6 Essential Tools in App Store Optimization (ASO)

As you may already know that ASO is an important process when it comes to increasing organic downloads and attracting more users to your app. However, it’s not easy to go through all the processes of App Store Optimization. Thus, there are various of ASO tools on the internet offering numerous services and features to assist you with each aspect of ASO. Because of this, it is difficult to choose and decide which one is essential and suited your needs.

So instead of wasting time on looking for which one is the best tools then testing each one of them, these are 6 essential tools that every publisher needs to know:

Mobile Action

Mobile Action is one of the most commonly used tools in App Store Optimization. They provide users with a lot of functionalities and features that help developers with 7 key elements in ASO such as App name, App description, Keywords, etc.

Mobile Action is currently the only ASO tool that provides publishers with insights and data that helps app to increase the chance of getting a higher rank by using specific keywords. In addition, it also provides an overview graph for iOS apps. With Mobile Action, publishers will get various helpful insights like download estimation, keyword suggestion, notifications and alerts. Certainly, Mobile Action manages to handle all of its functionality and features and put them in a user-friendly UI.

  • Key features: friendly-experienced dashboard, competitor tracking, suggested actions, used by 160k customers from 65 countries
  • App stores: iTunes Apple Store and Google Play Store.
  • Price: Free (App Analytics). ASO Intelligence starts at $39 per month.

Google AdWords Keyword Planner

One of the biggest challenges that app publishers and marketers is choosing the most relevant keywords for their app. As you may already know that keyword is a very important aspect of ASO. Because of this, Google provides app publishers with Google Adwords Keyword Planner which brings relevant and helpful insights about keywords and key phrases. This Google tool gives publishers an easy and simple keyword suggestion process. Furthermore, Google keyword tool can assist publishers on researching keywords and analyzing its searches.

  • Key features: detailed dashboard, provide statistical report of keyword, easy and simple keyword suggestion process
  • Price: FREE. Require Sign in.

Google Trends

An addition to the keyword optimization department, Google Trends gives you the most accurate insights on the most trending search terms and topics globally. Publishers and marketers can easily find out the search terms and related keywords that will be suitable for their needs. It always contains precise number of searches for each term and it also categorizes it to each individual country. In that way, anyone can gain the insights that they need about specific keywords and search terms in a simplified way with detailed data.

  • Key features: provide global-updated insights of trending terms and keywords, detailed and categorized statistics.
  • Price: FREE

Apptweak

When it comes to comprehensive ASO report and excellent user interface experience, Apptweak is one of the best tools that every app publisher should know. With iOS operating system, Apptweak main focus is on localization and all of the reports covers more than 60 countries around the globe. Thus, this gives marketers and publishers a precise overview of their stats, visual and other aspects in App Store Optimization.

  • Key features: personalized and actionable recommendations (ASO reports); multilingual keyword intelligence tool; competition analysis; Search Ads intelligence dashboard
  • App stores: iTunes Apple Store and Google Play Store.
  • Price: 7-day free trial, Starter plan – $60/month, Pro plan – $150/month, Guru plan – $300/month, $600/month

Sensor Tower

With Sensor Tower, it provides user feature that can track measurements in keyword research process such as keyword traffic, keyword difficulty, rank and competition. Sensor Tower also allows publishers to compare their app with competitors and presents users with helpful insights in order to learn and improve throughout keyword optimization process. However, there are a certain about of information which are based on Sensor Tower internal scaling system so it can be difficult sometimes when you want to convert them to App Store values. Furthermore, most features are available only for paid members. But overall, Sensor Tower is a decent and useful ASO tool that you should consider to use.

  • Key features: app ranking, keyword optimization, keyword translation, download and revenue estimates, and competitor tracking.
  • App stores: iTunes Apple Store and Google Play Store.
  • Price: Small Business – Pro: $80/month, Business: $400/month, custom pricing for Enterprise plans

App Annie

Last but not least, App Annie is possibly the biggest ASO platform out there in the market. App Annie strongest strength is based on it database, which provides massive insights regarding a  huge diversity of apps. App Annie’s users can have an excellent overview of their market that they have chosen and App Annie also provides the ability for publishers to research their competitors precisely from the inside out. However, there are some features that are still unavailable like tracking the keyword traffic and difficulty scores. Despite lacking some functionality, App Annie is still a useful ASO tool that provides excellent information and valuable insight that every mobile app developer should try.

