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ASO Audit of Scribd an App for Unlimited Audiobooks, Books & Magazines

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App Masters13:05Open on YouTube
Chapters show their main points

The bottom line

Scribd would rank and convert better if its name, subtitle and screenshots used the words users actually search and say, and showed its content. These three spots give the biggest swings in ASO.

Key takeaways

  • Users talk about audiobooks and ebooks, not subscriptions. 6:26
    • 163 keywords were analyzed across Scribd and competitors like Libby, Audible and Kindle, using App Annie, Sensor Tower and Mobile Action.
    • Many reviews name audiobooks as a favorite feature, and "books" and "audiobooks" are the most mentioned review keywords.
  • The app name should say "unlimited audiobooks" instead of "reading subscription". 4:54
    • The top results for "subscriptions" are apps that track and cancel subscriptions, and nobody wants a new subscription anyway.
    • "Audiobooks" has more traffic than "subscriptions", and Scribd ranks only 17th for it.
    • "Reading subscription" can move to the Spanish Mexico localization, which the US store also indexes, so it still ranks.
  • The subtitle should use "ebooks" once audiobooks is in the name. 8:07
    • The subtitle changes from "books, audiobooks and magazines" to "books, ebooks and magazines".
    • "Ebooks" has strong traffic (a score of 4.6 in the tool), the second most weight in keyword rankings.
  • The screenshots should state the offer and show the content library. 8:37
    • "Read without limits" is vague. "Unlimited ebooks and audiobooks" says what the app does.
    • People weigh price and content before joining a Netflix-style service, so show current New York Times bestsellers and the library size.
    • The up-down zigzag layout distracts the eye, because people do not read that way.

Instead of saying, do you want to eat apples every day so that you can get a six-pack, you just say, do you want a six-pack?

Steve P. Young

Chapter summaries

0:00 What Scribd is and how the audit works

Scribd bundles audiobooks, ebooks and magazines for one monthly price, and the audit checks only the wording of its iOS listing.

  • Scribd is Netflix meets Audible meets Kindle. 0:40
    • One monthly price covers unlimited audiobooks, ebooks, books and magazines.
    • It costs about $8.99 a month after 30 days free.
    • The listing now reads "Scribd reading subscription" with "read without limits" under it.
    • The iOS listing comes first. Google Play gets its own video, because both stores need work.
  • Only the app name and subtitle are audited. 3:41
    • The keyword field is skipped to keep the audit short.
    • App Annie shows a competitor's top keywords for free. Traffic data costs extra.
    • A viewer, Rylan, rebuilt the spreadsheet method on his own.

3:55 Swap "subscription" for "unlimited" in the name

A name that sells the benefit, "unlimited audiobooks", beats one that names the payment model.

  • The name should promise what people want, not how they pay. 4:01
    • Nobody asks for a "movie subscription". They want movies.
    • People want unlimited reading, so the name should say so.
    • Steve calls the current name hurtful to read, even as branding.
    • He admits he could be wrong, and says A/B tests would settle it. As a reader, he would rather see "unlimited audiobooks".
  • "Unlimited audiobooks" is a modest keyword but not the main reason for the change. 6:01
    • It scores 1.5 for traffic in Mobile Action.
    • Scribd already ranks ninth for it.
    • The real driver is the single word "audiobooks", as the takeaways explain.

6:33 Name and subtitle follow the reviews

Using the words reviewers already write keeps the keyword gains and loses nothing by dropping "subscription" from the name.

  • The name and subtitle should match the words users write in reviews. 6:35
    • Audiobooks should outgrow print books because they are easy to consume.
    • Moving "reading subscription" to the Spanish Mexico localization lets English keywords fill it, which doubles the keywords.
    • The most mentioned review keywords come from Mobile Action: "books" and "audiobooks", not "subscription".
    • Many reviews that say "books" also mention audiobooks, which partly explains why "books" ranks so high.
    • Nobody ranks for "subscription" in this space, so the name loses little by dropping it.
  • The subtitle should not repeat the word already in the name. 8:03
    • Audiobooks is already in the title, so the subtitle swaps it for "ebooks".
    • The subtitle carries the second most weight in keyword rankings, so each word there counts.
    • The keyword "books" stays in both versions, so nothing is lost.

8:37 Screenshots that sell the content

Screenshots should answer what a new user asks about price and content before signing up to a subscription.

