also design multiple instant experiences; however,
they will have to remember that only one experience
may be accessed through their store listing. Other
instant experiences may be accessed via a deep link
but developers have to consider that only one instant
app can be declared for each website domain.
Last but not least, full games that are able to meet
the requirements of a Play Instant experience may
convert their Android Package (APK) and apply to be
part of Google’s “Instant Play games” program which
can grant them prominent featurings on the Games
tab homepage.

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Apple App Clips
In 2020, Apple introduced App Clips, its own version
of app samples, as part of iOS 14. App Clips follow the
same principles of making a smaller version of an app
available to users before they download the full app.
However, App Clips differ from Instant apps in their
discoverability.
App Clip cards. Source: Apple.
404
In terms of technical requirements, App Clips have a
smaller size limitation than Play Instants (maximum
of 10MB instead of 15MB). However, the possibility to
upload multiple clips from the same app means there
is a limit of 10MB per clip compared to the limit of
15MB for the sum of all Play Instant experiences. All
App Clips have to be uploaded on App Store Connect
and undergo a review process similar to regular app
builds.
S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
Unlike Google Play Instant apps, accessing an
App Clip can only occur outside the App Store.
Concretely, users can encounter App Clips through
specific “invocations” set by the developer to trigger
an App Clip card to pop up on a user’s device when
the chosen conditions have been meant. Specifically,
invocation types include:
• Safari smart app banners, which developers can
set to appear at the top of their website on Safari.
• Links shared via iMessage will show the Clip
card whenever a person shares the link to a site that
displays the smart banner.
• Near field communication (NFC) tags can
trigger an App Clip card whenever an iOS device
comes into contact with the card, even when the
screen is locked.
• QR codes can also trigger an App Clip card
to appear whenever the code is scanned by an iOS
device.
• Place cards in the Apple Maps application can
be set by a developer to make the App Clip card appear
for users reviewing a specific location.
While most of these invocations do necessitate some
sort of interaction with the physical world (scanning
a QR code or opening an NFC tag, for instance), it’s
worth noting that smart app banners and iMessage
link invocations are meant as an opportunity to reach
virality with a clip and encourage users to share clips
with others.
This feature synergizes with the fact that not only
can developers trigger the clip’s card inside the clip
to encourage users to download the app, but they can
also trigger push notifications within 8 hours of the
clip being opened.
Another major difference with Google Play’s Instant
experiences is that developers have to upload specific
metadata for their App Clips for Apple to generate a
card that will be presented to users encountering an
invocation, asking whether they are willing to open
the clip. App Clip cards’ metadata includes:
• A title of 30 characters maximum
• A subtitle of 56 characters maximum
• A 1800 x 1200 px PNG or JPEG image
(without transparency) to serve as header for the Clip
• A CTA verb for the clip launch button, chosen
between “view,” “play,” or “open”
These metadata elements are not expected to impact
store visibility, as App Clip cards can only appear
outside the App Store. Nevertheless, this metadata
can be optimized for final app installation through
trial and error, as Apple reports on the number of App
Clip card views, installations, open rate, sessions, and
app installations in App Store Connect.
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Promoting Specific App Content
on the Stores
One of the most complex challenges for ASO
marketers comes from the fact that all users, no
matter their personal interest in an app, are required
to go through one single app store page to download an
app. This single app download page has long been the
cause for dilemmas between using general metadata
and creatives to appeal to multiple user segments,
or adopting a very specific message to maximize
conversion for one segment (at the risk of deterring
other audiences).
Custom Store Landing Pages
Customizing your app store page for each specific
source of users has obvious benefits: With a message
tailored to users’ journeys to reach the app store page,
marketers can maximize each funnel’s conversion
rate without having to consider the impact of one
funnel on the others. Even without reaching such
an advanced level of contextualization, developers
may feel encouraged to adopt certain pages beyond
technical limitations induced by the architecture of
app store pages, such as some local pages being served
to users in multiple countries despite them not having
the same access to or interest in a given app.
406
While the possibility of personalizing app store
pages has long been a dream for ASO practitioners,
recent features developed by Google and Apple are
progressively opening the door for marketers to
play on more contextual messages in the app stores,
whether through custom landing pages, the promotion
of in-app events, and/or purchasable items.
For example, while ASO practitioners are able to
create different English store pages for the United
States and the United Kingdom, both major app stores
only allow developers to create one single local page
for all Arabic-speaking countries.
S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
Google Play Custom Store Listings
Released in 2019, Google Play’s custom store listings
are a feature of the Google Play Console that allow
developers to create alternative app product pages.
To do so, developers upload assets and texts that will
be shown to users based on their Google Play store
country or app install state instead of their device
language and region.
When creating a custom store listing, developers
have the option to upload a new version of any of the
following store listing elements to create variations of
their main store listing:
• App title
• Short description
• Full description
• App icon
• Screenshots
• Feature graphic
• Video
Custom store listings differ from the main listing,
as instead of being shown to users based on their
language and region, custom store listings target
users based on two specific criteria: their Play Store
country and their install state (though no two custom
store listings can target the same country).
As highlighted in our chapter dedicated to localization,
custom store listings allow marketers to differentiate
store listings between two countries that are part of
the same “locale” in the main store listings (such as
Argentina and Colombia both being grouped under
the same “Spanish - Latin America” locale) and
promote country-specific offers without the risk of it
being visible in countries where it is not applicable.
As for custom store listings targeting different install
states, so far Google has only allowed for the use of
custom store listings to target countries/regions
where an app is in pre-registration; by doing so, Google
provides developers with a way to maintain a different
store listing from countries where the app has been
released to production or is in closed testing. This can
help developers anticipate their apps or games leaving
pre-registration on different dates depending on
territories, as custom store listings can include more
than one language or region while developers cannot
create more than 5 custom store listings for each app
on the Google Play Console.
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App Store Custom Product Pages

Apple announced custom product pages as part
of new App Store functionalities introduced
under iOS 15.
Unlike their Google Play counterparts, custom
product pages allow developers to create variations
of their main product page only by changing their
screenshots, app preview videos, and/or promotional
text (the app title, subtitle, keyword field, description,
and icon remain the same as on the default page).
Assets uploaded to custom product pages must
comply with the same guidelines as those for the main
product page and will be reviewed by Apple (though
not necessarily as part of a new app build submission).
The most important difference from Google Play’s
custom store listings, however, is that App Store
custom product pages are accessible via dedicated
URLs, making it possible for marketers to target
customer segments outside the App Store in a much
more precise way. Furthermore, developers are able to
create up to 35 custom product pages per app (with no
limit to the number of pages per country).
Providing an opportunity to showcase multiple
messages tailored to different user segments, some • Matching specific messages to the initial referrer
potential use cases for custom product pages include: (e.g., reusing assets from an ad campaign or
leveraging the image of an influencer collaborating
• Leveraging preferences for apps offering with an app or game).
a variety of content (for instance, a sports
results app could highlight different sets of
creatives, each focusing on a different sport, to
maximize its appeal to fans of each discipline).
• Showcasing special promotions restricted to
specific user groups while avoiding the risk of
ineligible users discovering the promotion and
churning.

Here are some more examples of how apps and games

may group their custom product pages:

1. By user intent: Meditation & wellness apps, such
as Headspace, may consider grouping custom
product pages that focus on improving sleep vs.
those for practicing meditation.
2. By audience segments: Dating apps could
easily consider creating custom product
pages with different visuals and messaging for
male vs. female audiences, or per age group.
3. By country: Given certain App Store locales can
appear in multiple countries (like, for instance,
German product pages appearing in both
Germany and Austria), food delivery apps like
Wolt may want to use different custom product
pages to showcase popular local products.
Custom product pages. Source: Apple.
408
4. For timely product offers: Retail apps such
as Adidas may want to promote exclusive deals
to certain users or showcase a new flagship
product; these apps could use custom product
pages to better feature their deals while ensuring
only eligible users are exposed to their message.
5. For seasonal campaigns, as a way to align with
external messages for events like Black Friday.
6. For offline campaigns with special
product pages welcoming users that
scanned a QR code on the subway.
7. For retargeting, as a way to call out an app’s new
features and better appeal to active and lapsed
users who are already familiar with your unique
selling point (USP) and core functionalities.
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Overall, custom product pages are a major shift in
App Store marketing, as they represent the end of
single app store pages per locale. Nevertheless, it
will be important to keep an eye on the compatibility
of custom product pages with different marketing
channels:
• Custom product pages have replaced the
Creative Sets functionality in Apple Search
Ads. This new feature can also be leveraged
by other performance marketing channels
also, although it is not accessible organically.
Custom product page optimization and even
marketing campaign optimization could become
topics that fall under the scope of large ASO teams as
Apple will offer a breakdown of its console metrics
(such as impressions, downloads, conversion rate,
proceeds, and retention rate) per custom product page
in App Store Connect. The added benefit is that these
metrics will not be subject to the same type of user
consent required by the App Tracking Transparency
framework, unlike the data aggregated by most
attribution tools.

• The dedicated URL system aims at increasing

the conversion of referrer traffic. However, it may
pose a challenge concerning the optimization
of advertising campaigns, as some ad networks
that offer conversion tracking and campaign
optimizations based on conversion events may
not be compatible or will need to adapt to become
compatible.

