App Store Optimization for Brands vs. for Start-ups

ASO is something, every app publisher has to do. There are various blog posts giving advices for App Store Optimization but an efficient ASO-strategy can look differently, for small app-startups or well established brands.

This post covers what ASO means for a brand vs. what startups should focus on when it comes to App Store Optimization.

ASO for brands

Getting traffic to your app page might seem easier for you if you are a big brand. However, also some well-established companies struggle with their App Store Optimization.

Big players focus on brand names

When you browse through top apps in the app store, you might recognize, only a few of them have app titles longer than 25 characters. This is because of two reasons.

First, app names commonly get truncated on mobile phones after the first 25 characters.

Second, and even more relevant: most users tend to search for brand names rather than generic search terms.

Considering currently trending keywords, you can see the search trend moving towards specific app names and brands.

 

Consider different spelling of your brand name

Unfortunately, this search trend is a blessing and a curse at the same time. Let’s image there is a certain number of people searching for “giphy” – most of them spell it right but the percent of people spelling it like “gify” or “giphi” is not to be underestimated.

In order to not lose potential customers searching for your brand name in a different notation, you should always consider incorrect spelling of your brand name too.

Do not ignore other keywords

Although, trending keywords commonly are specific brand or app names, there are users searching for no specific app.

They use some generic search terms and decide which app to download based on the search results.

Amazon is a good example of a big brand that recognized that general keywords also make sense for a brand’s app name.

Before Amazon changed their app name to Amazon shopping, they were receiving around 2.18% of the traffic from the keyword, “shopping”. Then they added “Shopping” in their title and changed it to Amazon Shopping.

This small tweak allowed them to increase their traffic from 2.18% to 9.88% and fetched them 1st rank in the USA on “shopping” keyword in the Google Play Store.

ASO for startups

If your app is relatively young and you do not want to spend an enormous amount for marketing your app name as a brand, you should first of all focus on establishing your ASO-strategy.

It’s challenging to compete with big brands

As an app-start-up it can get very difficult competing with big brand names and maybe a variety of similar competitor apps. This means, ranking for very generic keywords like for example “messenger”, “shopping” or “music” might get difficult for you. So you should better focus on some alternatives.

Keyword Research is crucial for start-ups

The perfect keyword strategy basically is about finding the right keywords. Sounds easy – but usually isn’t. Especially as a startup, keyword research is essential to building a set of relevant, popular, yet competitive keywords.

A common way to deal with strong competition is to optimize your app title with matching keywords. Add one or two descriptive keywords to your app name so visitors know immediately what your app is about.

However, try to stay authentic and maintain readability. This will not only increase the relevance of your traffic but also improves your retention rate and engagement.

Here are some examples:

Start-ups need to react fast to changes

Especially as a start-up, it can have a noticeable effect when your rankings in app store collapse.

Therefore, continuous monitoring of keyword rankings is essential. As not only app store algorithms and guidelines but also user preference change, you have to be able to notice changes very fast.

 

App Radar is an App Store Optimization Tool can help you keeping an overview of your rankings.

This enables you to quickly take some steps if you recognize your visibility in app stores breaks in.

Do not underestimate the power of screenshots

As your app is something new for most of the users coming to your app landing page, you have to introduce your features to them.

Users do not know your app so you have to convince them. Screenshots are the most striking and powerful tool to do that.

It only takes about 5 seconds for users to decide whether to download or not to download your app.

Therefore, visual elements are perfect to give visitors a quick understanding of your app. So a convincing set of graphics on your app page brings huge potential to differentiate from your competitors.

About the Author:

Thomas Kriebernegg is the CEO of App Radar, an App Marketing and App Optimization Tool.