What is ASO optimization and how to promote apps?

This article is the author's understanding of how to promote App, I hope it can help you, enjoy~

1. Purpose of ASO

All methods ultimately exist for the purpose of achieving a goal. The goals of ASO are also divided into stages, purposes and activities, but the most common goals are to increase downloads, increase registrations, increase activity, increase the number of paying users, and submit transaction amounts. Doing ASO is just a way to achieve a specific goal.

In addition to optimization outside the APP, ASO also includes optimization within the APP to enhance user experience and increase retention, which is more effective than continuously attracting new users. Better operations require overall coordination.

This article mainly introduces ASO from the perspectives of general optimization, optimization focus of each application market, focus data, vest packages, point walls, optimization promotion, and commonly used tools.

2. ASO General Operation Methods

For APP optimization, the more common approach is to optimize the icon, screenshots, title, subtitle, description, keywords, and update frequency. The icon and title are generally determined when the APP is launched. Except for small-scale optimization, which has little variability, subtitles, recommendations, descriptions, keywords, etc. are more optimizable.

The comprehensive ASO operation method is shown in the figure below. Here I mainly introduce the optimization and update frequency of keywords.

(ASO general optimization)

ASO keyword optimization:

APP optimization is actually similar to search engine optimization. Both need to cover a certain word before they can be ranked and allowed to be searched by users. The keyword optimization of the App is an important direction for improving the coverage of the entire APP. Here we mainly discuss keywords from the perspective of language, update frequency and keyword selection.

1) Keyword language

Currently, for iOS, the languages ​​that can effectively improve keywords are: Chinese/English (US)/English (Australia)/English (UK), so when updating the App, it is best to cover the keywords in these languages. By writing Chinese words, the keywords will increase from 100 words to 400 words, increasing the coverage by 300%.

2) Keyword selection

The thinking behind optimization is the same. Similar to SEO, the classification of keywords is also similar. They can be divided into brand words, industry words, product words, competitor words, long-tail words, etc. There should also be a focus on different keywords. For example, what should be done for words with an index greater than 4605? What to do with keywords of different difficulty levels?

3) Optimize frequency

Keep keywords with index and ranking; remove words without index and ranking; focus on words with index between 20-50; add competitor words and industry words that are relatively easy to optimize; use brand word search to layout competitors of this brand, and optimize at the same time; optimize a small part each time, and do not replace a large area.

3. Focus of different application markets

Generally speaking, after laying out the keywords, our main task is to increase the download volume, registration volume and retention of the APP. General application market optimization mainly focuses on: download volume, activity, praise rate, retention rate, keywords, version updates, etc., application qualifications, is it an official version? Is it a high-quality app? Is it safe, virus-free, and Trojan-free? Is it MTC certified and ad-free? And other aspects.

For different application markets, the optimization focus may be slightly different.

(1) Huawei

• Title>Subtitle>Comments>Keywords>Editor's Recommendation>Introduction
• Comments have a significant impact on weight and ranking.
• Titles like "ab" are not supported. The word "b" after the "-" will be blocked.
• Official cooperation CPD directly affects the weight ranking.
• Search will fetch the comments content
• The download volume has little impact and can be controlled within 50,000-200,000.

(2) iOS

Bidding download volume will not affect ranking

(3) App Store

• Pay attention to the number and quality of comments.
• Download volume has little impact on rankings, so avoid cheating
• PPC

(4) Xiaomi

• Keyword matching determines ranking.
• Activation numbers, i.e. registration volume, conversion rate, next-day retention rate, etc.
• The download amount is not displayed, which may have an impact.

(5) 360 Mobile Assistant

• 7-day downloads + total downloads
• Download volume trends

(6) Baidu Mobile Assistant

• Keyword matching determines ranking
• Better display position manual intervention, charge
• Download volume has little impact on ranking

(7) VIVO related

Keyword coverage is not relevant to the introduction

4. Data Evaluation

When doing ASO, you can’t just say that you did a good job to prove it. You also need to prove it through some data. For example, if you organize an event, the number of downloads, registrations, and conversions will become the main data to be examined. Here I will tell you what data ASO should pay attention to.

The more common ones include [download volume, registration volume, keyword coverage], as well as conversion data, such as the number of comments, APP weight, the improvement of a certain word's position, user retention and conversion numbers, etc. If the goal is result-oriented, the transaction volume, number of purchasers, etc. may also need to be evaluated and calculated.

5. Optimize promotion

In addition to being strong yourself, you also need to work hard to promote yourself. The optimization and promotion of APP will be introduced here mainly from two aspects: free promotion and paid promotion.

1. Free promotion

1) Exchange volume

The exchange of traffic mainly involves the exchange of banners, pop-ups or opening screens. Before changing the APP traffic, you need to clarify the goal of this change, and then you can change the traffic based on the goal.

Before exchanging volume, you must be clear about what you have, what you can give to the other party, and what you specifically need. Some small tricks for exchanging traffic are actually a kind of business negotiation, and all you need is to cooperate a few more times.

For example, when the opponent is larger in size, can we make our own advantages clear and give them more time to show themselves? Or one more ad space? Similarly, if the other party is smaller than us, we can also request multiple ad spaces, multiple promotion channels or a longer exchange time.