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In-App Event Promotions
Another promotional tool developed by both store
operators concerns the specific advertising of in-app
and in-game content. With game and app developers
adding more and more new content and gamification
mechanisms to foster user engagement and
monetization in their apps, Apple and Google have
started to introduce ways to promote in-app events
directly through their respective stores.
Google Play LiveOps Cards
Currently only available to some developers
(according to Google, requests to become eligible
must be sent to a Google Play Business Development
Manager), LiveOps Cards are special elements meant
to help promote special offers, limited-time events,
and major updates to Play Store users for events
lasting for a maximum of 4 weeks.
412
These cards can appear on the app’s store listing
(between the short description & tags and the ratings
& reviews), on the Apps or Games tab, on the Events
tab under the Games tab (only available for games
in 17 countries and excludes China), and in special
“Offers” collections. Last but not least, promotional
offers can also show up in search results for the app’s
brand name; however, they do not appear on any other
search results page.
Live Ops card on the Google
Play Store listing of “Dragon
City Mobile.”
S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
LiveOps cards are built based on metadata provided
by developers in their Google Play Consoles, including
an internal event name and tagline of a maximum 80
characters each, a landscape image and a square image,
and may also include a 1000-character-maximum
description and a video (provided through a YouTube
URL). Developers also have to indicate an event type
for each event (selected between “major update,”
“offer,” “event,” “crossover,” and “pre-registration
update”), a start and end time, a list of countries where
the event is accessible, a priority level (from normal to
very high), and whether (and when) they want to start
showing a preview of the event.
While LiveOps cards offer the opportunity to increase
an app’s visibility through store featurings and could
also help improve conversion by signaling special
app content to users, it’s worth noting that LiveOps
cards are not indexed and therefore do not represent
any opportunity to increase search visibility.
Furthermore, Google Play does not share any specific
data on the performance of these cards in terms of
new user acquisitions or the engagement of existing
users.
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App Store In-App Events
Quite similarly to Google’s feature, Apple announced
in 2021 that developers would be able to submit
metadata and assets to create in-app event cards with
iOS 15. To create an in-app event card, developers will
have to submit the following event metadata:
• An event name of 30 characters or less, indexed by
Apple’s search algorithm.
• A short description of 50 characters or less, indexed
by Apple’s search algorithm.
• A long description of 120 characters or less, not
indexed by Apple’s search algorithm.
In-app event cards. Source: Apple.
414
• Two high-resolution images or videos of a maximum
30 seconds.
• An internal event reference name only visible in App
Store Connect.
• Information relative to the event’s target audience
(new users, active users, or lapsed users), which could
be leveraged by Apple when showing featured apps to
App Store users.
• A choice of “event badge” (event category type) to
pick between “challenge,” “competition,” “live event,”
“major update,” “new season,” “premiere,” & “special
event.”
S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
The most important differences compared to Google As in-app events have proven their ability to
Play LiveOps cards are that App Store in-app event boost numerous vital KPIs, it will be important to
cards will be indexed in App Store search results, host multiple events in the upcoming periods. By
and in-app event details pages will be accessible via a ensuring that your app has a deep-linking capability
URL (in addition to when users tap on the event card). and something worth creating an event for, this
Consequently, in-app events are expected to have opportunity to generate more impressions, first-time
a much larger impact on visibility and conversion downloads, and product page views should not be
on the App Store, as they will offer more visibility overlooked.
opportunities on the store and could also serve as
a landing page for retargeting campaigns or other
marketing efforts.
Keywords from the event name, short description, and
potentially even from the app’s metadata appear to be
indexed; it has also been noted that these keyword
rankings are independent of the app’s category. A tip
here is to include your app’s most valuable keywords
in the event name and short description, as well as
ensuring that they are in your keyword field as an
opportunity to improve your ranking for these terms.
Based on a few observations by Phiture and other
developers, this could lead to drastic improvements in
your app’s ranking (although this appears to be short-
lived too).
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Promoting In-App Purchases
on the App Store
Since iOS 11, Apple has made it possible to promote in-
app purchases directly on the App Store and not only
within an app. This allows developers to promote the
benefits of purchasable items in multiple placements
on the App Store starting from their app’s product
page but also including search results and possibly
app collections created by App Store editors.
An auto-renewing subscription appearing in iOS search results and on the App Store
product page when the app listing or IAP card is clicked.
416
S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
To that end, in-app purchases first have to be
declared in App Store Connect and categorized as
one of the following four types: “consumable,” “non-
consumable,” “auto-renewing subscription,” or “non-
renewing subscription.”
Promoted in-app purchases also require a display
name (up to 30 characters) and a description (up to
45 characters) that clearly distinguish the benefits
of each offering, as well as a square promotional
image distinct from the app icon which will allow
your in-app purchases to appear in search results for
your app name. Depending on other indexation and
ranking criteria, an in-app purchase may also appear
in search results for other terms targeted in its name.
This means each in-app purchase can offer up to 30
characters to target additional keywords and help
increase your app’s visibility, as well as presenting
additional featuring opportunities.
Finally, apps that offer auto-renewable subscriptions
and non-consumable in-app purchases may enable
Family Sharing to allow users to share their purchase
with up to five additional family members. While this
does not present additional opportunities to increase
visibility in App Store search results, it may benefit
your app’s chance of being featured and will also lead
to the addition of a “Family Sharing” badge at the Badge on the product page of an app that
bottom of the app’s product page. supports Family Sharing.
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App Store App Bundles
With developers releasing multiple apps capable of
interesting similar audiences, Apple has introduced
the possibility to create bundles that make it easier
for customers to buy up to 10 apps or games in a single
purchase. Such a system works both for paid apps that
could be bought in a bundle at a discount and free apps
with subscriptions for which one plan unlocks access
to all other apps in the bundle at no additional cost.
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When using app bundles, developers are given the
opportunity to craft specific metadata for the bundle
itself, granting it additional visibility beyond that of
each individual app:
• The bundle icon is set by default and consists
of the first four app icons included in the
bundle; however, the bundle icon can also
be a custom icon crafted by the developer.
• The app bundle name can be up to 85
characters and is indexable, thus offering
opportunities to target additional keywords
than those targeted by each individual app.
• The app bundle screenshots show the first
screenshot from each bundled app and are
displayed on the app bundle product page.
• The app bundle description offers a
4,000-character space to motivate users to
download the bundle by highlighting its benefits.
• The keywords targeted by each app in the bundle
are also compiled by App Store Connect to be used
to index the app bundle.
An app bundle appearing in App Store search results (left), an app bundle product page (middle),
and an app bundle featuring on the product page of one of its individual apps (right).
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Store-Run Marketing Programs
In addition to native marketing tools available
through store consoles, Apple and Google have also
developed their own marketing programs to drive
traffic and revenue to the stores themselves. For
instance, both Google and Apple have developed their
own subscription services for mobile games, while
Google has also introduced a store virtual currency
that users can earn within apps and reinvest through
their activities.
Google Play Points
Google Play Points work as a loyalty program in which
Play Store users can earn points for every purchase
made on the Play Store (whether on apps and games
or for Google services such as movie rentals) or after
downloading certain featured apps and games. Points
can then be reinvested to unlock discounts or special
content for partner apps and games that are part
of Google’s program. In fact, apps partaking in this
program are encouraged to offer exclusive in-app
items or coupons at a discount to boost engagement
and incentivize users to make a purchase, in exchange
for what they may benefit from specific store
featurings and promotions run by Google.
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S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
Whereas apps and games soliciting a featuring on the Finally, don’t forget the main benefit of Play Points
store’s homepage often have to comply with specific is their availability as a virtual currency across apps
requests from Google regarding their UI and product and games. Therefore, their first upside is the way in
metrics, taking part in the Play Points program grants which they can foster engagement and payments on
access to featuring inventory that is not subject to the the Play Store; however, the consequence is that they
same requirements. As a result, it is worth noting that are likely to fluidify the stream of highly active and/
while the traffic boost expected after being featured or paying users coming to games participating in
on the Play Points tab is quite inferior to traffic Google’s program.
increases from a homepage featuring, the former
featuring type can be easier to obtain once part of
the program. Additionally, Google Play appears to
send push notifications to participants in the Play
Points program to alert them about rewards or games
offering opportunities to win points, which is likely to
boost an app’s visibility to those users.
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Google Play Pass and
Apple Arcade
Both Google Play Pass and Apple Arcade are
subscription services run by the stores to offer users
unlimited access to games; however, their conditions
and benefits differ greatly.
Google Play Pass
Google Play Pass functions as a subscription service
available in 90 countries (with the notable exclusions
of China, Japan, and India); the service automatically
removes in-app ads and unlocks in-app products &
subscriptions for apps and games that are part of Play
Pass. Furthermore, subscribers can also download
paid apps & games that are part of Play Pass for free.
422
All apps and games that are distributed through Google
Play Pass are also available to other users on the Play
Store and are not exclusive to Play Pass subscribers,
although regular users are exposed to monetization
options that are removed for Play Pass subscribers.
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In terms of distribution, developers applying to have
their apps distributed under the Play Pass program
can benefit from increased Play Store visibility, as
a dedicated Play Pass tab appears on the Play Store
homepage for Play Pass subscribers (however, unlike
the Arcade tab on Apple’s App Store, this tab does
not appear for non-subscribers). The Play Pass tab
displays curated recommendations as well as several
app collections (similar in style and format to those of
the Games and Apps tabs) and an index of Play Pass
games and apps per category.
Given the limited number of apps that are part of
Play Pass (for instance, we only observed 11 Play Pass
games in the Music category in October 2021), we can
infer that an app’s chances of being featured on the
Play Pass tab are greatly superior to being featured on
the Games or Apps tabs. However, we have not seen
any clear evidence that being part of the Play Pass
program can lead to additional featurings outside of
the Play Pass tab, and the only sign of apps and games
offering benefits to Play Pass subscribers on other
screens is a dedicated badge that appears on their store
listing page, although only for Play Pass subscribers.
Finally, the financial benefits for apps applying to
be part of the Play Pass program come in the form
of compensation via a royalty program “based on
algorithmic methods that incorporate signals which
capture how users value all types of content (from
weather apps to narrative-driven indie games),”
according to Google. Furthermore, Google’s public
website claims that “on average, developers have more
than doubled their Play revenue across participating
titles in markets where Play Pass is live,” though we
have not been able to verify this claim.
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Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade is vastly different from Google Play
Pass in the sense that this subscription service offers
exclusive access to mobile games—and only games—
on iPhone and iPad, but also Apple TV and Mac.
All Apple Arcade games are free of ads and in-app
purchases, and can be played offline.
Unlike the Play Pass tab, all iOS users can access
the Apple Arcade tab on the App Store and browse
content in the form of editorial featurings, app
collections, dedicated category rankings, and pre-
order announcements.
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S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
Furthermore, Apple Arcade games can be discovered
through App Store search, either via a dedicated
search filter or as part of regular search results, and
are also often featured on the Games tab. In search
results, Apple Arcade games display an Apple Arcade
badge above their app title and do not display a star
rating or the number of associated ratings.
This means their metadata is indexed like any other
game available on the store although they appear to
only rarely rank at the top of search results, most likely
due to their lower download velocity and smaller
amounts of ratings compared to free-access games
that may compete for the same keywords.
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Last but not least, the product pages of Apple Arcade
games differ from regular App Store product pages:
They display an auto-playing video as a header banner
and the page layout has the game icon centered above
an Apple Arcade badge, the app title and subtitle, and
an enlarged “Get” button. These elements take up the
entirety of the first screen, pushing the information
panel and screenshot gallery down to the second
screen and forcing users to scroll to see them.
426
Consequently, the icon and banner video of Apple
Arcade games are likely to be the creative assets
with the most impact on the pageview to download
conversion rate, while the app preview video and
screenshots in the creative gallery would play a more
minor role.
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Over the last few years, Apple and Google have released
multiple new features to help developers promote
their apps inside the stores, even going as far as
creating their own app distribution programs to foster
user activity in the stores and in partner apps. Among
the most recent changes are a few initial methods of
reviewing one of the oldest rules in ASO—an app’s
obligation to show the same store page content to all
store visitors in the same locale. iOS 15 functionalities
in particular are considered as signifying the largest
change in ASO since their announcement; they could
lead to a re-definition of ASO’s role in app marketing,
especially if expectations that Google Play will follow
in Apple’s footsteps become true.
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Customer
Information
Tools
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Uncover how Apple and
Google have begun to enrich
customer information by
adding new fields on app
pages forcing developers to
disclose user data gathering
and sharing practices, and
by experimenting with new
filters and labels in search
results.
428
As Apple and Google have made significant
strides to develop marketing tools on
their respective stores and defend their
positioning as the principal channels for
app discovery, they have also added new
functionalities regarding user information
privacy as well as search adjustment tools
meant to help end-users better navigate the
store and make more informed decisions
around the apps they want to download.
Data Privacy Sections
In 2020, Apple introduced new privacy
features as part of iOS 14 as privacy and
control over third-party data sharing
became a growing topic of interest for
consumers, and new laws like the European
Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
required digital businesses to collect user
consent before processing and sharing
personal data. Although the App Tracking
Transparency (ATT) framework has had
the largest impact on app user acquisition
as a whole (and did therefore give way to
some ASO side effects), for developers,
the only direct change on the App Store
was the introduction of a new “Nutrition
Label” section on the app product page.
S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
iOS Nutrition Labels
Any app published on the App Store is specifically
required to provide Apple with an extensive picture
of the personal data collected from users for both
internal purposes and to be shared with third parties.
In fact, Apple published a list of exemption criteria to
clarify the data that does not have to be reported, thus
highlighting the broad spectrum of the disclosure
required from developers: Only data that is provided
by the user in an app’s interface with the obvious
purpose of being collected, is collected infrequently
and not for the app’s primary purpose, and—most
importantly—is not collected for tracking purposes
(i.e., advertising, advertising measurement, or
marketing) is optional to disclose.
For each data-collecting process disclosed, developers
are required to specify:
• The type of data (from personal data, such as
contact information, location, user or device
identifiers, to more generic data, such as app usage
and diagnostics which might be anonymized
before collection).
• How it is used (from advertising, marketing, and
analytics purposes to powering app functionalities
and/or product personalization).
• How it might be linked to a user (whether the data
can be linked back to a single person or might
benefit from specific privacy protections that
prevent such associations).
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Last but not least, developers need to declare what
data is subject to tracking and linked with third-party
data, whether for targeted advertising, advertising
measurement purposes, or shared with a data broker.
Only two exceptions apply to this rule: when the data
is solely linked to a user’s device, and when the data is
shared with a data broker for the sole purpose of fraud
detection, prevention, or security purposes.
430
Once developers have provided the required
information in their App Store Connect console,
Apple will automatically generate a privacy report
consisting of three cards (“Data Used to Track You,”
“Data Linked to You,” “Data Not Linked to You”)
appearing on the app’s App Store product page under
the What’s New section for new users or under the
Reviews & Ratings section for users who already have
the app installed.
Therefore, it is worth noting that while providing
Apple with the data required to generate an app’s
privacy report may be time consuming, the report
itself does not appear outside of the app product page
and can only be accessed by scrolling down the page.
This means it is unlikely to have a big impact on an
app’s conversion rate, given the limited proportion of
customers who see it.
Privacy report card and
expanded view from the
“Productive” app on the App
Store.
S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
Google Play Privacy
Information Cards
In May 2021, Google announced it would follow in Completion of the form will become
Apple’s footsteps and add a safety section on apps’ mandatory by April 2022 and must ensure
store listing pages starting February 2022. As of the following information is disclosed:
November 2021, developers could fill in a form in
the Data Safety section of the Google Play Developer • Any of the required user data types
Console to highlight the type of user data they collect, that are collected and/or shared.
how the data is used and handled, and any additional • Any user data sent from the user’s
privacy or security practices, such as encryption or device by libraries or SDKs used in
deletion mechanisms. the app, regardless of whether this
information is transmitted to you (the
developer) or to a third party.
• Any user data transferred from the
server to a third party, or transferred
How the future Safety section will look inside an to another third-party app on the same
app’s store listing page. Source: Google.
device.
• Any user data collected or transferred
through a WebView which can be
opened from the app—unless users are
navigating the open web.
While Google has stated the data
safety form will ask for additional and
different information from the App Store
requirements (and that Google Play’s Data
Safety section may differ materially from
that on other stores), expectations for this
section are the same as for the App Store.
In particular, that it will not be positioned
on the store listing page in a prominent
manner, thus meaning it will be unlikely to
be a major factor for pageview to download
conversion.
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Search Adjustment Tools
Though Apple and Google’s new requirements
around user data privacy and safety have not led
to particularly impactful UI changes on either
store, they attest to both companies’ will to satisfy
increasingly demanding customers who look for best-
in-class-quality apps. This objective has also led to the
introduction of search adjustment tools to help users
filter out search results based on specific criteria.
App Store Search Autocorrect &
Search Suggestions
Since iOS 14, Apple’s search engine has automatically
displayed results for the correct spelling of a
misspelled query, along with a message asking the
user to confirm if the misspelled query was what they
intended to search for and whether they should be led
to the search results for that exact query.
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S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
Furthermore, Apple introduced search suggestions in
April 2021 to help users further specify their search
intent. Unlike search page suggested items that only
suggest the most popular terms to complete any
query a user has started typing in, search suggestions
appear on the search results page and add a list of
Autocorrect & search suggestions on the App Store, November 2021.
topics that may relate to the initial query. As a result,
users may select one of the suggested items to filter
results and display only a certain type of apps fitting
the combination of their query and the suggested Finally, it’s important to note that neither autocorrect
topic. Although Apple does not disclose how these nor search suggestions are available in all App Store
suggestions are generated, they are likely to be based markets (as of November 2021), though they have
on the metadata of apps that rank for the initial been confirmed by members of the ASO Stack Slack
query, and could also derive from reviews and ratings to appear in the US, Germany, France, China, Hong
matching a specific topic. Kong, and Ukraine.
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Google Play Search Filters
In September 2020, Google also introduced search
adjustments with search filters that allow users to
exclude apps and games from search results if they
do not meet a specific star rating threshold or if they
have been attributed a specific Google tag (usually
with regards to a particular functionality or topic).
From our observations, suggested tags that can be
used as filters are not self-attributed but can only be
tags attributed directly by the Google Play algorithm.
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S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
These include:
• “Family” to only display apps & games listed in the
Family category
• “Multiplayer” to only display multiplayer games
• “New” to only display recently released apps &
games
• “Offline” to only display offline games
• “Play Pass” to only display apps & games that are
part of the Google Play Pass program
• “Premium” to only display paid apps & games
• “Single Player” to display only single-player games
• “Editor’s choice” to display only apps & games that
have been featured by Google editors
Search filters from the US and French Play Store, November 2021.
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Users can combine multiple filters to
trim down the list of search results
even further. ASO Stack users have
also observed that when filtering apps
by star rating, Google Play’s filter only
considers the daily average of new
ratings and not the historical average
rating displayed on the app’s page. This
means that even an app with a star
rating superior to 4.6 will not appear
in filtered search results if its average
rating on that day is inferior to 4.5, as
observed in the following example (the
official Exploding Kittens app does not
appear in search results filtered to only
show apps with a star rating higher
than 4.5 stars, despite its average rating
being 4.6).
436
With app store users becoming more
and more selective regarding their
app choices, Apple and Google have
both introduced new functionalities to
provide additional information to users.
While developers are now required to
disclose how they handle and share
user data and safety, the sections where
this information is displayed have
not proven to impact conversion in a
particularly strong way, and should
mostly be considered as a formal
check necessary for any app to receive
approval from store operators and be
listed on the App Store and Google Play.
Search results using combined filters on the French Play Store,
November 2021.
S TO R E P R O M OT I O N A L TO O L S & C U S TO M E R I N F O R M AT I O N
On the other hand, new search
adjustment tools have recently
been added to each store and have
the potential to skew app visibility
if they are not flagged correctly by
store algorithms as matching filters
suggested to customers. In particular,
star rating filters on Google Play may
cause apps and games to lose visibility,
even in the case of well-rated apps that
receive below-average ratings on a
specific day.
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CHAPTER 07

Performance
Reporting
Dashboards
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& ASO Tools
CHAPTER 07
Creating Dashboards
for Performance
Reviews
Without the ability to measure the impact of your work on your top
KPIs, ASO might as well be a fairytale. You need to be able to report
on all your activities, from granular wins to the overall impact on
user acquisition.
In this chapter, you’ll learn how to measure ASO success with
different KPIs. It is important to understand how marketing
activities play into the overall growth of your organization—not only
do they demonstrate the value of your function, they also help you
answer crucial questions, like where to invest your budget and time.
When you really know what works and what doesn’t, you’ll be able
to make more strategic decisions and drive business outcomes with
tailored ASO strategies.
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The Challenge of Isolating
Organic Installs
ASO is part of the user acquisition funnel; even more
importantly, it’s the destination of user acquisition
before users get a chance to experience the app or
game. Most companies focus on one KPI: Installs.
Total Installs = Organic Installs + Non-Organic Installs
Organic installs represent users who come to the store
listing page without having seen an ad. Users can
find an app via various organic channels; searching
and browsing the app stores are the most common
methods of app discovery. Conversely, non-organic
installs represent users who discover an app via ads.
No matter whether that be through Apple Search Ads
(ASA), Google Ads, or on any social media network,
app developers pay a fee to acquire these installs.
The member of a user acquisition team who oversees
ASO is usually the point of contact for reporting
purposes. However, things are not that straight
> Download
A user downloads an app on a device.
forward in developer consoles and with
mobile measurement partners (MMP), such as
AppsFlyer and Adjust. Apple and Google don’t
separate organic downloads from non-organic
downloads: ASA downloads are mixed with search
downloads in App Store Connect, while Google
Ads downloads are mixed with search and third-
party downloads in the Google Play Console.
When measuring and reporting in ASO, we have to
make a clear distinction between the definitions of
“installs” and “downloads.” A lot of marketers use
these terms interchangeably which can create a lot
of confusion, even within the developer consoles.
> Install
A user launches an app for the first time after
downloading it, thus installing it on a device.
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Data Discrepancy
Due to Different Naming
Apple, Google, and MMPs have different names for
and understandings of downloads and installs. The
ASA Console makes this even more confusing by
calling downloads “Installs,” which are the sum of
“New downloads” and “Redownloads.” This can make
it quite difficult for marketers to understand what is
actually measured by each metric. On the previous
page, we distinguish between the two metrics: A
download is counted when a user downloads an app
on a device, regardless of whether or not the user
opens and uses the app. This is a signal that a user is
interested in using the app. An install is later counted
only when the user launches the app; it indicates a
user exploring the app’s features.
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Redownloads—users who delete and redownload the The App Store and Google Play provide a breakdown
app or downloads onto other devices a user owns— of where downloads are coming from. This helps app
are explicitly excluded from these metrics so app developers pinpoint the biggest opportunities for user
developers can monitor the performance of new-user acquisition.
acquisition.
In most cases, the number of downloads doesn’t
match the number of installs. This is because users do App Store user acquisition sources include App Store Browse, App Store
not necessarily open the app after downloading it. For Search, app referrers, and web referrers.
example, a user might accidentally click on the “GET”
or “INSTALL” button before later discovering they
have downloaded the wrong app. In fact, according
to AppsFlyer, this happens to about 20% of users,
causing data discrepancies between the developer
consoles and MMPs.
The App Store and Google Play consoles name
downloads differently from one another. The
definitions are also slightly different but they generally
mean the same thing—download. Specifically, the
App Store refers to first-time downloads while
Google Play counts downloads when the user hasn’t
yet installed the app on any devices.
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Google Play traffic sources include Search, Explore, and third-party referrals.

In the KPI tree, we use the term “installs,” as we care about users who eventually
open and use the app. You can also go further and use revenue-related metrics
such as subscription numbers and lifetime value. However, if you want to model
the funnel to reflect ASO’s impact on business goals, installs are always the best
place to begin.

Interestingly, the effort put into ASO often increases performance in non-organic
traffic. Knowing that all users will eventually arrive on the App Store or Google
Play to download an app, we can safely assume that optimizing the store listing will
have a certain impact on conversion, even if the users come from paid marketing,
such as Facebook or Google Ads.
Visibility & Conversion
Based on the ASO Stack, there are two aspects of
measuring the impact of ASO: increasing visibility
and increasing conversion.To best represent the
metrics to be monitored and measured, we structure
the KPI tree in the same way. Let’s have a closer look
at this layer.

