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All Your ASO Questions Answered

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App Masters11:13Open on YouTube
Chapters show their main points

The bottom line

ASO still works for a new app, but only when it is built on real ratings, niche keywords and every localization slot, and tested against data. It is hard as a lone channel, so indies win by targeting what big companies ignore.

Key takeaways

  • ASO is hard but not dead. 0:12
    • It is hard mainly when it is the only channel driving downloads.
    • A viewer followed the steps and went from zero to $5,000 in revenue in two months.
  • A new app should earn ratings with well-timed prompts, not buy reviews. 0:31
    • Buying reviews gets you in trouble with Apple.
    • A review prompt shown after the paywall took one client from about 50 to close to 400 ratings a month.
    • A free lifetime offer brought 12,000 downloads and 150 ratings at launch.
  • Niche keywords are where indie apps can win. 4:54
    • Big companies run paid keyword installs on high-traffic, high-difficulty keywords and ignore the niche ones.
    • Look for keywords in the 25 to 30 range in App Follow: less traffic, but less competition.
  • Every localization slot gives an app more keyword space. 5:51
    • The US App Store indexes nine localizations, so use different titles and subtitles in each, such as Spanish (Mexico) and Vietnamese.
    • A client began to be indexed for a keyword placed only in the Vietnamese localization.
  • Data should decide what you do, not opinion. 10:28
    • A hard paywall brought $10,000 a month, while a soft paywall with a close button dropped it to $5,000.

Let the data tell us what to do. Don't let your opinions dictate anything, because my opinion was wrong.

Steve P. Young, App Masters

Chapter summaries

0:00 Earning ratings the way Apple likes

Ratings matter most early on, and a well-placed prompt earns them without buying anything.

  • Ask for a rating at a moment when users are happy to give one. 0:49
    • Past about 100 ratings, more matter much less.
    • The aggressive version asks in the first screens, as the Genie app does with help us grow.
    • The softer version asks after the paywall, whether or not the user starts the free trial.
    • The average rating went from 4.3 in November and December to 4.5 in January, then settled at 4.3 to 4.4.
    • Ratings per download rose from 1.4% to 4.4%, about three times as many.
  • A new app needs a few ratings before its channels start working. 2:00
    • Apple Search Ads needs ratings to run, and ASO does not kick in without them.
    • Even with ratings, Search Ads did not scale on newer apps.
    • He had only six ratings, so he asked five or six friends to leave some.
    • Higher ratings should lift click-through, since more people tap an app that looks well rated.

3:01 Cheap keyword research and keyword installs

A free-to-use tool can surface keywords rivals miss, while paid keyword installs are a risky tactic big players already use.

  • Start from a big keyword and mine a small competitor's metadata. 3:01
    • Search the main high-traffic keyword in App Follow and pick the app with the lowest review count.
    • App Follow reads that app's metadata and suggests keywords to bid on, likely through the Apple Search Ads API.
    • His example is a meditation app, with ideas like anxiety relief, stress and breathing.
    • App Follow also gives daily and monthly review stats, which App Radar did for him before.
  • Keyword install campaigns pay for a download tied to one keyword. 4:28
    • They are usually self-service tools.
    • He calls them a dark pattern and says to run them at your own risk.
    • He shares it so indies can compete on fair terms.

5:37 Spreading keywords across localizations

Each localization needs its own title and subtitle, because every slot is a chance to rank for a different keyword.

  • Move the main keywords into other localizations' titles. 6:03
    • The US subtitle keywords go into the Spanish (Mexico) title. A second phrase goes into the Vietnamese title.
    • The routine mistake is the same title and subtitle everywhere. Use different ones in the US, Spanish (Mexico) and Vietnamese.
    • Title and subtitle carry the highest weight, so the main niche keywords belong there.
    • He says there are other ways to hack this, but this is the basic method.

6:54 Launch boost and review keywords

Apple's launch boost is short, but keywords in reviews have moved rankings.

  • The launch boost fades within a week. 6:56
    • Roughly 40 to 50 downloads a day lifts a new app for 5 to 7 days.
    • After that the app falls back to its normal rank.
    • Plan other download sources before the boost ends.
  • Review text is scanned for keywords. 7:09
    • In 2015 one review with a friend's keyword moved an app from 16 to 4.
    • Another friend reached number two for his keyword.
    • The idea came from Yelp and Google Play, where user content with keywords counts.
    • It works less well in 2023.

8:14 Tools, culture and monetization

Checking rankings is easy, localization is also cultural, and for a new app the tech stack matters less than a smooth experience and ads.

