Top 21 research-driven app store optimization tips (ASO)

At TUNE we’ve published nine major app store optimization reports over the past six months. Now we’re taking the best tips from each one and sharing them with you here.

If you need more information, or full context, get the full reports. They are completely free in all cases, and you can subscribe to all of them right here:

TIP #1: Enable Spotlight search on iOS

Get more engagement by enabling Spotlight search in your iOS apps. One popular entertainment app with about two million iOS installs saw a significant increase in daily opens and active users from Spotlight search.

TIP #2: Switch categories to win

Pick categories in which you can win. As Gilad Bechar of Moburst told me, “switching to a category where you might have less competition can make a huge difference.” Example: Twitter switching from Social to News, where it instantly became number one.

TIP #3: Enable Firebase App Indexing

Boost user acquisition and re-engagement by enabling Google’s app indexing.

We’ve seen session growth from 10-20% for already-on-device apps, plus user acquisition growth, particularly in data-rich vertical search apps.

TIP #4: Ratings are table stakes (but you still need them)

iOS apps in the top 150 per category average 3.81 stars with only 0.6 variance. Apps in the top 240 per category on Android average 4.16, with just .3 variance. Clearly, you need top ratings to get in the upper echelon of the app stores.

But … once there, they will no longer differentiate you. iOS developers note: iOS 10.3 will allow you to prompt users to review in-app … but only for a few times a year.

TIP #5: Get more ratings than your competitors

TIP #7: Engage your users

Google and Apple keep track of app abandonment and deletions. And that data matters.

As Shawn Jones of CarAdvice told me, “You want your users to keep your app installed as long as possible and use it often. If your app gets a lot of downloads but people uninstall it quickly, that will negatively impact your ASO.”

TIP #8: Search keyword volume, relevance, and difficulty

Know how much volume keywords are getting before you choose which keywords you want to win. Winning a high-volume keyword could be hard but rewarding; winning a low-volume keyword could be easy but useless.

But keywords with extreme relevance are worth fighting for, even when it’s difficult. (Note: TUNE’s own App Store Analytics enables keyword volume searching.)

TIP #9: Build your offline/online/social footprint … AKA “brand”

70 percent of people have seen or heard of an app at least once prior to installing it. For almost a third, they’ve seen or heard about it more than three times. And top 50 apps average 5.3X more Google results and 5.5X more Facebook followers.

The upshot: build your brand recognition outside of the app store for better in-store conversion optimization.

In addition: 86% of the top 100 App Store keywords are branded.

TIP #10: Go big or go home

Apps are a winner-takes-almost-all ecosystem. That doesn’t mean niche players can’t succeed, or that they can’t be successful in their own right. But it does mean there are outsized rewards for leaders.

The top 10 iOS apps account for 83% of all installs, and the top 10 Android apps account for 80%.

TIP #11: Use paid installs to juice organic installs

Organic is really, really critical, because 65-70% of all app installs are organic. But paid app installs boost organic installs by 1.5X across the board … and, in some categories, the boost is as high as 17X.

So boost organic with a little paid.

TIP #12: Optimize your app listing conversion rates

Use Google’s tools and third-party App Store tools to optimize conversion on your app listings. 65-70% of installs originate via app store search, so an ounce of optimization adds a pound of installs. And might mean the difference between profitability and failure.