Did you know App Store Optimization (ASO) is responsible for driving 68% of all new app discoveries? It also helps drive revenue and conversion by encouraging downloads, updates, and in-app purchases. Laura Eccles, the Founder of Matchstick Mobile and the first hire on the App Store Marketing team at Apple, and Emily Carrion, the Head of Marketing at Apptentive, cover how to increase organic downloads via ASO, improve app engagement or get featured on the App Store in this webinar presentation. You’ll learn: -How to improve app store discovery -How you can use ASO to drive conversion -The anatomy of a top 100 app -Tips and checklists for implementing ASO strategies -How to track your app store rank

1. iOS App Store
Optimization
Laura Eccles
Founder of Matchstick Mobile
iOS Strategy Consultant
April 27, 2017

2. You’ll Learn
• What is ASO?
• Why is ASO important?
• The Apple ASO algorithm factors
• Title & keyword strategy
• How to come up with keywords
• How to rank higher for your keywords
• Keyword tracking tools
• The importance of keyword localization
• Key mistakes brands make
• ASO checklist

3. Who We Are
Laura was the first hire on the App Store Marketing
team at Apple. She advised companies on fine-tuning
their user interface and marketing, decided which
apps to feature daily to the App Store’s 10 million
social media fans, and led the App Store’s email
campaigns.
Head of Marketing, Apptentive
Emily Carrion
Founder, Matchstick Mobile
Laura Eccles
Emily is a 4-time start-up veteran and digital
marketing leader. She has a passion for data-driven
storytelling, all things mobile, and building high-
performing teams.

4. What We Do
Matchstick Mobile
We help companies create and market feature-worthy apps. Engagements include ASO,
strategic user interface/user experience, relationship building, placing Apple Search Ads and
more. The vast majority of our clients have been featured and continue to be featured.
Editors’ Choice Editors’ Choice

5. Examples Featured Clients

6. Apptentive
Using in-app communication tools, we power the last-mile of customer interaction: the
conversation. Consumer marketing’s future is “pull,” not “push,” and customer
conversation is the key.
Privately held, established
in 2011, founders in key
roles
250 million+ customer
conversations on 1
billion+ devices
Boosts engagement
to 20x more
consumers
Over 6,000
organizations, including
dozens of Fortune 500
companies
Doubled our team
size in 2016

7. What We Do
Customer SupportNative Surveys Customer FeedbackIn-App Messaging
We just launched a new feature in 5.0
that lets you comment on videos with
friends. Have you
tried it?
I’d like to try it!
New Feature Alert!
I tried it and have feedback
Message Center Close
I love using your app, but I really wish
searching for a store was easier. It would
be great if it could just detecet where I’m
at and give me a list of stores that are
close to me.
September 3, 2015
Hannah
Hi!
Thanks so much for reaching
out! That is a really great idea
and I’m going to pass it on to
our app team.
Please keep the feedback
coming!
-Hannah
New Message
Close
We’d love to get feedback from you on
our app. The more details you can
provide, the better.
Hello!
New Message Send
Please leave detailed feedback
We’d love to get feedback from you on
our app. The more details you can
provide, the better.
How are we doing? Close
How could we improve your experience?
Please leave detailed feedback

8. What is ASO?
Just like SEO is for the web, ASO is
for mobile apps. It is the process of
optimizing an App Store listing to
maximize visibility.

9. Why is ASO important?
65% of downloads come from search queries.
Discoverability
Conversions
Organic installs
1
2
3

10. Apple ASO Algorithm Factors
• Title
• Keywords
• Ratings and Reviews
• MAU / retention
• App deletions
• Total downloads
• Velocity of downloads
• App indexing: traffic from
outside promotion

11. Apple ASO Algorithm Factors
• Title
• Keywords
• Ratings and Reviews
• MAU / retention
• App deletions
• Total downloads
• Velocity of downloads
• App indexing: traffic from
outside promotion

12. Title Strategy

13. How to Pick a Title
Maximize 50 characters with high traffic, on-brand keywords
Former title
Stitch Fix - Your Very Own
Personal Stylist
Current title
Stitch Fix: Personal Stylist
for Clothes Shopping

14. How to Decide on Title Keywords
Add your more difficult keywords since titles have a higher weighting
Quizlet jumped from #75 to #8 by
adding “sprachen” to the title.

15. How to Maximize Keyword Visibility
Prioritize must-have keywords since title keywords do the heavy lifting
i.e. to rank for “natural makeup” put “makeup” in your title and “natural” in your keywords
Credit: SensorTower
makeup
natural makeup
Traffic
6.1
Traffic
0.5

16. How to Improve Your Title
• You don’t need “app” or “apps”
• Semicolon vs. dash shouldn’t matter
• Track rival titles
• Update keywords with an app update
since your Current Version ratings move
to All Versions

17. Keyword Strategy

18. Keyword Strategy
• Maximize all 100 characters
• Add singular and plural if you want to rank for both. Add the one
with more traffic to your title or add both if it makes sense.
#1 for “greeting card” #3 for “greeting cards”

19. How to Rank for Keyword Combinations
Don’t repeat keywords from your title, developer name or keyword chain
• Chairish title keywords “home, decor, art, vintage, furniture” shouldn’t be
repeated in keyword chain
Identify & track every keyword combination between title and keywords!
• The title “Chairish Home Decor, Art and Vintage Furniture” could also rank for:
“home art, home furniture, art decor, vintage decor, vintage art”
Find two-word phrases if the single keyword is too difficult to rank for
• “Furniture” could be “vintage furniture, furniture shopping, buy furniture, sell
furniture, used furniture”

20. Keep Trying!
• Think like your audience. How do they describe your app?
• “Invitations” may be “invites”
• Add seasonal keywords when appropriate
• Happy holidays, Valentine’s Day, Easter,
Mother’s Day (you don’t need the apostrophe)
• Don’t add it if you don’t offer the functionality
• Conduct monthly audits
• Shake it off and keep trying!

