Secure real mobile app growth by scaling up your strategy with seamless organic and app store advertising activities.
What is ASO and why is it important?
What is App Store Advertising?
Why do you need to combine ASO & ASA strategies?
How to combine ASO and Paid Acquisition?
What is ASO and why is it important?
Understanding ASO and the crucial role it plays in mobile app growth will put you on the front foot for attracting new users and gaining more installs.
ASO, or App Store Optimization, is a tool for making your app more discoverable to users by ranking it higher in the app store search results. By making your app more visible, you increase your chances of securing more downloads and increasing app conversion rates.
With millions of apps out there all vying for engagement and 40% discovered through search, it’s essential to implement ASO into your strategy to drive as much traffic to your app as possible so it features above competitors.
To make the most out of ASO, you need to have a thorough understanding of who your users are so you can translate this into the keywords they are searching for to find apps like yours. You can then use this knowledge to tailor features such as your app’s name, title, and description, to make your app more discoverable. It’s also important to remember not to neglect your app’s visuals and user ratings. The more attractive your app looks, the more likely users are to click through, boosting your click-through rate (CTR).
Implementing ASO best practices is the foundation of your app marketing strategy and will support you in attracting high-quality and loyal users, delivering sustainable growth, and providing a cost-effective way of increasing app revenue and conversion rates. Before developing any app store advertising activities, ASO is a great place to start to get you on the right track.
What is App Store Advertising?
App Store Advertising (ASA) is a paid user acquisition channel to help you reach new, potential users and increase installs. Unlike ASO, ASA requires a level of investment, however, it provides a fast and precise way of attracting users to your app page.
Understanding your user base is key to making the most of your app store advertising activities and can help you choose the best placement and channels to promote your app.
So, which channels are available?
Video ads
Videos are a great way to showcase your app to new users. Video ads give you the opportunity to show your app in action and highlight its best features that you want users to see. Using sharp visuals and subtitles can also boost the effectiveness of your video and increase your opportunity for engagement.
Another useful advantage of video ads is that you can place them on most social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube – giving you a huge choice of audiences.
Social media ads
Social media provides a whole host of opportunities to get your app seen. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have the added advantage of a ‘download app button’ on their ads, making it even easier for users to click through and install your app.
Social media advertising is fairly inexpensive, and each platform comes with slightly different features and demographics for you to target. Doing your homework on each platform and getting to know your user base will help you choose the best channel to showcase your app and where to spend your budget for great return.
Influencers
More and more people are choosing to download apps based on recommendations from influencers. The cost of doing so can range based on the popularity of each influencer, but with a huge choice available, you can strike the right balance between affordability and return to secure highly relevant users.
Native ad channels
Native ads, which you can utilize across Apple and Google platforms, blend seamlessly into the user’s journey on a site, app store, or app itself. Native ads typically have high engagement levels and are a useful tool in building brand awareness. These types of ads also come with a range of flexible formats and tend to be less disruptive in the user experience.
Why do you need to combine ASO & ASA strategies?
If you’re looking to level up your mobile app growth, then combining ASO and ASA strategies is an absolute must. Blending both will help secure ongoing growth for your app and increase your user acquisition sustainably.
Let’s look at some of the top reasons why combining is key:
1. Utilizing both ASO and ASA in your app marketing strategy gives you the tools to reach a much broader, yet highly relevant user base. ASO will give you the foundation to build trust and popularity of your app by placing it higher in the app store search results, while ASA will complement this by driving your target user base to your app through effective advertising.
2. One of the key bonuses of adding ASA activities alongside well-developed ASO, is that they mutually benefit each other. With ASA pushing more traffic to your app page, your app will then naturally rank higher in the search results.
3. Using ASO and ASA also gives you more flexibility in the approach of your strategy. You can gain valuable insights into how each activity works separately and in conjunction with each other. This information is a great tool to have in your arsenal for developing your strategy and making smart investment choices.
So, you’ve now decided to develop a combined ASO and ASA strategy and want to know where to start. Here we’ll take you through the five key stages of getting your campaign off the ground and making it a success.
Step one: Get ASO up and running
The first step is to start with ASO. You’ll want to master this before you think about building ads into your strategy. Do your research into the best keywords to use with your audience in mind and spend time creating attractive visuals that show off your app in the best possible way. With great ASO, you can maintain a flow of traffic of high-quality users to your app while building brand awareness and loyalty.
Step two: Test your ads
When you’re confident you’ve cracked ASO, you can then start building app store advertising into your strategy to improve your growth and installs. This is your chance to branch out and attract your key audience to the app. Set your budget and be realistic with spending. Most importantly, test your paid UA. This will guide you with how to develop your ASA going forward, including the best channels to use, the most effective messaging and visuals, and refining your user journey.
Step three: Time for analysis
Continue to analyze your campaign and stay up to date on what is working well. This will help you to make smart choices when developing your strategy and ensure you’re funnelling your investment in all the right places.
Be flexible in your approach and listen to your users; this will give you rich insights that will keep you on track to achieving your goals and boosting growth.
Step four: Deepen your strategy
Your analysis will equip you with the know-how to enhance your strategy and improve performance. Build on your own data by looking into the latest industry trends and play into what your competitors are doing well.
This will keep your campaign evolving with your users and help you take advantage of new tools that can boost engagement and reach.
Curating your campaign as you go is a great way to keep your finger on the pulse and keep you on the road to success.
Step five: Analyze your results
Analyzing your results is the final, important step in the growth framework of your mobile app. Use this data to stay informed and make necessary changes that will empower you to keep hitting performance goals. Use this as an opportunity to learn from mistakes and build your confidence in creating a successful ASO and ASA campaign!
Key takeaways
For successful mobile app growth, a combined ASO and ASA strategy is what you need. Empowering yourself with the skills and knowledge to blend these two tools together in a data-rich campaign will help to put you on a positive trajectory for achieving your goals.
ASO will give you a stable foundation with paid UA taking you to the next level.
Don’t underestimate the importance of ongoing analysis, testing, and budget reviews to keep your campaign on track. Keep creatives fresh, keywords relevant and use the wide range of channels to your advantage!
Ensure persistent growth for your app — add user engagement and retention tools to your strategy. Learn every detail on a personal call with Pushwoosh Team:
