Are You Guilty of These 5 ASO Crimes?

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• No AppStoreConnect Bug (iOS 13) Is Going to Stop Us

  February 16, 2020
  A bug that’s been sowing havoc among the ASO community and mobile marketing agencies for the past six months has been fixed.  The bug caused some aspects of app analytics on App Store Connect to be distorted. Specifically, compromised Search Impressions made it quite difficult for ASO professionals to measure app performance and the effects of keyword and metadata changes.   In this article we want to share how with a little out-of-the-box thinking we were able to find a way to deal with unreliable data and work alongside the bug. More than that, we consider this an opportunity to demonstrate what we believe to be good ASO practice. But more on this later.  Early Warning Signs It all started about six months ago, when Apple released the iOS 13 update. The first thing to catch our eye was a drop in search impressions for several of our app store customers all at once and for no apparent reason. We immediately checked the conversion rate for those apps, which we were unaffected. With a raised eyebrow we performed an audit of our other clients, and sure enough the same data warp was showing up for all of them. All apps were showing the same search impressions irregularity while the CVR for some of them was the same or growing. Here’s what it looked like: The graph illustrates an anomaly in Search Impressions with a sudden peak of 10K followed by a sharp drop to 1K. Since the iOS 13 update from September last, we’ve been repeatedly seeing these anomalies for most clients with relatively high Search Impressions shares. The sudden drop in search impressions across many apps raised our suspicions about a system error and sent us digging for answers.    The chatter on the Apple Developer Forums revealed the scope of the problem. It turned out that many ASO developers were experiencing the same issue - a dramatic drop in search impressions. The reports also indicated that keyword positions remained stable and that App Units and Product Page Views metrics were not affected by the bug. This explained why the CVR was way past the 100% mark in some cases - a heartwarming data as much as it is false.   App Store Connect Data Mismatch While others were busy reporting the now obvious bug to Apple, we turned to contain the problem by changing tactics.  Let’s back up here for a moment and recall some basic App Store concepts. As you know, the App Store has five traffic sources: Browse, Search, App Referrer, Web Referrer and Unavailable. Zooming in on two of them, Search Impressions refers to the number of users who have viewed an app via App Store Search, while Browse counts the number of users who saw the app while browsing the Top Charts or Categories sections. To measure the impact of ASO work on said traffic, App Store Connect lays three reported metrics at our disposal: Impressions, App Units and Product Page Views. All three metrics are important for tracking discoverability and conversion. Impressions, especially, is a crucial discoverability measure for Search, since most users tend to skip viewing the Product Page and just download the app directly from Search.  Here's how Apple defines each of these metrics: Impressions 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. Product Page Views The number of times your app’s product page has been viewed on a device using iOS 8 or tvOS 9, or later. Includes views on the App Store and within apps that use the StoreKit API to load your app's product page. App Units The number of first-time app downloads made on the App Store using iOS 8 or tvOS 9, or later. App updates, downloads from the same Apple ID onto other devices, and redownloads to the same device are not counted. Family Sharing downloads are included for free apps, but not for paid apps. Search Impressions, then, are crucial for gauging organic performance and the success of keyword work. We use it, for example, to track keyword visibility and app rankings following a metadata update. If an app’s screenshots, title or other creative elements have changed, we can monitor the impact of that change using any one or preferably the combination of the three metrics.  With the bug, we were essentially dealing with a data mismatch. The wrong metrics reporting the wrong traffic source. What it did was wrongly attribute Search Impressions to Browse. Meanwhile, Impressions from App Referrer, Web Referrer and App Units seemed to have been spared. This translated to a declining Search Impressions graph and an impossible CVR of <100% in some cases. This made it harder to track a major part of any ASO work.  One Down, Two to Go Since we’re the glass half full kind of company, we got to work with what we had left. Yes, we couldn’t rely on Search Impressions any more, but we still had two other metrics to go on. Back when talks of the bug were mere whispers, we checked App Units and Product Page Views and found they were still reporting the correct attributes. It wasn’t much, but it was all we needed to keep business as usual.  In the end, Apple reported the problem fixed which means ASOers can now get back to monitoring keywords and metadata updates. Not to spoil the mood, but it’s important to note that we are yet to see data that seems 100% reliable, which means the fix is probably being gradually released across all apps and locales. And now for the moral of the story. Bugs may come and bugs may go, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find a way to work around them. In this case, we relied on Apple Search Ads (ASA) data to get Impressions volume per word and draw the relevant conclusions for organic results. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it was enough to give us a good idea of an app’s organic Store exposure, especially for those clients who had enough budget for a broad campaign.  
