How to Become an ASO Specialist | Mobio Group

Where Did “ASO” Come From?

It’s no secret that in the 21st century, mobile devices have taken over the world and become full-fledged competitors to personal computers and laptops. Smartphones and tablets have become faithful companions of each of us, now it’s hard to imagine how we used to do without delivery in 15 minutes, online shopping on the way home, audiobooks from your favorite application.

Of course, the development of the mobile industry has affected the advertising market, the user has become even “closer”. Every month, app creators upload thousands of new products to Google Play and the App Store in the hope that the app will find its user, become popular and, of course, make a profit, whether it’s an online game with in-app purchases or renting scooters.

Obviously, in order for the application to bring that same profit, it is necessary that users find it and install it, hence the need to promote mobile applications, not only through advertising channels, but also in the “stores” themselves, and this is how the direction appeared in mobile marketing — ASO specialist.

In this article, we will share the advantages of working with ASO and analyze the main thing — what you need to know in order to become an ASO specialist from scratch.

What is ASO?

It is generally accepted that ASO (App Store Optimization) is a set of measures aimed at optimizing the page of a mobile application in application stores (AppStore, Google Play, etc.). 

The main goal of ASO is to bring the application to the TOP for relevant search queries mobile applications. Such visibility will not only help the application become competitive among others, but also increase its installs and help the organic growth of the audience.

ASO is also aimed at increasing the attractiveness of the application for the user: bright, relevant banners, the right visual presentation, a catchy icon – all this will help increase the conversion to install and user growth.

The importance and necessity of ASO has been recognized in practice for more than a year, so the emergence of the “ASO Specialist” direction was not long in coming.

To start developing in the field of mobile marketing, choosing the direction of ASO can be called almost the most successful decision, because you can learn it yourself, and the relevance of the service in the advertising market will definitely ensure you have interest from employers and customers.

What does an ASO specialist do? In simple terms, the task of an ASO specialist is to create a name, description, icon and screenshots of the application in such a way that the user notices the application and downloads it, which means that the tasks of the ASO specialist also include working with the visibility of the application in stores and work with the app rating, because an app with a bad rating clearly has a lower install conversion rate than its competitor with five stars.

So What Do You Need to Learn to Become an ASO Specialist?

Currently, there are several areas that will help in optimizing a mobile application:
1. Text optimization
2. Graphic optimization
3. Bringing the application to the TOP by requests
4. Work with the rating of the application

Text optimization of the application. AppStore and Google Play, is there a difference?

Text optimization of the application, first of all, begins with the compilation of a semantic core, after which it is necessary to develop a description of the application based on it.

In order to compose the semantic core, first of all, you need to independently estimate the queries by which you yourself would search for the optimized application, no matter how simple it sounds, because you, like an ordinary user, come up with a search query yourself.

But this is not enough, it is important to pay attention to automatic suggestions from the service itself (search). Few people know that search suggestions are usually queries that are the most popular among users.

It is also necessary to supplement the core with competitor requests and ASO service tips, now there are a lot of them on the market, you can choose which one you like. An ASO service is a good helper in compiling a semantic core for an application, it will tell you which queries have a high frequency and are popular specifically for the application we need.

Frequency — an indicator that displays the popularity of a search query, the higher this indicator, the more users use it to search for an application.

And what about after collecting the semantic core? In the AppStore, this will help to create a clear description in which we can definitely highlight the queries that are important for the audience, but the text description itself in the AppStore does not affect the display in the app category, which cannot be said about Google Play. A well-written description of the application on Google Play affects the display of the application for key queries. More use of keywords in the text description of the application = the application is shown for a larger number of keywords.

But this does not mean at all that it is enough to enter keywords separated by commas in the application description, readable and beautiful text in the description also affects the conversion to install, so you need to do it organically.

An important part in text optimization is the title and subtitle of the application. It is the title of the application that will largely determine the visibility of the application and the number of installations. The AppStore and Google Play have different limits on the number of characters, for the AppStore the limit is 30 characters, and for Google Play — 50 characters. In the Title field, it is recommended to place one of the most relevant keywords, as well as the name of the application. In the picture below, you can see the correct use of the title and subtitle, the application owners put in them the most relevant request for them — grocery delivery. They are on this request in the first place.

It can be said that the main differences in the text optimization of applications will be the influence of the text description in Google Play on ranking, as well as the character limit in the title.

Visual Optimization of the App

The visual design of the application is an integral part of the work of optimizing the application, it is the visual component that will hook the user and keep him on the application page. After the user has found the application, saw the name (we dealt with it above), his gaze falls on the icon. All visual design is primarily a matter of taste, but there are universal rules — the icon must be recognizable and understandable. And for each subject it will be a different approach – experiment!

Still, visual optimization, in my opinion, is room for creativity, the ability to express a brand or an application creator.

If we talk about screenshots, then of course, this is a great opportunity to show the user the functionality, convenience and content of the application. If you focus on the benefits of the application in the screenshots, consider that the user is already with you! It is also important to follow a few simple recommendations — screenshots should be readable and display the main functionality. It is also important to display the main screen of the application.

