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discovery+ App Store Spotlight: App Store Optimization Strategy

January 9th, 2021

discovery+ App Store Spotlight: App Store Optimization Strategy
Anh Nguyen

by Anh Nguyen

COO & Co-Founder at Gummicube, Inc

One of the biggest App Store trends within the last year has been the release of streaming apps. We saw the releases of Quibi, Peacock, Disney+, countless updates for Hulu, Netflix, HBO, with resurgences of Fubo, Tubi and others.

The market is clearly saturated, as more and more companies continue to break away from network aggregators, launching their own app. Theoretically, this would help them to capitalize on their own audience in the hopes of increased subscriptions and band loyalty.

It only seemed like a great time for a new company to join in. On Jan 4, 2021, the discovery+ app was launched, encapsulating over 15 major American cable network channels within one app.

In today’s App Store Spotlight, we analyze the strengths and weaknesses of discovery+’s App Store Optimization strategy and see if it’s helping itself get discovered at all.

Metadata

Metadata Optimization encompasses 50% of an optimization strategy, starting with the Title and Subtitle.

discovery+’s current title reads “discovery+ | Stream TV Shows” with the subtitle “Stream What You Love”.

The title is general but allows discovery+ to target the competitive streaming space, providing users with a high-level overview of app functionality.

The subtitle, however, may be doing more harm than good. The subtitle repeats the term “stream”, which prevents any further opportunities to elaborate on functionality. Repeating terms between these two fields does not help with your ranking for that term.

discovery+ also misses the opportunity to highlight any popular shows or personalities in this area. Though highlighted within the screenshots, there is search volume behind popular show/talent names that could be leveraged within this area. This could help convince users to download the app just by understanding the variety of content alone.

The description is structured, highlighting the breadth of content within its introduction, then diving directly into the mention of a free trial, alluding to the user that a paid subscription is eventually needed to continue using the app. This could help prevent potential negative reviews from appearing within the review section.

Overall, there is plenty of room for improvement, after discovery+ monitors how its app performs.

Creative

Ranking for keywords in the store is one matter, but making sure users download the app is an entirely different issue in and of itself.

At launch, discovery+ pushed advertisements from every channel imaginable, with ads appearing on YouTube, Apple Search Ads and Facebook (to name a few).

When any developer is driving that amount of traffic (and spending that amount of money) to the app listings, app creative must be as optimized as possible.

discovery+’s app store icon does provide contrast against a predominately white App Store background, but this only accounts for the users who are not using dark mode. With it’s high adaptation across iOS 14 users, discovery+ could consider testing an icon with a background that could provide equal contrast across both displays.

The screenshots, while engaging, are not without flaw from an ASO perspective. Stock images of personalities of Guy Fieri are repeated in quick succession (Screenshot 1 to Screenshot 2).

The screenshot copy can also be refined to further target relevant keywords. Users discovering the app organically, outside of branded advertisement, may feel more compelled to convert if they see their search terms used in the creative. The only keyword with volume being used is “stream”, housed within the first screenshot.

Creative optimization as the app continues to flourish in the stores will be critical to discovery+’s overall success over time.

Conclusion

Overall, discovery+’s presence in the App Store is strong, utilizing many ASO best practices already within the visible metadata and creative. As the excitement of launch begins to decrease, it’ll be imperative to discovery+’s success to continue to iterate and test its metadata and creative.

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

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