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ASO Strategies for Small Apps vs Large Apps

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App Masters10:59Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Small apps should target mid-traffic, easy keywords because ASO drives most of their downloads, while large apps should chase high-traffic competitive keywords backed by their other channels. Matching keywords to an app's existing download power is what turns ASO into growth.

Key takeaways

  • Small apps depend on ASO for most of their downloads, and large apps depend on it far less. 1:28
    • Small apps spend $0 to under $5,000 on marketing, have little brand recognition, and get 70 to 100 percent of downloads from ASO.
    • Large apps run search ads, Facebook ads and Chartboost, and get about 40 to 60 percent of downloads from organic, sometimes only 10 to 20 percent.
  • Apple ranks an app mainly on how well its keywords are optimized, then on downloads, then on reviews. 7:09
    • On Google Play, retention sits between downloads and reviews. The exact weights are unknown, and anyone claiming them is guessing.
    • Downloads count as a rough seven-day average, or daily volume.
  • Small apps should pick keywords with traffic of 10 to 50 and a high chance of ranking. 5:15
    • Ten is the bare minimum and about 20 is the target. A keyword with a traffic score of 5 can rank first and still bring no downloads.
    • Mobile Action's chance score should be at least 70, ideally 80. If both Mobile Action and Sensor Tower show low competition, a top-five rank is likely, and if only one does it is hit or miss.
  • Large apps should go after relevant keywords with traffic of at least 30, whatever the difficulty. 6:59
    • Other channels already drive downloads, so these apps can rank for competitive terms.
    • An app with strong daily downloads and reviews but weak organic share is the ideal case for high-traffic, high-competition keywords.
  • A small app should not spend its name on a broad term it can never win. 8:33
    • A big meditation app like Calm, the 2017 App of the Year, would put "meditation" or "mindfulness" in its name.
    • A small meditation app should build the name around long-tail phrases such as "Zen meditation" or breathing exercises.

Why waste all those characters on term like meditation if I'm never gonna see the light of day?

Steve P. Young, App Masters

Chapter summaries

0:00 What separates a small app from a large one

Brand recognition and fallback channels decide how much an app needs ASO.

  • A small app has no brand, so people can only find it through search. 1:05
    • Nobody searches the app name and recognizes the company, as they would Microsoft, Apple or Red Bull.
    • It may run a few search ads, but not much.
    • Most downloads then come from ASO.
    • Steve says this reliance is what defines a small app.
  • A large app has a brand and other channels, so ASO is only one part of its plan. 1:33
    • If app store search shut down, its apps could still be downloaded.
    • People search its brand name and it ranks well.
    • Commercials and other marketing have already built that brand.
    • Some come for help saying we're completely reliant on these acquisition channels because they rank for nothing.

2:56 Reading the keyword scores

Two ASO tools, scored on the same traffic and difficulty measures, show which keywords are worth targeting.

  • Two tools, Sensor Tower and Mobile Action, check each other. 3:09
    • Every ASO job starts with a large spreadsheet of traffic and difficulty for each keyword.
    • Mobile Action is more accurate on iOS and on chance. Sensor Tower is more accurate on Google Play traffic.
    • Mobile Action scores traffic from 5 to 100 and Sensor Tower from 0.5 to 10, so 5.7 equals 57.
    • Apple's own score works like Mobile Action's, in the tens.
    • With only one tool, Steve would pick Mobile Action.
  • The spreadsheet flags low competition automatically. 3:54
    • On Sensor Tower, difficulty under 3 counts as low. Its scale tops out around 9.
    • On Mobile Action, a chance score above 70 counts as low competition.
    • Mobile Action shows chance, not difficulty, so higher is better.
    • Steve uses Mobile Action scores from here on.
  • Small apps should avoid keywords with traffic above 50. 5:17
    • Above 50, keywords tend to be more competitive.
    • Higher traffic is better, so the aim is the top of the 10 to 50 band.
    • Steve found this range to be a nice blend.

5:30 Checking small-app keywords against both tools

A keyword is only worth targeting when the traffic and the ranking odds both look good in two tools.

  • Small apps should read each keyword's traffic and odds side by side in a spreadsheet. 5:52
    • A traffic score above 50 is great, but 10 or more is enough to start.
    • One keyword in the spreadsheet showed a 92 percent search score and low difficulty in both tools.
    • That keyword was expected to land in the top five, since both tools called it low competition.
    • Mobile Action tends to be a bit more accurate, but using both tools gives a better check.

6:59 Why large apps can ignore difficulty

Large apps can chase the hardest keywords because their other channels already feed the download signal.

  • For large apps, relevance and good traffic matter more than difficulty. 8:04
    • Downloads are a big ranking piece for them, so they can go after really competitive keywords.
    • Chance and difficulty scores stop mattering if the keyword is relevant and has real traffic.
    • The search for high-traffic keywords starts with asking if the term is relevant to the app.
    • Strong downloads and good reviews are what let them rank for those terms.

8:33 The meditation app case study

The same topic gets a different app name depending on how much download power the app has.

  • A small app should name itself around long-tail phrases and a large one around generic terms. 8:51
    • Calm would also put "mindfulness" in its name, next to "meditation".
    • Small apps, like the featured Mind Bliss, can aim at niche phrases around meditation.
    • The long-tail phrases still contain the word meditation, so the app can still be found for it.
    • Large apps go competitive on high-traffic terms because that drives growth.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Founder of App Masters, app marketing agency. Small apps and large apps need different ASO keyword strategies, based on how much traffic they get from other channels. The episode gives concrete traffic and chance score thresholds for choosing keywords with Sensor Tower and Mobile Action.

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

Transcript313 lines
0:00

coming up you're gonna discover how we approach our ASO strategies for smaller apps versus larger ones stay tuned what is up app nation is sleepy young founder of masters code the place you go when you want action-packed content in the app business and today I want to talk about a question that I got asked about the difference so strategies that we deploy based on the app so first a smaller app and indie developer versus some of the bigger clients that we work with I thought it was a great question so I'm gonna walk you through our exact strategy alright so before we start let's differentiate what makes a small app versus a large app so the smaller apps they tend to have not so much of a marketing budget right they're really rely on ASO for growth so they have anywhere from 0 to about I would say probably less than 5,000 but definitely less than 5,000 spending on app marketing right so they're not doing too

1:02

much they're very much reliant on ASO and lastly they don't have too much of a brand recognition you're not gonna be able to Google their app name and find their company names like oh yeah I know that brand right like Microsoft Apple Red Bull and so they're very much reliant on ASO right then they might be doing a little bit on search ads but really not that much so let's just say smaller apps tend to be more reliant on ASO anywhere from I would say 70 to 100 percent of their growth their downloads are coming from me is so now the larger apps are gonna be some of our bigger clients they tend to have a pretty decent market size marketing budget right and then also they're using search ads or using Facebook ads or using chartboost they're using all the different channels out there for growth so ASO is a part of their strategy but they're not completely relying on it if the apps are completely shut down and

1:56

there's no search and you couldn't search for any apps they still have a way to download their your their apps right and then last thing I would say stay the mix from an ASO perspective they might be anywhere from I would say forty to sixty percent of their downloads are coming from organic or maybe I've worked with some that are like you know 20 and 10% of the downloads are coming from organic and that's why they need help right hey we're completely reliant on these acquisition channels in our brand because we're not ranking for anything and that's what gets me really excited when I see a bigger company come to me and say look we're not getting from organic but we have a ton of downloads a ton of great reviews and good downloads every single day then I get it really excited because I can go after high-traffic high competitive keywords and lastly obviously there's a little bit of brain record brand

2:43

recognition so you can search for their brand and they're gonna rank well for it right so they do commercials or something else they've got a brand already built up for the V app as well alright now before I talk about the specific strategies for smaller apps versus the larger apps let me talk to you let me share this little spreadsheet with you it's not a little it's actually a humongous spreadsheet that we create every time we do that ASO so if you watch some of my content I do always recommend that you use 2 different ASO tools and as of this recording my two favorite that are the most accurate when I say favorite are gonna be sent to Tower and mobile action ok and here's what we do we pull the traffic and the difficulty the search core the chance they pretty much all mean the same thing with slight variations so the scores are gonna be a little different mobile action has it from five to a hundred and

3:34

then traffic wise sensor tower has it from 0.5 to 10 now they're pretty much the same thing as you can see the first few rows 5.7 and 57 so search traffic same thing now Apple actually has it the way that mobile action has it so it's usually in the tense you know 57 67 whatever it is now the difficulty and some of the things that you see that are highlighted green is what I've automatically through his spreadsheet have deemed to be low competition right so difficulty the lower the better it goes all the way up to like nine I think but anyways anything under three is what I've termed to be low difficulty onset your tower and anything above a 70 is what I've deemed to be low competition on mobile action because mobile action has a chance score which means that it's just low there's a high probability that you're gonna rank well for you okay rather show your difficulty score they have a chance core which is actually a

4:26

nice thing so the higher the chance the better the lower the difficulty the better from now on I'm gonna use the mobile action scores because I found them to be a little bit more accurate especially on iOS on sensor tower the traffic scores a little bit more right on I'm sorry Google Play on Google Play Center tower tends to be a little bit more accurate but mobile action tends to be a little bit more accurate when it comes to the chance stuff okay but try to use two tools if you can I would probably use mobile action if I had to just pick one alright so let's get into how I actually do the optimization for the smaller apps okay so for the smaller apps again we're gonna be relying on ASO for growth so anywhere from seventy to a hundred percent of their downloads are gonna come straight from me so okay that's where most of my apps are coming from now when I'm doing optimization for these type of apps I look at traffic