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Increasing visibility is to increase an app’s reach within the stores;
for example, ranking higher for popular keywords. In other words,
we maximize the chances that a user will see your app in different
places, such as in the search results or on the store homepage.
To measure an app’s visibility, the core metrics we should look at are
Impressions (Unique Devices) on the App Store and Store Listing Visitors on
Google Play.
Whenever we do a specific activity to increase visibility, the impressions or store
listing visitors will increase if the optimization is successful. The acquisition
source and traffic source breakdowns are also available for these metrics. For
example, App Store “Browse Impressions” will jump if the app gets featured,
while App Store “Search Impressions” will increase with excellent keyword
optimization.
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Increasing conversion, on the other hand, is to increase the
attractiveness of an app among competitors within the stores—
for example, presenting screenshots that directly answer a user’s
search query. Through these persuasive techniques, we eventually
improve the store listing and maximize the likelihood that a user
will download the app.
Conversion rate indicates the likelihood of users downloading an app.
The average conversion rate on the App Store is significantly different from Google
Play. This is because the base of the metrics differs. On the App Store, impressions
are counted when users see the app icon somewhere on the store. On the other
hand, Google Play counts an impression only if a user arrives on the store listing
page. In general, conversion rates on Google Play are much higher because users
express more interest in the app by clicking on the app icon and reaching the store
listing page. The higher the user intent, the higher the conversion rate.
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In 2021, the average conversion rate (App Units/Page Views) across categories on the US App Store was
30%. The average install rate (App Units/Impressions) was 4%. Source: AppTweak.

Some app developers look at the “product page views to downloads” conversion rate
on the App Store, trying to find a comparable metric to the Google Play conversion
rate. This works theoretically, as product page views represent the number of
times your App Store product page was viewed. This metric is helpful to monitor
your paid campaigns which direct users to the store listing page from outside the
store.

In 2021, the average conversion rate (Acquisitions/Store Listing Visitors) across categories on Google Play
US was 34%. Source: AppTweak.
However, on the App Store, the majority of users download the app directly from
the search results without visiting the store listing page first. Roughly speaking,
less than 20% of users will reach the store listing page from search or Browse
results. This means that the product page views to downloads conversion rate only
represents the behavior of a minority of your users. Depending on which traffic
source you want to monitor, be sure to select the right conversion rate to see the
full story.

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Conversion rate varies by traffic source depending on

user intent. The search conversion rate is generally KPIs of Visibility
higher than Explore or Browse conversion rates, as
users who come from search have a higher intent Headspace, a very well-known meditation and mindfulness
to download an app from the results, especially for app, has been featured on the App Store several times. These
brand names. The conversion rate of web referrer, featuring opportunities have been observed to double the app’s
app referrer, and third-party referrals is influenced by daily downloads in one day. After investigating the impact of being
performance marketing strategies and organic traffic featured, Headspace refined its strategies for user acquisition and
from the app developer’s website. To better monitor app discoverability in the stores and was then successfully featured
conversion rates as a performance KPI, a breakdown frequently. By identifying the granular results of each ASO activity,
by traffic source with a line showing the trend app developers can focus on the optimizations that influence top-
evolution gives a holistic view of overall performance. level KPIs in a game-changing way.

The respective conversion rate should increase Let’s focus on the four main optimizations aimed to increase
whenever we implement a successful optimization visibility.
activity. From this, the number of downloads should
also increase. Note that certain optimizations
classified as “increasing visibility tactics” will
Conversion rate with traffic sources breakdown and view over time.
impact conversion rates too. For example, when you
implement a keyword optimization tactic with the aim
of driving more traffic from generic keywords, your
search conversion rate will drop, as the additional
traffic will have a lower conversion rate than brand-
specific downloads. Similarly, the total conversion
rate will typically drop when an app gets featured on
the store. This is because the app is shown to a lot
more users (increase in Browse impressions), while
user intent to download the app stays quite low (drop
in Browse conversion rate).
Conversion rate benchmark in Google Play Console.
A lot of ASO tools (such as AppTweak or AppFollow)
provide conversion rate benchmarks based on app-
tool integration data. On its developer console, Google Keep in mind that KPIs in ASO are always interlinked
Play provides the most accurate benchmarks with and we should consider these data points while
percentiles. considering the context of others.

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Right after a successful metadata update: Influence on search-related metrics:

• Keyword rankings of the targeted • App Store: Search impressions and

keywords will increase. search app units will increase.

• Search visibility indicators or • Google Play: Search store listing

scores of keyword tracking tools visitors and search store listing
will increase. acquisitions will increase.

Unfortunately, the search-related metrics might not always move up even if the app starts
Keyword Optimization ranking for the targeted keywords. On the next page is a list of possible reasons and next steps.

As discussed in Chapter 2, keyword

optimization (KWO) aims to increase
app visibility in searches by targeting
keywords with high search volumes and Pro Tip:
high relevance to the app. Successful A lot of keyword tracking tools provide an abstract
keyword optimization will cause score denoting the general search visibility, usually
immediate results within a few days accounting for keyword rankings and search volumes.
after a metadata update, followed by The more keywords or the higher the ranking, the
changes in search-related KPIs and the greater the visibility score. This can be a great abstract
top-level metric, total downloads. metric to know whether KWO is effective or not.

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Getting Featured

The App Store publishes editorial stories every day,

while Google Play uses an algorithm to showcase
relevant apps to users. As highlighted in Chapter 2,
there are different ways an app can get into these
feature spots to reach even more potential users.

After iterating your metadata work and observing the impact on search-related metrics, the value of each
keyword will surface. Soon enough, you will be able to maximize search traffic by targeting high-volume,
relevant keywords—the perfect metadata balance! The App Store’s editorial stories. Google Play’s featuring collection.

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Getting featured on the App Store and Google Play

requires some degree of interaction with Apple and
Google. Nonetheless, it could bring tremendous
results with the right approach. If your app gets
featured, you will obviously see this in the store. Most
ASO tools also provide a statistical view of featuring
frequencies so you know when and where your app
has been featured.

In the developer console, you will see big spikes in

Browse impressions or Explore store listing visitors
and downloads depending on the effectiveness of the
featuring, likely accompanied by a drop in Browse/
Explore conversion rate and total conversion rate.

Sometimes, the additional exposure of getting

featured does not translate into Browse downloads. If 2. The position in the featuring: Appearing in
this is the case, you should look into two aspects: the top position is always important, especially
among competitors. On the stores, similar apps
are generally placed in one collection, meaning
1. The topic of the story: When a story is less that apps have to fight competitors for users’
relevant to the app’s key value propositions, it is attention. The higher the position the app is listed
difficult to gain downloads. For example, users in the featuring, the greater the chance users
who click on the story “Organize Your Life” will see and download the app. The opportunity
are unlikely to download photography apps. to convert an impression into a download
is very limited if the app sits below the fold.
Photography apps listed in the story “Organize Your Life.”
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Category Switching
Google Play and the App Store categorize apps to help
users to find what they want. The stores launch new
categories from time to time as an increasing number of
apps are published on the stores with groundbreaking
functionalities. Although app developers choose an
app category when they first publish the app, it is
always smart to reconsider whether or not the app is
still relevant to its category.
Similar to keyword optimization, a successful category
switch will enable the app to rank higher in the
category, followed by an increase in Browse/Explore-
related KPIs and, eventually, total downloads.
Right after a successful category switch:
• Category ranking will increase
This app’s category ranking increased across countries on Sep 8 after
a successful category switch.
458
The following Browse/Explore metrics will be
impacted if the new category ranking is high enough
(i.e., in the top 30):
• App Store: Browse impressions and Browse app
units will increase.
• Google Play: Explore store listing visitors and
Explore store listing acquisitions will increase.
A category switch will only impact the top-level KPIs
in the long run if the app ranks in a top position in its
new category. As the top chart or category is sorted
by the total number of downloads over a given time
period, this tactic mainly benefits apps with good
organic traffic.
On the other hand, Browse/Explore visibility in a
category is very important for games or lifestyle apps.
These types of apps are unlike music or travel apps,
where big brand names like Spotify or Booking.com
easily pop into users’ minds. For these apps, users
often browse categories looking for inspiration; as a
result, apps can expect to enjoy organic traffic uplifts
if they manage to reach the top 10.
PERFORMANCE REPORTING DASHBOARDS & ASO TOOL S
Healthy Core Android Vitals
Increasing visibility isn’t only about optimizing the
store listing. App developers also have to take care
of the health of their apps. Google Play mentions
that “exhibiting bad behavior in vitals will negatively
affect the user experience in your app and is likely to
result in bad ratings and poor discoverability on the
Play Store.”
As Google believes people consistently reward the
best performing apps with better ratings & reviews,
the Google Play algorithm is made to respond to user
preferences. Apps that present a good experience
and health will generally have better rankings and
discoverability on Google Play, which will result in
more installs.
Android vitals reflect an app’s health. Not only do
they exhibit the overall app performance from a
technical perspective, they also flag issues in user
experience. Vitals are extremely useful, as they help
developers spot problems early enough before users
start to complain publicly in reviews and discourage
other users to download the app. In the Google Play
Developer Console, core vitals that go beyond the bad
behavior threshold are flagged in the Overview tab,
under the Android Vitals section.
Google Play’s complex algorithm takes Android vitals
into account to optimize the store experience. If app
developers don’t fix unhealthy Android vitals, Google
Play will penalize these apps by lowering its keyword
rankings and limiting its exposure on the store. The
most obvious changes in visibility metrics are from
Explore traffic, meaning that the app will suddenly
receive much fewer Explore store listing visitors and
acquisitions.
Android vitals should be monitored whenever
developers push an update to users. The app will
receive its Explore traffic when vitals are healthy
again. Compared to Explore discoverability, unhealthy
Android vitals have less of an impact on search
visibility (keyword rankings).
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Store Asset Experiments

In Chapter 3, we discussed how you can increase

conversion rates by applying the Conversion Rate
Optimization Loop (CRO Loop) to create store assets.
Results are evaluated differently depending on where
and how experiments are run.

The results of Google Play listing experiments are

easy to read. For example, here we can easily interpret
that the testing variant drove an install uplift of +0.4%
to +3.8% compared to the current store listing (control
variant).

KPIs of Conversion
Throughout the user journey, the conversion rate is
the easiest and most important metric to understand.
Interestingly, conversion rate optimization is not just
about creating beautiful store assets; there are three
crucial aspects that we’ll explore in the next section.

After applying this experiment: As the experiment was live for one week, the annual-
ized incremental downloads would be the difference
• +0.4% to +3.8% in downloads between the two variants, extrapolated
expected increase in conversion rate. to a year.

• The number of downloads was expected to • Expected annualized uplift

increase by the same amount (+0.4% to +3.8%),
providing that impressions remained stable. = (29,859 installs - 29,282 installs) ÷ 50% audience
÷ 7 experiment days x 365 days
To take things one step further, we can calculate the
expected uplift in installs. = 60,173 installs

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A small win in one experiment can bring an app a

lot of value in terms of downloads if the traffic base
is big enough. Experimentation is powerful, as the
small wins from iteration will eventually add up to
meaningful numbers and shine in top-level KPIs,
conversion rates, and installs.
Note that the extrapolation might not be applicable to
apps that experience strong seasonality effects. This
is because two major assumptions are made for the
extrapolation:
The analysis is rather straightforward: You compare
the conversion rate before and after the creative
update. However, taking the averages of the
conversion rates can be fairly inaccurate, as a lot
more considerations need to be made. We list the
recommended steps in this table.

1. The number of impressions and store listing

visitors remains stable throughout the year.

2. The experiment hypothesis remains true

throughout the year. Experiments like adding a
Christmas background to screenshots wouldn’t
perform as well as during the summer festival
season. Therefore, these experiments shouldn’t
be taken into consideration when estimating the
uplift in installs.

Similarly, the result of an experiment can be derived

from comparing the control variant and testing
variant, even in other approaches like a before-and-
after test. On the App Store, the previous feature of
Creative Set testing was somewhat biased, as Apple’s
Sequential algorithm would optimize for downloads. However,
analysis: Observing the general approach was to apply the creative test
the change in
conversion rate after and observe the changes in conversion rate and
a creative update. downloads. This is also called a sequential analysis.

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You can track these metrics directly in the Google Play Console or
through third-party tools, such as Appbot or AppTweak.

Example of a creative update analysis.

If the creative change doesn’t result in an uplift,

you can revert to the previous creative or apply a
This app’s average star ratings immediately increased in late October after the implementation of an in-app rating
hypothesis. Don’t let a small negative number stop
prompt.
you from iterating the creative change.

Ratings & Reviews

Humans are social animals; we listen to what others

have to say and quite often make our decisions based
on other people’s opinions, even if we don’t know
that person. That’s why ratings & reviews can be so
impactful on the stores.

In Chapter 5, we discussed different methods of

improving your app’s ratings & reviews. If your efforts
are successful, you could see:

• An increase in the number of ratings & reviews.

• An increase in average star rankings.
• Users talk more about their positive experiences
on the app. The app received more five-star ratings after implementing an in-app rating prompt.
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An app’s total conversion rate is expected to increase
with better ratings. If there are no other significant
changes to the store listing, the impact of the improved
ratings is very visible when compared to the total
conversion rate. Hence, the app will receive more
downloads as the conversion rate increases.
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Similar to a sequential analysis, it is important
to remove (as much as possible) any factors that
influence the conversion rate, as we are comparing
conversion rates before and after certain events like
the implementation of a rating prompt.
One thing to keep in mind is that Google Play might
give the app more visibility, such as higher keyword
rankings and more featuring opportunities, as the
star rating improves. It is also likely that the number
of total store listing visitors will increase. This
reinforces the fact that these metrics are interlinked;
app developers should fully understand the impact of
each activity and measure success accordingly.
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App Size & Permissions

App size and permission are smaller factors that can

impact conversion rates.

On Google Play, your app size is compared to a

predefined peer group. App size matters, especially in
markets with a lot of low-end devices with less storage.
Generally speaking, the larger the app size, the lower
the conversion rate on both the App Store and Google
Play. Uninstall rates also typically increase with app
size.

Permission denial rate can also be found in the

Google Play Console. This is the percentage of daily
permission sessions during which users denied
permissions for your app. The list of permissions
is hidden deep in the store listing page. For privacy-
sensitive users, any unnecessary permissions might
discourage them from downloading the app.

List of permissions hiding deep in the store listing page.

App size vs. peer group in the Google Play Console.

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Final Words About Interlinked
Metrics
In the KPI tree, we illustrate the metrics that are im-
mediately affected by ASO activities. However, these
metrics—installs, impressions, store listing visitors,
and conversion rate—are always interlinked, not only
mathematically but in reality. Below, we list a few tips
to help you better understand the complexity of ASO
metrics.
> The ASO impact of impressions/store listing visitors
on conversion rate: Although it is mathematically
correct to say that conversion rate increases because
downloads increase, this is not the right causal
relationship between these two metrics. In fact, you
would expect sales (installs) to increase because
the marketing strategy (ASO effort) sends a better
message to potential buyers (improved conversion
rate) instead of the other way around, right?
> Conversion rates should be carefully evaluated
together with impressions/store listing visitors.
Conversion rates can be impacted by a change in traffic
composition (brand traffic vs. generic traffic). Brand
search traffic generally has a higher conversion rate
than generic search traffic. When more generic traffic
reaches the store listing page, search conversion rates
will naturally decline with the smaller share of brand
traffic.
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> Use “installs” to compare the results of different
activities. The ultimate goal is to draw quality users
to the app, so use “installs” to prioritize resources
for the right ASO activities. This turns questions
like “should I devote my time to iterating metadata
changes or crafting new creatives?” into “will A/B
testing creatives bring more value than adding these
keywords?” This then makes it much easier to show
impact and identify next steps.
> Understand the bigger picture in user acquisition. We
often see uplifts in Browse and Explore downloads
when a marketing team invests a lot more into paid
marketing or offline marketing. This is because brand
awareness subsequently increases and users flood
the stores to download the app, pushing its category
ranking to the top position. The snowball keeps rolling
and more users then download the app from the top
charts. Similar stories happen all the time. Without
a bigger picture in mind, app developers can’t truly
understand the impact across all acquisition channels,
as the efforts of the marketing team will eventually
cause changes in top-level KPIs in the store consoles.
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Console & Reporting Tools

Working in the mobile industry, you should be familiar with the store consoles to
some extent. Nonetheless, we would now like to walk you through the main tabs in
the consoles and point out the metrics you can find there. We will also showcase
an easy-to-use data visualization tool, Google Data Studio, for performance
monitoring and reporting.

