Posted on August 21st, 2018
You might recognize letgo from its commercials, featuring people selling things in the unlikeliest of situations (like skydiving or in the middle of an avalanche). On the app stores, it’s a high-ranking shopping app, with positive reviews on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Is this success due to its commercials alone, or is the app accompanied with good App Store Optimization as well? For this week’s App Store Spotlight, we take a look at letgo and see.
Posted on August 14th, 2018
Facetune is a selfie editing app, ranked as the #1 photo and video app in the Apple App Store and with over 1 million downloads on Google Play. For all its success, is it optimized for both the app stores? Let’s shine a spotlight on Facetune and find out.
Posted on July 31st, 2018
Snapchat is one of the top apps for taking and sharing photos, known for its many filters and effects. Yet for all its success, is it optimized for the App Stores, or could it do better with a proper ASO strategy? For this week’s App Store Spotlight, we look at Snapchat and all the things it does right or wrong.
Posted on July 24th, 2018
Nintendo’s foray into the mobile space has had some ups and downs, starting with the short-lived Miitomo and progressing through more and more successful apps. One of its bigger hits is Fire Emblem Heroes, a mobile game that made $295 million in its first year alone. It instantly appealed to fans of the Fire Emblem franchise, but while that propelled it to success, is its App Store Optimization strategy helping it reach that height or hindering it from achieving even greater success? Brand name recognition can only take an app or mobile game so far. While anyone familiar with the Fire Emblem franchise will find and enjoy the app, it can’t and won’t reach players outside the existing fanbase without optimizing its ASO accordingly. Relevant and properly utilized metadata will help it reach potential users outside of current Fire Emblem fans, while creatives that appeal to users whether or not they know the franchise will help increase conversions. As it is now, Fire Emblem Heroes is an app for Fire Emblem fans and no one else.
Posted on July 17th, 2018
Whenever anyone talks about apps that were massively successful from the launch, or apps that brought augmented reality into the mainstream, it’s safe to assume that Pokémon GO will be mentioned. Niantic’s killer app was an immediate success, bringing Pokémon into the real world with augmented reality, but even though the app is a household name, is it properly optimized for the app stores? Apple App Store One thing that Pokémon GO did well was update its creatives with screenshots showing off all the new features that users were demanding. A recent update added trading and a friends list feature, so two of the first three screenshots include those features. The screenshot before those properly demonstrates the app’s features by showing a rare Pokémon in augmented reality with the pokeball (an item used to capture Pokémon) ready to be thrown. Each screenshot shows off a different feature of the game, including gym battles, sending gifts and completing research tasks. There are even small touches to several of them, like the inclusion of rare Pokémon or scenic poke stops, that further demonstrate its value. However, with all of those features, it doesn’t include the overworld or trainer customization features, in spite of having space for two more screenshots. The screenshots could benefit from callout text. These would explain the gameplay and features to the users in a quick, concise manner, while integrating important keywords and explaining the game’s value. Without them, the features such as gyms or trading are not immediately clear to people who don’t already play. Additionally, many of the creatives seem focused on players who are already familiar with Pokémon. While the screenshots feature rare Pokémon such as Mew or a golden Magikarp, that means little to people unfamiliar with the franchise. While those do appeal to longtime fans, they make it harder to bring in new users, especially without a call to action explaining why they should care about those. While the creatives are quite good, save for the lack of callout text, the description is very bulky on iOS. While it does properly call out each feature, include important keywords and mention the awards it earned, each section forms a large block of text. Even the headers take up a few lines, and without bullet points underneath them, they seem like another part of the paragraph. Google Play Store On the Google Play Store, Pokémon GO uses very similar descriptions and creatives. However, it does include more screenshots there, including the overworld map. It also includes an outdated screenshot from before the in-game gyms were revamped, which could be replaced with one showing a more recent feature. These screenshots could also benefit from callout text to better demonstrate the game’s features and value, because as with iOS, the images only stand on their own to players already familiar with the game, or at least with Pokémon. The creatives no longer feature a video, but considering the number of updates the game has gone through since its promotional videos were filmed, that is for the best, as it avoids presenting outdated information. Additionally, its previous video was part of its featured graphic, which Google Play is experimenting with not using on many devices. The description is written and formatted the same as the one for Apple, but it works much better on the Google Play Store. Here, larger paragraphs are acceptable, and the headers are more evident. With that said, the description could benefit from placing its keywords closer to the start of each line, so that Google’s algorithms can better identify them. As it is now, the algorithm would read it as targeting “join one of three teams” and “succeed in defeating it in battle” as key phrases before “catch Pokémon” in some sections.
Posted on July 12th, 2018
While the app ecosystem is a competitive one, there are many apps that manage to thrive and become hit successes. However, just because an app ranks well doesn’t there’s no room to improve, as even the most successful of apps can still benefit from ASO. In our App Store Spotlight series, we’ll look at hit apps and see where their App Store Optimization strategy succeeds or fails. Gamers that are into chatting and social networking have probably heard of an app called Discord, which they can use to easily communicate among their friends. While its primary audience is gamers, it is seeing use beyond gaming alone and is used as a communication tool for all sorts of needs. While it is seeing success with multiple audiences, is its ASO strategy optimized? iOS On the Apple App Store, Discord ranks as the #11 app in Social Networking. With over 232,000 ratings at 4.8 stars out of 5, it has achieved remarkable success. However, it can still stand to improve its ASO in a few areas. The screenshots it features do a good job at demonstrating the app’s features and highlighting them with callout text that includes relevant keywords. While the dark colors used throughout the screenshots match, they do tend to make the in-app images difficult to comprehend, although the white text does stand out. Additionally, Discord opts not to include a preview video. This is a missed opportunity, as videos are key for showing off an app’s features while it’s in action. A well-made preview video can increase an app’s conversion rate up to 25%, although a poorly-made video can be equally detrimental. A preview video can demonstrate a chat in action as players coordinate on their games or show how Discord supports gifs and videos. Without one, it’s missing out on converting more users and highlighting its app’s core features. The description, furthermore, is flawed from an ASO standpoint. The introduction is a single paragraph of multiple lines, creating a large block of text for anyone viewing it on their mobile devices. The list of features is properly bulleted, but it’s all put into a single lengthy list, where it could instead call out its features and their benefits individually. With that said, it does include important keywords and features throughout its description, so the content is solid even though the formatting needs improvement.
