How you can simply enhance your app efficiency with an ASO audit
The proliferation of apps in the stores has generated an undeniable scenario: if your store listing page is not optimized, it’s unlikely that you will get any organic downloads. In fact many won’t be able to even find your app (see graph below.)
An App Store Optimization (ASO) analysis of your current store listing page can help you to detect these issues and turn them into opportunities, helping you to improve your position in the store and even untap unknown opportunities.
Why you need to audit your app: “Upload and Forget” vs “Measure and Improve”
An app audit is a common practice amongst the vast majority of top developers. It defines how well an app is currently doing and will helps you to stay competitive within the mobile app ecosystem.
The fact that perhaps you never performed one doesn’t mean that your competitors never performed one either. In fact it’s probably the main reason why they are in top positions while your app barely has any organic traction.
Source: AppBrain stats. Number of Android applications on Google Play.
From mid-2018 to mid-2019, the number of apps in the Google Play Store declined. It might seem like a bad sign, however, it’s not necessarily the case. In recent years Google introduced new standards to improve the quality of the apps available in the store. These standards led Google to remove apps that are no longer compatible with new versions of the OS, apps that copycat other apps, and apps with useless features (such as fake antivirus, torchlights, hand reading apps, etc). So while the total number of apps might be decreasing, the quality of apps remaining in the Play Store is increasing.
That’s why, rather than just uploading an App store listing page and forgetting about it, you should be measuring its available data aiming to improve its page performance. It might be a less crowded market, nevertheless it is still very competitive. By doing this, you’ll be better able to:
- Better manage your time and resources. Apps require a lot of time, effort, and money. The developer consoles provide a lot of useful information on how to improve your current listing. The question however is how much of this information is relevant to your current visibility or conversion problem.
- Improve your store listing page content quality. You should be able to articulate a reason why every keyword exists on your listing page. If you can’t, it’s likely that it shouldn’t be there.
- Make better-informed choices. Avoid decisions based on your personal preference or habit. Good decisions are made with a thorough understanding of your app and its data. An audit is the starting point towards making better-informed choices regarding the way your app is currently being displayed to your potential user base.
Methodology
The audit should be designed with a client-centric attribute. An audit must provide relevant information about what should be changed and how these changes will improve the overall performance of the project.
A store listing page review is a broad concept and many factors come into play: metadata, positioning, conversion rate, different behavior by country, user engagement, etc. The main goal of an audit should be to showcase the possibilities to maximize the optimization of an app page with the available data.
To have a complete picture, the analysis should cover a good time lapse. At Lab Cave, we recommend your audit cover at least 90 days (two years is ideal). This allows you to analyze both the most recent time period and the trend that an app is having over time, which can be strongly influenced by seasonality, UA campaigns, or store featurings. Additionally we recommend you always try to complement the data from the console with information obtained from other providers.
What information should appear in a well performed audit?
To ensure that you make the most of an audit look for the following attributes:
- User experience review: Overall mobile users engage with their devices just for short periods of time. Their experiences should be personalized and enjoyable. This ensures high engagement rates and reduces the changes of the user uninstalling the app.
- Branding analysis and relevant searches: Does the majority of your traffic come from brand searches? How easily is for potential users to discover your app?
- App performance and conversion rate (CR): This is the percentage of users that download your app after they have viewed your store listing page. The metric gives you an insight of how well your page manages to convince users to install your app after they have tapped through or visited your page.
- Benchmarking: How well are you doing compared to other available apps or games in the same category? Are users able to find other alternatives to suit their needs, and if so, why should they download your app?
- Growth forecast: This is the expected performance after all the changes are implemented after a certain period of time.
Conclusions
The main goal of an audit should be to assist you and your app based on its current status and on potential improvements. If a third-party performs an audit, they should research into your mobile app and identify which opportunities you are missing and which changes can enhance your app performance.