CaddieOpen in CaddieDownload for Mac

App Store Optimization: How to Use Mobile Action (ASO)

Shared by Caddie Library · Updated
App Masters11:19Open on YouTube
Chapters show their main points

The bottom line

Mobile Action's keyword intelligence shows which keywords drive an app's downloads, and pairing it with Sensor Tower gives the best data for choosing keywords. Imperfect data is still worth testing, because raising ranks for those keywords shows whether downloads rise.

Key takeaways

  • Two ASO tools beat one, because each is sometimes right where the other is wrong. 0:40
    • When both Sensor Tower and Mobile Action show low competition for a keyword, the app can rank well, even reaching first or second place.
  • Mobile Action's keyword suggestions give a pool of terms to target. 2:52
    • Suggestions come from the app's name, the keywords it already ranks for, and what the app is about, and they can be tracked in a few clicks.
  • Keyword intelligence shows which keywords drive the bulk of an app's downloads. 4:04
    • Mobile Action estimates this from data of users who connect their iTunes accounts, covering downloads, traffic and rank.
    • For the Oh Snap camera app, the top drivers are candid, take picture, Oh Snap and cartoons.
  • Tracked keyword scores show where a better rank or a new title would pay off. 6:56
    • Oh Snap ranks third, candid ninth and take picture eighteenth, so the last two are the best targets.
    • A title with "take selfie pictures and candid photos" could replace "the perfect camera".
  • The data comes from a single source, so treat it as a guess and test it. 5:58
    • Overlap with another tool would raise trust in it.
    • The plan caps keyword additions at 100 per day, which slows work on several apps.

A lot of times people focus too much on, can I trust this data? And I almost say, what other data are you looking at?

Steve Young, App Masters

Chapter summaries

0:00 Setting up Mobile Action and tracking keywords

Mobile Action works best with an app on the watch list, and its data is only visible for keywords that are tracked.

  • Add your own app, or a competitor's, to the dashboard first. 1:41
    • The demo app is Oh Snap, a camera app built in 2014.
    • An app that is not yet out can be replaced by a competitor.
    • The demo account is on a paid plan, and the paid features are flagged as they appear.
    • Under ASO intelligence, the keyword tracking page starts empty for this app.
  • A keyword must be tracked before its data can be seen. 2:08
    • Other tools let you type a keyword and see data at once.
    • Tracking is a small cost, since most keywords end up tracked anyway.
    • The downside is that you cannot just peek at a keyword's data without adding it to your portfolio.

2:52 Keyword suggestions and keyword intelligence

Suggestions widen the pool of terms to track, and keyword intelligence reveals which of them bring downloads.

  • Suggested keywords are worth adding to tracking in bulk. 3:15
    • Examples shown include diaphragm (already in the keyword field), cartoons and awesome camera.
    • Only a few are added, not everything on the list.
    • For an unreleased app, this data would guide which words go in the app name and which in the keyword field.
    • Sensor Tower has a similar tool, on a paid plan.
  • Keyword intelligence is a separate paid plan that ends the guessing. 4:09
    • Most keyword tracking works on the free plan, but more keywords need an upgrade.
    • Sensor Tower has no equivalent, which is why Steve wants both tools.
    • Without it, we're left in the dark about which keywords drive downloads.
    • Candid is the one to target first, perhaps with a black hat ASO strategy he has shared before.

5:40 Reading the tracked keyword scores

The tracking view turns raw scores into a short list of keywords worth pushing.

  • Sorting by top-ten chance shows which keywords are within reach 7:00
    • Each keyword shows a search score and the chance of ranking in the top ten.
    • One keyword has a 90% chance, and the real rank matches that.
    • Tracked data can be exported from the same screen 5:47.
    • Competitor analysis can add rivals and track their keywords. It is rarely used 6:29.
    • Ranks can be raised with black hat ASO strategies or a new title 7:28.

7:49 Loading keyword lists and living with plan limits

A big brainstormed list goes in by bulk upload, and the plan's keyword limit decides how fast it can be used.

  • A brainstormed list of 40 to 80 keywords can be added in one go 8:02
    • Keywords are separated by commas, then given time to calculate.
    • The results export into a large ASO template.
    • The template compares Sensor Tower and Mobile Action data before a keyword is chosen 8:28.
    • Some keywords on the list are already in Mobile Action.
  • Sensor Tower is easier to reset than Mobile Action 9:13
    • Sensor Tower holds 80 keywords, and deleting an app frees room for 80 more.
    • Mobile Action makes the user wait until the next day.
    • The usage meter shows 86 keywords used 9:35.
    • A pricier plan raises the daily limit to 200.