App Store Connect

More About Traffic Composition
It is possible to boost conversion rates to a very
high number, but this doesn’t always result in more
downloads. Why? By limiting traffic to brand-only and
removing all generic keywords from the app metadata,
conversion rates will reach a maximum number
(brand traffic usually has a higher conversion rate);
however, total downloads will drop as you remove
most of the generic keywords.
Now we can understand how visibility metrics (i.e.,
brand search share) play a role in conversion rates and
how/why high-level KPIs are interlinked.
Within App Store Connect, the App Analytics tab provides
information about user engagement, marketing campaigns, and
monetization using data.
> Overview: A one-pager that lists out all the high-level KPIs in our
KPI tree, including impressions, conversion rate, and app units
(downloads). There is also a quick view of app units by territory,
traffic source, and device.
> Metrics: An in-depth dashboard to visualize and download all
performance metrics. There are country filters, traffic source filters,
etc. This is very useful to understand the granular impact of a specific
optimization activity.

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> Acquisition: A closer look at the traffic sources of app referrers, web
referrers, and campaigns. You can see which website or apps users
come from.
> Retention: Apple provides basic retention metrics such as the
percentage of users that first installed the app on a date and used it
over the following days. It is not as comprehensive or powerful as
other retention tools, like Braze.
App Store Connect.
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Google Play Console
In late 2020, Google revamped the Google Play Console. The ASO-
related information can now be found under several sections.
> Grow Store Presence: In this section, app developers can control the
store listing and run experiments.
> Grow Store Performance: High-level KPIs like store listing visitors,
conversion rate, and store listing acquisitions (downloads) can
be viewed here. The metrics can be broken down by traffic source,
country/region, language, search term, etc. Conversion rate
benchmarks per traffic source, country, or language are also listed
here.
> Quality Ratings & Review: The app’s star ratings & reviews can be
found in this section with a country and language breakdown. You
can easily see how ratings & reviews change over time and look into
the topics your users commented on in their reviews. This is handy
to understand user satisfaction and disappointment.
> Quality Android Vitals: Android vitals are grouped under the quality
section. The data about crash rate or app size helps app developers
understand and improve the user experience from a technical
perspective. Fixing issues and improving the app’s performance can
lead to a better user experience, higher ratings, and more installs.
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Getting Everything in Data Studio

It can be quite time consuming to jump from one console to another,

not to mention to export the data and consolidate it into real
insights. As reporting plays a big role in measuring ASO success, it is
important to use the right tool for data visualization and monitoring.

Google Data Studio is a great tool for data visualization; it is very

similar to Tableau or other in-house business intelligence tools. You
can use it for free, or pay a little extra to make it more powerful. If you
are not using any data visualization tools at the moment, we would
recommend you build a simple dashboard and monitor your app
performance with Google Data Studio.

Google Play Console.

Google Data Studio provides a variety of reporting templates.

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No matter which tool you use, you can build a powerful dashboard for performance
tracking and data visualization by following these steps.

Collect the right data from the developer

consoles

The developer consoles provide a bunch of data,

but this doesn’t mean you have to include all of it in
your reporting. Stick with the metrics that allow you
to measure performance against your marketing
objectives. If your goal is to gain more installs, collect
information about downloads from the developer
consoles and match this data with install numbers
from MMPs. All the high-level metrics should be
tracked, including downloads, impressions/store
listing visitors, and conversion rates.

The metrics should also be broken down per traffic

source and country, especially if you are working on
a variety of app optimizations simultaneously. It is
better to get daily data per traffic source and country
so that the sum of these data will provide a bigger
picture.
Both stores provide APIs to call data directly from the
consoles. In our experience, this data is somewhat
different from those in the console. If you have an
in-house engineering team, you could instead build a
script to scrape the data from the console.

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Collect the necessary data from

third-party tools

As previously mentioned, we need more data to identi-

fy granular wins, such as improved keyword rankings.
You can track these metrics using third-party tools.
Depending on the ASO activities you are running, you
should also collect the relevant information.

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Display the important metrics in a data

visualization tool

Once you collect the data from all the consoles and
tools, you can display the core metrics in a data
visualization tool like Data Studio. We recommend
starting with monthly high-level metrics in
comparison to the previous month. The comparison
gives the metrics more meaning and makes it easier Of course, you can also display the data in graphs to
for stakeholders to understand what happened in the visualize changes over time and show progression/
month. overall trends.

Downloads over time to show progression.

High-level metrics in the dashboard.

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Include all the granular metrics to show the

moment of truth

Instead of explaining the details in slide decks or

presentations, we would recommend including all
the small metrics in the dashboard so it becomes the
single point of truth for all stakeholders. It is also very
convenient to monitor these granular metrics (likely
from third-party tools) against the high-level metrics
from the developer consoles.
Set up filters for date, country/language,
app, & more!

Google Sheets is probably one of the most convenient

tools for reporting. However, it is not interactive
enough for the users to view the data flexibly, or you
could risk a total mess-up of the data points. Most
data visualization tools hide the data source from
dashboard users, and allow users to select the data
with filters, which is very important for any dashboard.
You should set up two basic filters: date and country/
language.

> The date filter lets the user zoom in and out for a
specific period of time. For example, ASO managers
want to know week-over-week performances while
marketing managers focus on monthly metrics.
Having the visibility score side by side with search metrics allows us to see that search impressions increased as the app
gained more visibility from keyword rankings.
> Country/language filters provide the possibility
to focus on specific markets. You can also set up a
“region” filter to get a broader perspective on a wider
geographic location.

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With these steps, you can build an interactive

Set up filters in the dashboard.
dashboard for reporting for all stakeholders and spend
less time making slides and writing manual details.
This is what your final report could look like!

Instead of setting up an individual report for a specific

app, you can add an app or product filter if you are
managing multiple apps. With this filter, you can then
view the same metrics and graphs for different apps. It
is beneficial to compare the performance across apps
in the same portfolio.

Set up an app/product filter to view performance across apps in the

An all-in-one interactive ASO dashboard.
same portfolio.

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Third-Party Tools
Platform Tools
Notwithstanding previous comments, Apple and Google
do provide plenty of data via their first-party reporting Google Play Console
platforms, with more data regularly released by both
Apple and Google.
Dashboard View

In the Google Play Console, the dashboard is the

main screen and the one you arrive on after selecting
an application. The Google Play Console dashboard
is meant to offer an overview of your app’s health,
its performance, and its engineering stability. The
dashboard includes the following data points:

• New users acquired

• User loss
• Star rating and ratings volume
• Store listing performance
• Crashes, ANRs, and other Android
vitals
• App size
• Pre-launch report

Google Play Console dashboard.

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Statistics View
The Statistics view offers a deeper look into your
• User acquisition and loss Segmentations include:
app’s performance across a set of data points and
• Devices, device updates, install, uninstall events,
breakdowns.
and device loss after update • Android version
• Engagement, broken down by DAU, MAU, and • Device
Statistics reports can also be exported and configured
monthly returning users • Device type
to display up to two data points across one of the
• Average daily ratings • Country
following:
• Crashes, ANRs, app download size, app size on • Language
device at install time • App version
• Pre-registrations and conversions • Carrier
• Store listing acquisitions and visitors

Google Play Console statistics vs. peer group view.

Users and devices can be segmented

into all, new, and returning, and data
can be viewed across acquisitions and
loss for each statistic.

The Statistics view is also where you

can compare your apps’ performance to
peers across the gamut of available data
points, which can help you understand
which areas you should improve in to
raise your app’s organic ranking power.
Google Play Console Statistics view.
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• Finance (cryptocurrency, insurance, investment, • Maps & navigation

loan, mobile banking, mobile payment, personal
finance) • Medical

• Art & design (drawing) • Music & audio (audio recorder, karaoke, lyrics,
music instrument, radio, sound effect)
• Auto & vehicles (vehicle maintenance, vehicle
shopping) • News & magazines (news aggregator)

• Beauty (cosmetics, hairstyle) • Parenting

• Books & reference (audiobook, dictionary, • Personalization (emoji, emoticon, keyboard,

e-reader) launcher, lock screen, ringtone, theme,
wallpaper)
• Business ( job seeking)
• Photography (camera, photo editor)
• Comics
• Productivity (calendar, notebook)
• Communication (caller ID, email, video call)
• Shopping (fashion, loyalty program)
• Dating
Google Play Console statistics with time series graph and table showing daily peer group
performance.
• Social (meet new people)
• Education (driver’s education, language
education, mathematics, science education, study • Sports
guide, test preparation)
• Tools (calculator, measurement, network
Data available in the comparison-to-peers section of Peer comparisons can be run for primary peer groups • Entertainment (coloring book, humor) connectivity, privacy & security, remote control,
the Statistics view include: (e.g., Finance) and secondary peer groups (e.g., web browser)
Finance > Cryptocurrency), and peer comparisons • Events
• Store listing acquisition rate (all, new, returning can be configured for any peer group, regardless of • Travel & local (air travel, houses & vacation
users) what your app category is set to. • Food & drink (recipe, restaurant) rental, public transport, taxi & rideshare, travel
• Audience growth rate guide)
• User loss rate Peer comparisons include a shaded line chart with the • Health & fitness (activity tracker, meditation,
• DAU/MAU median, 25th, and 75th percentile data points for the sleep, weight loss) • Video players & editors (video editing, video
• Returning users selected peer group. Primary peer data is available for player)
• DAU growth rate any country; however, some countries do not support • House & home (home automation)
• MAU growth rate secondary peer group-level data comparisons. • Weather
• Lifestyle (horoscope, self-help)
Primary (and secondary) peer groups include:
• Live television
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2. Custom Store Listings

Release Store Presence This allows you to create a
customized page for different
This section contains information relevant to app This view houses all the levers that determine how countries or pre-registration
developers, including: your app’s store listing appears in the store, including campaigns. Up to 5 custom
the following two major areas: store listings can be created.
• Release overview
• Production 1. Main Store Listing
• Testing The store listing is where you enter your app’s 3. Store Settings
• Reach and devices metadata (both text and visuals) for your app’s This is where you select your
• App bundle explorer main store page. app’s category, Google Play
• Setup tags, and provide contact
Google Play Console Custom Store Listing creation.
details.

4. Translation Services
Provides a way to have your store listing translated
(by humans) into another language.

5. Store Listing Experiments

Where store asset experiments are run.

Google Play Console Main Store Listing view.

Google Play Console Store Listing Experiments performance.

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Store Performance

The Store Analysis tab is another important area for

app developers/marketers focusing on ASO. Here,
Google provides data on store listing visitors, store
listing acquisitions, and store listing conversion rate,
broken up along several dimensions, including:
While highly useful and the best way to obtain a true
test of a live store listing, there are several limitations • Source (Google Play Search, Google Play Explore,
to note regarding Google’s A/B testing engine: and third-party referrals)
• Languages
• Countries
• Search terms
• App install states (new users vs returning users)
> The confidence interval is locked at 90%, which may • UTM source
not be a high enough level of confidence for marketers • UTM campaign
who want a more precise reading. • Main store listing vs. custom store listings

> Testing is done with all visitors for an app’s listing,

which cannot be manipulated (e.g., search vs. top
chart browsing).

> While experiments can provide data on either first-

time installers or day-1 retained users, they do not
allow for reporting on other post-install metrics, such
as revenue.

> Running multiple experiments only provides data for

the performance of a variant all-up which, while useful
for a cohesive report, makes it difficult to distinguish
the effect of each variable.

> Experiments do not provide insights into other

metrics, such as engagement or the view rate of each
element.

Google Play Console Store Listing Acquisition report by country.

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The Conversion Analysis tab shows performance that

can be segmented by the above dimensions, and also
compared against primary or secondary peer groups.

Google’s store listing and conversion analysis data

is quite useful and extensive, especially for ASO
practitioners who don’t use an MMP. You can use this
data for some of the following analyses:

> Measuring the real change in performance after an

optimization (e.g., how a screenshot change affected
conversion rates).

> Measuring the performance of each acquisition

source, such as how SEO installs converted purchases
(and which keywords drove installs).

Google Play Console Store Listing Conversion report showing an app’s conversion rate vs. the benchmark
Google Play Console Store Listing Acquisition report by search term. conversion rate by source.

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Android Vitals

This section provides insight into your app’s development quality

along several common problematic data points that, if persistent
or widespread, can have a significant, negative effect on user
experience.

• App stability • Battery

◊ ANR rate
◊ Crash rate
◊ Multiple ANR rate
◊ Multiple crash rate
• App startup time
◊ Slow cold start
◊ Slow warm start
◊ Slow hot start
• Permissions
◊ Permission denials
◊ Stuck partial wake locks & stuck
partial wake locks (background)
◊ Excessive wakeups
◊ Excessive background Wi-Fi scans
◊ Excessive background network
usage
• Rendering
◊ Excessive slow frames
◊ Excessive frozen frames

Google Play Console vitals overview.

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Monetize

The Financial Reports section has been expanded in • App pricing

the new Google Play Console to cover a wide variety of • In-app products
sections. First, you can manage your app pricing and • Subscriptions
These data points can also be compared to peer groups. in-app products via:

Each data point includes the percentage of affected

sessions from all Android versions, as well as the latest
Android version, and a bad behavior threshold. Note
that if your app exceeds the bad behavior threshold,
this can have a significant, negative impact on your
organic placement rankings.

Other information in the Android Vitals section

covers:

• Frame rate performance

• Loading time
• Settings
• App size, including app download
size and app size over time
Google Play Console financial overview.

Report on monetization performance via:

• Subscriptions (including data on active • Revenue

subscriptions, new subscriptions, cancellations, • Buyers
revenue, average revenue per active subscription, • Conversions
and refunds, as well as data on total subscription • Promo codes
performance, subscription retention, cancellation
reasons, subscription conversion rates by offer/
discount, and subscription performance by user
source/country)
Google Play Console App Size view.

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Google Play Console subscription overview.

Google Play Console subscription cancellation.

Google Play Console subscription retention. Google Play Console revenue overview.
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Google Play Console buyers overview. Google Play Console conversions overview.

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Ratings and Reviews Use Google’s ratings > Analyze the impact of your rating prompt.
report to:
This section contains input from users, including both > Allocate customer service resources, based on
ratings & reviews and beta feedback. User feedback the rating per country data.
data is provided in one of four sub-views:
> Prioritize QA resources, depending on the rating
per device or Android version data.

Ratings > Decide to take action if your app’s rating is

Google provides deep insights into your app’s star The Google Play star rating can also be compared to consistently trending lower.
rating, broken down along a series of different primary or secondary peer groups.
dimensions:
• Country
• Language
• App version
• Android version
• Device & tablet type

Reviews

Google also provides a raw log of reviews across a set

of dimensions, including:

• Benchmark (Google standard- • Android version

defined segments, including
account, design, monetization, • App version
privacy, resource usage, speed,
stability, uninstalls, update, • Developer reply state
usability)
• Review highlight
• Topic (Google custom-defined
segments based on keywords, such • Device language
as waste, website, Wi-Fi, people,
phone, everyone, ads) • Device model

• Rating • Device type

Google Play Console overall rating and ratings distribution.

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Review Analysis
Use Google’s Review reports to:

Google also provides more refined insights for review • The impact (on ratings) of reviews that were and > Prioritize developer time based on feature/bug
analyses via the following data points: were not replied to (by you, the developer). feedback.

• The most common user feedback found in reviews
(benchmarks and topics) with an estimated
positive or negative impact on your app’s star
rating.
• Insights into each rating functional area (i.e.,
common topics, such as app design or updates)
and a comparison for each functional area of your
app’s performance vs. your app’s category peers.
> Identify features and functional areas to
highlight in your CRO efforts.
> Identify common root words useful for
visibility optimizations.
> Come up with messaging and ideas for your
marketing and advertising efforts outside of
the store.

Testing Feedback Other information found in the

This view provides private feedback
from users testing an open or closed
test of your app.
Google Play Console analysis of the impact of developer review replies, and benchmarks and topics analysis.
510
Google Play Console:
• Developer account details
• API access details
• Pricing templates
• Managing testers
• Pre-launch report
• Notification preferences
• Game services
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App Store Connect

While Google may have out-innovated Apple when it comes to app

developer tools, Apple has nonetheless built a solid platform and
committed to a regular series of updates for its App Store Connect
platform, such as the recent release of product page optimization
and custom product pages. Apple’s App Store Connect platform is
separated into four main navigation views, as well as several sub-tab
views within each.

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Testing Feedback

Apps
Similar to Google’s Store Presence view, the Apps view is where
developers and marketers adjust the metadata that shows in the App
Store. The major sub-views here include:
General
• Version Information: This is where the major
metadata (besides the title and category) are
submitted, including screenshots, promotional
text, icon, description, screenshots, “what’s new,”
game center, and localization selection.
• App Information: This includes the app title,
category, and localization selection.
• Pricing & Availability: This provides visibility
into pricing-related distribution details.
• App Privacy: Includes information pertinent
to iOS 14 privacy-related changes, such as app
privacy “nutrition labels” which disclose to users
the data (types) that an app tracks.
• Ratings and Reviews: Provides the ratings and
reviews and developer replies.
Features
• Manage In-App Purchases: Manage your in-app
purchases.
• Subscription Groups: Manage your subscriptions.
• App Store Promotions: Manage your promoted
IAPs (up to 20).
• In-App Events: Manage your in-app events (up to
10).
• Custom Product Pages: Manage your custom
product pages (up to 35).
• Product Page Optimization: Set up and run
product page optimization A/B tests (up to 3
treatments per test).