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• Mobile Marketing Mistakes Your Competitors Are Making & You Can Avoid

  January 30, 2020
  In the fiercely competitive landscape of mobile marketing in 2020, the smallest slip can cost you time, money and your app’s ranking. It’s no longer simply a question of who has better assets or who buys more media but, of who will make the first mistake and who will profit from it.  In this article we take you through some of the pitfalls mobile marketers tend to fall into, giving you the chance to get ahead of the competition. All ASO, No Paid Traffic Media asset optimization is important, but it’ll only get you so far without paid traffic.  The reasoning of the average app promoter goes like this. To drive organic traffic, I need to invest in optimizing my app’s assets. Once I have great graphics and converting, optimized texts, organic traffic will start flowing in and my ranking will go up. This reasoning is solid as much as it is incomplete. The problem is that it’s not taking into account the fact that your competitors are doing exactly the same. Suppose there are two apps that are competing for the same keyword. Both apps have quality assets and are practically the same in terms of features and offerings. What will set them apart? Why would one rank above the other?  To answer these questions we ran a small test for two, almost identical Bitcoin wallet apps, both competing for the keyphrase “buying Bitcoin.” We found that the differentiating factors in ranking were traffic and downloads. While the app that ran a paid media campaign was able to buy traffic and consequently increase its downloads, the app that stuck to ASO alone quickly fell behind.  It goes to show that while optimization is crucial for targeting the right visitors and converting them to downloads, traffic and downloads are just as important for outranking your competitors. In other words, to rank high and make the most of your ASO strategy, it’s best to make sure your optimized assets are backed up by paid traffic and vice versa. Not Experimenting with App Assets The only excuse for not knowing Google Play Experiments is if you’ve been living under a rock for the past five years. To recap, since 2015, Google has allowed app owners to experiment with their store listing pages. This means you can simultaneously run several versions of an app’s listing, including graphics and texts, to test which variant performs best in front of live users. The valuable data and insights alone are reason enough to be doing these experiments on a regular basis. But wait, it gets better.  We heard it through the grapevine that experiments are indexed. This includes app names, short descriptions and practically every GP asset, text & graphic alike.  Let that sink in for a moment and then think of all the extra keywords you could be ranking for. With nothing to lose (did we mention it’s free?) and everything to gain in terms of data, insight, and traffic, not doing these experiments regularly is just leaving money on the table. Narrow Media Buying Most mobile advertisers will tell you one thing with absolute certainty: The more targeted your campaign is, the higher your conversion rate will be and the faster you’ll be hitting your KPIs. At the heart of this statement is the misconception that it’s best to launch a narrow campaign and, once you’ve got your target audience down, scale-up. It’s actually the opposite.The reason why it’s better to start wide and narrow down is that campaign platforms like Google or Facebook have machine learning capabilities. This means they study your audience and automatically optimize the campaign for maximum conversions. By limiting your audience to specific demographics or interest groups you believe will perform best, you are in fact impeding the algorithm’s ability to learn, not to mention that you’re likely to miss audiences you haven’t thought about. It may be counterintuitive but casting your net wide, to begin with, is the best strategy you can choose for the first campaigns of your app. Targeting Irrelevant Mobile Devices or Operating Systems One of the more costly mistakes you can make is pushing an Android app down the throat of an iOS user and vice versa. Forgetting to eliminate devices and operating systems that are not compatible with the app you’re promoting is a common pitfall even among professionals. This means you have a chance to save precious campaign funds while your competitors are wastefully sending traffic to irrelevant audiences. To take it one step further, think of the global distribution of OSs and devices. Targeting iOS users in Europe, for example, where the iOS market share is a puny 26.5%, is not an effective strategy. Neither is sending traffic to Android users in New York. According to a GoldSpot Media study, 50% of mobile ad clicks are accidental, for example in the case of a tablet or iPad banner being sent to a mobile Android user. This could easily be avoided by eliminating certain devices from the campaign. Moreover, it’s well known that Android and iOS users vastly differ in their spending power and consumer behavior. Targeting both devices with the same assets  is simply a waste of traffic. A/B Testing - Get It Right If you’re doing A/B testing, you’re probably either using GPE, which is OK, or 3rd party A/B testing tools like SplitMetrics or StoreMaven, which are much better. Regardless of how you go about it, here are some of the more common mistakes to avoid in A/B testing. Skimping on A/B testing for iOS. Just because iOS doesn’t have an built-in A/B testing system like Google Play Experiments doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be doing it. A/B testing for your mobile app is a crucial step in understanding which assets best capture your audience. Our own iOS A/B tests at Moburst continuously help us improve the CVR of screenshots and videos, averaging at 9% per test. In a recent test, we were able to improve app engagement