  • Key features: keyword and competitor tracking, advanced search filters, analyse keyword rankings.
  • App stores: iTunes Apple Store and Google Play Store.
  • Price: Free (for Store Stats and ASO tools).

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3 Easy Steps To Choose The Right Keywords in ASO

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Keyword is a crucial part for an app to be discovered in the app store.

As mentioned by Apple, the organic downloads from app store search is up to 65%. So it’s a huge potential for you to tap into those resources with your keywords, by App Store Optimization. They are gateways that can bring users to your app so it’s important for you to pick and put the suitable keywords on your app profile.

However, it’s not easy to come up with keywords that can stand out from other 3 million apps in the app store and it’s difficult to start from scratch. Not only does it’s hard to come up with a keyword but it is also very competitive for your app to be visible to users.

So how can you pick the perfect keywords? With these 3 simple steps, you can easily go through this process in ASO without any hassle. Not yet know about ASO? Check it out here.

Step 1: Keywords Research


For the purpose of determining the perfect keywords, you should first do some research and make a list of all the possible outcomes that you could find. There are several methods that you can use to complete this first step.

  • Brainstorming Ideas: As the app developer, you are the one who know exactly what you want to deliver to your users through your app. So based on your app’s features and benefits, you can write down all of the potential keywords related to them and start choosing from there.

Keep in mind that you should have a diverse keywords list. Not all users are using the same keywords to search for app. For instance, some users might use “ Nearest ATM “ and some others might use “ ATM near me “.

  • Research Your Competitors: The market is very saturated in today’s digital century. There are only a few new and fresh ideas. Although it’s hard to come up with crucial keywords that can compete with others, you can learn from your competitors by researching what they are using and compete with them more effectively. Easy as it sounds, you can base on what you can find from your competitors and come up with some new ideas for your app. You can simply look at what they are using by looking through their app and app profile.
  • Keyword Suggestion Tools: Aside from researching your competition, there are plenty of online tools that can assist you on keyword ideas. There are keyword suggestion tools like Mobile Action, App Radar, Searchman and Sensor Tower which have features where they can suggest you with related keywords on a particular search term. For instance, instead of using just “weather app”, they can suggest you with keywords like “local weather”, “weather forecast” or “weather condition”.
  • User Reviews and Ratings: You might be surprised by the usefulness of reviews from your users. Again, the purpose of optimizing your keywords is to find the most relevant keywords that users often use to search. As a result, there is no better way to look for keyword ideas than researching your users. Not only does they can provide you with valuable keyword suggestions but they also can give you insights on user’s keyword search behaviors.

However, it is not easy to go through all of user reviews. Fortunately, you can choose a variety of ASO Tools that can help you research your reviews and ratings. Tools like App Annie, Mobile Action and Appbot are able to examine and analyze reviews for most used phrases and keywords.

Besides those ASO Tools mentioned above, you can use the app store interfaces in both Google Play Console and iTunes Connect to see which reviews are the most useful and look for potential key phrases and search terms.

Once you have gathered all of the resources that you needed on your keywords researching process, you can move onto the next step.

Step 2: Select The Best Keywords.

After the first step on your journey to find perfect keywords for your app, you will end up with a great amount of keywords. In the research process, it’s good to have many keywords however in reality you only need to use a selective number of them along with consider the perfect place to put them.

It’s important for you to put your keywords in a well-organized manner. You need to know precisely where is the most suitable place for each individual keyword. There are 3 critical areas in the app store that you need to consider when putting your keywords:

1. App Name/Title: Based on Google, it is important for your app name to be distinctive and approachable, avoid commonly used terms and focus on your app.

Your app name should be precise, simple and attract potential users. You should avoid having a long and unorganized title for your app. Furthermore, by including some important keywords into your title can increase up to 10% in ranking and app visibility.