  • ASO tools show which apps rank for a keyword. 8:14
    • Asomobile.net does it, and most ASO tools give the same data.
  • Localization also means cultural fit. 8:33
    • Arabic markets need conservative screenshots, with no alcohol.
    • Skimpy imagery is also out in some countries.
    • Language is the obvious part, and culture is the less obvious one.
  • The framework matters less than a smooth app. 9:44
    • Flutter, web or native does not matter if the app doesn't stall.
  • A new app can run ads without hurting growth. 10:02
    • AdMob is the one to add first, even though ad revenue won't be the biggest win.
    • A normal app loses 77% of active users in three days.
    • Most users stay about six days, so a banner ad that stays out of the way costs little.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Host and founder, App Masters (app growth and ASO agency). Answers viewer questions on ASO: how to get genuine ratings, find niche keywords cheaply, use all nine US localizations, and when to use hard paywalls and ads. Backs it with a free-lifetime-offer launch that earned 150 ratings and 12,000 downloads, and a client whose review prompt went from about 50 to nearly 400 ratings a month.

Lessons that draw on this:

More from App Masters · The whole library, and ask it anything

Transcript291 lines
0:00

this is a YouTube comment we got and he's like and I built this video where I said hey the simplest way to build a six-figure app Business he said I've literally tried to do this step by step and it worked for my app we went from zero to 5,000 Revenue in two months first and foremost ASO is hard but not impossible I think there's too many experts out there saying it's dead doesn't work anymore it's not quite dead it is definitely hard if it's going to be the only channel that you you use to drive downloads but it's not impossible number two stop paying for App Store reviews it's going to get you in a lot of trouble with apple if you need App Store reviews especially as in new app here's some ways that you can do it that Apple will like okay so stop buying App Store reviews I don't think ratings are that important they're important but once you have enough like 100 plus I think it's fine here's the aggressive

0:51

way of doing it this is Genie app this is their first couple of screenshots they ask for the at prompt then your AI assistant just kind of like reminding you users this is best practice of what the app is all about I hit continue and they go help us grow here's a chill way of doing it this is the onboarding screen and then after the pay wall whether they hit start free trial or not we showed them the review prompt one of our other clients started doing this he added the review prompt after the pay wall after trial activations he's getting like 50 a month to all the way to close to 400 a month what about the average rating in November 4.3 in December 4.3 in January when we added the review prompt for the full month we got a 4.5 so not only did we get more ratings we got a higher average rating now I have looked at this app again for February March it is back down to 4.4 4.3 range but regardless you're getting

1:46

a bunch more so here is the percentage in ratings it's about 225 so 3x the ratings you can see percentage wise ratings over downloads you went from 1.4 1.4 to 4.4 here's what I did with one of my apps brand new app I want some ratings because I only had six at the time which is what you need to run an app advice campaign we made our lifetime offer for free because I was like this app is brand new I need ratings without ratings Apple search ads doesn't kick in without ratings ASO doesn't kick in as well but Apple search ads I found with newer apps just doesn't scale I do think that ratings impact clickthrough rates for your app the higher you have the more clicks you're going to get on your app right my hypothesis was if I do a lifetime offer I should get a boatload of downloads right I was trying to hit 10,000 downloads with this campaign we hit 12,000 downloads by making our lifetime offer for free and we got 150

2:46

new ratings for this app right on launch within a couple of weeks I needed six five six friends of mine to leave some ratings so I can run an app advice campaign and once I did that we got 118 fstar ratings The SD says what's the cheapest ASO tool look there's a lot of great ASO tools out there the combination now I don't pay for app follow but it is one of my favorite ASO tools out there to do keyword research and I'm pulling it up right now I put the main keyword let's just say the high traffic High difficulty keyword that you're that for your industry and I'll look at app follow and kind of see which one has the lowest review count typically might have the lowest Revenue right so I'm like okay let me there's one with 2,000 here so you click on that and what app follow does is looks through the metadata this is an apple search ads API that's what I believe it is because Apple search ads if you put this app in

3:41

your Apple search ads campaign it will spit out based off the metadata what other keywords you should be bidding for right and this is how I like to do this so now I'm looking for a keyword that is maybe anxiety relief or you know stress breathing right guided meditation um uh here's an trying to find other one but you want to try to find one around this 25 to 30 range like breathing that's the best keyword I can think of right now off top of my head that has a little bit more less traffic but obviously it's going to be less competitive and that's the way to do it Joe says which website do you use to get those daily monthly review stats so it's a combination of app follow or I was using App radar but app follow has all that stuff keyword installs and or boost campaigns right ENT just to break down these campaigns it is paying for a download by a keyword typically these are self-service type of things this is a

