App Store Optimization has been around for a few years, but not all marketers know where to start. Find out how to plan your ASO Strategy and best practices to make sure your first efforts set you on the right trajectory to boost your app's organic acquisition.

1. Intro slide
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2. Copyright 2021 AppTweak S.A. All Rights Reserved
About AppTweak
AppTweak is an ASO and market intelligence tool driven by data science for apps and games empowering
app developers and marketers to improve their app store visibility and increase their organic downloads.
growth over the last three
years
956.76%
Everyday we strive to build the most
accurate, transparent, and easy-to-use
ASO tool.
office in San Francisco
offices in San Francisco,
Tokyo and Bangalore
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3. Copyright 2021 AppTweak S.A. All Rights Reserved
Over 1,500 mobile leaders trust us

4. Copyright 2021 AppTweak S.A. All Rights Reserved
About me
Simon Thillay
Head of ASO
➔ Supporting mobile apps & games developers across
various regions & app verticals
➔ +4 years experience in ASO
➔ Growth Marketing enthusiast
➔ Sports enthusiast 🚴⛸🏀🏅

5. Copyright 2021 AppTweak S.A. All Rights Reserved
Today’s agenda
Frequent
misconceptions
Defining App Store
Optimization
01
What is ASO?
The bottleneck in
User Acquisition
Supporting paid UA
The most difficult
channel for
attribution
02
Why do ASO?
03
Starting ASO
The ASO equation
Keywords 101
Creatives 101
Ratings & Reviews
Browse Traffic
Identify priorities with
store console data
Spy on competitors &
unveil opportunities
04
Setting 1st goals
Setup iterative
processes
Monitor app store
changes
Align priorities with
other teams
05
Monitor & adapt

6. Useful Reminders: What is ASO?

7. Copyright 2021 AppTweak S.A. All Rights Reserved
Frequent misconceptions about ASO
"ASO is the SEO of
mobile apps"
"ASO increased my
installs by X%" = "ASO
works just like UA"

8. Copyright 2021 AppTweak S.A. All Rights Reserved
Frequent misconceptions about ASO
"ASO is the SEO of mobile apps"
A shared philosophy:
➔ Optimizing a page to improve visibility
➔ Targeting specific search behaviour
➔ Content side and technical side
But different realities:
➔ Limit of 1 page per store per locale
➔ Only partial control over your app listing
➔ Different customer behaviours

9. Copyright 2021 AppTweak S.A. All Rights Reserved
Frequent misconceptions about ASO
"ASO increased my installs by X%"
+300%
DLs
WARNING
⚠ Not all apps or markets have
the same ceiling ⚠
Top free Music Apps - Google Play
🚀🚀

10. Copyright 2021 AppTweak S.A. All Rights Reserved
ASO
ASO in 2021
→ It starts with optimizing metadata (title, subtitle, description, keyword
field, category, developer name, product ID, tags) ...
ASO (App Store Optimization) is the process of improving an app’s
visibility in app stores (Apple App Store and Google Play )
throughout its lifetime, and maximize its appeal to users with the
objective to increase app downloads.
→ … but it also involves optimizing store creatives …
→ … and extends to improving reviews & ratings, monitoring product
metrics and support inorganic traffic

11. Why do ASO?

12. The bottleneck in User Acquisition
→ ASO is about improving your app product page to
maximize visibility & appeal, and it benefits all traffic
sources.
→ ASO results in an average of 35-40% uplift in organic
downloads over time.
→ The LTV of organic users can be 3-5X that of paid
users.
→ According to Apple, 65% of all apps are discovered via
App Store search, while browse traffic is usually the
most important channel on Google Play.
All acquisition funnels lead to the store!
Web Ad
In-app Ad
Web Search
SEA / ASA
In-site referral

13. → Aligning creative designs can improve your
ads' conversion rates, reducing your CPI:
→ Your app metadata and conversion metrics
can impact your ads’ performance in the app
stores (Google UAC, Apple Search Ads):
"Your app’s relevance to the user’s search query, among other
factors, determines if your ad is the one shown." Source: Apple
Supporting paid UA

14. Supporting paid UA
Default USP Fitness Weightloss
Diet Workout
Using creative sets can help maximize your app's conversion rate by contextualizing your app's features for
different customer intent.