When changing the volume, you should also pay attention to checking the data at any time. For example, if the effect is not good, is it a data connection problem? Or can we change the ad space? Or let the other party push you a few more times? Or is it my own problem? Can the benefits be increased? Modify the landing page?

2) App store activities

Many app stores have [first release, new products, red envelope circle, special self-recommendation, promotion, theme promotion, and points collection] that you can apply for, and there will also be some free activities to participate in during a specific period of time. Therefore, ASO practitioners should always pay attention to the dynamics of the application market and apply for some activities. First releases and special topics can greatly increase clicks and conversion rates. If it is a new APP, you must work harder to seize various activities.

2. Paid Promotion

APP promotion and optimization are either free or paid. Paid promotion can also be divided into application market promotion, information flow, and search engine promotion. Tencent’s Guangdiantong is specifically mentioned here, which is better for brand communication.

Paid promotion is similar to SEM bidding, and requires adjusting keywords, landing pages, determining copywriting creativity, or promoting by region, time period, or specific group of people.

Before promotion, it is recommended to conduct a portrait analysis of your own users and a portrait analysis of your target customers. First try in places with a higher degree of overlap, and then gradually expand the coverage.

6. Vest bag

Vest packaging is a method of taking advantage of loopholes in major market rules and using technical means to put the same product on the shelves multiple times. The vest package and the main product package have the same content and functions. Except for the icon and application name, everything else is basically the same.

1. Advantages: multiple keyword coverage, AB testing, risk resistance, traffic diversion, and ranking
2. Disadvantage: Dispersed users
3. Notes: Do not use the same company or the same operating entity; icons etc. can be different colors; titles can be slightly different; APP codes that need to be modified cannot be the same; maintain it first; increase sales after 1-3 months based on the company's operations and external conditions.

7. Points Wall

(1) What is the Points Wall?

• There are various advertisements in the points wall. If users complete the download and use according to the requirements, they will be given certain points, which can be exchanged for money.
• The ads here require you to connect to the SDK. For example, if you want to brush up the rankings but don’t want to do it manually, you can brush up on the points wall. All kinds of people help you to brush the orders. Although it is also brushing the orders, those who brush the orders are real and are relatively less likely to be punished.

(2) Advantages and disadvantages of point wall

Advantages:

• Real people and real devices, more realistic and less likely to be removed from the shelves
• Even if you stop cheating, the effect won't fade away quickly.
• The results of ranking manipulation by different people may be slightly different, which is related to personal accounts.

shortcoming:

• The quantity is not that large, tens of thousands per day is considered large.
• The unit price is higher, not as cheap as machine brushing.
• Inflating the points wall will lead to a decrease in the retention rate/registration rate and average daily usage time for the entire time period.

(3) What should I pay attention to when brushing the points wall?

• Can be downloaded
• Control the pace: When you are ranked low in the early stage, you can first get to the top 50-30, and then proceed step by step.
• Pay attention to the time: the iOS market uses the volume of the previous 24 hours to determine today's ranking. It is not good to be too early or too late. You can choose "Brush at 14-20 o'clock"
• Pay attention to word selection: popular industry keywords are more difficult to use, and you cannot get promoted by simply brushing the rankings. You can choose other keywords that are slightly easier to use and more effective.
• Combined with other channels. Such as active, retention
• To prevent possible machine flashing, you should always pay attention and block specific IP addresses. (For example, there are many machines in Quanzhou, Fujian, so some IP addresses can be blocked in a targeted manner)

(4) Channels for brushing the points wall

• Youmi, Zhimeng, Wanpu, Duomeng
• (ROI=1:10>1:20) Daily cost = 4-7k, top ten in the category list.

(5) How to evaluate the effect

• Before signing the contract, you can agree on an effect A: download volume, registration, open rate, whether it needs to be opened every 1 day or every 7 days?
• Differentiate between the amount of points wall brushing and natural traffic. (Registration rate, retention rate, etc.) can also be distinguished from daily user patterns
• ROI. Investment cost, recharge amount, etc.

8. Common tools

Regarding commonly used tools, we will mainly talk about optimization tools and data tools. Among them, the general optimization tools mainly include ASO100 and ASO114, which are suitable for viewing domestic Android and iOS keyword weights, etc., and can assist in optimizing keywords.

The new additions, retention, activity and other data of internal apps are mostly obtained from Umeng, Zhuge IO, etc., which require API docking and data collection. The operation of App Growing is relatively simple.

IX. Conclusion

Regarding ASO, I did more of "title + keyword + description". The keyword coverage, ranking, downloads, etc. have all increased significantly. The above is the only point that combines theory and knowledge, and there are many things that I have not practiced, such as point wall and download promotion.

Although theoretical knowledge can be used as an aid, more still needs to come from practice, from constant attempts, constant adjustment of direction, and constant optimization of details.

The above is my own superficial understanding, and I believe there are still many shortcomings. I hope that I will have the opportunity to personally experiment and try different optimization methods in the future, and through my own continuous adjustments, reduce costs, increase conversions, and optimize ROI.

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Snail on the leaf

Source: Hanshi Road (ID: hanshilu001)