4:43

dark pattern that I know personally a lot of big companies are using so run at your own risk I'm only revealing this because one I want you to have a fair competition that's why I said go after Niche keyword because the big companies are all focused on these high traffic High difficulty keywords when they're running these type of campaigns they're going to be focused on those keywords where they're going to be ignoring the niche keywords that you as an indie can really go after you know those App Store reviews that show up under your store listings and you're like dang how do I get this out you force touch 3D touch it's like a hard Push by on the review if you do this hard push on this review you get this little prompt now Apple the default rating is usually by most helpful if you want to get these out of the way or another one of your reviews in here then just make ask your friends ask your family to go to that review and

5:45

do helpful okay and then the last thing I'll highlight is the US localizations so the US App Store indexes nine different localizations here this is the mistake that I routinely see people make is have different keywords in your titles in your subtitles go after them what I like to personally do is the main keywords I'm targeting the US subtitle I just move them up into the Spanish Mexico title and then if it's in the let's say there's another keyword phrase that I'm going after well then I put it in the Vietnamese title too right and there are other ways to hack this a little bit but that's how you do it you don't want to put the same title and subtitle everywhere there's 10 nine different localizations so each app title in all these localizations if you start using all of them we're right now using Spanish Mexico and Vietnamese but it the title and subtitle should be different for the US Spanish Mexico and Vietnamese

6:43

okay so because the title and substitle have the highest weight you want to put those keywords the main Niche keywords in the titles right stevenh says after the app is published how long does the artificial rank boost last when you launch an app Apple still does give you a boost roughly about 40 to 50 downloads a day but it's about 5 to seven days it give you a nice little boost and then you're back to the norm Adrian says hey Steve do the length of app reviews count are they scanned for keywords so Adrian this yes they were scanned they were scan for keywords go this is why I talked about the black hat strategy of apps or reviews so what we did was when I I had this like idea in 2015 I was like I think the App Store reviews the keywords in there will help the rankings so I was like I think that's true because you think about Yelp and Google play at the Google ASO Al SEO algorithm right ugc content especially if they

7:40

have the right keywords played into account so I was like why wasn't this different from App Store reviews and so I tested this with a few of my friends and I was like hey I'm gonna tell me the keyword that you're targeting and I'm gonna leave a review on my own personal account with it guess what happened to the rankings one one app which one review went from 16 to four and another friend of mine was like I'm number two for that keyword now and I forgot what where he was before but it did work in 2015 I've been trying it still it doesn't work as well in 2023 right now so how to check which app is ranked for which keyword there's a lot of ASO tools out there Asom mobile.net is one that we've been partner up with they sponsored our channels but if you have a keyword they'll show you which keywords which apps rank for that particular key but a lot of the ASO tools out there will give you that data David says how

8:33

does the apps score screenshot also matter in localizations in like certain countries like the Arabic countries out there you have to be a lot more conservative in those screenshots like no alcohol no things like that and so when you're talking about depending on the nature of your app one obviously different languages that's the obvious one and the less obvious ones are going to be like cultural differences maybe you can't show a skimpy lady you know things type type of stuff in these other countries and you have to be less aggressive and more conservative in those so just think about the cultural aspects of it but the obvious one is the language Benjamin says the keywords from all those languages are also index for the US app store yes so Us app store index is n different localizations and they are all used by the in Us app store and we we have slides so I never want to make claim before I have actual data but

9:28

we have one for a client of ours with one keyword in the Vietnamese localization only in the Vietnamese localization and he is starting to be indexed for that keyword do you have any data on effects of sales on different app development Frameworks like flutter versus web versus native Robin no I think really the way I think about this is it doesn't matter what's under the hood as long as your app like doesn't stall too much so really focus more on a smooth experience versus is the under the hood David says can't I still grow with my AI app without the ad stuff the normal app loses 77% of his active you active users in just three days and most app users tend to stay for six days then delete your app so it's not like they're gonna be like this David dude right long as it's just the banner ad is not in the way I was completely against hard pay walls I thought it was the scami things to do but then when we launched it with

10:28

our own personal lab I saw the data we went from $1 to $10,000 with a hard pay wall and I was like what and then when we had to do a soft pay wall and put an X we dropped down to $5,000 in Revenue per month I like what that sucks I prefer 10 over five so we put we went back to the hard pay wall so let the data tell us what to do don't you know don't let your opinions dictate anything again because my opinion was wrong I didn't I was not a fan of hard pay wall now I'm a fan of hard pay walls other than then admit which ad Network would I recommend for a new app just entering the market admob just put ad mob in there don't worry about it too much just get it in there your ad revenues are not going to be the biggest winner but put ad mop in there and just get it going all right cool