15. The most difficult channel for attribution
→ Measuring the impact of ASO changes on performance is
harder than for other channels:
● No organic users tracking similar to paid
● Algorithms react to overall user signals (e.g.: total download
velocity, conversion rate, day-1 retention) including UA traffic

16. Starting ASO

17. The Fundamental Equation of ASO
TRAFFIC x CONVERSION RATE = DOWNLOADS
● Store traffic
○ Search or Browse
○ Organic or paid
● Referrer
○ Placement type
○ Organic or paid
● Lead quality
● Consistency of acquisition funnel
● Creatives
● User reviews & ratings

18. Keywords 101
→ Discoverability on app stores depends on how your app is perceived by indexing and ranking algorithms.
Among the most important signals for these algorithms are the keywords used in your metadata.
Keyword
Research
Build lists of keywords
(semantic dictionaries)
based on:
• your current copy
• competitors metadata
• yours and competitors
top ranked terms
• Ad keywords (Google
UAC and Apple Search
Ads)
1
Select &
Prioritize
Identify keywords with
the best potential to add
traffic to your app:
• keyword volume
• chance to reach top 5 /
top 10 search rankings
• current rankings
• number of mid- & long
tail opportunities
• relevance
2
Measure &
Iterate
Measure visibility uplift,
compare vs competitors
and iterate:
• keyword movements
• top keyword positions
• keyword download
gains and losses
• overall visibility score
uplift
3

19. Building keyword clusters
Offline
Google
GPS
Restaurants
Find
Business
Bars
ATMs
Traffic
Navigation
Car
Reviews
Order
Near me
Info
Opening
Home
Drive
Gas station
Hours
Without internet
Save
Assistant
Slides
Chrome
Search
Fastest route
Real time
Itinerary
Takeout
Local

20. Research
Investigate what content
and format to focus on
according to:
• your brand guidelines
• competitors' creatives
• industry best practices
• other assets including
mobile ads
1
Prioritize
Evaluate which concepts
are most likely to lead to
conversion uplift based
on:
• the scale of changes
vs. current assets
• the overall impact of
the type of creative on
conversion
• your design schedule
2
Test
Measure the uplift and
draw conclusions from
both wins and losses:
• run A/B(/B) tests on
Google Play or other
tools
• confirm results with
sequential analyses
• draw conclusions &
scale results
3
Creatives 101
→ Store visitors are most sensitive to creatives when comes the decision to download an app. According to
A/B testing platform Splitmetrics*, the maximum average CVR uplift from updating an icon or a screenshot
is higher than 20% on both stores.
ICON
SCREENSHOTS
VIDEO

21. The importance of reviews & ratings
Control the conversion outcome
→ Reply to negative customer reviews
→ Upvote positive detailed reviews
→ Prompt satisfied customers to leave a review
Mine reviews to improve your message
→ Analyze reviews to determine your customers’
favorite features and pain points.
→ Conduct a sentiment analysis to identify keywords
customers use to describe your app's top features.
Expert tip: Google Play suggest review topic filters
that can help you review what customers are talking
about.
in-app rating & review prompt on Google Play
Sentiment analysis - Discord GP US

22. Understanding browse traffic
Browse traffic is dependent on store curation systems,
with top charts & similar apps becoming less prominent
as stores evolve.
Human curation
→ Strong focus on storytelling
→ Business interests are relevant to your pitch
Algorithmic curation
→ Topics based on apps' metadata indicate keywords,
categories & tags do matter
→ App groupings rely on matching algorithms based on
user behavior (e.g.: app ratings, install preferences, ...)

23. Setting your First Goals in ASO

24. Identify priorities using app store data
ASO is multi-dimensional, making it challenging
at times to decide where to get started and
prove value. Therefore, you should start by
investigating store console data to identify
what to improve and select your first goal:
Search Traffic
→ Paid / Organic
→ Amount of
ranked keywords
→ Volume of
ranked keywords
→ Metadata
difficulty
→ Keyword type:
generic / branded
→ Search intent
cluster
2
Drill down per source to define a possible
course of action
3
Prioritize according to the expected
impact and available resources
1 Review different KPIs by type
Traffic
Impressions
Pageviews
Conversion
Installs
Impressions
Installs
Pageviews
Quality
Ratings &
Reviews
Android Vitals

25. Spy on competitors & unveil opportunities
→ Identify competitors and classify
them to determine what information to
draw from their practices:
● Direct Rivals & Threats
● Market Leaders
● Distant rivals
→ Compare performance with rivals to
identify weaknesses to fix or
opportunities to seize
→ Monitor market leaders' behaviours
for best practices
App Power Comparison
1.7k
4
Competitor Timeline

26. Monitor & Adapt

27. Set up iterative processes
STEP 4
Test, monitor performance
& decide when to iterate.
STEP 3
Ensure consistency between ASO
& your overall growth strategy.
STEP 2
Prioritize in which order to
address these intents.
STEP 1
Define several options of how to
address each customer intent.
Metadata &
Creatives
Optimization Loop

28. Monitor app store changes
→ Algorithm changes can cause instability in
your app's visibility, as keyword rankings and
similar apps change with new updates
→ Store redesigns can change the game
● UX changes determine the relevance of KPIs
● Design changes affect the impact of creatives
iOS 13 release
Algorithm changes examples Google Play Store Listing recent design changes

29. Aligning priorities with other teams
Vestibulum congue
Vestibulum congue
Vestibulum congue
Product
Engagement
User
Acquisition
ASO

30. Q&A: Ask your questions
in the chat!

31. Copyright 2021 AppTweak S.A. All Rights Reserved
Simon Thillay
Head of ASO
www.apptweak.com
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