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How to Write A Killer App Description

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App Masters10:20Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

A strong app description opens with social proof and then uses the exact words and phrases real users write in reviews of your app and your competitors' apps. The first two lines are what most people read, so they drive conversion more than keywords do.

Key takeaways

  • The first two lines of a description decide whether people download. 0:35
    • Most people only read those two lines, so they matter for conversion as well as for keywords.
  • Leading with social proof beats claiming to be number one. 1:47
    • Anyone can say they are number one, so a line like "join the millions" with a real user count works better.
    • Calm's opening sentence is also too long to read easily and should be split.
  • Favorable reviews give you the words customers use to say why they love an app. 3:33
    • App Annie's reviews page is free, and you can set it to the past year and show 50 reviews instead of 10.
    • A Calm review about waking up two or three times a night becomes copy like "go back to sleep instantly with our sleep stories".
  • Critical reviews of competitors show objective weaknesses you can answer. 5:40
    • Ignore price complaints, because some people will complain about price even with the best app in the world.
    • A repeated battery complaint becomes a claim like "the only meditation app that won't kill your battery".
  • The same review language also works for screenshots. 7:21
    • Look for common themes across several reviews, and do not act on a single one.

Use keywords and phrases that the customers are saying about why they love a particular app.

Steve P. Young, App Masters

Chapter summaries

0:00 Mine a big competitor's reviews for your copy

A competitor's free review pages hold the words that make a description convert.

  • Reviews of a large competitor show what to write. 1:14
    • The tool is free, and Calm is the example because it is huge.
    • It also works as a way out when you are stuck on a blank page.
    • Health and fitness is the example category, since he sees it as the most critical one.
    • He has used the same method for games and for other categories.
  • Open with social proof, then the phrases users already use. 2:22
    • The logic is simple: if a million people are using it then I'm gonna use it too.
    • Phrases from reviews work better than bare keywords.
    • He tries to lead with social proof as much as possible.
    • The goal is the wording real users give for why they love the app.

2:57 Read favorable reviews for the problems users name

Reading many favorable reviews turns a few customer stories into ready-made copy.

  • Filter to favorable reviews and read many of them. 3:00
    • Favorable means four to five stars, and critical means one to two stars.
    • Most reviews give nothing, but a few contain keywords nobody else is using.
    • Country and app version can be changed. He leaves both at the default.
    • You can also look at only the one-star or only the five-star reviews.
  • One detailed review can show the exact problem to speak to. 3:56
    • The sleep reviewer says the stories changed my life and calmed his worrying.
    • Use this angle only if your app is focused on sleep.
    • Sample copy: we help you fall asleep quicker.
    • Other reviews say life-changing, super friendly to use and praise the daily meditations.
    • One review mentions anxiety and a stressful job, useful for an app with that focus.

5:10 Turning review language into copy

Phrases pulled from reviews, favorable or critical, become the lines of the description.

  • Favorable review wording goes back into the copy almost word for word. 5:10
    • Anxiety comments become a line on breathing techniques that lower anxiety and keep you calm all day.
    • The rule is to use only words customers have already said back to you.
    • The line he drafts: scientifically proven to lower anxiety, tied to the breathing exercises.
  • Objective complaints about competitors are the ones worth answering. 5:40
    • Poor audio quality is an example of a fixable, objective problem.
    • One reviewer said a 13 minute meditation drained 30% of the battery.
    • The same reviewer could play Spotify for hours on that battery.
    • The draft claim: a 13 hour meditation still leaves 90% battery.

6:49 Balancing keywords and conversion

On iOS the description should serve both keywords and conversion, and it leans on conversion.

  • The opening sentences should show social proof, then use the audience's own phrases. 6:49
    • Those phrases are what customers already use, so they pull people into the app.
    • His agency follows this approach when writing descriptions for clients.
    • He treats the description mainly as a conversion tool, not a keyword tool.
  • Favorable review themes also work in screenshots. 7:21
    • A reviewer who likes the sleepiness effect becomes a screenshot message.
    • The review language is usable across the whole app page, not only the description.

In the growth library

Steve P. Young, Founder of App Masters, an app marketing agency. App descriptions convert better when they borrow the exact words customers use in reviews of competing apps. The episode shows a free, repeatable review-mining process, using Calm in the health and fitness category as the example.

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

Transcript284 lines
0:00

coming up you're gonna discover a sleek way to write a killer app description by looking at what other people are saying about your competitors stay tuned what is up app nation it is Steve P young founder of at masters Co the place you go when you want action-packed content in the app business and today I want to share a way that I've been using it strategy that I've been using to figure out how to write an app description now a lot of times when we're working on a so for our clients you know we want to look at the app description not only from a keyword basis but also from a conversion basis because the first two lines of an app description which is what most people see and what much most people are probably just going to read are going to be the critical pieces of any app description and so I didn't know how to actually go about this and I was struggling a little bit and then I figure out oh I'll do this particular

1:03

way and I want to show you that particular strategy right now so without further ado let's go into the screen share so my favorite way of right in the app description because like I said I get stuck is to use a penny now this is completely free okay and what I've done is I pulled up the call map only because I feel like they're huge so I won't be giving too much away and then also because I wanted to look under the health of fitness category because I felt like that was the most critical one and then show you this particular strategy but I've been using this for games I've been using this for health and fitness did all the different categories of apps were more performing ASO I've been using this particular strategy so here's what we're gonna do we're gonna to look at the reviews right because I want as you can see the description for the calm app it says calm is a number one app form edit

1:56

mindfulness and meditation to bring more clarity joy and peace to daily life now I love that but I'm gonna break that sentence too right because this is it's just not readable right and I would also put join the millions and I think it's always good to put some social proof there the number one app but a lot of people can say that you're the number one doesn't really mean anything but I might put like join the millions you know over a million downloads over a million users whatever it is that's what I would personally lead with because I think it hits you with social proof well if a million people are using it then I'm gonna use it too so that's what I'm looking for I usually try to lead with social proof as much possible but I'm also looking for words that the users are leaving in their reviews because they're saying this is why I love this app right when I'm writing a description I want to lead

2:44

with social proof and also use keywords use phrases not just for man a super spy so it's so perspective but use keywords and phrases that the customers are saying about why they love a particular app all right so here's how you do that so you've got the app pulled up search for it if you don't have it pulled up again this is all free and then go into the reviews which is on the left hand side if you're just listening to this and then now you can see all the reviews now the default is the past month you can do the past year which is that what I would do you can also change countries different versions I'll leave it at all versions so countries if you just want all english-speaking if you're just the US I'm gonna leave it at default right now you can also look at the all ratings so favorable is gonna be anything from four to five stars and then critical is anything one in two stars okay so you can just you can even

3:37

just look at the one stars where all the five stars but here's what I'll do is I'll look at the favorable ones and now I'm gonna sort this this only shows ten by default but I want fifty because a lot of times when you read through these you're not gonna find anything valuable right but a few times you will find certain keywords that people aren't using all right so let's go through a few of these right here sleep stories now this guy wrote a really good description I can't describe how much the sleep stories have changed my life I normally wake up one in three times a night and begin worrying about my daily life the stories offered a distraction that is calming and engrossing allowing me to drift back to sleep I sleep better so I used to really talk about sleep stuff okay so if your app is focused purely on the sleep side of things think about how you can leverage that within your app so it could be as simple as hey

4:25

we help you fall asleep quicker or go from waking up two to three times a day to going back to sleep instantly by listening to our sleep stories you know using the keywords using the people the problems that people are telling us we're gonna use that in our tap app description that's how I would use that in my app description okay takes you on a journey and game nothing really big here except Nolan here says life-changing there's super friendly to use he loves to daily meditations or he or she loves to daily meditations so they're talking about anxiety having a stressful job this particular review and so this could be if your your app is focused on that right then you can start talking about hey you know reduce anxiety known to have some calming effects here's what our breathing breathing text techniques scientifically proven to lower anxiety reduce anxiety and make you feel calm throughout the day again all I'm doing