More recently, the AppStore has added the ability to post promo videos — this is a good opportunity for video games, for example, to demonstrate gameplay and graphics.

Despite the detailed elaboration of the text and visual ASO and third-party advertising sources, the conversion to an install from the AppStore and GooglePlay is not always satisfactory, and here the question arises, how to get more installs from the search?

As you know, applications that are in the TOP-3 receive more installations. Everything is simple here, the user enters a search query, but a very small number of users go beyond the 10th application. That is why the most downloaded applications are those that are visible on the first and second screen when searching. How to be in that case?

Bringing the App to the TOP by Requests

In order to “rise” above all applications in the search and get more installs, an advertising source — ASA — was introduced in the AppStore. When using it, the application was displayed for relevant queries first in the list.

In short — incentivized installs are made by real users for a reward, the increase in installs shows to stores that the application is popular and “raises” the application up on demand, ensuring a high ranking. Due to what reason does the application rise to the TOP for the request we need? It’s simple – users are looking for an application and it is for the request that will be indicated.

Yes, everyone has a different attitude to this method of promotion, you need to understand that you should not expect actions and purchases in the application from motivated traffic, but the tool is so popular in our time that it is often simply impossible to “break through” to the first places, because there are many popular applications resort to the service of motivated installations, which means that they are consistently and reliably in the first positions in the search.

If you are interested in the opportunity to be in the TOP applications, here is what is important to consider when working with incentivized traffic:

1. Applications in the AppStore can be quickly brought to the TOP with a large number of installations, and then “work” on keeping the application with a smaller number of installations.
2. For GooglePlay applications, the story is different — it is important to work with the settings for a long time, on average – about a month, only then you will see a change in positions.
3. An important point that many do not know about is that in order to promote an application to the TOP, it is necessary to take into account the retention (retention) of the application by the user on the phone. Fortunately, the motivated traffic market provides such services.

Here’s your app with a perfect description, great visuals, and #1 for a relevant query, but.. the app’s rating is 3.9*. Of course, in this scenario, most users will definitely prefer the second or third application.

Working with App Rating

Perhaps the most difficult task for app owners is dealing with reviews, ratings, and objections. For those who have already created and uploaded the application to the stores, the pain is known when the application begins to gain popularity and bugs and errors pop up that they did not even know about. Users one by one express their dissatisfaction, the rating inexorably rolls down. Stop! Don’t panic, there is a way out.

First of all, you should pay attention to the nature of the reviews, if the user did not like the font of the text, frankly, such a comment can not be prioritized (but it’s worth taking note, maybe this particular detail will help to work out the visual in the future).

But if the comments are about technical improvements, then such a sympathetic user should be thanked, corrected, and be sure to inform him about it, because he can correct his review and increase the rating of the application.

Yes, definitely, it’s very important to work with negative user reviews and feel free to ask them to reconsider if the bug has been fixed!

Advice from the Mobio Group team — study the negative reviews of your competitors and learn from the mistakes of others.

But what if only negative reviews are pouring in?

Most often, it is dissatisfaction that pushes us to report the problem to the application, and satisfied users, for the most part, do not come to praise the developer. So it’s important to add a popup or banner and ask the user to take the time to rate their favorite app in the market with 5 stars.

It has also been observed that a high app rank affects Google Play rankings for a key query, so this point should not be overlooked.

What Does it Take to Become an ASO Specialist?

Just to read our article! Of course, this is a joke, but with a grain of truth!)

Understanding the tasks of an ASO specialist, the need to promote a mobile application, the components that help optimize the application, you can safely delve into cases, concepts and terms. Study in detail the process of collecting the semantic core, read the help from the AppStore and Google Play, there is a lot of useful information and detailed answers to the most difficult questions.

As for Google Play, the platform itself provides a guide where you can find out:

• details of the graphic component and visual optimization
• you can find recommendations for setting up advertising;
• rely on tips for writing texts

And in general, on the Internet there are video tutorials from Google Play itself on how to optimize the application.

There is no official guide for the AppStore, so here are the top tips again:

1. Use ASO — services to study competitors and analyze the semantic core;
2. Make the most of the Title fields for filling, this will help display the application for more keywords. Important — do not use extra characters, keywords can be written separated by commas without spaces, this will help to enter more words.
3. Periodically analyze and update the query field, this will also help increase the indexing of the application.

Of course, the advantages of working with ASO are obvious — you can learn such a profession on your own and become an ASO specialist in an IT company. Learning ASO is a dive into the world of mobile marketing, from which you can safely develop further by studying other sources of traffic. I can say this from personal experience, because my journey in mobile marketing began with ASO.

And now, my colleagues in the Mobio Group team, professionals in their field, will be happy to help you immerse yourself in the science of ASO, share the secrets of promotion in app stores, competently arrange work to optimize the application, work out textual, visual ASO, and also help with rating! Contact us and together we will definitely achieve results.