Let’s continue from last chapter…
How do we do ASO systematically?
Whether it’s the ASO channel’s contribution or the pain of KPI assessment, or the company’s development needs, when you are going to spend tens of thousands dollars on promotion, are you actually fully ready for that? The matter is not quite so simple as it seems.
For example: When comparing the channel price, did you compare the user experience of competing products at the product level? When you are diligently investigating how to cover thousands of keywords, have you noticed that the products’ basic descriptions are sloppy? What about the screenshots, user comments? If not, then you need to proceed ASO from these three aspects.
1. The basic optimisation in ASO
According to the ASO factors ordering mentioned above, we can see the importance of the basic optimisation of ASO. From the inside out, we need to pay attention to a lot of details. Here, the following points are highlighted in the context of practical experience:
- App name + subtitle: When we decide the App’s name, it is necessary to consider not only the relationship between the name, the brand, the functionality, but also the post-promotion. Similarly, the importance of the subtitles’ keywords has been tested and revealed too. After one or two versions, if the subtitles are replaced with keywords with good rankings in the previous period (ie, the top 20 in the search ranking), the search ranking can be increased by 5 to 10 further.
- User comments: Whether they are 5-star reviews or negative reviews, collect them and analyze in order to improve your App’s functionalities, user interface, user interactions and so on.
- App Screenshots’ design: The five images used in the AppStore to advertise and introduce product features plays an enormous role to affect the conversion rate from users’ first sight to clicking the download buttons. An analogy will be copy write and source materials to traditional advertising, we need to pay enough attention to details. By redesigning the product’s promotional map, highlighting the Warship Fury’s 3D gaming effects, the download volume is rapidly increased by 1,500+.
2. Operational level optimization in ASO
I am not sure if you usually pay attention to this giant pile of data. In my opinion, this is the most difficult level of Appstore optimization and the core of the entire ASO optimization, which is closely related to the quality of the entire product.
The current situation of channel market is that the promotion methods are more and more diversified, which partly reveals the demand of the business model, and on the other hand, its the reflection of the imbalance between promotion cost and the actual effects. This puts more demands on our operation work. The promotion direction of iOS is no longer just the pursuit of download volume and ranking but gradually shifts to precision, high retention, long lasting, stability, and security.
So, aside from the accurate big data, massive users and rich resources promoted by various media channels, it is very important for ASO to actually make high-quality App, and to optimise user experience and improve the data indicators of products. But how to develop a reasonable promotion plan? We can do it in three stages:
Stage 1: Get familiar with Appstore rules and policies, and quickly test through the AB test and other methods. After the scientific analysis of the market, find the right one in a variety of channels to perform cost control.
Stage 2: Collect user feedback, coordinate with the product team to optimize Apps continuously in order to improve product retention and activation, and extend the user lifecycle; Moreover, investigate the promotion trends of competing products and analyze the promotion measures taken by their products at different stages to make a reserve of experience for the next promotion.
Stage 3: If you enter the comprehensive promotion stage at this time, the daily operations in the promotion is the key to improve the App. Furthermore, through all kinds of activities running in the App, it is easy to optimise a certain point.
For example, for social Apps, we can put a prize pool for comments in a certain community. Out of all replies, the operators can deliberately guide and write some paragraphs related to the product to drive everyone to participate. Such activities can not only improve the activation rate of the product, but also encourage users to search for comments, and the optimisation effect will be significantly improved.
Conclusion
I think all the readers here should know that Apple is recently adjusting its algorithm frequently, and our products can jump to the top 10 in the classification list. I believe this is the result of our efforts. As mentioned in the opening paragraph, ASO is not difficult at the level of skill, technology, and method. It is difficult to understand and operate from the basics consistently. I hope that this series can bring some different enlightenment to everyone.
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