5:28

is using words that people are telling me back into our app description right so you can even look at if you're looking at other apps I'm gonna look at the critical ones and you can do some research on what other people are saying about your competitors so this one I read through a bunch of these for calm but they were talking about the price now I don't really look at pricing too critically I don't put any significance to it because some people are just cheap and they're never gonna pay for your app but maybe like different things like the audio quality isn't good those are like more objective things that I'm looking for not subjective things subject the things as price you there's nothing you could do about it people are just gonna complain about price no matter what even if you have the best app in the world right so that's what I would be looking for is more objective self like here this one battery trainer one 13 minute

6:17

meditation my phone went dead for 30 percent it could I could play my Spotify for hours so that could be something that they could look at but you're looking for common themes too so don't just go off with one review but if there's certain other reviews that come up then you can say oh I'm gonna use that in my app description so like you can say hey you know don't doesn't drain your battery you know the only number one meditation app that won't kill your battery you can do a 13 hour meditation and still have 90% left on your battery life so something like that right if you're going to it but it's some as I've gotten stuck and we're writing more app descriptions for our clients you know I want to use I think of it the app description specially on the iOS side as you know a balance between keywords and then also high conversion so how can I hit him with the first few sentences that shows social proof number one and number two

7:11

hit him with key words and phrases that the audience is using that customers are already using and then use that to get them into the app as well and you can do these four screenshots too right look through all these favorable things and be like okay well he likes the sleepiness okay well let me put that into my screenshot right so all these are very much usable within your app don't just think about the description but I think it I think I'm using this as from a conversion perspective not so much from a keyword perspective all right I hope that was helpful and guys I will say this look there are two things I want to plug all right so you can stop this if you don't wanna hear the plugs but two things I want to plug one is the app masters Academy I'm very very much excited about this we're bringing all the courses that we have ever done we're gonna create a ton more so beyond the email list if you're not subscribed to

7:59

the email list it's at masters dachau slash newsletter but you're gonna hear about all the webinars that we've got planned with some snapchat influencer marketing and game monetization retention and launches in specially in China too so if you're familiar if you want to target the Asia market we're gonna bring somebody on an expert to do that so that's all gonna be it'll be free as a webinar and then if you want to get access to it later on then it's part of the it will become a part of the ACT Academy and then so go check it out is app masters Academy comm app masters Academy com it shows you our entire playbook entire playbook for just $25 a month right now I'm not sure if I'm gonna test different pricing points but right now it's $25 a month and then secondly we are doing more events next year I've got some phenomenal feedback from the events the events are really meant for you to bring really awesome

8:54

app entrepreneurs together to build lasting connections it's one of these things where I know for me the more connections I have the more in-depth I feel with certain people and I can relay some of my messages to them and get feedback from them the way the that's when the breakthroughs come and I'll tell you a friend of mine who came to the Santa Cruz event he said look Steve I love this format I'm gonna be with you but it took me talking about my problem to four different people and then BOOM the breakthrough happy that's what this event is about it's really focused more on the attendee and not just the event organizer because a lot of these events they bring in all these sponsors and just I Lutz the event but we all go to event to meet some amazing people gain knowledge and meet some amazing people and you're gonna do that and the knowledge that you're gonna gain is gonna be specific to whatever you're

9:42

currently working on that's why I love doing these events I've gotten some phenomenal phenomenal feedback from everybody that attends so I hope to see you there it is at masters dotco slash events or you can just go to app masters connect calm and that will redirect you but at masters Co slash events the LA one is up we're gonna start launching the New York one two and then we're gonna do one in Bali so be there at one of these I promise you that you're gonna want to attend more and more because that's what people have said to me all right that is it guys thank you all for listening and I will see you on the next video bye