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App Store Screenshots: How to Write Killer Sales Copy to Increase Downloads

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App Masters10:05Open on YouTube
Chapters show their main points

The bottom line

The best words for App Store screenshots come from what users already say in the app's reviews, so mine the love and suggestion reviews instead of starting from a blank page. Screenshots built on real user language convert more clicks into downloads and lower the cost per install.

Key takeaways

  • Screenshots decide whether paid and organic clicks turn into downloads. 0:43
    • A client spending heavily on Facebook, Instagram and search ads has acquisition as its main channel, so a small conversion gain helps a lot.
    • Better conversion on the same clicks lowers the cost per install.
  • App Annie's review section shows the exact words users use. 2:29
    • Filter reviews to the US and show 50 or 100 rows at a time.
    • Exporting the reviews is a paid feature, so someone on the team can copy and paste them instead.
  • Reviews that praise the app show which phrases to put in your screenshots. 5:10
    • Search for "love" and look for phrases, not full sentences. One reviewer was single and had no idea they snored, which backs the snoring feature.
    • Sleep Cycle users often mention not feeling groggy, a phrase the screenshots could use.
  • Reviews that make suggestions show where a competitor can stand out. 6:00
    • One user asked for Spotify integration. A competitor that offers it can lead with it.
    • Others asked to wake up to a playlist, so a music screenshot can replace one of the snoring screenshots.

You don't want to start from a blank slate, so how do you leverage things that people already say within your app to improve your conversion rates and lower your CPI?

Steve P. Young, App Masters

Chapter summaries

0:00 Why screenshots decide conversion

Screenshots turn paid clicks into downloads, so better words on them lift every channel at once.

  • ASO covers more than keywords and the app name. 0:32
    • Screenshots matter for traffic from Instagram, Facebook, Apple Search Ads and Google organic.
    • Steve says he doesn't want to leave it off the table, since he usually talks about keywords.
    • Whatever the source, the screenshots are what a visitor sees before deciding to download.
  • Weak screenshots waste money on an app people already like. 1:03
    • The client's main channel is paid acquisition, so a small conversion gain helps a lot.
    • Steve loves the app and the service, but thinks the screenshots don't sell it.
    • The goal is to convert clicks from Facebook, Instagram and search ads into downloads.
    • His fix is to rewrite the screenshot copy using the right words.

2:01 Setting up the review research in App Annie

Sleep Cycle's strong screenshots make a good test case, and App Annie's reviews tab is where the research starts.

  • Sleep Cycle already has good screenshots, so it works as a model. 2:26
    • The screenshots say it wakes you at the right time, works for two people in bed, and detects snoring.
    • It no longer needs to sit on the bed, because it now analyzes sleep by sound.
    • Steve picked it because it is always near number one in paid app charts, and he uses it himself.
    • Snoring detection is a brand new feature, shown in the screenshots.
    • The same method suits a competitor, or someone on the Sleep Cycle team wanting more conversions.
  • Critical reviews show what users hate about an app. 3:41
    • The critical filter shows one and two star reviews, and can be narrowed by country.
    • These point to features a competitor could add later.
    • The reviews can be sorted by language and country, for example US only.
    • Steve notes that what do people hate about other people's apps is one use, but not the one he wants for screenshots.
  • Favorable reviews from the US are the source for screenshot copy. 4:30
    • Steve filters to the US market and shows 50 rows at a time.
    • 100 rows lets you read the latest 100 reviews at once.
    • Exporting the reviews requires paying, which leads into the next step.

5:03 Read the love reviews for phrases

Praise reviews show which features users value, so those features are what to promote.

  • Love reviews show the features users care about most 5:27
    • One user had severe insomnia and praised the graphs and comparisons.
    • Skim for short phrases, not full sentences.
    • The snoring feature was probably added because users always wanted it.
    • A screenshot line can be as direct as "find out if you're snoring".

6:00 Turn suggestions into screenshot changes

Suggestions reveal gaps a competitor can fill and fixes the market leader can make.