21. ASO Example

22. How to Come Up with Keywords
• Look at App Store queries
• Mine App Store reviews of your app & similar ones
• Create a list of every combination
• “Birthday cards” could be “card, cards, birthday card, birthday cards”

23. Need More Keyword Tips?
• Look at competitors’ titles and keywords
• Ask users to describe your app & how they found it
• Think of synonymous
• Use a 3rd party for keyword recommendations

24. Try this…
Still Not Ranking High for Your Keywords?
• Put that keyword in your title & take it out of your keyword chain
• Rearrange the order & put that keyword at the beginning of your title
• Test if removing “and” or a comma makes a difference in your title
• Try singular & plural form if you’d like to rank for both
• Try a keyword phrase (i.e. “reduce stress” vs “stress”)
• Swap out underperforming keywords
• Localize (i.e. “color” is spelled “colour” in non-American English)

25. Keyword Tracking Tools
• SensorTower - App Store marketing intelligence
• TheTool - app marketing tool
• Search Man - ASO
• AppCod.es - ASO
• AppFollow - tracks app reviews and monitors updates
• TUNE - mobile analytics
• AppsFlyer - mobile app tracking and attribution

26. Keyword Strategy for
Every Lifecycle

27. Keyword Strategy: 1.0 New or Fairly New App
• Target easy keywords that relate to your app that you have a good
chance to rank in the top 10.
• Lake launched as “Lake Coloring Books: Art therapy to reduce stress”
but ranked #76 for “coloring books”
• Three weeks later changed title to “Lake Drawing Book: Art therapy to
reduce stress” and already ranks #11 for “drawing book”
Source: SensorTower

28. Keyword Strategy: Gaining Traction
• Target moderate traffic keywords that relate to your app & that you have a good chance to rank in
the top 10.
• Instead of “shopping” which has traffic of 6.2 out of 10 try “clothes shopping” with 4.2 traffic.
#2 for “clothes shopping”
Source: SensorTower

29. Keyword Strategy: More Established App
• Go for high traffic keywords that you can rank in the top 10 for.
• Quizlet ranks #4 for “vocab” which has 5.3 traffic.
#4 for “vocab”
Source: SensorTower

30. Keyword Localization

31. The Importance of Keyword Localization
1. Since multiple languages are spoken within
a country, each App Store utilizes more than
one set of localized keywords.
2. You get 2x the the amount of keywords per
country
3. On-going strategy

32. Ratings & Reviews

33. Star Ratings Matter
Source: Apptentive 2015 Consumer Survey
The Mobile Marketer’s Guide to App Store Ratings & Reviews
Would consider
downloading an app
with a 2-star rating
Would consider
downloading an app
with a 3-star rating
Would consider
downloading an app
with a 4-star rating

34. Positive App Store Ratings Drive Downloads
Source: Apptentive 2015 Consumer Survey
The Mobile Marketer’s Guide to App Store Ratings & Reviews

35. Places to ask:
How to Drive Ratings & Reviews
• Bottom of App Store description
• What’s new copy
• Email
• Natively via 10.3
Ask:
• After a good experience
• App engagement
• After segmenting your users

36. Intelligent Prompts
We’re so happy to hear that you love
the Nordstrom’s app! It’d be really
helpful if you rated us. Thanks for
being a loyal customer!
Rate Nordstrom’s Now!
Do you love shopping at
Nordstrom?
Love Prompt

37. Are You Ready for Apple’s iOS 10.3
1. A new method:
to call, allowing prompts for a rating inside
the app
2. A new rule, applicable to the new method (3
prompts per year)
3. The ability to respond to App Store reviews
SKStoreReviewController.requestReview()

38. Apptentive’s iOS 10.3 Support
• Support for the new method as an optional
interaction
• Reporting and instrumentation for the new
interaction

39. MAU & Retention

40. MAU & Retention
• App deletions
• Total downloads
• Velocity of downloads
Ask yourself:
• How sticky is the app?
• What does success look like?
• What is your MAU and DAU benchmarks?
• For most mobile apps, 0.20 DAU/MAU is considered to
represent decent level of engagement
It costs approximately 700% more to
acquire a new mobile app user than
to stimulate retention with existing users.

41. Organic
“Organic customers are 70% more likely to
return after 8 weeks than customers
acquired through paid channels”
-Mixpanel, 2015

42. Actively Listen & Proactively Engage

43. Key ASO Mistakes

44. Key Mistakes Brands Make
• Don’t maximize 50 characters for the title, or they
waste it on non-essential keywords
• Repeat title keywords in the keyword chain
• Don’t localize keywords (or the app)
• They don’t track previous keywords or titles
• Chase unachievable keywords
• Rely on their keywords to do all the work
• Don’t conduct monthly ASO audits

45. ASO Checklist
• Track:
• Your title and keyword history
• All possible keyword phrases
• Competitors’ title
• Reflect new app features in screenshots, description,
keywords
• Conduct monthly ASO audits
• Swap out underperforming keywords
• Continually drive downloads and reviews
• Test, test, test

46. Q & A
Laura@matchstickmobile.com Emily@apptentive.com

47. Love Dialog Tees Up Interactions

48. Love Dialog Tees Up Interactions

49. Love Dialog Tees Up Interactions