  • The first screenshots should name the offer and the publications. 9:00
    • The app has a rating of about 4.5 and great reviews, so better screenshots lift paid acquisition and everything else.
    • The second screenshot can carry the unlimited reading offer with publications such as The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
    • The up-down zigzag layout looks cool, but eyes and books do not read that way, so it distracts.
    • Copy like "read and listen to unlimited ebooks and audiobooks" replaces the vague "read without limits".
  • The later screenshots should show popular books and the library size. 9:56
    • Current bestsellers and popular authors such as Gary Vee should appear, since a Netflix-style buyer worries about content.
    • "Store offline and enjoy your content on the go" is a real benefit. "Discover new passions" and "get inspired" are not.
    • A new visitor wonders about the price, how much content there is, and whether the top books are there.
    • Without a friend's recommendation, those unanswered questions would make him hesitate.
    • The library is missing from the current screenshots, and he says it should be shown off.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Founder of App Masters, app marketing agency and podcast. A live App Store optimization audit of Scribd's iOS listing, covering the app name, subtitle and screenshots. It shows how to choose keywords from competitor data and user reviews, and how to make screenshots answer a subscription buyer's questions.

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

Transcript338 lines
0:00

coming up I'm gonna show you a cool new app that I just discovered and what they're doing wrong with their ASO stay tuned what is up nation what's cracking up mission it is your boy Steve P young founder of app masters dot-com the place you go when you want action-packed content in the app business if you're just a YouTube scrapper to make sure you check out your pop the podcasts at masters comm slash iTunes as well but today I want to tell you about a brand new app I just discovered called Scribd it's like a Netflix meets audible meets Kindle so it's a you pay one monthly price and you get unlimited audiobooks unlimited ebooks I'm gonna leave books magazines to so it combines the best of all the reading for one low monthly price really cool app that I just discovered because my friend Paul Lam and so I want to check that out and I was like looking at the air so and I'm like you know what I want to show you

1:13

guys how to perform you so in your apps by performing ASO on it app that I think might need a little help alright so without further ado let's get into the ASO audit of a cool app called script here we go alright so here's the app hi I'm gonna focus on the iOS and then another video I'm gonna do the Google Play just to show you guys get questions like this do you just do iOS no I do both silly do both alright so here's the app script really cool there's a couple of different like our more you're looking at it like ah there's so many things that popped in my head about how I would optimize this but anyways it's one low price I think it's $8.99 if you go use the app but then you get 30 days for free unlimited audiobooks right that's what I really like that's what I do okay so Scribd reading subscription read without limits so forth really really cool app definitely check it out I'm using it right now

2:11

okay so here's what we did what I analyzed was a hundred and sixty-three keywords then you guys have seen this screenshot before I know people somebody Rylan told me hey I took your spreadsheet and just kind of recreated it so you guys can do it but essentially what we did was we that Scribd we looked at some of the competitors including Libby which I personally love too and audible Kindle other apps and ran it through app banning so if you guys have been following long app Annie is a tool that I use if you want to discover keywords that your competitors are ranking well for okay then your competitors are ranking well for so let's show this real quick all right so if you go to keywords if you add in any tool right here and you and I have script right now but if you go to the keywords section you'll see the key to the top keywords now they don't have any traffic data because you can have to

3:11

pay for that but you see the top keywords that skroob ranks well for right so we pulled this data for Scribd and some of their competitors as well okay let's go back to this alright so we analyzed all this data and as you can see from the spreadsheet I pulled the data from my two favorite ASO tools sensor tower and mobile action and just to get a sense of alright which keywords would be better optimized in their app name and their subtitle and so forth so I only focused because I don't wanna do a complete like I have all the time in the world right I don't wanna do the keywords the keyword field - I only focus on the app name the subtitle they're gonna have the biggest swings anyways okay so here we go suggestion number one so here's the current app name script reading subscription just hurts when I read this I'm sorry script I'd love to interview anybody from you guys this company and have you on the

4:09

podcast but that is a horrible app name even from a branding perspective nobody says like hey you wanna get a subscription to a movie place and you know watch movies it's like no you want a movie subscription no nobody wants a new subscription so why you have why do you even have subscription in the app name so even from a brand new perspective put a suicide having subscription like nobody cares about that right so instead of saying like hey do you want to like eat apples every day so that you can get a 6-pack you just say hey do you want a six-pack right you want unlimited reading so that's what I suggest like oh hello unlimited do you want unlimited stuff right so that's what I was change it to it's script reading subscription to script unlimited audiobooks okay there's reasons for this okay besides the fact that from a branding perspective I think unlimited is way better than subscription okay besides that I think I

5:10

could be wrong there like Steve you don't know crap we've done some a/b test but I could be completely wrong just from a consumer standpoint I'd rather see unlimited audiobooks rather than a reading subscription okay so but from the ASO side aside from the branding which I think on the limit is better from the a is suicide if you think about this here's a couple things I want to point out okay so subscriptions they're number nine four has a lot of traffic but the top three or so apps actually help you track your subscriptions so that you can cancel them okay so when you google when you put as subscriptions into the App Store the apps that show up the top ones are actually ways for you to track your subscriptions and cancel them because that's what we mostly want to do with our subscriptions that what do you want to add and you want on there all right secondly unlimited audiobooks doesn't have too much traffic so one

