10 ASO mistakes that can cost you money and how to fix them

Increasing visibility, acquiring high-intent users with that magic word (downloads), and ultimately seeing your app grow without excessive acquisition costs – that’s every app developer’s dream, right?

To achieve this ideal scenario, there is an important element of your app marketing strategy that cannot be overlooked: App Store Optimization (ASO).

ASO is not so much about orders and prohibitions, but about specific orders and “oh God, please don’t do that”. If you want to create a sustainable and winning strategy, ASO is a science with many details. But don’t worry – we’ve outlined 10 essentials you really don’t want to miss in your organic strategy.

Confusing Google Play and Apple App Store strategies

A common mistake is to assume that what works on Google Play will work on the Apple App Store and vice versa. Each platform has its own unique algorithm and best practices; for example, Google indexes app descriptions for keywords, while Apple uses specific keyword fields. If you plan to offer your app on both Google and iOS, adapting your ASO approach to each platform is crucial to achieving optimal results.

When optimizing apps for ASO on Android and iOS, developers face distinct challenges due to the different approaches taken by each platform. Google Play places emphasis on integrating keywords into the app’s title, description, and back-end metadata, relying heavily on description for search indexing.

In iOS, the emphasis is on a dedicated keyword field that prioritizes the title and subtitle during indexing, with the description playing a secondary role, aimed more at conversion. Only about 2% of users actually read the description on iOS because most decide to download an app after seeing screenshots, so it’s important to showcase all the main features there.

The visuals also differ, as Google Play allows up to eight screenshots and places YouTube videos directly in the listings, while iOS supports up to ten screenshots, showcasing the first three or a video in search results to attract users.

Understanding these nuances is essential for developers to effectively adapt their ASO strategies and increase application visibility and engagement on each platform.

Ignoring metadata updates

Regular updates to your app’s metadata are essential to maintaining and increasing your app’s visibility and appeal in app stores. For iOS developers, it is important to effectively use the limited space available in metadata fields. Avoid duplicating terms in your short description (it’s better to avoid duplicates in all fields) because every character counts to attract the attention of potential users and improve your search engine visibility. Instead, focus on unique descriptors that concisely and compellingly highlight the app’s features and benefits.

Metadata includes text descriptions and visual elements such as icons and screenshots. They should be refreshed regularly to reflect the latest app features and UI improvements. This approach keeps your app up to date and can improve download speeds because updated visuals can re-engage existing users and attract new ones.

For those managing iOS apps, leveraging platforms like APPlyzer can provide insight into effective metadata strategies.

These tools offer analysis and recommendations tailored to the iOS environment, helping developers understand how changes to their metadata may impact the performance of their apps in the App Store. You can sign up for an APPlyzer account and track up to 100 keywords, completely free, so it’s a great place to start your keyword research.

Understanding these nuances is crucial to implementing updates that are in line with current trends and user expectations, ensuring your application remains attractive and competitive in a crowded marketplace.

Ignoring the influence of creation

The impact of creatives – such as screenshots, videos, and the overall graphical presentation of an app – in converting viewers into users cannot be overstated. There are many things you can do to optimize the conversion rate (CR) of your apps

These elements not only attract attention, but also play a key role in the user’s decision-making process, serving as a key differentiator in crowded app stores.

When it comes to testing your creatives, remember to master the basics:

A/B testing

This is not groundbreaking, but still an extremely important aspect of creating a winning ASO strategy. By regularly testing different versions of screenshots, videos and other graphics, you can gather data on user preferences and their effectiveness in terms of engagement and conversion rate optimization.

Copy testing

While visual elements catch the user’s eye, the textual content of the creative is equally important in influencing decisions. Copy testing involves tweaking the wording in your app description, call-to-action buttons, and even the text in your images to see which versions generate more downloads. This process helps refine your message to ensure it is clear and engaging, aligning your app’s messaging with user expectations and increasing the likelihood of conversion.

You can use App Listing Experiments (SLE) for Android and Product Page Optimization (PPO) for iOS to perform A/B testing on each applicable app store. They have a few minor differences, namely PPO is more focused on visual elements, while SLE also allows testing of text elements. Ultimately, both enable A/B testing to refine your CRO strategy and are extremely useful exploration tools.

Localization is more than translation

Effective localization adapts your application to the cultural nuances and specific requirements of each market, going beyond just translating text. This can significantly increase the appeal of your app and the engagement of users around the world.

Localization goes beyond simple translation, adapting your app to the cultural nuances and specific preferences of each target market. This strategy is crucial for deeper user engagement because it respects local customs, cultural references and even legal requirements, thereby improving the user experience and increasing global appeal.

Effective localization involves several layers:

• Cultural adaptation: This includes modifying content to suit local tastes and cultural practices, for example changing colors, layouts or images to suit local preferences.
• Compliance with laws and regulations: Ensuring your app complies with local laws and regulations can be crucial, especially in regions where there is tight control over digital content.
• Local user behavior: Understanding and integrating local user behavior can significantly impact the experience of your app. This may mean changing the app’s functionality or interface to better suit how your target demographic uses technology.
• Language localization: In addition to text translation, this also includes localization into dialects and idioms to make the language natural and attractive to native speakers.

By taking these aspects into account, you can significantly increase the relevance and attractiveness of your app in foreign markets, leading to improved download rates and user retention.

Managing ratings and reviews

Managing ratings and reviews is crucial to the success of your app as they significantly impact its reputation and visibility. Effective strategies to manage this aspect are necessary.

Effective assessment prompts

Strategically timed and worded review prompts can significantly increase the likelihood of receiving positive feedback from satisfied users. The best approach is to ask for ratings at key moments in the user experience, such as when a task is completed or an app milestone is reached. At this point, users are more likely to leave positive reviews because of the immediate feeling of satisfaction. Tools like the Google Play App Reviews API and Apple’s SKStoreReviewController can help you implement these suggestions seamlessly.