2. Keyword Section: You need to put your best keywords and most relevant search terms in this area. This is where it will increase your app visibility and organic downloads.

There are various ASO tools that can assist you on tracking, analyzing and measuring which keywords you should us to increase downloads.

3. App Description: In this section of your app page, you should concentrate on balancing highly competitive keywords and less competitive keywords.

High rank keywords are commonly used and more generic keywords. They are very competitive due to the huge amount of publishers using them. Because of this, it would be much more efficient to use Low rank keywords that have less competitors and try to get at the top rank within those Low rank market.

Once you have determined the best keywords for each aspect mentioned above, the next step is to put your result to the test.

Step 3: Test Your Keywords.

Now that you have went through the preparation process, it’s time for you to put them to the test and see the result. However, it will take time for you to get the result. It usually takes from several days to a couple weeks for your app to get used to the new changes and be measured correctly.

Approximately after the first month, your app will be recognized by the app stores with all of your changes. Then, the app stores will give you the information that you need about your app visibility, the number of times your app appear in searches and your download rates. By having these data, you can see the result of the changes that you make to your set of keywords and then decide on whether you are on the right track or you need some correction.

In addition, you should keep track of all the changes that you make to your keywords, run a report and review on every process that you do. This practice will help you improve your strategy and help you to find your strengths and weaknesses. The goal is to focus on improving the weaknesses that you have and continue to maintain your strengths.

Although making changes can be helpful and promising, doing it frequently or too drastically can cause your conversion rates to decrease. So it is wise to have a good preparation and plan when you are optimizing your keywords. Instead of changing everything, try to use ASO tools to assist you on analyzing your changes and finding out their impact on your app. Once you have gathered all of the results that you need from ASO tools, then you can decide on making changes to your keywords.

Tools like Sensor Tower and Mobile Action provide you daily monitoring features and keywords ranking for your app and your competition.

Don’t Give Up And Keep Testing.

Just like any other aspect of ASO, Keyword optimization is one of the best methods for you to increase your revenue. It is very efficient and does not cost you like marketing strategy. However, you need to keep the optimization process ongoing in order to achieve your goal.

In conclusion, the purpose of keyword optimization is to maintain or get your app listing rank at or close to the top of searches. Remember that the more visibility that your app has, the more chances for organic downloads.

If you find this post provides you with useful information, please support us by completing our survey and get free access to our “ASO: App Store Optimization Vol.1 ” E-book. We appreciate your time and support. 
Thank you and have a nice day!.

For more articles on App Store Optimization, please find it here.

What is: Ad Exchange

Ad Exchange is a real-time online bidding market that allows advertisers and publishers to buy and sell their advertising inventories and impressions.

Most of the ads sold on Ad Exchange are display creatives such as banner ads, native ads and videos. They are always native across both mobile and desktop platforms. The majority of the features and functions in Ad Exchange are automatic or pre-programmed which will allow publishers, studios and companies to automate their advertising purchases. When a user reaches a page on an app or website that has ad space, Ad Exchange will allow ad networks to directly purchase ad impressions.

To connect to Ad Exchange, advertisers can use demand side platforms (DSP) and utilize audience data to decide whether the offered ad space is relevant for their advertising campaign. Once the decision has been made, they will proceed to purchase the ad space in real-time bidding process. All of these processes and decision making can be done manually or automatically by algorithms based on demographic and user data to find the best value for advertisers.

There are 2 crucial types of auctions: open auction and private auction.

  • Open auction doesn’t have any restrictions on who will get to join the auction and bid on ad space and impressions.
  • Private auctions are restricted a certain amount of clients that have the permission to join the auction.

How To Select The Right ASO Tools

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As you may already know that ASO (App Store Optimization) is the process of optimizing 7 key elements of your mobile app such as Keywords, App Icon, App Name, etc. With each process of optimizing your app, there are various ASO tools that assist throughout the whole process. ASO tools provide you with numerous features and options. However, the majority of ASO tools online are not often free to use and it’s hard to pick the one that can suit your needs.

