App Store Optimization for Fitness Apps

July 29th, 2024

by David Quinn

VP of Strategy & Partnerships at Gummicube, Inc.

Marathon runner? Pro-athlete? Yoga master? The array of different fitness apps reflects the countless users who rely on their mobile devices to reach their lifestyle goals. But with all the competition, where do you even start?

In this App Store Spotlight, we’ll cover how you can get started with your App Store Optimization, highlighting the intricacies of marketing for fitness apps. From selecting the right audience and keywords to creating visuals that contribute to downloads, read on for your inside scoop as to how ASO can help your app reach the finish line.

Fitness App Marketing - Picking a Niche

Broad or narrow? That’s the million-dollar question for some business owners when looking to target customers. Oftentimes, there’s no right answer, as an app might house unique experiences for different subsets of its users. However, for the majority of fitness apps on the market, selecting a niche may be the correct approach.

The needs of Health & Fitness users vary widely, with everything from meditation apps, workout trackers, hiking apps, and more scattered across the category. Even if we were to narrow it down further and perform a search targeting the term “fitness apps” we’ll quickly see an abundance of different experiences populating search results. Developers must take it a step further.

fitness app store search results — When searching for a broad term like fitness apps we can see that a variety of different apps appear, making it difficult to reach your intended audience efficiently.

While it’s important to compete and rank among the more general fitness app-related search queries, you’ll also want to prioritize competing among apps that are most closely related to your feature set. For example, if you have a running app, features associated with this might relate to distance tracking, GPS navigation, heart rate monitoring, and relevant stats. Potential users might find you among the never-ending list of broader fitness apps, but you’re more likely to resonate with the right crowd and gain installs by laser-focusing your efforts on users looking for specific features.

So how do you start to appear in search results for these features and reach your most valuable audience? With the help of strategic app store keyword optimization.

Fitness App Metadata Optimization - Keywords

When it comes to searching on the App Store and Google Play keywords are the driving force behind virtually all app discovery. More importantly, targeting the right keywords is your ticket to efficiently reaching your ideal audience, climbing rankings, and gaining downloads. But what are the right keywords, exactly?

We mentioned targeting broad terms like “fitness apps”, but relying solely on generic terms like this one will stunt your app store growth considerably. Taking the previous example of a running app, you should find keywords that closely match the features potential users are mostly interested in. Using ASO Tools can help you identify which terms you should be targeting based on key market data. Your keyword selection process should take into account the following:

Your app’s core features
Your current keyword rankings
Terms popular among top competitors
Keyword search volume
Phrase building potential

Arming yourself with the right ASO strategy when researching and selecting keywords is essential to help you establish relevance for the terms most important to your app. Once you’ve established relevance in the eyes of Apple and Google’s algorithms you can begin to gradually grow your app, making continuous adjustments to each iteration, and increase in rankings.

Screenshot Tips for Fitness Apps

Your app creatives are one of the most important assets of your entire app store listing. Providing a visually engaging experience for potential users, they allow you to showcase core features in a way that accurately reflects how users would experience them in your app. Whether you opt for an app preview or screenshots, this section of your listing is essential to garnering attention, informing, and gaining downloads. So how do you go about it?

Similar to your keyword optimization process, your creative optimization should begin with carefully analyzing what is working in the market first. Analyze what comparable features competitors are highlighting in their creatives and how they are calling them out. For example, has a high-ranking competitor highlighted a distance-tracking feature in its first screenshot? Maybe you should consider highlighting it.

Additionally, you should use this as an opportunity to highlight any unique value propositions. Sure, you might share similar features with competitors, but are yours possibly more intuitive than the rest? Calling out these differences can be the difference between being part of the noise or standing out in search results.

To showcase these features you’ll want to follow ASO best practices such as:

Emphasizing features through keywords
Including in-app imagery to accurately display the user experience
Incorporating emphasized UI elements
Having a cohesive and on-brand color scheme

There are several elements that make creatives “good”, but following proven screenshot tips can help you curate visuals that attract, engage, inform, and convert.

App Store Marketing for Fitness Apps - Get Started

The principles behind App Store Optimization are identical across the board. However, each app category will have its own nuances that will force you to adapt your app store marketing strategy to reach the right audience. This is no different when running a fitness app.

Picking a niche and positioning your listing to reach its user base is essential in a category like fitness, which is flooded with a diverse range of different services and experiences. Once selected, you can focus your efforts on creating a listing that reflects what your target audience is looking for, backed by reliable mobile data guiding every edit you make to your keywords and creatives.

Need help with your fitness app marketing? Get in touch with the ASO experts at Gummicube today!