5:17

scores anywhere from ten to fifty okay because anything above 50 tends to be a little bit more competitive so that's just what I found to be a really nice blend now the higher of the traffic obviously the better so you want to try to find for any if there's some that you see that's above 50 great but those what those are what I want to say is it's the least ten because if you try to go anything less than ten or even a round ten you're not gonna get that big of a growth okay but you want to get it probably around 20 if you can but a minimum bare minimum ten okay you want to find these keywords if I can go back to my spreadsheet look at this keyword that I found for point one traffic score zero point five difficulty forty one search score ninety-two percent so I know I'm probably gonna rank in the top five for that particular keyword because both tools are telling me it's low competition that means I'm definitely

6:07

gonna rank well for it if one of the tools is telling me low competition it's hit or miss mobile actually tends to be a little bit more accurate but it's hit or miss so I like having both tools and analyzing the data that way okay so again let's just a recap you want the main thing is you want least decent traffic there's no point in trying to rank for keywords that have a 5:00 traffic score on mobile action 100 percent chance you're gonna rank well you're just not going to get the downloads that you want right so chance is very very important difficult to your chances very very important Elysa 70 but if you can try to find some that are 80 like I found as well idiom plus those become keywords that you rank for okay now for larger have bring it on I love the rock right he's one of my favorite wrestlers back in the day is killing on Instagram but when it comes to larger apps we look at traffic scores we want

7:01

at least 30 now again the higher the better but we want at least 30 because I know you're driving traffic through other means and if you think about how a is so and keyword rankings are kind of done is apples gonna look at obviously your keywords and how well they're optimized for it so that's that would be the most heavyweight the second would be how many downloads are you getting on average so it would be a seven day average I don't know the exact average anybody that says it they're either working for Apple or they're just making stuff up in my opinion but the download average so I would probably say seven-day or just how many you're getting on a daily basis and then lastly reviews so those are all important and then retentions can be important as well especially on google play but all those are factors but I was saying keywords probably the number one factor and everything else subsequently in that

7:50

order it would be key words it would be downloads it would be retention on Google Play and then it would be reviews so all that is taking the place now for larger apps their downloads are a big piece right there obviously driving more downloads now I can go after really competitive keywords so it doesn't really matter and I put here chances or difficulty doesn't really matter along is it's relevant and along is there's real good traffic for it so if I'm working with these bigger clients I look at really high traffic keywords I'm like okay this is definitely relevant to us I'm I'm able to go after like if I was working for meditation I think this is a great case study because I've have a couple of different meditation abs that were working with from client perspective but let's say I was working with call I'm not working with calm but if I was I'm definitely gonna have meditation in our app name because it's the app of the

8:39

year in 2017 and there's a real big brand name they got tons of downloads so I'm gonna have that because I want to rank well for that okay or mindfulness all these very very generic terms I'm gonna have in my app name but if I'm working for smaller apps and we've gotten a few apps featured mind bliss what's the other one I might focus on longtail keywords around meditation so what else can I think about right Zen meditation is that is it some breathing exercise that I can figure out so I'm gonna focus more on the longtail keywords and optimize the app name for that rather than wasting it on meditation because I'm never gonna see the light of day so why waste all those characters on term like meditation if I'm never gonna see the light of day now I know what you're thinking if I'm targeting the phrases I'm generally probably gonna have meditation in there anyways right but I'm targeting the long tail of

9:25

meditation non-si meditation so for for these large apps I'm gonna go competitive and I want high traffic keywords because that's gonna drive growth I'm gonna rank for these high traffic keywords because of my other channels acquisition channels and because I probably have good downloads and probably good reviews as well alright guys hope that was helpful I'm gonna kill you rock all right let me kill this real quick alright guys I'm back hope that was helpful if you got any other questions we just started doing this but it's a free coaching call with me three 20-minute call essentially I look at your app I tell you my feedback for it what I would do if I were you to drive growth or retention or monetize a monetization for the app so I want to talk a little bit more about the other aspects of the app business mainly monetization or intention so I talked a lot about growth as well so if you want

10:18

access to that go check out our website is that masters CO find the coaching free coaching call let's just make it I'm master Zuko / coach gene / coaching and you'll be able to get on a free call with me the only thing I ask is that you let me record it so that I can publish it on YouTube and the podcast as well and lastly if you want to see our entire playbook go check out masters Academy for one low monthly price you're gonna see our ASO strategies for iOS 11 how we do these different keyword booths just the different blackhat strategies that were able to utilize and help our clients with for growth so it is at masters Academy com alright guys I'll see you on the next video bye