6:03

point in here five on mobile action not a huge amount of traffic but your number nine okay it's not bad that's not the main driver why I want to do this this is the main driver audiobooks as two words has a ton of traffic way more not way more but more than subscriptions right and you're number 17 for them and more importantly if you look through the reviews which I did scribbs if we were working together so reach out to me if you don't work together but I read through the subscriptions I mean the reviews of what real users were saying about the app and a lot of them mentioned audiobooks being a favorite feature of theirs that's another reason right if your users are already saying audiobooks which I think are gonna far out take normal books anyways because it's just so easy to consume like put that in there that's what most people want right so it's gonna help your by having audiobooks in your app name it's gonna

6:59

help your overall rank for that particular keyword and nobody's ranking for subscription and better yet guess what if you really want reading subscription I moved it into the Spanish Mexico localization right the US apps or indexes the localization so if you use English keywords in there you double the keywords okay so you still want in there I left it in there for you and you can still rank well for subscriptions okay so here I pulled this from mobile action but here are the keywords the most mentioned keywords in your reviews describe books audiobooks not subscription audiobooks I described like buh buh buh wah the rest but that's another reason why I put audiobooks in the top of it because when I put books these mentioned there are actually audiobooks to words if you look at the reviews you'll see audiobooks reference rather than just audiobooks too so there's probably partly why you see

8:01

books up there a lot okay suggestion number two I'll change the subtitle from books audiobooks and magazines to books e-books and magazines frankly because I already have audiobooks in the title and ebooks has really good traffic too so books we have in their ebooks four point six really good in 301 so has good traffic that's what you do anyways you know and so I would add ebooks into the subtitle because that's the most the second most wait when it comes to keyword rankings and my last suggestion is the screenshots I really do not like them I'm sorry okay because here are our elements why I think this will dramatically improve everything else you're doing paid acquisition everything else you got ton of great reviews 2004 and a half like everybody loves the app right you love but read without limits like what does that even mean okay again I said people are talking about audiobooks and ebooks so I would

9:09

say read and listen to unlimited ebooks and audiobooks right like we're just put unlimited ebooks and audiobooks boom done right and put and a script steps unlimited reading to all your favorite publications this is what you're talking about the second screenshot The Wall Street Journal the New York Times they're on all that stuff right and I actually this is just the personal preference I don't like going like this up down up down up down your I doesn't do that your I doesn't read like that you know like do you think books aren't done that way either it's not like books are like hey read here and then read here and then read here and then read here why would you distract the eye I know it looks cool I just don't do it anymore so I wouldn't do that anymore okay and next thing is of the popular books that have been out and I don't know you guys are kind of doing this but I would I would put them on there so

10:02

whatever the most current York Times bestsellers are put them on there garyvee crushing it like all this other stuff like put those really popular books in there and I know you've probably been featured and ton of articles so like the other thing that I would say from a Netflix perspective too is here here all the screenshots and one is the content because you know like nobody wants to sign up for a new subscription but if you say you have all the top books including the New York Times so you say hey we have unlimited reading first screenshot unlimited ebooks and audiobooks second screenshots all of the top 100 top 10 New York Times bestsellers okay right here and then over a thousand ten thousand books whatever your library has I would put that in there to like discover new passions and feed your curiosity I don't care get inspired don't care but store offline and enjoy your content on the go

10:55

I do care right so I know from a Netflix model I know what they're concerned about is the content library so show off your content library why is that missing from these screenshots so I would add that and I think that would help out a lot more I got recommended this app from a friend it's like dude that's also right I would go check it out right away but I think if I weren't recommended and if I had to check it out I would people curious about how much the pricing is and then how much content they have and do they have the top books that I really want to read right and I think you can answer those questions in the screenshots that you currently have I don't think they're doing a good job right now sorry all right that's it guys look if you want detailed step-by-step detailed step-by-step process about our strategy when it comes to this stuff like ASO like screenshots like everything else I

11:46

just mentioned well go check out app masters Academy at masters Academy I'm adding a ton more content I'm gonna have a virtual summit coming up soon as well where all that content is gonna live you're gonna get it for free if you want to watch it the day of but all that's contents gonna live on the Anatomy as well so a ton more stuff coming in if you are subscriber you're thinking about like hey is he gonna Adam what don't worry and I'm gonna build a community out of it too because we've got a lot of members and a lot of meta members seeing success so I'm gonna build a little community out of this whether it be on slack or Facebook wherever it is I'm gonna build a community out of it too so that we can interact with each other not just me showing you how to do it but we can really build a community as well because what is that is what I absolutely love so go check it out is app masters Academy calm and don't

12:31

forget we got our App Masters retreat founders retreat coming out in Bali coming out in Bali so I hope to see you there and June 23rd and 24th we've got a ton of good people coming already so be there if you're in the area or if you just want to take a trip out to Bali go check it out it is founders unite com founders unite calm if you guys like this video make sure you like it make sure you hit subscribe and then if you think you got some valuable content out of it show us describe let them know I want to show it to you but I appreciate you and I'll see you on the next video