ASO process covers many sections of an app and so do ASO tools. For the purpose of getting a better understanding about ASO tools and choosing which one will be useful for you the most, you need to understand what types of tools are out there in the market and when you need to use them.
For more detail, please read our article on 6 essentials tools in ASO.

There are 6 different types of ASO tools that you need to know:

App Keyword Optimization Tools.

This type of ASO tools are dedicated to assist you when it comes to optimizing your app keywords with the purpose of increasing your app search traffic. There are a great number of tools that cover every aspect of keyword optimization such as app keywords suggestions tools, keyword tracking, trending keyword search tools, keywords comparison tools, etc.

Recommended tools: Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, Mobile Action, Sensor, Tower, Meatti, App Radar, Keyword Tool, AppKeywords.net, ASOdesk, Searchman, TheTool.

App Product Page Optimization Tools.

Your app page is one of the most important ingredients in regards to app optimization. It’s the first thing that users look at when they find your app so you need to make that first impressions count. These tools will analyze your app product page and bring you some recommendations with the intention of improving your app title, app icon, app screenshots, pricing, etc.

Recommended tools: AppTweak, Meatti

User Review and Rating Analysis Tools.

User review and rating are another major key element in ASO. There is no better way on the journey to improving your app development than listening to your own users. You learn more about your users by analyzing their reviews and ratings. This process helps you to improve your app by telling you what your users like and don’t like about their experience with the app. With these insights, you can refine your app with the aim of getting better traffic and increasing downloads.

To help you with this process, there are tools like Appbot, Apptentive, Mobile Action and TheTool. They analyze all of your user reviews and ratings and provide you the insights that you need.

Recommended tools: Appbot, Apptentive, Mobile Action, TheTool

A/B Testing Tools.

Testing is a common practice that you should do in the process of optimizing your app. It allows you to make the right decision when it comes to changes for your app. Additionally, A/B testing tools assist you on testing 2 or more alternatives of your app pages and give you critical results on which app page alternatives will more likely get better download rate.

Recommended tools: TestNest, Store Maven, RaiseMetrics, Splitmetrics

Search Ads optimization Tools.

There is no app that can succeed without a great marketing strategy. It has a major impact on your app. Nonetheless, to carry out an advertising campaign is not easy in this competitive market unless you have the right tools to help you to make the right decision. Search Ads Optimization Tool is your personal strategist who provides you with a variety of automation features and your competition insights. With the help of these tools, you will more likely to carry out your ad campaigns successfully and efficiently.

Recommended tools: SearchAdsHQ, SearchAds by Mobile Action, adAhead

App Store Intelligence Tools.

Last but not least, these App Store Intelligence Tools work just as your scouters, it provides you crucial estimates of your competitor performance and the app market trendings. Furthermore, they run through your competitor apps data and give you estimates include revenue, app downloads, market penetration, etc. With these insights that these tools provide, you can improve on your app product management and marketing strategy.

Recommended tools: App Annie, Mobile Action, Sensor Tower, Priori Data, Apptopia, APPlyzer

To conclude, for every aspect of App Store Optimization, there will be a tool for you to make that process easier. Just like many things in life, not all the tools are suitable for you and your needs. However, you can use these information and find the best tool for your needs based on your requirements throughout your ASO journey.

If you find this post provides you with useful information, please support us by completing our survey and get free access to our “ASO: App Store Optimization Vol.1 ” E-book. We appreciate your time and support. 
Thank you and have a nice day!.

For more articles on ASO Tools, please find it here.

Interstitial Ads: 3 Common Violations When Setting

Among various types of ads, interstitial ad is one of the most popular ads that used by many publishers. They provide rich interactive ads for users on mobile apps. Moreover, interstitial ads are designed to center content. So it is best to place them at natural transition points in the application.

However, failure to follow these guidelines may result in invalid activity and Google disabling ad serving to your application. Here are 3 common violations when setting interstitial ads and recommendation.

#1 App load or exit

Do not place interstitial ads on app load and when exiting apps as interstitials should only be placed in between pages of app content. Ads should not be placed in applications that are running in the background of the device or outside of the app environment.