• Version History: A log of historic app version

updates.

• App Review: Provides information related to the

App Store version review/approval process.

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App Store Connect App Information and Privacy views. Product Page Optimization Setup view.

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Services
The Features sub-view provides control and visibility
over the Game Center and promo codes.
TestFlight
The TestFlight sub-view provides control and
visibility over beta testers (internal and external), as
well as requisite testing information. This sub-view
includes useful information on tester invites sent,
tester installation status, and app crashes, for each
version as well as for individual testers.
Product Page Optimization Reporting view.
Other features that can be available through App
Store Connect include App Clips and App Bundles.
518
Pro Tip:
In Ratings & Reviews on App Store
Connect, you can also see information
about the country of the user who left
the review, and how many viewers
marked a review as helpful. Apple
makes it easier to access this data by
providing a filter option for the most
recent /helpful /favorable /critical
reviews, as well as for app version and
user territory. This enables you to hone
in on the reviews that best represent
the sentiments of your user base.
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App Analytics
As with Google’s User Acquisition view, App
Analytics is where ASO practitioners will spend the
most time investigating, as it provides the data points
necessary to judge the success of an ASO strategy. A
summary of your app analytics can be viewed across
all of a developer account’s apps/bundles, as well as
individually.
App Store Connect App Analytics Overview dashboard.
520
In the initial overview, marketers and developers
see a high-level glimpse into the selected app’s
performance, along with retention and geographic
data.
PERFORMANCE REPORTING DASHBOARDS & ASO TOOL S
The Overview is similar to Google’s dashboard view Acquisition sources include the
but more detailed. It is great for gaining a quick look following:
at the health and performance of your app and to see
whether things are trending in the right direction or • App Store Search (including Apple
whether a problem is developing. Search Ads)
• App Store Browse (top charts, features,
The Acquisitions sub-view displays data from each related app lists, story placements in
acquisition source, as well as any campaign tracker the search engine results page)
links you have set up. • App referrer
• Web referrer
• Institutional purchase
• All other sources
• Unavailable
App Store Connect App Analytics acquisitions.
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The Metrics sub-view allows you to drill down into New app version updates or Apple software updates
and filter data by dimensions, such as territory. Data are indicated by gray, vertical bars (annotations).
from the Metrics sub-view can be compared in dual- You can also save views, such as the tap-through rate
axis or calculated ratios, as well as exported to CSV. (TTR) or ratio of product page views/impressions.

Metrics that can be viewed include:

• Impressions (total and unique devices)

• Conversion rate
App Store Connect App Analytics acquisitions.
• Product page views (total and unique devices)
• App updates
• First-time downloaders
The Metrics sub-view is excellent for configuring data > Comparing the conversion rate by country. • Redownloads
to download for your own reports, as well as drilling • Total downloads
into trends noticed in the Overview sub-view, such as > Determining the uplift in App Store search • In-app purchases
worsening downloads. Use this data for some of the impressions from a recent metadata update. • Proceeds
following analyses: • Sales
> Determining whether the uplift from a recent • Paying users
visibility optimization led to a worse ARPU. • Installations
• Sessions
> Viewing macro trends in metrics like impression • Active devices
volume or KPIs like app units over months to • Active last 30 days
understand the long-term success of your ASO • Crashes
efforts. • Deletions

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The Retention sub-view offers insights into your > Retention per day for users acquired 30 days ago
app’s retention performance, broken down across the
following dashboards: > Day one retention for the past 30 days

> Daily retention for each of the past 28 days

Metrics data can be broken down by: Some of the ways in which you can use
Apple’s source data include:
• Device
• iOS version > Disambiguating the impact of
• App version search vs. top charts/featurings
• Page type in terms of performance drivers.
• Region (e.g., Europe)
• Country > Identifying top referrer apps to
• Source type strengthen those relationships
• App referrer and/or marketing connections.
• Web referrer
• Campaign > More easily correlating the
• Purchases impact of keyword ranking
changes via only analyzing
data from the App Store search
segment.
App Store Connect App Analytics Retention view.

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Use this data for some of the following analyses:
> Analyzing your app’s retention data if you do not have
an MMP.
> Analyzing the impact of your engagement campaigns
on raising retention.
> Analyzing the quality/retention of users sourced from
changes in ASO/marketing strategy.
Pro Tip
You can schedule a weekly email
summary that provides app analytics
data for your top 20 apps via the Users
and Roles view.
Example of an app analytics summary email.
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Sales & Trends
Sales and Trends provides more in-depth data into
revenue data, including three main sub-views:
Subscriptions offers reports on your subscription
products (filterable by app or subscription product).
Several dashboard views help organize this data into
relevant sections, including:
• Total active subscriptions
• Subscription units and sales data
• Subscription events data such as renewals,
cancellations, grace period entry/exit, conversion
from promotional offer to standard price, and
billing retries
• Conversion rates for different offers, including
standard and promotional offers
• Subscription cancellation reasons
• Proportion of subscriptions active for 1 year or
less than 1 year
• Subscription retention data
• Subscription events
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App Store Connect Sales & Trends subscription retention view.

App Store Connect Sales & Trends subscription summary view.

App Store Connect Sales & Trends subscription state view.

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There are a variety of ways in
which you can use these reports.
For example, you can:
You can also use these reports to
determine how well your optimization
activities are doing in terms of
improving the conversion rate of
trials, discounted subscriptions, full-
price subscriptions, and renewals/
cancellations. Track the dates on which
App Store Connect Sales & Trends subscription event view. App Store Connect Sales and Trends subscription retention view.
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PERFORMANCE REPORTING DASHBOARDS & ASO TOOL S
> Analyze your push campaign effectiveness in increasing
the number of new subscription signups (pre-post).
> Cross-reference your new user acquisition reports with
new subscriptions to determine whether you’re acquiring
quality users and what the lag time in subscribing is.
> Diagnose the overall health of your subscription volume
and, with a daily/weekly/monthly revenue goal, determine
when you need to turn up your marketing activities to
increase subscription cash flows.
your activities (such as promoting free
trials, running remarketing campaigns,
or implementing a push or in-app
notifications system) occur, and then
compare the conversion rate before and
after the start date of your optimization
activities.
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Sales

Sales offers reports on all products sold (including free downloads,

IAP, subscriptions, and pre-orders). Sales reports can be filtered by
the following dimensions:

• Content (the name or ID of the unit sold, such as an IAP item)

• Territory

• Device

• Category (each item’s category, such as iOS Apps > Business)

• Content-type (drilled down into different distribution

categories of items, including apps, bundles, in-app purchases
broken down by iOS apps, tvOS apps, and Mac apps)

• Transaction type (free/paid/redownloaded/refund/update)

• CMB (Complete My Bundle; shows the action taken by

customers to purchase the remaining apps in a bundle beyond
those already purchased)

• App version

• Store currency (e.g., USD, EUR, INR)

App Store Connect Sales Units sub-view.
• Client (App Store/iMessage App Store/news)

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Reports provides a way to easily download data. Agreements, Taxes, and Banking include all the
legal requirements to distribute and sell apps.
Payments & Financial Reports provides a
breakdown of payments and units sold per date Resources and Help provide developers with videos,
range across regions, including original currencies, documentation, news, and links to helpful resources
currency conversions, and taxes/adjustments. across the different products distributed through the
App Store, such as apps or podcasts.
User Roles allows developers to control access to all
or part of an App Store Connect account, as well as
access to TestFlight for beta testing purposes. There
are seven different roles that a user can gain access to.
Users can also be limited to accessing only a certain
app(s)—except for Admin or Finance roles or if the
Reports add-on has been added to a specific role.

App Store Connect Sales > Sales sub-view.

App Store Connect Sales Proceeds sub-view. App Store Connect User Permissions view.

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AppFollow
AppFollow is a platform that helps mobile teams
throughout the entire app life cycle. The Finnish
company was founded in 2015 with a vision of
bridging customer feedback and app development.
AppFollow offers a suite of cutting-edge search
& analytics ASO tools, including organic traffic
dashboards, app reviews, rankings, keywords,
downloads, and real-time reports. Together with more
than 20 integrations like Slack, Tableau, and others,
the advanced features make it easy for teams to make
winning strategic decisions and grow their app.

ASO Tools
ASO tools provide broad functionality to report on,
analyze, optimize, and position the metadata elements
of your ASO strategy. In the next sections, we list
the major ASO tools broken down by functionality,
including keyword research, keyword optimization,
keyword ranking, top chart ranking, app performance
data, ratings & reviews, and competitive research.

General ASO tools focus on helping you analyze all the

general elements of your ASO strategy, from ranking
on keywords/top charts to keyword research, light
competitive reviews, and more.
AppFollow.

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App Radar
App Radar is an Austrian ASO tool that first went live
in March 2016, though Thomas Kriebernegg, App
Radar’s CEO, had been working as an App Marketing
Consultant since 2011. App Radar specializes in
keyword research and some of App Radar’s unique
features include submitting metadata directly to App
Store Connect and Google Play Console accounts. App Radar.

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AppTweak
AppTweak, awarded ASO tool of the Year at the 2021 App Growth
Awards, was founded in 2013 by Olivier Verdin and Sebastien
Delis. AppTweak’s all-in-one platform offers ASO Intelligence, Ad
Intelligence, App Intelligence and Market Intelligence. Driven by a
mission to develop the most accurate, transparent and easy-to-use
ASO tool, AppTweak is known for its innovative metrics, such as
“Organic Keyword Installs,” “Keyword Relevancy Score,” and more.

AppTweak. AppTweak.

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Asodesk
Asodesk is a Russian ASO tool founded by Sergey Sharov. Asodesk
provides general ASO services, along with unique features to provide
accurate attributions of organic downloads from keywords.

Asodesk. Asodesk.

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MobileAction
Founded in 2013, MobileAction offers an app marketing intelligence
suite and Apple Search Ads campaign optimization platform. Its
products range from a comprehensive ASO tool with data from
over 3 million keywords to boost organic growth, to a rich ad library
with over 32 million creatives to enable paid growth. As an official
Apple Search Ads partner, MobileAction’s campaign management
platform, SearchAds.com, runs campaigns on auto-pilot to help app
marketers scale Apple Search Ads effortlessly.
MobileAction.
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PERFORMANCE REPORTING DASHBOARDS & ASO TOOL S
Sensor Tower
Sensor Tower is an ASO tool founded in 2013 by AngelPad 6 alumni,
Alex Malafeev and Oliver Yeh. Sensor Tower offers general ASO
services with unique features that include custom alerts delivered
via email and Slack for new/soft launches, download/revenue
spikes, and app updates.
SensorTower.
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Keyword Discovery Tools
Keyword discovery tools can help you research
keywords in either the initial or iteration stages of
your ASO strategy, but do not provide ranking data or
reporting for specific apps.
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PERFORMANCE REPORTING DASHBOARDS & ASO TOOL S
Google Keyword Planner Tool
The Google Keyword Planner tool can be accessed
through the AdWords interface and requires users to
sign up for an AdWords account.
While it only provides keyword research based on
Google web search traffic, the Keyword Planner tool
is one of the most prolific keyword research tools
available and can nonetheless serve as a great starting
point for keyword research. One handy feature is
the ability to require certain words to be present in
search queries, which can help you better understand
searches for “apps,” “iPhone,” and “Android,” and
obtain more accurate suggestions. Another useful
parameter is narrowing results for particular
Google Keyword Planner tool.
countries, date ranges (e.g., for seasonality), and
languages.
This tool also provides insights into the monthly
search volume for keywords, which can be used
directionally to prioritize keywords.
However, take web search trend data with a grain of
salt and be aware that web search trends often do not
align with app store search trends. That said, for app
indexing optimization, the Keyword Planner is an
excellent resource for researching the right keywords
to use to increase web-sourced organic installs.
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Google Trends
Google Trends is another tool that can be useful to compare the web-
based, relative popularity of specific topics (up to five). One unique
feature of Google Trends is that it rolls many individual keywords
into a “topic.” This helps provide a more accurate macro view when
analyzing trends that may span a wide set of similar keywords.
Again, proceed with caution when using Google Trends for anything
other than directional analyses, as web-based search trends may not
mirror app store search trends.

Google Keyword Planner tool.

Google Trends.

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A/B Testing Tools
A/B testing tools focus on empowering ASO
practitioners in conversion rate optimization, and
providing iOS app marketers with the functionality
of Google Play experiments, but with additional
features. App marketers can also use A/B testing tools
to run experiments for Android apps.
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PERFORMANCE REPORTING DASHBOARDS & ASO TOOL S
ASO Giraffe
ASO Giraffe allows you to test app and game concepts
and optimize your store page. The tool is available
for App Store and Google Play pages and provides
detailed insights into how users interact with your
store page to help inform your strategy. ASO Giraffe
provides information about scroll heatmaps, video
play time, and on-page behaviors.
ASO Giraffe.
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Geeklab
Geeklab is a cloud-based software solution that allows users to A/B
test App Store, Google Play, Huawei App Gallery, and Steam store
pages to help improve their store conversion. Setting up a campaign
on Geeklab does not involve any technical implementations or even
the submission of an existing app. Geeklab was founded in 2018 by
Jesse Lempiainen.
Geeklab.
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PERFORMANCE REPORTING DASHBOARDS & ASO TOOL S
SplitMetrics
SplitMetrics is an A/B testing tool founded in 2014 by Max
Kamenkov, an ASO guru and former chief architect at Pandadoc,
and Eugene Nevgen, co-founder of MSQRD. Unique features include
an instant audit of an app’s ASO strategy as well as ASO consulting
services and performance benchmark data for clients running tests.
SplitMetrics.
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Storemaven
Storemaven is an A/B testing tool founded in 2014 by entrepreneurs
with experience in gaming, mobile marketing, and big-data analytics.
One of Storemaven’s unique features is its machine learning
algorithm, which saves media costs by concluding tests faster and
with fewer samples.
Upptic
Upptic is a fully automated store page testing and
conversion maximization platform. The tool eliminates
the need to run multiple A/B tests; instead, the test page
learns and improves itself autonomously with no manual
management needed.
As traffic is sent to the test page, the algorithm tests all
available assets to find the highest converting combination
of App Store assets, including icons, screenshots, videos,
feature/promo image, and text. The testing process is
accelerated by consistently and automatically removing
the lowest performing variant. A clean and intuitive UI
clearly shows progress as the page evolves and improves
over time. The platform also notifies the user each time it
discovers a better performing combination.

Storemaven. Upptic.

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Competitive Intelligence
Tools
While some competitive intelligence
tools provide features that overlap
with general ASO tools (such as
app reporting and keyword/top
chart ranks), competitive/marketplace
intelligence tools focus on providing
ASO practitioners with data that
is more difficult to obtain, such as
retention rates and usage overlap
for competitor apps and categories,
country-level and demographic data,
and advertising trends.
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PERFORMANCE REPORTING DASHBOARDS & ASO TOOL S
Appfigures.
Appfigures
Appfigures is an app tracking and intelligence tool
founded in 2009. Appfigures focuses on providing
unique value via integrations, robust API reporting,
and real-time reports.
Apptopia
Apptopia is an app data and market intelligence
tool founded in 2011. Apptopia focuses on providing
unique value through retention rate, app SDK usage
figures, and breakout app alerts.
Apptopia.
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Appbot
Appbot is a tool for monitoring and managing app ratings & reviews
across major app stores. Unique features include integrations with
communication, CRM, and project management platforms, as well
as topic/sentiment/trending analyses.

Review Management

Listed here are tools that specifically excel in ratings

& reviews analysis and management.

Appbot.
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In-App Rating Prompts

AppFollow
AppFollow provides an extensive app review management tool that
allows developers to aggregate user feedback from iOS, Android,
and Amazon app stores, respond to reviews, and automate review
management (auto-replies, auto-tags, auto-report, etc.) to save time
and effort.
Apptentive
Apptentive is a US-based ratings, reviews, and sentiment
optimization tool, founded in 2011 to provide developers with the
ability to measure sentiment and gather feedback from their user
base.

AppFollow. Apptentive.

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Haystack Reviews
Founded by Sebastian Gallese and Thomas Schultz-Wenk and
based in San Francisco, Haystack Reviews works as a consulting
agency with two open-source tools that help app marketers improve
their ratings and reviews. Rating Recipes, Haystack’s first tool, is
a community repository of how the best apps ask for ratings and
reviews. Haystack’s second tool, Promptimzer, helps developers
optimize rating prompts to ask their most loyal users to rate their
apps at the best time.

Screenshot Builders
Screenshot builders make life less tedious by offering
features, such as templates, for custom screenshot
design as well as facilitating the automation of
localization buildout.
Haystack Reviews’ Ratings Recipe displays an app rating flow.

