App Masters · Apr 28Live App Store Optimization Tutorial (ASO)
Flo built it as a hackathon project for RevenueCat's first Shipaton and neglected it for much of its 1.5 years. It already ranks number one for "sick days" and is the audit subject for new keywords, screenshots, pricing and paywall tests.
Tips
- Cut 600 keyword ideas to 200, then pick low-difficulty, decent-traffic terms▶ 6:20The team started with 600 candidates and narrowed to 200 for the Sick Days audit.
- Choose a keyword by checking who already ranks for it in search▶ 8:12Headache moved to the title and symptom to the subtitle after this search check.
- Pick six to 10 focus keywords and put them in title and subtitle▶ 18:29The Sick Days audit used 11 focus keywords, with chronic symptoms tracker as a favorite.
- Be aggressive in the first ASO round and let data guide changes▶ 19:05
- Use the Spanish Mexico localization as a second keyword slot▶ 13:45Repeating the US subtitle in the Spanish Mexico title raised rankings, and for a music keyword in 2019 the rank jumped from 88 to 8. A launched client app reached number one on launch and made $1,600.
- Compare two keyword tools before trusting traffic and difficulty scores▶ 3:08For chronic pain, MobileAction showed no traffic while App Radar showed some traffic.
- Put the main targeted keyword in your first screenshots▶ 20:30Top symptom and migraine trackers lead with triggers, which hinted to Steve that triggers matter to users.
- Put the free trial on the yearly plan for non one-time-use apps▶ 22:45Steve's own earlier upfront app went from $0.99 to $1.99 and made more money.
- Offer a paid intro price, such as $1.99 for the first month▶ 23:52Raising an upfront app from $0.99 to $1.99 made Steve more money.
- Offer a longer free trial instead of a discount when users dismiss the paywall▶ 24:58
- Branch onboarding and paywall by whether the user is sick right now▶ 24:40
- Show a demo of how widgets work for less technical users▶ 29:09