  • Reviews that love the app and suggest a change are the most useful 6:10
    • A competitor can lead with Spotify and Apple Music integration in a new update.
    • Read every suggestion to see how your app beats Sleep Cycle.
    • The reviewer said it wakes them more restfully than a normal alarm clock.
    • If you are Sleep Cycle, the same suggestions tell you what to build next.
  • Repeated themes show what the app is known for 6:59
    • Users keep mentioning sleep tracking and waking at the right moment.
    • Some ask whether it works with two people in bed.
    • Snoring and two-person use could share one screenshot.
    • Users also ask for sleep in silence and for waking to a playlist, not one song.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Founder of App Masters, an app marketing agency. Shows a quick method for writing App Store screenshot copy by mining real user reviews in App Annie, using Sleep Cycle as the worked example. The payoff is higher download conversion and a lower CPI on paid traffic, without starting from a blank page.

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

Transcript278 lines
0:00

coming up I'm gonna show you a dead simple way to come up with the right sales words the right copy to use in your app store screenshots to increase downloads stay tuned what is up app nation it is Steve P young founder of app Masters Co the place you go when you want action-packed content in the app business and today you know when I talk about ASO I talked a lot about keywords app name optimizing your keywords for the particular growth but today I also want to talk about screenshots and why they're so important to growth you know a lot of people are using Instagram Facebook Apple search ads or just Google organic growth and screenshots are so important to increasing your downloads as well so I don't want to leave it off the table now I'm helping a client come up with the right sales copy and this is a client to actually spending a lot of money on acquisition that's their primary channel

1:12

like hey you know if you can do a little bit on downloads conversion rate that's gonna help us a lot I'll help us out a lot and so I said okay great trust me I think because you're spraying so much money you could probably do a better job from an ASO perspective one and secondly I love the app I love the service I don't think your screenshots sell it so if you're trying to draw acquire new users you know I want to increase your CPI essentially for all the clicks you're getting from Facebook Instagram search ads how do I make sure you actually convert those clicks into downloads and I think a great way to do that is to just do screenshots so let me show you a dead simple way on how you can increase your download conversions using the right words in your screenshot the tool that I'm gonna use for this is called app Annie now pulled up sleep cycle here really popular app really cool app that you guys have to check out

2:11

if you haven't checked out so I picked them pick up picked on them because they're like always number one in the paid app charge and it's actually an app that I use as well and they've done phenomenally well for like years now and what I want to do with them is so I'm in a penny I'm at their app details page here's what we're gonna do okay I think they got a great screenshot so let me take let me show you what they currently have right now I'm gonna blow this up a little bit on the video side so you guys can see this but they got a really great app store presence you know wakes you up at the perfect time works just as well with two people in bed really cool and then find out if you're snoring which is a brand new feature that they just put in and then you listen to your snoring which I really don't want to do but here's the first screenshot see cycle analyzes your sleep and snoring you don't have it to have it in the bed and

3:02

when they first came out like years ago you had to have it on your bed like run me through pillow now they're gonna use sounds to analyze your sleep and wake you up at the right time it's a really really cool app right and really beautiful screenshots so they've they kind of know you know what to say but let's say you're coming out with a competitor or let's say you work for sleep cycle and you're like how do I better increase my conversion rates I'm spending money on Facebook I'm doing all these things my CPI is maybe around $1 $2 whatever it is this is a paid app so it's doing pretty well anyways but okay maybe not anymore but essentially like how do i leverage how do I increase the downloads right so here's what we're gonna do we're gonna go into a penny or pull up the app and we're gonna go into the reviews section so go into the reviews and Maury here so I've filtered this so what you're

3:51

gonna do is you can do a couple of different things right so if you just wanted to figure out what's wrong with this app you can go in the critical right just like critical that's anything that has one or two stars and then you can read through like what people are saying and you can sort this by different languages as well so I'm gonna show right here countries and right now it's like that all but you can do just say US and you can see what they're saying in this for one two stars that's one way you want to try to improve your app or figure out like what's wrong with others other people's apps right it's like okay what do people hate about other people's apps that I can add features on later on to my hat secondly here's what I'm gonna do so as I'm doing this for my client here's what I'm doing I'm going in to their app store listing and then I'm looking up all the favorable and I'm gonna pick us because