9:56 Verdict on the two tools

Mobile Action and Sensor Tower each have real strengths, and Mobile Action's keyword intelligence is the standout.

  • Both tools earn a place in an ASO workflow 10:07
    • Mobile Action's keyword intelligence is the feature that sets it apart.
    • The downsides are real, but they don't outweigh the tool's value.
    • Both tools are used on the speaker's own apps and for clients.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Founder of App Masters, app marketing agency. A walkthrough of using Mobile Action for App Store keyword research, tracking and spotting which keywords drive downloads. It shows how pairing it with Sensor Tower and testing its estimates gives a workable keyword plan even when the data is imperfect.

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

Transcript276 lines
0:00

coming up I'm gonna share how I use mobile action to perform App Store optimization and the cool feature that will help you increase downloads

0:22

hello hello in this video I want to show you how I use mobile action to find different keywords to target and get some more data and a really cool feature of mobile action that I really love so for mobile action for those who are not familiar it's another a so tool that I really love using I use a combination of mobile action and sensor tower and in in a previous video I showed the differences between the two and why it's more important to use two because I showed some real data that shows that I was able to rank really high one or two for certain keywords based on that data that I saw from both platforms so sometimes one was correct the other times the other one was correct and it's really important to see both because when both have low competition on sensor tower and mobile action you're able to rank well and I showed that data with real keywords in there I don't show you the I don't reveal the actual keywords

1:20

but I have real data in there about how my clients are ranking for these specific terms now with mobile action I here's here's the way I like to do it and so here's the dashboard and a lot of its gonna be paid so I know that and this is a paid plan that I'm on and some of these features are going to be paid and I'm gonna point out those that are paid so first what you want to do is if your app is already out you want to add it into your dashboard if it's not out you might want to pick a competitor I'm gonna pick one of my apps oh snap it's a camera app that I built back in 2014 and I'm gonna add it to my wash watch list here we go and now here's where I'm gonna show you where I really used the ESO data so I'm gonna go under ASO intelligence and then keyword tracking now I'm gonna highlight this because I'm not tracking any keywords obviously and unlike other tools where I can just enter in a

2:25

keyword and get the data I have to track them so this is how mobile action does it if I want to see the data of a keyword I'll essentially have to try the key word as part of my portfolio it's good and bad sometimes I just want to see the data and don't necessarily want to track it so I wish that was there but right now we'll have to track it so and it's not too bad because you're gonna sort of use everything anyways okay so that this is where and I'll come back to this in a little bit the other thing I want to point out is keyword suggestions so Center tower has a very similar tool I think this is a it's a paid plan within sets or tower but this shows you all the keywords that mobile actions suggesting based on what my app is and based on the keywords that I'm already ranking for and the keywords that I am using in my app name these are some of the the keywords that they're suggesting so I'm gonna actually just

3:17

put in a few and I think they're guessing because this is diaphragm I know this is a keyword of mine that I'm using in the keyword field oh snap obviously cartoons awesome camera I'd love to rank for that so I'm just gonna put in a few I don't put in everything but these are I'm tracking some so I want to get them data if I was doing analysis and this app wasn't out I'd be trying to figure out which keywords I should have in the app name which keywords I should have in the keyword field so I'll had just a few more no do that this is a great place if you're reluctant I know in my previous videos you'll see where I like to find certain keywords but this is another spot within mobile action where you can really grab more keywords suggestions that you might want to target later on and this is a really cool tool that I the part of the tool that I really like it's called the keyword intelligent again this is

4:13

actually a paid now you can do most of this keyword tracking on the free plan but then if you want more keywords you'll have to upgrade the keyword intelligence is its own paid plan but I really really like this and I wish sensor tower had this keyword intelligence because I'm gonna show you what it does and I like having both like I said before both data because I really want to figure that out a lot of times the problem is we're left in the dark we don't know exactly which keywords are driving the downloads for us and so with keyword intelligence mobile action is telling me hey based on the data that we have you know I talked to mobile action about this based on the data that we have through our whole platform right because people are connected with their iTunes and they get to see the Downloads data they know the traffic data they know how well I rank for a specific keyword they're able to