App loading:

App exiting:

Recommendation:

#2 Repeated or recurring interstitials

Examples of non-compliant implementations include but are not limited to:

  • Placing an interstitial ad after every user action, including but not limited to clicks, swipes, etc. Publishers should place no more than one interstitial ad after every two user actions within their app. This requirement also applies when a user clicks the Back button within the app.
  • Placing an interstitial ad immediately after another interstitial ad was shown to and closed by the user.

-> Apps should not trigger an interstitial ad every time a user clicks within the app.

-> Ads should not be placed in a way that prevents viewing the app’s core content. And should not be placed in a way that interferes with navigating or interacting with the app’s core content and functionality.

#3 Interstitials that unexpectedly launch

Your app does not surprise users with interstitial ads. Placing interstitial ads so that they suddenly appear when a user is focused on a task at hand (e.g. playing a game, filling out a form, reading content). This may lead to accidental clicks and often creates a frustrating user experience. For this reason, interstitial ads should only be implemented at logical breaks in between publisher app’s content (e.g. pages, stages, or levels) to ensure that the user is prepared to engage with the ad.

Recommendation:

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Comparison: Ad Exchange vs. Ad Network

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Nowadays, mobile monetization is more and more developing than ever before, which require an increasing skill in dealing with ads. Therefore you, publisher or advertiser, need to research to find your most suitable ad platform to buy or sell inventory.
So, here’s the biggest question, which platform should you choose for your business’s evolution, Ad Exchange or Ad Network?

Say no more, here’s a complete comparison between Ad Exchange and Ad Network from us. Consider the table below for more information:

What is an Ad Exchange?

Ad Exchange appeared as a way for advertisers creating highly targeted campaigns to pick and choose from this unsold inventory, which is auctioned off to the highest bidder. This process is usually done with via real-time bidding and is carried out automatically. Probably the most well-known Ad Exchange is Google’s DoubleClick Ad Exchange, other include AOL’s Marketplace, Microsoft Ad Exchange, and more.

Simply, Ad Exchange acts as an online marketplace that gives advertisers and publishers opportunities to buy and sellad inventory. AdExchange usually divides ads into categories, so it is easier for publishers to determine which ads are suitable for their inventory (digital ad formats, native desktop, and mobile ads, etc). 

What is an Ad Network?

Similar to ad exchange, ad network is a place to store ads, but ad networks are accountable for collecting inventory from publisher websites and then selling those to diverse advertisers. Specifically, ad networks filter out inventory from publishers according to specifications and targeting options, allowing advertisers to target specific audiences base on age, gender or location.

For example, Google with Adwords worth the throne of the most powerful advertising network. There are also numerous independent networks, but also other huge networks such as AOL’s Advertising.com, Bing Ads, etc.

The Difference Between Ad Networks and Ad Exchanges

Is the barrier between the two too thin? Well, if definition is not enough for you, here’s a thing to spare: An ad exchange serves as a marketplace, which allows the purchasing and selling of media ad inventory from other ad exchanges and ad networks. This indicates that ad networks, buy inventory from ad exchanges as well.

Another contrast is the method of pricing. Ad exchanges apply real-time bidding (allow advertisers to purchase ads across multiple sites all at once), which rotates automatically around the competition. However, ad networks use negotiations to buy directly with specific publishers, this make ad networks relied on specific media inventory.

Here’s an illustration for you: Ad networks are more of a one-way road, collecting inventory from publisher and then sell to earn percentage. Meanwhile, ad exchange are like a transparent two-way road with multiple access, preparing the ads so publishers can sell and advertisers can buy (as price impressions are viewable).

Summary

Ad networks:

  • Online marketplace where publishers, advertisers, agencies, ad networks DSPs and SSPs can buy and sell their ad inventory 
  • Create highly targeted campaigns to pick and choose from this unsold inventory, which is auctioned off to the highest bidder 
  • Negotiations/Real-time bidding 
  • Rely on media inventory
  • Have flexible pricing

Ad exchanges:

  • Online platform that allows publishers to sell their inventory to advertisers and/or agencies 
  • Filter out inventory from publishers according to specifications and targeting options, and then sell on to buyers
  • Real-time bidding
  • Rely on media competition
  • Have flexible pricing

If you find this post provides you with useful information, please support us by completing our survey and get free access to our “ASO: App Store Optimization Vol.1 ” E-book. We appreciate your time and support.
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#1 ASO Tips: What is App Store Optimization?