by 20% and CVR by over 27%! Forgetting to test icons. Perhaps because it’s the most visible asset, many app owners treat icons as their Holy Grail, the one asset that shouldn’t be altered. Its high visibility and the fact that it can very easily be tweaked actually makes icon one of the best candidates for A/B testing. The smallest adjustment, be it switching from sharp edges to rounded corners or playing around with color combinations, can lead to a significant improvement in CVR. We recently uplifted a client’s CVR by 3% just by changing their solid background color to a gradient. Stopping variations too soon. There is an understandable urge to eliminate losing variants of A/B tests as quickly as possible, especially when it’s costing you money. But before rushing to conclusions after seeing a line graph go up, ask yourself whether you have enough data to validate your findings. Without sufficient evidence, you can’t reach the desired statistical significance each A/B test should produce (and even then, it’s not always the right thing to end a test or stop a variation). Implementing results without follow up. It’s one thing to perform an A/B test and come up with a winning version for your target audience. It’s quite another thing to see the same results in the live store. After implementing the winning version, be sure to go back and check the live results against the A/B test. This can take you down two paths. Either you find the app performs as expected, in which case you can pat yourself on the back and move on to greater things; or you find the winning version is a real-world loser, in which case go back to the drawing board and redo the A/B test. When it comes to staying ahead of the competition, mobile marketers have to be on their toes, constantly testing different strategies and checking the results against real-life outcomes. It also doesn’t hurt to keep your ear to the ground. You’d be surprised at how many insider tips you can pick up simply by following the right source.  Subscribe today to get the most up-to-date industry news and insights for 2020.
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• Best Metadata Practices Following Google Play Store Update

  December 08, 2019
  If your app store ranking has been failing you lately it’s probably due to a Google app store update announced recently. The update has affected certain apps more than others, mostly depending on the subject matter of the app as well as on metadata formatting issues. Along with a few other amendments, the Developer Policy Center lists metadata as one of the changes made to the app store ranking protocol. As is the case with most updates, this too is meant to ensure users get more reliable, accurate information about the app they’re about to download. If you’re an app owner, the bad news is that these new limitations have changed the rules of the game. Stuffing your descriptions with keywords, unconfirmed reviews, or shopping lists of properties simply won’t cut it anymore. The good news is that this gives decent apps a chance to really shine thanks to their true qualities. Assuming your app really is great, of course, which it surely is. As always, Google’s Do’s and Don'ts is a good place to start, and as always - it’s far from giving you what you really need to know. Here are our own insider’s tips on how to keep your traffic flowing and your conversion rate high. Rule #1: No More Keyword Stuffing  This might be stating the obvious but users need to get a clear, accurate and relevant description of your app. This means no more keyword stuffing as part of your ASO tactics. Besides the fact that it has little value to your users, trying to outsmart the app store algorithm this way will only result in getting a keyword stuffing penalty.    Here’s a perfect keyword stuffing example and why you shouldn’t do it: What value does an app user get from a shopping list of TV types and app properties? It’s not that the information is misleading or inaccurate. It’s that repetitive word blocks such as these tend to get excessive, and it doesn’t take much to figure out that they’re the work of an ASO master trying to rank high rather than give real value to users.  Don’t be too quick to throw all your keywords to the wind - they are still important. Instead, think of how you can blend them in organically, using them to describe and highlight the best things about your app and not as a way to manipulate the Google app store algorithm.     Rule #2: Stay Classy It doesn’t matter if yours is the sassiest dating app or the most savage video game the app store has ever seen. Inappropriate, provocative and offensive metadata will not be tolerated anymore. This goes for profane and vulgar language, imagery or videos with sexually suggestive content, app icons that depict graphic violence or the use of drugs and anything else you wouldn’t want your 10-year-old to be exposed to.  Let’s face it, the App Store is for the general audience. This includes children, sensitive communities, and people who simply don’t want to come across offensive content while looking for a new pumpkin pie recipe.  Rule #3: Lose the Bogus App Reviews in the Description Online reviews are one of the few tools end-users still rely on in deciding whether or not to purchase a product or service. This is why unreliable reviews are harmful above all to your users as well as to your ranking.  