iOS 15: A New Wave for App Store Marketing

Jesse Bogner 14 July 2021

iOS 15: A New Wave for App Store Marketing

It’s hard to imagine something that will fundamentally change the mobile marketing industry more than Apple’s recent announcement about iOS 15’s reimagined App Store. According to Apple’s latest keynote on iOS marketing, in order to drive more focus onto mobile apps, Apple has unlocked new pathways onto its store in two major ways.

Firstly, the App Store’s new advanced features allow for one default page for organic traffic and three slots for testing pages against the default. Secondly, you will have 35 more storefronts for paid media. So from iOS 15 onwards, for both organic and paid traffic, you will be able to optimize another step in the funnel that was previously locked. Optimizing each part of the storefront, such as icon, screenshots, and app store preview videos, will help boost the conversion rate of each user’s segment.

What are the Main iOS 15 Changes?

The default store will now be tailor-made for testing, as three variations of screenshots can be tested against the control. Beyond that, for the paid media flow, we will now be able to test 35 App Store sets designed according to different funnels and demographics. So in essence, the App Store has fundamentally changed in favor of app marketers. There are now more opportunities for testing, in addition to the capability to make changes that will convert exponentially greater to targeted audiences.

These changes promise to take mobile conversion rates to another level, because from this point onward, the measurable data will allow for different levels of optimization meant to drive scalable business growth. Now the marketers will be in the driver’s seat when it comes to personalizing App Store assets. The possibilities are near endless.

Organic App Store

Below is the fundamental difference between the current App Store and the new iOS 15 store. Traffic is split between organic and paid, which means the user experience will be different:

All organic traffic will be set to a default page, much like before. However, we now have the option to test organic traffic with different calls to action, and different design sets.

The only issue with this system is that in order for the data from this testing to be meaningful, it needs a large enough sample size to generate statistical significance. A large app may be able to get enough samples in a few days, however, a startup may need up to three months to accumulate enough data, or otherwise risk making any premature steps that may actually lower the CVR.

In the scenario above, 70% of the traffic is designated to the control set of screenshots, which used to be the only set. Now, with the new operating system, it’s simple to test three variations against the control. We will execute this kind of testing by trying 3 different concepts against each other.

After the winning concept is chosen according to the collected data, then the optimization can be even more greatly improved by testing variations of the winning set of assets through simple A/B testing. So for example, after we have tested the design style and we found something that resonates strongly with our users, we can dive deeper into the order of the screens, changing the messaging, and tweaking the first images.

As performance deviates back towards the norm with a winning concept, we will have the ability to start the process all over again at different times of the year (for seasonality). This alone could improve CVR exponentially, which means apps can produce huge wins and make even more revenue once the storefront is optimized.

Paid App Store

As we previously mentioned, for paid traffic, we can create an entirely different experience.

Since we will be able to execute up to 35 different product pages, we will also now have the ability to target different messaging to up to 35 different audiences. This means that we can get a much more accurate user flow based on the traffic source. So for example, we can create alternative flows with different designs and messaging based on gender, age groups, interests, specific app features, etc.

While not every app will require 35 or even five separate sets of screenshots, you will be able to assess different strategies geared towards different audiences. Never before has the importance of finding the right message, at the right time, and with the right audience been more crucial. The App Store user experience will be much more personalized to the needs and desires of the person clicking. Everything will be geared towards what the consumer was looking for if this process is done correctly. Common sense would suggest that this will drive many more conversions.

Think about it this way, if someone is looking for Chinese food in a food delivery app, and the screenshots they see offer mouth-watering images of General Tso’s Chicken, they are far more likely to download the app because they want that delicious food.

Final Thoughts

What was once a generic page will now be specifically designed to drive downloads. While this will present a lot of challenges to advertisers who will need to develop many more concepts and methods of optimization, we could not be more excited. As a company that specializes in mobile optimization, we live for opportunities to go above and beyond. One thing defining mobile marketing is that you are ultimately judged on your conversion rate, and now you have the toolbox to make your conversions exponentially better. Reconfiguring mobile conversion rate strategies will lead to more sustained growth, and of course, App Store Optimization will be even more vital to mobile app marketing.

Jesse Bogner

Jesse Bogner is a copywriter, author and journalist. His memoir and social critique, The Egotist, has been translated into five languages. His work has been featured in The Daily Caller, MSN, The Huffington Post, The Jerusalem Post, American Thinker, and The Daily Wire. He's now one of our resident Copywriters at Moburst.