App Store Optimization is the best way to increase your download in long-term without marketing cost

Many app publishers often neglect App Store Optimization. Some might even say it can be unnecessary sometimes. When an app has been uploaded to the app store, publishers tend to focus on their marketing strategies such as social media and paid advertising rather than optimizing and improving their apps. However, for an app to surface above among others to and download by users, you need more than just marketing. App Store Optimization is an important key that can lead your app to success.

Every app needs App Store Optimization, it can be a common practice for you to maximize the potential of your app. It also brings a great amount of benefits to an app. For example:

  • Organic downloads and installs.
  • Increased ad revenue
  • App stability
  • Gain more visibility.

What is ASO?

ASO stands for App Store Optimization. It’s a continuous process of optimizing your app in order to reach higher search rank and get more users to discover your app in both Apple App Store and Google Play Store, which includes 7 elements:

1.   Keywords.

2.   App Icon.

3.   Screenshots/Videos.

4.   App Description.

5.   Category.

6.   Ratings/Reviews

7.   Updates.

Why is it important?

The purpose of optimizing your app is to increase more traffic to your app’s page in the app store and help you to get more downloads.

Not only does this provide you downloads, it also has a long term effect on your app. If you constantly optimize your app with ASO, you will keep getting downloads and improving you app. Instead of paying for advertising strategy, you can save up a great deal of money with ASO.

So in order to get this consistent source of users searching for apps, ASO is mandatory for your app. This applies to both Apple Store and Google Play Store.

If you find this post provides you with useful information, please support us by completing our survey and get free access to our “ASO: App Store Optimization Vol.1 ” E-book. We appreciate your time and support. Thank you and have a nice day!.

You can read other articles about ASO here

What is: App Store Optimization

ASO stands for App Store Optimization. It’s a continuous process of optimizing your app in order to reach higher search rank and get more users to discover your app in both Apple App Store and Google Play Store, which includes 7 elements.

1.   Keywords.

2.   App Icon.

3.   Screenshots/Videos.

4.   App Description.

5.   Category.

6.   Ratings/Reviews

7.   Updates.

According to Apple, up to 65% of the downloads come from App Store Search. This can give you free organic downloads. This shows you that there are a huge amount of opportunities for you to increase your downloads and engagements.

What is: App Monetization

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App monetization is making revenue from mobile application by different methods: In-App purchases, In-app ads, subscriptions etc…

In order to generate revenue from free-to-play users, developers make their applications free to download and free to play and they show advertising to users to make money.

Policy Resources Available to Publishers: Latest Update 11/02/2019

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Googlers know that publisher first priority is creating content and growing business, so they are provided multiple platforms with right resource information in many places to help publishers understand policies in the way that suits them best.

From Google official blog update, there are six available resources for publishers to update policies, practices and product changes:

  1. Policies Help Centre – where publishers can view all AdSense program policies, with detailed information on specific areas such as content policies, ad implementation policies, webmaster guidelines and much more.
  2. AdSense Forum – an available resource where publishers can be helped by other experienced expert publishers to get a better understanding about Adsense policies. They can also review previous threads or post questions and receive feedback from the community.
  3. Adsense Youtube channel, a platform where Google are investing in addressing questions for  publishers who prefer videos over text. This channel will be frequently updated in the next year
  4. Publishers can also check out the latest policies update at Inside Adsense blog. Moreover, Google experts from Adsense giving best practises and advice to help publishers avoid common pitfalls, maximize revenue and remain policy compliant. Besides, Inside Adsense blog provides updates on industry drivers which may be useful for publishers

Several important channel publishers can update their knowledge are Facebook and Twitter, and Googlers often speak at conferences and host publisher events at their offices worldwide to gather feedback from publishers.

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