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Fastlane
Fastlane is an open-source platform that automates
the generation of iOS and Android screenshots, in
addition to other builds/release features. Fastlane is
owned by Fabric, which is owned by Google.

AppLaunchpad
LaunchMatic
AppLaunchpad is a tool to create app screenshots for App Store and
Google Play pages. This tool replaces Launchkit.io, which Google LaunchMatic is an app screenshot
bought and shut down. generator. LaunchMatic was launched
in 2020 to help developers and app
marketers bypass the tedious work
Fastlane.
of app screenshot management.
LaunchMatic provides a variety of pre-
made templates with full customization
for text captions, app screens, and
background colors.

AppLaunchpad. LaunchMatic.

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CHAPTER 08

Guide to Apple
Search Ads
CHAPTER 08
Guide to Apple
Search Ads
K E Y TA K E AWAY S
Understand how to leverage Apple
Search Ads to boost your ASO
strategy.
Apple Search Ads (ASA) has gained
gradual popularity since its launch
in 2017; as of February 2022, ASA
is available on the App Store in 61
countries. From May 2021, ASA also
became available in the App Store
“Search tab,” as well in the traditional
“search results.” While the search
results promote the advertised app
above relevant apps a user may want
to download, the Search tab promotes
the app above a list of suggested apps
before a search has even taken place.
The expansion of ASA clearly signals
568
its global potential, especially given the
opportunities it provides to boost app
discovery in various high-converting
placements. Unsurprisingly, ASA is
one of the high-intent driven channels
that marketers use to convert users and
drive quality traffic.
Compared to the dominant players in
the world of online advertising, ASA
is a relatively new channel. However,
ASA is becoming increasingly popular
for two reasons: First, ASA offers high-
intent traffic; second, it also creates
opportunities to generate synergies
with an ASO strategy. This chapter
argues that ASA can be an essential
tool in your overall ASO toolbox. Done
correctly, ASA can lead to a direct
increase in ASO visibility which,
in turn, can lead to an increase in
conversion. As such, running ASA can
represent a serious advantage over your
competitors who may not be leveraging
this opportunity.
GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS
In this chapter, you will come to
understand the ASA Stack framework,
a model developed to help mobile
marketers nail ASA advertising
and generate growth. With this
understanding of ASA fundamentals,
we will then delve into applications
and practical tactics to create synergies
with your overall ASO strategy and app
marketing campaigns.
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The ASA Stack How Does the ASA Stack Work?

The ASA Stack highlights three key horizontal layers that can be
Developed by Andrea Raggi and the Phiture team, leveraged in ASA: Campaigns, Ad Groups, and Keywords. These are
the ASA Stack is a framework designed to help ASA then supported by a fourth and fifth layer: Tools and Supporting
practitioners of a mobile product/service develop Insights.
a strategy for ASA and provide user acquisition
marketers with a holistic view of ASA. From
this framework, mobile marketers can develop a
comprehensive, strategic approach to growing their
user base and/or optimizing for performance. The
stack can be applied at any stage of a product’s lifecycle
and to many different apps, although some elements
of the stack could become more relevant at different
stages of the business cycle.

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CHAPTER 08
The horizontal layers intersect with the foundations
(variables and elements) that you can utilize,
customize, and develop to improve your ASA account.
In fact, variables and elements are the principal
foundations of the ASA Stack, as they can modify your
strategy and help adjust your goals to scale the channel
or optimize for performance. Scaling the channel
enables you to enhance your visibility and grow the
number of app users. Optimizing for performance can
increase your conversion and improve your return on
advertising spend (ROAS) or lifetime value (LTV).
Companies at different stages of maturity will need
to prioritize the foundations differently to reach their
particular business goals. A successful strategy will
incorporate most of the elements from the three core
layers to generate sufficient impact, and it will be
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GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS
Campaigns
ASA Stack, Campaigns layer. Source: Phiture.
highly unlikely to achieve a specific objective (either By making sure you have a relevant, organized, and
scaling and/or optimizing the channel) without clear structure in your account and having a precise
investing in “tools” and “supporting insights.” idea of your goals, you will be able to make the most
out of your ASA campaigns. A clear campaign format
Each element (i.e., each individual cell) in the stack will allow you to exploit automated scripts; in turn,
represents an activity that might form part of your this will become your best ally to save time in daily
strategy. Not all elements will be equally applicable operations. In this section, we will discuss the
to a specific app or category/industry, let alone to Campaigns layer of the ASA Stack to discuss how you
the company’s resources and internal capabilities. can leverage campaign structure, budget, daily caps,
A smart strategy does not attempt to cover every and storefronts to achieve your objectives.
single element of the stack simultaneously, but rather
attempts to select an appropriate mix of initiatives to
reflect the essence of the business and its objectives.
The strategy you choose, if appropriately developed,
will help you achieve profitability. It should also allow
you to invest in tools and insights that enable you to
foster your future growth opportunities.
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Campaign Structure
ASA Stack, campaign structure. Source: Phiture.
Your campaign structure is one of the first things to
address before you start to advertise on ASA. How
should I organize my overall strategy? What are
my targets and objectives? Thinking about these
questions before you start creating campaigns will
help you better organize your strategic approach.
Phiture works with a semantics-based campaign
structure per market: Brand, Generic, Competitor,
Discovery, and Probing. This layout can help
you monitor costs per country or region and also
identify the most important campaigns in terms of
performance and conversion.
5 74
Compared to other approaches (e.g., a value-based
structure) the semantics-based campaign works well
because:
• It is difficult to assess the value of keywords before
you run your campaigns.
• Some keywords fluctuate in terms of the value
they generate (due to external shocks, change in
bids, competition, etc.).
• With semantic campaigns/ad groups, you’re better
able to effectively drive conversion with custom
product pages that are relevant to the semantic ad
group/campaign.
• How you structure your campaigns will lay the
groundwork for your performance. You don’t
want a confusing campaign structure because it
will only create chaos.
GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS
When choosing a campaign structure, you’ll want to
cover search volume (scale) and aim for performance.
If your main target is scaling the channel and
expanding your current reach, discovery campaigns
can support your keyword exploration to find similar
competitors or keywords that belong to your domain
(see more in the Keywords section). This is done
automatically with the help of an algorithm. Besides
discovery campaigns, keyword research (which will
be covered later in this chapter) will also be pivotal in
achieving scale.
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Budget

The budget figure in the ASA Console

should be interpreted as a lifetime
budget—the total spend in this channel,
regardless of timespan. You should
set a very high number for this budget
because if you suddenly spend your
entire weekly budget, your campaigns
will stop. Ideally, you don’t want to
run out of money at the weekend or
otherwise, so you need to make sure to
increase the budget enough to ensure
you are able to scale the channel and not
be stopped by any hiccups. Keep in mind
that this figure is just a placeholder, and Daily Caps
does not represent the money you’ll be
charged.
Daily caps, like budgets, can function as brakes when
The situation is different if you have you have limited resources to spend on ASA. As
a limited budget and you want to use such, strict daily caps can help you control spend to
the budget figure as a spend limit (for optimize for performance but also to increase scale.
example, if you want to strictly monitor For the former, very low daily caps for non-performing
your monthly budget). With budget campaigns (keeping them for exploratory purposes)
restrictions in place, optimizing for can help you increase the ROAS on the account level
performance will require the (re) if you mainly keep converting campaigns running.
allocation of the highest budget to the For the latter, increasing daily caps provides space to
best-performing campaigns and/or scale the channel by letting campaigns run without
your main target markets. restrictions.

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As of February 2022, there are 61 storefronts available in ASA:

Storefronts

Advertising in different storefronts (countries) may

be a clear solution to your scaling problems. Consider
including additional storefronts to reach more users
if your objective is to explore new possibilities in new
markets. However, certain markets may be expensive
and may not convert well enough to hit your targets. In
this case, if you want to optimize your performance,
limiting the number of ads running in storefronts of
high-ROAS countries can only produce satisfying
results.

When creating your campaigns, you could either

decide to organize them by region (APAC, EMEA,
NA, etc.) or by individual countries. The first option
will allow you to reduce campaign management but
will lack precision (bids, etc.). The second will be
more precise (e.g., bids will only be directed to one
country) but you’ll have to manage several campaigns.
Your final decision should depend on the number of
resources and goals in your strategy. Apple Seach Ads storefronts.

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Ad Groups
ASA Stack, Ad Groups layer. Source: Phiture.
The Ad Groups layer contains many elements that will enable you
to strategize on several fronts. Here is where your targeting will
be refined and where you’ll be able to deeply leverage the power of
Apple Search Ads. Specifically, this layer—more than any other—is
the one that can support your performance-based approach while
also promoting the reach of a large pool of users.
580
Device Targeting
Device targeting is the first setting that enables
advertisers to refine audiences. With this specific
setting, ASA enables you to target iPhones and/or
iPads. iPad traffic approximately represents 10–15%
of all traffic, but this varies across industries. If your
objective is to reach the highest number of users
possible, targeting both device types will help you.
Keep in mind that iPad traffic can be “useless,”
especially if you offer a service on the go, such as car-
sharing or ride-hailing, as people do not use iPads as
ASA Console, device targeting.
GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS
mobile devices. However, the iPad segment can be
more fruitful when targeting games, for instance. It’s
important for you to think about your own app and
what segments may be more relevant to you. Testing
the two segments separately can also be a good
approach to distinguish whether you should focus
on both or only one of them. If performance is your
ultimate goal, limit device types by targeting the best-
converting segments only.
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Customer Type
The second setting that enables you to refine
audiences is the customer type. Here, you can decide
to target new users, returning users, users of your
brand’s other apps, or all users.
ASA Console, audience targeting.
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GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS
The bigger the pool of users you target, the larger the
scale you’ll achieve. If you’d like to increase your scale,
you should go for “all users.” This includes returning
users who can be particularly valuable, as they have
a very high intent to convert, having previously
downloaded your app and come back to it. Returning
users, as Apple specifies, could be:
• Customers who see your ad and who may have had
the app in the past but have since deleted it
• Customers who may have the app downloaded on
another one of their devices
• Customers who may currently have your app on a
device
Similarly, for a gaming company, targeting users of
your other apps could be valuable because they will
already be familiar with your products and could have
a high intent to download your app.
Conversely, if you’re looking to optimize your
campaigns, you can either split or limit your ad groups
to manage new users, returning users, and/or users of
your other apps. We recommend having separate ad
groups for these customer types so you can identify
which segment performs better and optimize bids
and cost-per-acquisition (CPA) goals more precisely.
If you then recognize bad performances for certain
segments, you can pause/limit them, which will help
you improve your effectiveness.
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Demographics
We have two options in the demographics settings:
gender and age. In the gender section, you can either
target a specific gender (male or female), or both. In the
age setting, you can target any range from 18 to 64, or
target “all.” Here, the guidelines are straightforward:
If you want to reach large audiences, you should
loosen the age and gender settings to target the largest
pool of users possible. If you want to optimize for
performance and focus on specific segments with
ASA Console, enabling limited ad tracking.
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more accurate bids, you’ll have to implement gender
and/or age targeting. When targeting “all” age ranges,
a specific setting is triggered that enables you to target
users with limit ad tracking (LAT) toggled on. These
users represent a very limited audience that can only
be found in devices with an Operating System (OS) on
iOS 13 or older. This setting has been deprecated with
newer OSs after iOS 14.
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Limit Ad Tracking
Limit ad tracking (LAT) is a privacy setting available
to users pre-iOS 14. When LAT is enabled, the user
no longer has an ID for advertisers (IDFA) and
their activity is thus not followed or passed on to
mobile measurement partners (MMPs), like Adjust
or AppsFlyer. Without this data, your MMPs can’t
attribute a user to a certain campaign or define which
events the user has completed.
Users who are “LAT ON” will appear to your MMP as
“unattributed” in the “organic bucket” and will not be
tagged as ASA. If you want to target this kind of traffic,
select “all” when setting the age range in each of your
ad group settings. Doing so will allow you to target
LAT ON and LAT OFF inventory.
It’s important to note that, as of February 2021, the
“events after download” are no longer tracked. This
means you won’t know the precise performances of
LAT ON users. However, if you want to estimate the
value of these users, you can extrapolate the likelihood
that these users complete a given event in your app’s
funnel using a concept introduced by Thomas Petit,
mobile growth/Apple Search Ads expert, during a
whiteboard session with AppsFlyer. This formula
is now used widely throughout the mobile growth
industry.
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Example: Let’s say you want to make an educated
guess around the number of LAT ON users that
completed a goal event—in this case, subscriptions.
• Determine the number of LAT OFF subscriptions
and downloads.
• Determine the percentage of LAT OFF
downloaders who subscribe.
• Apply the percentage to the LAT ON downloads
(Apple makes this traffic split visible).
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Location
The location setting can be very handy if your business
is only available in certain cities (e.g., ride-hailing
apps). On the other hand, if your app is available across
the whole nation and your strategy aims to achieve
scale, you should leave the location setting empty. If
you’re looking to boost performance and, based on
research/analyses/other information, you know your
performance is better in only a few cities, you should
limit your targeting to these locations only.
Of course, this is just an estimation and does not
100% reflect the true data coming in from LAT ON.
It’s always good to fact-check your assumptions over
the whole account by doing a before-after comparison
when switching on LAT ON. You can look at your
organic bucket and see if your goals in that bucket
grew at the same pace that your LAT ON downloads
came in. If your organic user base is too large, try
singling out one country in which you don’t get a lot of
organic downloads.
ASA Console, location targeting.
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Ad Scheduling

The ad scheduling setting can turn into one of your

best allies if you use it wisely and if you know how
users convert to your app. To achieve scale, targeting
segments 24/7 will help you gain a large number of
users. However, this choice may not be an optimal
solution and will depend on your product (it won’t
work so well with food delivery apps, for instance). If
you analyze your conversion funnel, you may realize
that certain times of the day (or even entire days of
the week) do not convert as well. As such, if you want
to optimize your performance, you should apply
limitations to your ad scheduling by only focusing on
well-converting days and/or specific hours.

ASA Console, ad scheduling.

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Ad Group Structure
We always recommend that ASA practitioners
divide semantics-based campaigns (especially the
competitor and generic campaigns) into several
“ad groups,” with all of them having keywords set to
exact match to reflect distinct “levels of intent.” This
segmentation implies that ad groups target users with
differing wills to download your app (also known as
diverse “intent grades”). The higher the intent grade,
the more likely it is that a person will download
the app. Take the following example, based on an
audiobook subscription app, of how you can separate
your ad groups according to level of intent.
Segmenting ad groups by intent can help you
optimize for performance, as you’ll be able to work
ASA Stack, ad segmenting. Source: Phiture.
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more precisely with CPA goals and custom product
pages, and address users with different intent
levels differently. Here, it’s worth noting that Single
Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) could help you master
your account performance: They provide a maximum
level of precision in ad group management at the
bid and CPA goal level. However, this approach is
likely to create thousands of ad groups if you decide
to have every single keyword in an ad group, making
your campaigns a nightmare to manage (without any
automation). SKAGs can be helpful if a particular
group of keywords is generating most of your
downloads because they will keep your performance
closely monitored.
GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS
Search Match
Search match can be turned on in the ad group settings.
When this setting is on, your ad will automatically
be matched to search terms thanks to the retrieval
of multiple data points (e.g., metadata like the title,
subtitle, and keyword field, and also information
regarding similar apps). This setting becomes very
handy as it allows you to discover new keywords
without having to conduct any research. The “search
match” setting should be activated in a standalone
(empty, with no other keywords) ad group within
your discovery campaign to make sure you keep its
performance monitored.
Search match can greatly help you achieve scale: If
you let it run with a high default CPT bid, it will match
hundreds of results. This can be very helpful but it
may also retrieve very broad terms, which is why we
recommend setting low CPT bids and using CPA goals
to optimize towards performance. This approach can
still help you achieve scale, but with greater attention
to the company’s wallet.
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CPA Goal
The CPA goal is a setting that can be implemented for
every single ad group. Once implemented, it will send
a “message” to Apple’s algorithm to acquire users for
a certain amount you specify. If you want to achieve a
CPA goal of €2, the algorithm will try to find users who
will convert to download within that specific target.
The CPA goal basically functions as a “brake”—it will
try not to acquire users more expensive than €2 (if the
target is unrealistic, the CPA goal will only partially
work or won’t work at all). If you’re looking for
performance, this will help you achieve your bottom-
line objectives. If you’re looking for scale, removing
CPA goals or loosening them (keeping them at very
high values) will help you achieve scale and target
large numbers of users.
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Custom Product Pages
In January 2022, Creative Set tests were deprecated
and replaced by custom product pages (CPPs). As
stated in previous chapters, CPPs allow you to create
“additional versions of the App Store product page to
showcase specific app features and content.” Apple
also highlighted that these custom product pages
can be used “to create up to 35 ad variations in Apple
Search Ads. The new ads will allow you to align ad
creatives to keyword themes or audiences and take
users to a custom product page when they tap.”
Custom product pages can be created with
promotional text, screenshots, and app previews that
differ from the ones on the default product page. The
custom product page will have a unique URL, which
can be integrated into Apple Search Ads and used to
direct traffic from a particular group of keywords to a
specific custom product page. For the record: Custom
product pages are not accessible organically—only
through the unique URL that can be embedded in your
performance marketing campaigns or in editorially
curated selections on the Today, Games, and Apps
tabs.
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Custom product pages can be used to:

• Showcase different app features (e.g., yoga vs.