4:39

you know generally we just try to focus on the US market and then I'm gonna put rows of 50 I just want see more you can do 100 if you okay you want to see all the latest 100 reviews great now here's what we're gonna do okay I'm gonna blow this up again for you guys watching on this video a couple of different things to make it easier obviously you're gonna have to pay if you want to export this so you can have you know somebody on your team copy and paste everything if you want to do that or I'm just looking for certain keywords that people are searching for so I'm gonna look for love right and you're gonna read through now you're not looking for like complete sentences you're just looking for certain phrases or certain words that people are really loving about the app right so I'm gonna look through this I'm so loved with this app I had severe insomnia and this completely tracks my sleep spell tracks wrong as it analyzes

5:34

it with graphs and comparison I'm also single so I had no idea I actually snore like that's a cool thing right and this could be again this is why they put it in there this could be a feature that they people have always wanted and so they put that in there so find out if you're snoring using some of the keywords that people words phrases that people are using than your half star reviews and putting it in your screenshots so figure out what they loved about it right the other thing I would do is look at suggests all right so if I'm a competitor to sleep cycle I'm gonna look through suggests and so here's one person who loves the app so if you looked at love is that love and suggestion even better okay I love this app it wakes me up so much better and more restfully than a normal or normal alarm clock I don't ever sleep without it so great my suggestion is what are the chances you can get it integrated with Spotify

6:25

okay cool now if I'm a competitor this could be a perfect tie-in to that right it's like okay well now integrated with Spotify or if I have a new update that I could lead with that as well integrated with Apple music and Spotify which is already integrated with saponify so these are things that I would use right oh it's Jess another suggests so look through all the suggests and figure out okay here's how my app improves upon sleep cycle or if I'm sleep cycle how can I improve my app and then love so go through the love again and the things that people talk a lot about our obviously things that the app is known for tracking your sleep waking you up at the right moment so you don't feel groggy if you read through some of these that's what people talk about a lot and so as you can tell with what they're using you know wakes you up at the perfect time so you don't feel groggy right so that's what people talk

7:19

about as well so that might be something you add in there because they're saying groggy and there as well and then I like the fact that it says worked with just as well two people in bed there might be a question that people have I think if your snoring is in there like I like this I think you could probably combine these two you know find out if your snoring and listen to it and put in something about the other features that you have so integrated with Apple music wake up to play music because if you look through suggests which I already have you'll find that people say you know like I wish I could wake up to sleep in silence the other person that suggested that when I was looking through all this was hey can I pick a playlist I don't want just wake up to a certain song all the time can I wake up to a playlist instead so these are all things that you can have and these are things that I would start adding on to

8:07

it because people are talking about sleep sounds and waking up this particular music so I would change one of these snoring screen shots and put the music and waking up to certain music as well because these are things that people are talking about in the apps or reviews that's a great way for you to leverage since you don't want to start from a blank slate how do you leverage things that people already sing within your app to improve your conversion rates and lower your CPI so that's a quick and dirty way hope you enjoyed it if you did make sure you hit like make sure you hit subscribe going crazy on the subscribers list so thank you guys for that really do you appreciate it and the last thing I'll plug is masters Academy now fortunately the price did go up to $49 a month but it includes everything that we do for our clients all this new stuff and a brand new thing that just started thinking about that

8:59

I'm going to be doing on a masters Academy is quick hits so these are things I'm thinking about these are things that I'm gonna section this off where I'm gonna create more quick hits because the other courses I feel like they have to fit in to something and we're quick hits is gonna be more like a daily bla not a daily blog but like a weekly or routinely updated thing about things that I'm thinking about and things that I just found out so it could relate to ASO it could relate to anything doesn't have to fit in anywhere if it does fit in it I'll put that module in the actual ASO course as well but this will be just like hey like this YouTube channel like what are you thinking about what are the things that are working so I'm gonna try to do that more which is more of my style anyways I like to like to mess around have some fun be flexible rather than be so structured like these courses

9:44

I feel like I have to be more structured so go check it out it is masters Academy com if you want to see our entire playbook thank you guys so much I'm gonna do more stuff on YouTube I promise you I just mean just make more time for it frankly that's all but I will do that thank you guys so much and I'll see you on the next video