By AppsHive Team
An app can be the perfect solution to an incredible problem, but if no one knows about it, or uses a competitor’s app instead, it is worth nothing. You might want to see your app on the top in your respective category when you submit your app in App Store or Play Store. But Sometimes, there are multiple apps available in app stores to a single problem can have multiple apps that serve as solutions, and in such cases, it is important to stand out among your app competitors.
Marketers keep saying ASO (app store Optimization) is important and it will drive faster growth to your newly launched app. But the problem with the most app owners is their understanding of ASO Kpis and Metrics. As long as they don’t find the right way to measure their app performance, it will be hard for them to get more downloads for their app.
Below we have mentioned ASO ranking factors and ASO hacks that will make sure your app gets enough exposure in the App stores.
Why is ASO important? What are ASO Key Performance Indicators?
Right now, there are a combined total of almost 6 million apps between Google Play Store and Apple App Store, the two largest app stores currently. This is an extremely competitive market and one that is opaque in its dealings. There is no guide that either Google or Apple publishes that tells you why an App has a certain ranking. That is why there are several other ways we use to estimate ASO, which are objective ways of ASO tracking and help assist in measuring app performance.
ASO KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators are ASO metrics that help us measure App Performance in the market. They have defined variables that together provide a good way for ASO tracking over time, and help decide whether progress is being made or not, and how fast.
Over time, this helps form a complete picture of key ASO metrics, and how the app is performing in them. It helps find problems spots and bottlenecks and lights the path forward for removing them and leading to a better overall user experience.
Therefore, ASO is an essential part of an App’s long-term plan and is vital to its long-term financial health.
What is the goal of a good ASO strategy?
The basic premise is to first make sure that enough people organically discover the app, so that it's easier for them to download, and less effort has to be spent by the marketing team to grow the user base. Once there is a sizable user base, there is enough of a sample to start altering key parts of the app page to make it perform better. Later, the data collected during this phase is used to sustain and drive growth and make sure that gains stay consistent.
Finally, the data is compared with the competition and future versions of the app, finally culminating in a strategy to achieve long-term growth. This is tracked through several ASO metrics. These are specific data points that give a way to objectively measure an App’s performance on the App Store.
What are the most important ASO metrics?
There are five major metrics that directly affects your app performance in the stores.
Visibility in-store results
There are several ways that users discover apps. The first ASO goal, therefore, is to make it easier for users to discover your app. To do this, it must be featured prominently in App Discovery areas, such as
- Search rankings for related keywords
- Rankings in “Top” lists, like by Category or Price
- Being linked in pages of other Apps
- Featured in the Store’s main page
These are easy ways to measure ASO performance and are a key insight into how the app is performing. Over time, collected data helps to form patterns, observe what works, and begin forming an ASO algorithm to boost visibility.
How Good the App listing is at getting the download: Conversion Rate
Getting the name of the App out to the user is only one part of the battle. Even more difficult is to get them to actually install the app on their phone. People’s phones are precious spaces, and they are difficult to convince. This is why it is essential that the app description and metadata is enticing from the first view, and encourages the user to download the app. This is measured in two important dimensions
- Click Through Rate, or how many people see the app listing and clicked on it
- Conversion Rate, or how many people who view the page download the app
This is an essential ASO metric as it tells you which part of your app is causing people to download, or not download the app. With A/B testing of different versions of a store listing, you can compare different versions to find an optimal version that performs best in both regards.
Growth and Velocity
The overarching main ASO goal is to reach a sustainable, profitable point. When you are measuring mobile growth, which is a key ASO metric.
To measure them, you take into account two things
- The number of installs occurring
- The time period in which they happen
Together, these allow you to calculate the velocity of your growth, allowing you a single metric to track how things are going. If your velocity slows significantly, you know something is up. On the other hand, if you implement a change and view the velocity increasing, then you know that whatever you did was an effective change.
The number of active users also plays an important part in measuring user retention.
Feedback and User Opinion
The best way to get a good ranking, and influence users to download an app is with a high rating and good reviews.
A high rating is a good sign of a quality app, and signals to other users that an app provides value and is worth the download. Over time, this can significantly speed up the trajectory of user acquisition.
Conversely, the fastest way to tank an otherwise promising app's future is bad reviews. They point to a bad UX, and something you should FIX IMMEDIATELY. The number 1 ASO hack is simply this. The more the number of good user reviews, the better the conversion, rankings, and every other ASO KPI is. It is therefore extremely important to have stellar, plentiful user feedback.
Encouraging user feedback after positive experiences is important, with pop-up dialogs or notifications, so that the number of good reviews inflates over time. This effect will compound, as getting good reviews leads to more downloads, which leads to more good reviews…and the loop continues.
Monetization
After the long arduous task of getting the app built, out there, and installed, and a sizeable user base is achieved one can begin to talk about monetization. After all, the entirety of this exercise has been to develop the app into a monetary stream. Several metrics are used for this
- Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): The average revenue per user
- Lifetime Value: Net Profit for a specific user throughout their usage of the app
- Revenue: The total income generated from the app
One of the key insights from the monetization side of things is one you should keep in mind
Users that come from organic user acquisition methods are worth almost 3-5x the Lifetime value over their compatriots
Best Affordable and Free ASO Tools
You can supplement with some simple, free ASO analytic tools. Here are some ideas and tools that will help you develop successful app marketing strategies:
AppAnnie
AppAnnie is a wonder. It helps keep track of some key app and store metrics that are invaluable in measuring the performance of an app. It lets you track the number of downloads in various regions, revenue, as well as helps you drill down into keywords, ratings, and reviews. There is a premium version too, but the basic version is free.
AppTweak
There is a basic, free trial of this that gives you an elegant UI with graphs for keywords, app performance, and suggestions. Competition can also be spied upon with their inbuilt tools. While the paid version comes at a hefty price, the free trial does offer a few insights into the landscape.
Metrikal
A newer ASO tool, Metrikal helps with A/B testing and Performance tracking for ASO KPIs. It greatly simplifies the process of keeping track of KPIs over months, and has a handy consolidated view that helps you track evolution over periods.
Conclusion:
Gauging ASO Metrics & KPIs
While ASO KPIs by themselves are not the whole puzzle, they are an important part of building a successful app marketing strategy that is effective and performant. A good ASO strategy can mean the difference between the untimely demise of a well-performing app and the successful launch of the next Unicorn.