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Bloons Pop! App Store Spotlight

August 9th, 2021

Bloons Pop! App Store Spotlight
David Bell

by David Bell

CEO at Gummicube, Inc.

Enter your text here senpai! Monkey Town is littered with Bloons, and it is up to you to help the monkeys pop them and clean up Monkey Town!

Bloons Pop! by Ninja Kiwi is a colorful puzzle game where the goal is to clear all the balloons from each stage. Each monkey comes with a special ability like bombs and cannon balls that help you pop balloons faster. This fun game was featured in Apple’s “Popular Games” today, but how well will its visibility hold up when the glow of fame fades? Let’s take a look at how well Ninja Kiwi is employing tried and true ASO strategies to get Bloons Pop! in front of more players.

iOS App Store

On the Apple iOS App Store, Bloons Pop! is not currently ranking in the top 200 in the “Puzzle” category. Some common high volume core keywords that puzzle game competitors are ranking highly for include “bubble pop” which Bloons Pop! is only ranking at number 112, as well as “fun puzzle games” which Bloons Pop! is not even ranking in the top 200 at number 203.

Bloons Pop!’s metadata on the Apple iOS App Store is lacking high volume, relevant keywords that could be discovered by using ASO tools. Keyword inclusion in the Title and Subtitle is important for phrase building, but these fields don’t contain any noteworthy terms that impact ranking. While the Subtitle “Pop Bloons to fix Monkey Town!” may communicate the game’s premise, these keywords are not relevant.

The Title is branded only and doesn’t employ a title tag, which is detrimental to visibility. Furthermore, Bloons Pop! is doubling up on its branded title in the Subtitle, and duplicate terms do not improve ranking on those terms, instead taking space that could be used to target additional high volume keywords.

The Google Play Store

Bloons Pop! is also not holding rank in the top 200 in the Google Play Store’s “Puzzle” category. There is a similar lack of notable keywords and phrases in the Google Play Store listing’s metadata, and since there is no back end keyword bank on this platform, the lack of high volume terms here is hugely detrimental to the app’s ranking.

Bloons Pop! is the only title provided here, meaning that a full 39 characters worth of prime keyword real estate has been neglected. Most high performing puzzle game competitors on the Google Play Store include the term “puzzle” in their titles. Another relevant and high volume term that Bloons Pop! might benefit from including is “color.”

The Short Description on the Google Play Store does a better job of including keywords that will help Bloons Pop! get discovered. Using 63 of the 80 available characters, “Pop colorful Bloon puzzles to restore and decorate Monkey Town!” is a decent representation of the game that is making better use of the full space. There is room for improvement here with keyword selection, though. Small changes make a huge difference in App Store Optimization, for example “puzzle” is a high volume term while “puzzles” is low volume.

Description

Bloons Pop! shares the same description on both the Apple iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. The description is using 2,635 of 4,000 available characters, which in and of itself is an adequate use of the space. Taking the structure and word choice into consideration, however, reveals significant flaws in the descriptions when it comes to ranking and visibility.

While the description may not improve organic ranking on the Apple iOS App Store, its impact on Apple Search Ads is an important role. Many of the best practice strategies for the Google Play Store can be applied in this context. To improve ranking and visibility on the Google Play Store, Ninja Kiwi can look into restructuring the description to place high volume keywords in areas that will appeal to Google’s indexation algorithm. Currently, the description not only lacks the appropriate structure, but also lacks relevant high performing terms.

Creative

Ninja Kiwi is not applying some of the common best practices to Bloons Pop!’s screenshots on either the Apple iOS App Store or the Google Play Store. What they are doing right is that these screenshots are bright and colorful and do a great job of showing user interface and in games images.

However, what is missing is bold screenshot copy text. Text callouts on screenshots can include feature related keywords, calls to action, value propositions, and notable accolades. While these all serve slightly different purposes, they can improve overall conversion on both platforms. Working with an ASO agency that provides creative services can help developers discover which treatments will best convert.

Overall

Bloons Pop! is a colorful puzzle game showcased today in Apple’s “Popular Games” feature. While this game may be popular, its ranking on both the Apple iOS App Store and the Google Play Store do not reflect this popularity. Bloons Pop!’s listings suffer from not including some of the fundamental best practices that drive visibility and conversion. Ninja Kiwi could consider revisiting their App Store Optimization strategy to improve keyword inclusion and spiff up their screenshots to drive more users to install this fun game.

Want to learn more about App Store Optimization? Contact Gummicube and we’ll help get your strategy started.

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