Starting now, Google prohibits using unattributed or anonymous user testimonials in the metadata description. To clarify, this doesn’t mean you can’t accept reviews by anonymous users. It only means you can’t quote nameless advocates of your brand or app in the description. In short, reviews are still a powerful ASO tool as long they can be traced back to real people. Rule #4: Keep Your Eyes on Your Own App Another thing to look out for is data comparison of apps and brands. Banning this practice is a clear attempt by Google to restore trust and authenticity to the system. You don’t need to go far to get an example of what would be frowned upon - the Developer Policy Center clearly demonstrate what they mean by improper app comparison:  For app promoters, if keyword stuffing your descriptions with names of your competitors and their flaws is part of your ASO strategy, it’s time to make a change. Trashing your competitors can only hurt your ranking, so from now on focus on the best features and key selling points of the app you’re actually promoting. Rule #5: Apps in "Risk Groups" Should Be Extra Cautious Right about when the metadata update went live, AppTweak, an ASO data tool, detected unusual behavior of some of the apps they monitor on Google Play. As you can see in the graph below, the keyword rankings movements of these apps are showing anomalies.  Ranking fluctuations as reported by AppTweak for October/November 2019 The movements might seem negligible, but they certainly affected certain apps, especially those that belong to one of the more daring categories of the app and gaming world.   What Google is saying with this update is pretty straightforward - use the metadata to communicate your app’s value clearly and honestly. Writing for bots and not for users is bound to catch up with you soon enough if it hasn’t already, so just make sure you’re writing for real people and not trying to beat the algorithm.   How to Avoid Getting Hit by the New Algorithm The new limitations imposed by the metadata update are not that extreme but they do require some adjustment. Now that we’ve covered what you shouldn’t do, here are the ASO highlights of what you should be doing.  First, focus on writing clear, accurate and succinct descriptions with your keywords elegantly mixed into them. Let’s take our casting app from before as an example. Instead of the non-descriptive bullet list of features, consider the following paragraph: “The app lets you have full control over your TV using just your phone. Turn the volume up, rewind to watch your favorite scenes or skip to the next track without ever having to look for the remote…” Next, if you have to mention other brands make sure you explain their value and relation to your app. This way, the list of TV brands turns into:  “With app X you can immediately stream your favorite movies, photos and music to any number of devices. The app is compatible with various smart TVs, including Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Roku and many more manufacturers. It also lets you cast to all local Amazon Fire Stick, Xbox One and Xbox360 and even DLNA receivers…” The bottom line is to help your users see the value in your app. As long as you’re writing for them and not for the app store bots you should be fine.
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• How to Write an App Description That Will Get Users to Download

  November 20, 2019
  So, why do you need to write an app description like a pro? Pretty simple, your copywriting can make or break your marketing efforts. If you think writing articles for SEO is complicated because you need to keep a keyword in mind, write a minimum number of words and use specific HTML tags, just wait for when you'll be writing an app description. Not trying to scare you here in any way. Yet, showcasing the same idea in 700 words instead of 3.000 words is way, way harder. So, why is writing an app store description so hard? The answer is pretty simple, you're forced to: Respect the app store description character limitSend your message in the first lines of your descriptionFollow the app store description guidelinesWrite content without the help of formating (headers, bolds and so on) We'll talk about everything in this article and help you out on your task of writing a killer app description. App Store Description Guidelines As mentioned before, you need to fully respect the App Store Description Guidelines in order to rank your app on the app store and increase downloads. Just to push the importance of a relevant app store description, less than 2% of users read the entire description. Meaning that, if you don't write the relevant information in 5 lines or less, you won't convince anyone to download your app. App store descriptions are limited to a maximum of 4.000 characters and can be disapproved by Moderators if they find out you stuffed it with app store keywords. Make sure that you eliminate all errors in your copy, keep it as natural as possible and don't falsify any information or testimonials. Start with the main app keyword in mind The best app store description works with the keyword in mind. You should write the copy in a way that: Converts users Increases your rank We've done App store optimization guides in the past, talking about the benefits of doing proper keyword research and optimizing your app. If you still don't know what ASO is, it is the process of optimizing an app for the app store. Pretty self-explanatory, isn’t it? You start by doing keyword research and continue with analyzing your competitors. This allows you to better understand what keywords users are using to find apps similar to yours and what keywords you need to integrate inside your copy. It's also a good exercise and task to read what your competitors wrote and better understand what worked for them. If you've already done your research for your main keywords, don't forget about ASO! ASO can help you increase your app store ranking. The more people see your app page, the more people will download. Because of this, also take care of the following: App title. Your app should have the main keyword integrated into the title. This will help it rank better and get more organic views on the homepage. App Store Keyword Field The Apple App Store has a keyword field where you can integrate the main keywords you want to rank your app for. Make sure you fill everything in order to increase your app ranking. What are the app store description best practices? Besides the standard guidelines, we've also created a list of the