5:07

sort of guess which keywords are driving the downloads for my app and here you can see that it's candid take picture oh snap cartoons these are the keywords that are driving the bulk of my traffic and candid obviously is one so if I have an app already out I might try a black hat ASO strategy that I've shared in the past and you could get that but and target candid to see where I'm where I'm ranking for it and how I can improve on that rank or even oh snap which I'm number three or take picture right and so I'll track this keyword if you want to export this data you can do so right here again you since we're only relying on mobile action for this data the caveat I'll provide is that be careful this is one source giving you data so unless sensor tower or other tools start highlighting data I'm gonna trust this for now but if other tools are starting to produce this data then I'm gonna start comparing and I'm gonna use

6:15

both tools to figure out which keywords are correct if there's overlap obviously that I trust that data a lot more than just relying on one source so now I'm gonna come over here so this is how I normally use it and you can use competitor analysis I'll go through this last section and I can add competitors to see what they're doing how they're performing for specific keywords and I can track these as well but I don't necessarily look at that too much okay so let me get to the keyword tracking part as you can see Osnap is the one that's highlighted right now and I'm number three so here you'll see all the data that that the search score the chance that I'll rank in the top ten for it and as you can see I'm going to sort by this just so you can see that it's pretty accurate right ninety percent chance that I'm gonna be in the top ten I'm number six in folk I'm number eighteen candid I'm number nine so I can probably

7:17

do a better job of increasing candid if I wanted to and even take picture as well and then obviously oh snap so these were if I were optimizing on this I would focus on those three keywords and try to rank better for it using either black hat ASO strategies or having maybe take picture in the title rather than the perfect camera maybe take selfie pictures and candid photos would be the the better way of renaming that and if you in my previous videos I've shared with you other ways to have a list of keywords so these are the lists of keywords that I already have some of these are already in mobile action but if you have a longer list generally I like to have about a list of maybe about forty to eighty keywords that I'm considering but right now for the sake of this video I'm just gonna have three and you have to separate them by column and you can add this list of keywords that you sort of brainstorm or use other

8:15

tools to figure out and you can add them here by clicking add keyword so this is going to calculate right now you want to give it some time to calculate but you can then export all this data and then put it into your big ASO template that I've shared in the past as well and I like to now now my template is huge because I like to compare the data that I'm seeing from sensor tower and mobile action to really determine if I should be targeting a specific keyword or not the the one down inside I will say to mobile action is if you do if you're like an agency or if you have a lot of apps they do force you so you can only put in a hundred keywords per day which is very very annoying to me because sometimes I do two or three app optimization reports either from my apps or from my clients and I can't add more obviously I'm cheap and I'm frugal I don't want to upgrade to a more expensive plan but within

9:13

sensor tower I could sort of delete an app because I'm limited to 80 keywords I can delete an app and then add another 80 more mobile action unfortunately it's maybe a good tragedy or maybe not but they forced me to wait the next day to add another 100 keywords so if I had a huge list here and I wanted to do another app and add another 80 I'd be limited and you can see that data right here usage so I'm at 86 keywords right now and if I have a hundred I'm living 200 so I could pay more if I wanted but it's a hundred per day so just know that the plan that I'm currently on it's a hundred per day not just a hundred total which I find very annoying alright that's it guys mobile action it is a great tool I really do like it besides some of the downsides that I've pointed out but I want to be more subject or objective here that Center tower and mobile actions they're both great tools they both have really good advantages to

10:10

both and I'll do like the fact that the keyword intelligence that mobile action provides is something you know a lot of times people I think for me I'll end with this a lot of times people focus too much on hey can I trust this data and I almost say like what other data are you looking at what other data do you have right so think about that at least we have some data right now that we can make some guests on and if it's wrong tests right like if you think if mobile action is saying these keywords are driving the bulk of the downloads well if I increase my ranks for these do I get an increase in downloads and as I'm thinking about it this will probably be another video for mine all right guys I hope you enjoyed this mobile action is the tool if you want to check them out it's mobile action dot CEO I'm not feeling it feel elated with them in any way just go to mobile action dot CEO I just want to sort of highlight some of

11:05

the tools that I'm using for my clients are from REI my apps when I'm performing a so4 those who are not familiar with a so it's App Store optimization I'll see you on the next video