HIIT workout on a fitness app)

• Direct traffic to a CPP that is geographically more

By creating ad variations, you can choose the custom product page you want to direct traffic to. The ad will use screenshots and app previews
relevant to specific users (e.g., a delivery app
from your custom product page. Source: Apple.
operating in Berlin could direct traffic from Berlin
to a CPP with creatives that showcase Berlin)

• Target a specific demographic (e.g., a clothing app
showing a different CPP for women vs. men)
• Leverage seasonal campaigns (e.g., a Black Friday
custom product page)
• Direct returning users to a custom product page
displaying new app features
In Apple Search Ads, the integration with custom
product pages happens at the ad group level. Under
“Ads,” you can create ad variations which basically
entails directing traffic from the ad to a specific custom
product page instead of the default product page.
On the “Create Ad” page, you are also able to target a
particular device or language, and choose whether the
ad will display preview images or only text.
Custom product pages are a great way for you to
leverage different user intents and audiences, and test
different creative strategies while generating positive
synergies. More details on the synergies between ASA
and ASO can be found later in this chapter.

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Keywords
The Keywords layer is fairly limited in relation to the
number of elements you can leverage; nonetheless, its
impact on your strategic decisions can be huge. This
layer will be pivotal to shifting your performance from
decent to excellent and scaling from fair to high traffic.
ASA Stack, Keywords layer. Source: Phiture.
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Keyword Discovery
Adding keywords is the primary way to increase
scale in your campaigns. Keywords can be added
from a variety of sources when you conduct keyword
research, including ASO tools like AppTweak, your
own brainstorming, or even from Google Keyword
Planner (for the latter, keep in mind that web and
mobile queries differ). New keywords can also come
from your discovery and probing campaigns after
you have tested them and proved their value. The
more keywords you add, the larger the number of
potential users you could target. And if you’re looking
for scale, the more, the better. If you want to focus
on performance, concentrate on the keywords that
generate the highest ROAS. In particular, focus your
attention on pausing probing and discovery campaigns
if they have high acquisition costs, as well as pausing
other poorly performing keywords belonging to the
core campaigns (brand, generic, and/or competitor).
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Match Type
It’s essential to understand the difference between
exact, broad, and search matches. Any of the three
sources can match search terms but they will help you
in different ways. It’s important to know that broad
and exact matches refer to keywords, while search
matches refer to ad groups.
Exact match keywords will ensure precision and
target search terms that will help you optimize for
performance. You insert this type of keyword with
[square brackets] around it; this will only deliver
exact results. For example, if you insert [Facebook] as
a keyword, your ad will only be delivered to searchers
looking for “Facebook,” and slight misspellings.
Broad match keywords can target related search
terms. For example, if you insert “Facebook” as a
keyword, your ad might actually be delivered for
searchers that look for “Twitter” or “social media.” As
defined by Apple, broad match keywords are “relevant
close variants of a keyword, such as singular, plurals,
misspellings, synonyms, related searches, and phrases
that include that term (fully or partially).”
Search match “uses multiple resources to match your
ad to relevant searches on the App Store, including
the metadata from your App Store listing, information
about similar apps in the same genre, and other search
data.” In short, these two sources (broad match and
search match) will not only contribute to your scale
but could also boost your performance if carefully
monitored.
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Bids
Bids are one of your main weapons to optimize and/or
scale your campaigns, and are crucial to driving higher
amounts of traffic. To scale the channel and gain as
many impressions as possible, you should set bids to
“maximum” (a very high bid), in order to outbid all
competitors. Having high bids that enable you to win
as many auctions as possible is imperative. If some
keywords are not performing well and your ROAS
is low, you should consider decreasing their bids to
values lower than the respective cost per tap. Doing
so will result in a reduced volume and possibly better
performance because of their eligibility to enter less
competitive auctions. Hence, lowering bids will get
you “less expensive” users who could positively affect
your bottom-line conversions.
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Tools
The tools covered in this section can create
synergies and efficiencies when utilized together
with ASA. Certain tools can enhance productivity
and performance, while others can help you monitor
competition and the market. We would recommend
using them if possible, as they allow you to combine
efforts for better performance.
ASA Stack, Tools layer. Source: Phiture.
Automation/Machine Learning
for Keyword Redistribution, Bid
Optimization, Etc.
Automating some daily tasks and operations in ASA scripts can be exploited. For instance, you can leverage
can save a lot of time. It can ensure higher levels of bid automation to help you find optimal bids given
efficiency while enabling you to scale sustainably and the time of the day, or automate time-intensive tasks
improve your performance. Working with automation such as the redistribution of keywords in different
can be leveraged through the ASA API through which campaigns.
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Mobile Measurement Partners
(MMP) & ASA API
MMPs are extremely helpful if you want to optimize
for ROI. We recommend using them specifically to
track and optimize for low-funnel events (i.e., a specific
action that happens in the app, such as a purchase or
trial). MMPs, such as Adjust and AppsFlyer, measure
all events that happen in the app after download—
precisely, the touchpoint where the ASA Console is
no longer capable.
With an MMP, you can accurately measure the
effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. Through
the ASA attribution API, you can attribute app installs
that originate from your ASA campaigns. This can be
done by adding just a few lines of code to your app,
after which you can easily understand the value of
different customer groups over time and the keywords
that drove their downloads.
In June 2020, Apple announced privacy changes
with the release of iOS 14 to empower user privacy
by enforcing advertisers to collect consent for any
user-level data (email, IDFA, etc.) with a dialogue box
called App Tracking Transparency (ATT). With its
privacy changes, Apple introduced a new attribution
framework, SKAdNetwork, for all ad networks
with the exception of Apple Search Ads. Apple also
introduced its own first party attribution framework
called AdServices.
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In a pre-AdServices world, LAT ON downloads were
not reported in the MMP ASA bucket but rather
grouped with organic traffic, forcing advertisers to
estimate the value of their privacy-centric users.
However, with the new attribution framework, all
downloads will now be reported on in the MMP,
regardless of LAT ON/OFF.
ASA Console
The ASA Console allows you to create and manage
your campaigns. On the management side, you
can create new campaigns and new ad groups, add
keywords to existing ad groups, and adjust your bids.
Through the ASA Console, you are also able to link
ad groups to your custom product pages. The ​​ ASA
Console enables you to check impressions, clicks,
and downloads (among other metrics), but it will not
track any event that happens after the app has been
downloaded. As previously discussed, it is essential to
use an MMP in conjunction with the ASA Console to
see which campaigns generate the highest number of
purchases, sign-ups, and so forth.
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App Store Connect
(Cannibalization)
App Store Connect enables you to create your own
product page where you can set up your metadata,
screenshots, and in-app purchases. Other than
organizational and set-up purposes, App Store
Connect should be leveraged to gain valuable insights
into your app’s performance with App Analytics.
You can measure various KPIs and create custom
graphs and reports. It’s also possible to get insights
into payments and financial reports in the “sales and
trends” section. Other features include the ability
to respond to customer reviews on your App Store
product page and create promo codes for potential
users.
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Because of its many features, App Store Connect is
an important ally to measure your reach (organic and
paid) as well as the number of app units you generate
(organic and paid). These metrics can be severely
impacted when you start running ASA, and can
dramatically increase your visibility through ASA.
However, there is an important caveat to consider:
cannibalization. Cannibalization happens when your
ad targets users that would have already converted
organically but are instead converting through the
ad. Cannibalization causes issues because you’re
essentially paying for users who would have otherwise
converted for free.
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App Store Connect can become your analysis tool to In any case, you should pay attention to cannibalization
infer whether organic downloads experienced a drop by conducting tests (switching campaigns or specific
when your paid downloads started. keywords off ), but you should also keep in mind that
seasonality and other exogenous factors may impact
If your organic metrics decreased and your paid your test. These exogenous factors could make it
metrics increased while overall traffic remained difficult to properly assess real impact.
relatively stable, this could be a sign of cannibalization.
However, it’s hard to properly assess cannibalization
because Apple does not disclose organic traffic
volumes at the keyword level. While you would be
able to see the increase in volume for a keyword in
ASA, you wouldn’t be able to assess if that increase in
volume came at the expense of your organic volume.
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ASA API
With the ASA Campaign Management API, you can
basically run the operations that you implement
through the ASA Console. With the ASA API, you
can build campaigns, manage budgets and daily caps,
create ad groups, include keywords, generate reports,
implement audience refinement, and schedule ads. If
you have a team of engineers who are able to help you,
they can develop scripts to automate your campaigns.
Given its potential, the ASA API is another interesting
tool to explore, as it would reduce overheads in your
Apple developer documentation, ad services framework.
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team in terms of management. Moreover, it also
automates tasks that can help you achieve greater
scale, better performance, and increased efficiency.
Thanks to the ASA attribution API, in January 2021,
Apple announced it would be using the ad services
framework to attribute app download campaigns that
originate from the App Store, Apple News, or Stocks
on iOS devices, regardless of consent given through
the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework on
iOS 14 devices.
Competitive Intelligence
Being able to know what your main competitors are
doing can position you extremely well in the market
and generate a competitive advantage. ASO tools
like AppTweak and Sensor Tower provide useful
knowledge for several fronts, from broad market
intelligence to narrow keyword observation. These
tools will make up the additional scale you want to
achieve and help you reach higher performance targets.
They can help you understand the mobile ecosystem
and maximize the potential of mobile advertising to
efficiently attract quality, high-value users. These
tools are great for your Business Intelligence and ASA
strategy, but they involve a substantial investment.
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Keyword Research

Conducting proper keyword research is the key

to a successful account in ASA. Discovering long-
tail keywords as well as important keywords in
terms of volume will allow you to achieve scale and
performance. Brainstorming all the possible search
terms is a good starting point, as well as accepting the
Search Ads Console suggestions depending on the
context.

However, with the help of additional tools, you can

really professionalize your keyword research. These
tools provide a comprehensive competitive overview
of your competitors’ keywords, while also providing
several other Search Ads Intelligence keyword
analyses.

By implementing keyword research tools in your

arsenal, you can indeed level up your keyword
research process and gather a significant amount of
information on the competitive market.

Apple Search Ads keyword analysis. Source: AppTweak.

Third-Party Management Tools

Third-party management tools such as SearchAdsHQ
and SKAI, among others, provide excellent solutions
to fully analyze an app’s media buying funnel for
Apple Search Ads. These tools are deeply integrated
with ASA and MMPs thanks to their integrations
with the respective APIs. They enable a much more
comprehensive view on performance than only using
the ASA Console. In short, these tools help apps focus
on ROI instead of CPI which will, in turn, shift the
focus to performance and quality results.

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Supporting Insights
The Supporting Insights section is the final layer of
the ASA Stack. It provides you with elements that
help you know the environment you’re working in and
analyze the effects that ASA generates and is affected
by, i.e., organic uplift, benchmarks, micro and macro
influences.
ASA Stack, Supporting Insights layer. Source: Phiture.
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Organic Uplift
Organic uplift can be defined as an increase in organic
visibility, conversion, and also keyword rankings.
Organic uplift generally occurs thanks to increased
visibility for certain keywords, as well as a higher
conversion for these keywords. In essence, when your
app receives more downloads, its organic keyword
ranking is likely to grow. As such, ASA is able to
generate organic uplift for your organic keyword
rankings because it will be able to generate additional
downloads. Furthermore, due to an increase in
downloads, your app can rank higher in its category
and therefore attract more app units via Browse.
ASA can thus be an excellent tool to not only increase
your scale but also increase your performance. If used
correctly, the higher visibility for certain keywords
will also bring about better organic performance. Your
organic keyword rankings are likely to improve and
could generate additional organic downloads. ASA is
also able to generate positive synergies with your ASO
strategy.
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Benchmarks
Benchmarks will provide valuable support to develop
your ASA strategy. Being able to know in advance the
average cost per tap or average cost per download in a
given country will direct your choices towards the most
appropriate locations. In turn, these early decisions
may anticipate and improve your performance later
down the line. It is always good practice to do research
and retrieve benchmark information on the industry.
There are several ways to access benchmarks:
You can read reports online, speculate from other
channels (Facebook, Google, etc.), and/or receive this
information directly from Apple or its partners. If you
have direct contact with ASA representatives, you can
also retrieve data from their database.
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Micro & Macro Influences
Micro influences (“endogenous factors”) and macro
influences (“exogenous factors”) are important causal
mechanisms that affect your campaigns. Let’s define
the two:
Endogenous factors refer to all ASA-generated
effects. Micro influences can be the effect of your
advertising efforts and how they can impact the Share
of Voice (SoV) for some keywords (the SoV is the
percentage of impressions your app receives through
ads). The more you spend on certain keywords, the
higher your share will be, which will increase your
scale. Similarly, running ASA may impact your organic
app units by generating cannibalization. As previously
discussed, cannibalization happens when your ad
targets users that would have already converted
organically but are instead converting through the
ad, which mainly happens for your brand terms and
keywords for which you rank high organically.
Exogenous factors refer to all external factors that
may influence your ASA account. External changes
in demand caused by seasonality or triggered shocks
such as the “working from home” trend can impact
your acquisition efforts. In the summer, competition
surges in some verticals; during the winter period,
demand may decrease, as some users may be focusing
on different activities (e.g., focusing less on work due
to the holidays). These changes are likely to impact
the traffic your app receives but also the average cost
per click which can, in turn, affect your whole funnel Many other factors can affect your campaigns, such as
and therefore your ROAS and customer acquisition trending keywords, changes in Apple’s algorithms, and
costs. As a result, it’s important to anticipate seasonal other product updates to ASA. All these factors should
trends to adjust your performance and be ready to be monitored, as they can impact your performance
grasp the additional scale related to seasonality. and scale.
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The ASA Stack: Conclusion
The ASA Stack is composed of five layers: Campaigns,
Ad Groups, Keywords, Tools, and Supporting Insights.
Within each layer, you should leverage its foundations
(variables and elements) to achieve your goals,
whether they focus on scaling the channel and/or
optimizing for performance. The objective of the ASA
Stack is to provide you with an overview of all the
available assets to grow an exhaustive strategy in ASA
that leads your business to profitability.
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You should adapt your strategy to your business and
needs while at the same time trying to cover as many
elements as possible given your resources; however,
keep in mind that a smart strategy does not try to
cover all elements at the same time. The strategy you
choose, while enabling you to achieve profitability,
should allow you to invest in tools and supporting
insights to foster your future growth opportunities.
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How to Create
Synergies
Between ASA
and ASO
ASA can be a great tool to improve your ASO strategy.
As mentioned in earlier sections, running ASA
alone can often generate uplifts in organic visibility,
conversion, and keyword rankings by generating
additional downloads. By adding another step, we are
able to create a synergy loop between ASA and ASO;
identifying the most “powerful” (those that have a high
conversion rate) ASA keywords and implementing
them in your ASO strategy (creatives, keywords,
etc.) will help to further strengthen your App Store
visibility and conversion optimization. This synergy
is crucial for your app’s success in the long run as
we maximize the overall impact across channels by
applying and validating learnings from ASA to ASO.
In this section, we look at the three areas of synergies
across ASA and ASO: custom product pages, increasing
visibility, and keyword optimization strategies.
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Using Custom Product Pages
Earlier in this chapter, we outlined how custom
product pages work within the ASA Stack. Here, we
outline how they can create good synergies between
ASA and ASO.
Custom product pages are unique landing pages
intended for user acquisition. They enable us to show
different facets of the app while maintaining consistent
messaging and a seamless experience throughout the
user acquisition journey, from ASA to the App Store.
In practice, we would steer traffic from an ad group
that aims at leveraging a specific audience or user
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intent to a custom product page with creatives
consistent with that audience and user intent. This
maximizes the alignment of audience to creatives,
with the audience being exposed to a more relevant
landing page. Consequently, we offer a consistent
and seamless experience from start to finish in the
user acquisition journey. The result could be higher
conversion rates starting as early as the tap-through-
rate, as the ASA ad will show screenshots (or other
app previews) from the custom product page instead
of the default product page.
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The ad’s app previews will also be personalized through custom product pages.
In Apple Search Ads, most apps struggle with the scale
and performance of non-brand keywords, due to the
lower relevancy of these keywords. Custom product
pages enable you to contextualize the user journey of
the traffic coming from these keywords; as users find
each step of the funnel more relevant, the conversion
rates of non-brand keywords can increase. Due to
higher CVRs, the performance of these keywords
will improve, which will allow you to bid higher, be
more competitive in auctions, and acquire a higher
impression share for these keywords. Consequently,
this will increase the scale of these keywords.
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Not capitalizing on custom product pages would
mean not being able to contextualize the full user
journey, which your competitors could do very well.
This would represent a lost opportunity from your
side and an opportunity that your competitors may
take advantage of to improve their user acquisition.
Note that custom product pages could be used to
direct traffic from all marketing channels, not only
from ASA.
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Increasing Organic Visibility
With ASA
ASA helps you showcase certain app features or value
propositions through linking groups of keywords
to specific custom product pages, which could help
improve your CPA and conversion rates. Furthermore,
it also allows you to appear in the top results for
keywords that you don’t yet rank for organically. In
turn, this positively impacts your visibility for those
keywords on the App Store.
As soon as you start bidding on keywords that are
relevant to your app, your ads will begin to show up
whenever those keywords are searched for on the App
Store. With the increased number of downloads those
keywords bring in, your app will start ranking (or
see improved rankings) for those keywords. Thus, an
increased download volume will lead to incremental
organic downloads and increase your app’s overall
growth on the App Store, while also driving high-intent
traffic to the app that is more inclined to make an in-
app purchase or perform a specific in-app action. This
also gives you an edge in the competitive landscape.
Furthermore, bidding on specific keywords can help
your app rank higher than other competing apps such
that they are pushed even lower in the search results.
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Brand keywords bring in high-intent and well-
converting traffic, as the queries are directly related
to the app. Including them in your account in addition
to other relevant generic terms would bring in that
additional high-value traffic. As you already know, any
ad for a specific keyword appears right at the top of
the search results. An app dominates the full search
results page if it ranks first organically for a keyword
and also has an ad show up for that keyword. You would
see the ad at the top of the page and the organic search
result right underneath the ad. When this happens in
the case of brand keywords (as shown in the following
image), we do not leave any room for competing apps
to show up in the top search results for our branded
term. And since people generally do not scroll beyond
the initial 3-5 search results, we take advantage of all
the available inventory by monopolizing the entire
App Store page and increasing the chances of a
download.
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GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS
As brand terms are bound to generate high-intent
traffic, not defending your own brand terms could
mean losing the top position in the search results
and the most important traffic to your competitors
(as shown in this image). However, there is a risk of
cannibalization (an organic install that would have
occurred being cannibalized by an ad) because of the
way the search results appear.
An App Store visitor might end up clicking the ad
instead of the organic search result that appears right
underneath the ad. This results in paid downloads
eating up the organic traffic, which is not ideal. If you
do observe consistent cannibalization through your
analyses (i.e., a drop in organic downloads with a
simultaneous increase in paid downloads), you would
have to determine the extent of cannibalization and
EasyPark, ASA. EasyPark ASA, undefended brand keyword for
whether it’s worth bringing in users at a certain price
PARK NOW. point through an ad.
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CHAPTER 08
Keyword Optimization Strategy
Another way in which ASA can positively impact
your ASO is by informing the keywords that could be
highly relevant for your app. Adding keywords that
perform well in your ASA campaigns to your app’s
metadata has proven to positively impact visibility
and keyword rankings. This approach allows you to
improve your app’s metadata by using data to support
your decisions, which would then improve your ASO
conversion and maximize your chance of converting
users organically and through ASA. It also creates a
win-win situation, as including important keywords
in your metadata would allow you to increase your
visibility for ASA. A more detailed discussion around
the synergies between ASA and keyword optimization
can be found in Chapter 2: Increasing Visibility.
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GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS
Cannibalization
On paper, the principles behind Apple Search Ads are
quite simple: App developers can bid on any keyword
to have their app appear above the first organic search
result for that keyword, in hopes that this prominent
position in the search results will help to increase
app downloads. The App Store algorithm supposedly
determines which app wins a bid for a keyword by
considering the metadata (title, subtitle, screenshots,
etc.) and performance of each bidding app.
However, the possibility for any app to bid on any
keyword—including brand names—has led many apps
to bid on their competitors’ branded terms. In turn,
this has pushed apps to bid on their own branded
terms to prevent competitors from “stealing” their
traffic. The following question therefore arises: In
defending your installs and impressions from being
“stolen” by your competitors, how many of these
installs and impressions would your app have gained
organically? This is traffic that has fallen victim to
“cannibalization”: when you pay for traffic or app
installs that would have otherwise been driven
organically.
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CHAPTER 08 GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS

How to Identify and Analyze

Organic Cannibalization

Identify organic cannibalization

We should be aware that organic cannibalization can

happen once the app starts running paid campaigns
on the App Store. Once you start running ASA, search
metrics in App Store Connect (Search Impressions
and Search App Units) will grow immediately.

In ASO, (organic) cannibalization refers to a reduction

in organic metrics (e.g., Search App Units) as a result
of non-organic activities (e.g., Apple Search Ads).

Organic cannibalization happens when many users

download the app via an ad, instead of organic results.
Here is an example from a search result for “twitter.”
Twitter was running Apple Search Ads with a brand
campaign, so users see two snippets from the same
app without needing to scroll down the search results.
This could result in more users downloading the app
from the snippet on the top (the ad).

Organic cannibalization is made more likely not only

for brand terms, but also search terms for which the
app ranks first in organic results. It is also more likely
when an image ad is displayed compared to a text ad.
Twitter shows up as an ad above the first organic result of a
branded search.
Search Impressions and Search App Units on the App Store started increasing in mid-March when Apple Search Ads launched.
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Understand metrics
Let’s break down the metrics to understand how many
come from organic search vs. from Apple Search Ads.
First, we have to be aware that Search Impressions
from App Store Connect are calculated differently
from Apple Search Ads, and thus we cannot simply
deduct Impressions (Apple Search Ads) from Search
Impressions (App Store Connect) and understand
them as accurate numbers.
624
On the other hand, we can regard Search App Units
(App Store Connect) and New Downloads (Apple
Search Ads) as equivalent, and thus we can deduct
New Downloads (Apple Search Ads) from Search
App Units (App Store Connect) to see how many
Search App Units reported in App Store Connect are
composed of New Downloads from Apple Search Ads.
GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS
Initial analysis and visualization of organic
cannibalization
In order to start analyzing and visualizing organic We can create a new metric, Organic Search App
cannibalization, the following data is required: Units, which is calculated as:
• Search App Units from App Store Connect, Organic Search App Units = (Search App Units
including the period of time without running from App Store Connect) - (New Downloads from
Apple Search Ads—daily data—in the country you Apple Search Ads)
would like to analyze.
• New Downloads from Apple Search Ads since the
campaign started—daily data—in the language
you would like to analyze.
Search App Units (excluding ASA) and New Downloads from ASA.
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CHAPTER 08 GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS

Further analysis and visualization of organic

cannibalization

4.1 Weekly trend

Weekly trend analysis.

We are able to analyze weekly trends (7 days as one

cycle) to take user behaviors into consideration.

In this example, the growth of Search App Units

in week 2 (+6.26%) was due to the growth of New
Downloads from Apple Search Ads (+64%), since
Organic Search App Units in week 2 were nearly 20%
less than in week 1. We see that Organic Search App
Units in the following weeks got smaller and smaller
while the opposite was seen for New Downloads
(ASA). This signals cannibalization.

4.2 Trend in campaigns/keyword level

It is also important to understand which campaigns/

keywords contribute to organic cannibalization, so we
can consider pausing these campaigns/keywords.

To understand spends on campaigns and which

campaigns are likely causing organic cannibalization,
the following data is required:

• Spend per campaign—daily data

• New Downloads per campaign—daily data

Weekly trend analysis.

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CHAPTER 08
Daily New Downloads and spends per campaign.
We can see that organic cannibalization has escalated
in parallel with increases in spends on Brand and
Competitor campaigns, and thus New Downloads
from these campaigns. It is likely that this caused
organic cannibalization.
This is the moment to review your ASA and ASO
strategy and take action to further understand what
drives cannibalization. We can turn off the campaigns
one by one to observe the effects. By doing so, you can
observe changes in your Organic Search App Units. If
you see the Search App Units go up when a particular
campaign(s) is turned off, you’ll find the campaigns
that cause cannibalization.
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Measuring the Cost
of Cannibalization
Modeling the Cost of Cannibalization vs. Brand Protection
To model the cost of cannibalization, you should first
understand how we define Cannibalized Installs.
Cannibalized Installs are the total number of installs
you received from your Search Ads campaigns minus
the number of Protected Installs.
Protected Installs = Impressions * Estimated
Competitor Conversion Rate
The Cost of your Protected Installs then becomes:
Cost Per Protected Install = Total Ad Spend /
(Impressions * Estimated Competitor Conversion
Rate)
GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS
Comparing your Cost Per Protected Install with the
Cost Per Install reported by Apple Search Ads can
then help you estimate the “protection premium”
you pay for a given campaign; this will also help you
determine what amount of your Search Ads spend
actually goes toward cannibalization. Unfortunately,
identifying these costs does not remove the dilemma
of whether to bid on your top organic keywords or
not, but it can at least help inform your decisions to
start, stop, or change the budget you invest in specific
Search Ads campaigns.
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Accurately Estimating Competitors’
Conversion Rates
To determine your Cost Per Protected Install using
the above equation, you need to understand whether
the competitor who “steals” your paid impression
would be able to convert it into an app download, thus
estimating your competitor’s conversion rate.
You must first formulate conversion rate
hypotheses. This is the “hit or miss” part of the
entire cannibalization model: Given that conversion
rates are closely guarded data (Apple does not share
organic conversion rate data at a keyword level with
developers), it is a difficult challenge to formulate
accurate hypotheses about conversion rates. As such,
the best route is probably to use proxy variables—
substitute variables that help us approximate
conversion rate—to ensure your estimates are not
completely unrealistic.
The main data points to use in such a case are
typically the keyword-level conversion rates you can
obtain from your own Search Ads campaigns. It is
only logical to imagine that your app’s conversion
rate for your own brand name is unlikely to be lower
than the conversion rate of your competitors that are
also bidding on your brand name. Therefore, you can
630
use this figure as an “upper bracket” that competitors
will have difficulty reaching. Then, you can invert this
logic by considering your own app’s conversion rate
for a competitor’s brand name; this is a great way to
anchor your hypothesis and better understand how
your competitor might convert users that search for
your brand name.
Once you have determined your first anchors, you
should calculate a similarity score between you
and your competitor(s), and refine your conversion
differential hypotheses based on your user research
and data points presented by third-party tools. In
particular, remember that the app stores are strongly
grounded on relevance—the multiple places in which
your app appears on the stores represent just as
many opportunities to compare your similarities
and conversion performances with other apps. For
instance, the top organic search rankings tend to
reflect which of the most downloaded apps convert
better than others for specific keywords or queries;
these search rankings are therefore great hints to help
you estimate the varying conversion rates of your
competitors.
GUIDE TO APPLE SEARCH ADS
Considerations When Estimating
Conversion Rates
Firstly, when estimating your competitors’ conversion Third, it is important to consider consumers’ true
rates, it is important to consider an app’s brand power search intent. For instance, consumers searching
and consumer loyalty: When searching for a certain for “[brand name] free” may simply be searching
query (branded or generic) on the store, different for an app that offers functionalities similar to the
consumer segments have different “first choice” apps branded app but for a cheaper price. On the other end
in mind. Assembling a user research team can help you of the spectrum, certain brands with extremely high
better understand brand notoriety on the App Store notoriety and a strong presence may instead represent
and give you an initial idea of your app’s brand power; an entire genre of apps. For example, the brand names
however, don’t forget to employ both quantitative and “scrabble” and “mario kart” were frequently searched
qualitative research methods to measure how users for on the App Store even before their official apps
react to your brand. Brands that customers identify were released; this demonstrates that users do not
strongly with (for instance, because of a sense of always search for brand names with the intent of
shared values) are a lot less likely to have customers downloading that app, but often with the general goal
switch to a competitor’s product when given the of finding a similar product.
opportunity.
Next, you should consider your competitors’ notoriety:
competitors that most customers have never heard of
tend to represent a smaller threat to your brand traffic.
However, even if your customers are unfamiliar with
a competing product, you must also consider the
perceived similarity of this product to your own. Your
products may be very different; nonetheless, these
perceived similarities represent the greatest risk of
store users adopting opportunistic behaviors and
reconsidering which app to download.
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Closing Thoughts
on ASA
ASA can be a great asset in your toolbox that you should
use in close collaboration with your ASO strategies
to maximize the overall impact on your performance
and results. By making sure you adopt an ASA Stack
Use the Cannibalization Model approach when running ASA and leveraging synergies
with ASO, sustainable growth will be within reach.
Efficiently and Cautiously
Measuring the exact cost of cannibalization has been
central to Apple Search Ads since it was introduced on
the App Store. However, it is important to remember
that models, such as this one, are designed to simplify
reality in order to facilitate decision-making.
When using this model, don’t forget the following
considerations:

• This model does not account for certain

parameters, such as the percentage of users
who automatically ignore apps in Search Ads
placements, or the fact that not all users download
an app after every search query on the store.

• The model’s accuracy will depend on the precision

of your hypotheses. As a result, you should
regularly test and retest Search Ads campaigns to
keep the data behind your hypotheses up to date.
As with organic performances, Apple Search Ads
campaigns are conducted in a constantly changing
environment, and every keyword or creative
change—as well as many external factors—can
change an app’s conversion rate every day.
632 633

Credits
Final Words
Well folks, that just about wraps it up! We’ve (almost)
come to the end of this unabridged guide to Advanced
ASO. We hope you have gained a more in-depth
understanding of how ASO works, from increasing
your visibility and raising your conversion rates to
learning about the external tools available to facilitate
your work—and everything in between.
634
If you enjoyed this book, please tell your friends
and spread the word! And if you have any feedback,
we would love to hear from you. Send a note to
info@phiture.com and/or info@apptweak.com.
Visit the ASO Stack blog owned by Phiture and
AppTweak’s ASO blog to learn more about our
companies and stay up-to-date on the latest ASO
content.
Thank Yous & Shout Outs
We would first like to give a major thank you to the
writers, Phiture’s designers, Catarina Rosa, Gawie
Joubert, Mariano Briozzo, Ingrid Mueller, Sofia
Nardone, and AppTweak’s designer, Eloïse Clement,
for their support and expertise in making this book a
delight to read. The cover of the ASO Book was designed
by Gawie Joubert.
CREDITS
A big thank you to Georgia Shepherd, editor of the ASO
Book and Digital Marketing Specialist at AppTweak,
for proofreading the entire book.
We’d also like to give a shout out to Jonathan Frisch and
Florentin Zachary from AppTweak for enriching this
book with unique and fresh data.
Georgia Shepherd, editor (left)
and Catarina Rosa, designer
(right).
635

Last but not least, we have a list of other folks we would
like to thank and acknowledge for helping us create this
amazing book:
Phiture Contributors
• Kahnar Abdulqader, Head of Marketing
• Chun Yee Julia Li, ASO Consultant
• Gabe Kwakyi, Director of Acquisition Strategy
• Parv Bhargava, ASO Consultant
• Andrew Hart, ASO Consultant
• Azusa Hatano, ASO Consultant
• Catarina Rosa, Senior Designer
• Sofia Nardone, Designer
• Mariano Briozzo, Designer
• Gawie Joubert, Designer
• Andrea Raggi, Performance Marketing Lead
• Jorieke van den Broek, Senior Performance
Marketing Consultant
• Haitam Boulaich, Performance Marketing
Consultant
• Natalie Rozenblat, Senior Performance
Marketing Consultant
• Mateusz Wrzeszcz, ASO Consultant
• Pablo Penny, Managing Director
• Anton Tatarynovich, Senior ASO Consultant
636
CREDITS
AppTweak Contributors
We would also like to thank the engaged and
• Georgia Shepherd, Digital Marketing Specialist wonderful ASO Stack Slack community that has
• Eloïse Clement, Marketing Designer blossomed from just a few folks to now hundreds
• Sarah B. Touimi, ASO Manager of ASO practitioners from all across the world.
• Florentin Zachary, Product Manager Click here to learn more and join!
• Jonathan Frisch, Head of Data Science
• Alexandra De Clerck, Head of Marketing Lastly, we would like to thank you, our readers, for
• Simon Thillay, Head of ASO whom this whole book was created. Thank you for
reading! We hope that you will accomplish great things
Haystack Reviews Contributors in the world of app marketing, and we look forward to
hearing from you.
• Sebastian Gallese, Co-Founder
• Thomas Schultz-Wenk, Co-Founder
Cheers!
ASO Book 2018 Contributors Moritz & Maggie
• Daniel Peris
• Emily Grossman
• Pablo Penny
• Paul Malicki
• Peter Fodor
• Sylvain Gauchet
• Thomas Petit
637
 “The ASO Book is like the bible for
App Store Optimization fanatics.”
– Maggie Ngai
Head of ASO, @Phiture