app store description best practices. After looking over the market, reading studies and based on our experience, we created the following lists. Use an Emoji in your app store description Before anyone starts ramping up in the comment section. Yes, we do know there have been cases in the past where the use of Emojis had detrimental effects on app developers. Yet, the problem wasn't related to the use of emojis in the app store description. It was related to the use of emojis in the artwork or design of the app. Apple has the right to block apps that use its copyrighted emoji design. And they should. More info in this article submitted by Techcrunch. Conclusion: You can use Emojis in the app store description, do not use it in screenshots, logos, videos or inside of your app as part of the UI! Test, test and re-test your app store description preview! As mentioned before, all apps have a small preview that each user sees when opening the app page. (see example below) Source: Google Play Store, Shazam App For Shazam, we can only see 6 lines of text, then it starts fading and you can only read more if you press the "Read more" button. (sorry, couldn't find a better wordplay for this) Also, only 2% of users actually try to read more. Because of this, most of the time, the app store description is more relevant to the app store, than the user. As a result, we advise that you start creating a sales-oriented copy with a limit of around 250 characters. Do your best to convince the user to download. You can always A/B test this. Keep it for a couple of weeks, change it, compare the results. (mostly the conversion rate) Use Social Proof in your app description. If you've won rewards or done some amazing projects in the past for which the users may know you for, it's best to state that in the app store description. Talk about your millions of downloads in a couple of weeks, about your amazing awards or even something smaller like being featured in the top 5 of your app's category on the app store. This will increase the user's trust in you and the chance of converting. (especially in more serious niches) Angry Birds talks about its millions of players in the description. Create a description for your images Being limited with your app store description formating, you need to start being creative with your creative. Bad pun, we know. But follow through here. You can use your app store screenshots to describe your app features and functionalities, in order to increase the conversion rate. A picture is worth a thousand words. Unknown author Revolut showcases the information about Analytics and fast account opening Netflix talks about the option of downloading movies to watch later Really important, as we mentioned before, you are allowed to include emojis in your text description, you are not allowed to use them in your creative. Most of them are copyrighted! This is what happened with Apple emojis when they pulled out hundreds of apps from their app store. Add some text inside your mobile app preview videos! In the same way, you can add information in your app store screenshots, you can also add texts inside your app preview video. Don't forget about app localization and app internationalization Localizing your app can increase the number of app downloads by up to 767%. That's over 75% of the content users read on the internet is in their own language. If you aren't pushing your app in Spanish, for a Spanish market, you will be missing out! App store localization is also one of the main ASO activities. It can help you rank on words that do not exist in your main language, rank you higher in specific countries and boost your downloads and conversions. Uber Localize Screenshots Uber did an amazing job with their localization in Japan. They managed to localize their descriptions in both text and screenshots. Not only that, but they also used maps with locations from Japan to better reflect the experience of the users! Use Call to Actions in your app description! You only have a couple of lines in your app description preview. Because of this, you need to make it count and convince the user to download your app. Lines like: Download the app and start saving money!Install the game and join the millions of players worldwide. Install our app and start watching all of your favorite movies. ... will surely help you boost your conversion. Integrate promotional text in your app description If you're integration a new promotion, reducing your prices for a particular event or just integrating some new features, it's worth showcasing that in your app description. If your app is blocked by a paid subscription, this approach can help you increase the number of customers. App promotions are a great incentive for users that want to purchase at a discount. Update your app often. Updating your app often will help you rank higher, as the algorithm tries to always push relevant and new content inside the app store. Related to your app store description, make sure that you update it and state what you've improved in your app. This will make users trust your app more, knowing that you are continuously working on improving it. It will also help you bring back users that churned in the past. If they left because your app missed a feature and you managed to integrate it, you have a high chance of converting them back into paying customers. Don't forget about app rating and reviews If you've managed to obtain good app ratings and reviews from reputable sources, make sure to integrate that inside your app description. If Forbes, TechCrunch or a National News Network rated your app, state that information inside your App description. It will surely boost your credibility. Final Thoughts We hope we managed to provide some value regarding app store descriptions. Why they are important and how to improve them. For questions or help, feel free to either contact us or leave a comment in the section bellow.
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