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Pokémon: Magikarp Jump App Store Spotlight
October 9th, 2018
by David Bell
CEO at Gummicube, Inc.
While Pokemon GO may be the Pokemon app that took the world by storm, The Pokemon Company has released other apps and mobile games. One such game is Magikarp Jump, a light game where players raise up a weak little fish Pokemon to jump high into the sky. In this week’s App Store Spotlight, we reel in Magikarp Jump and see if its App Store Optimization is super effective or a flop.
iOS
On the Apple App Store, Magikarp Jump is the seventh ranked app for the “Pokemon” keyword, as well as for “Pokemon Go.” It also ranks as the top app for all “Magikarp” keywords and its misspellings and is the top app for “Pokemon 3DS” and “Pokemon simulator,” while ranking in the top ten for many more “Pokemon”-related searches. Outside of the “Pokemon” terms, its ranking begins to dip as it moves into generic game keywords. There, only ranked thirtieth for “free easy games” and 73rd for “jump games.” Creatives: The icon for Magikarp Jump is a Magikarp (a Pokemon resembling a large orange koi fish) floating in a lake. It’s bright and cartoony, but quickly illustrates the star of the app. The screenshots show each of the features of the game, first calling out that it’s an official game about Magikarp, then showcasing the training, jumping competitions, the variety Magikarp patterns players can find and the assistant Pokemon players can place around their lake. Each one has callout text that clearly illustrates what the feature is. However, out of the ten allowed screenshots, the app page only uses five. While those five are the most important, there are more features it could include, such as the little cutscenes or the lake customization features within the game. Each screenshot is another chance to show off what the app has to offer, so leaving out any is a missed opportunity. If Magikarp Jump were running any Search Ads campaigns, only having five screenshots puts it at a disadvantage, as the campaign creative sets can be used to see what converts best with users. Additionally, the app page could benefit from a video. While videos on the Apple App Store can only show in-game footage, there are plenty of features it could show in action, such as the training or the jumping competitions. The Pokemon Company even released a song about Magikarp at the same time as the app, which could have served as background music for the video. A good video can provide a boost to an app’s conversions, and there is plenty of material Magikarp Jump could have used to make one. Title & Subtitle: The full title for the app is “Pokemon: Magikarp Jump,” ensuring that the app is relevant and ranks for all the “Pokemon” search terms. While it could fit in a few more characters out of the maximum 30, the title is still mostly effective and makes the app’s core theme clear. However, it does not have a subtitle. This is unfortunate, as the subtitle also determines keywords, so leaving the subtitle field blank means Magikarp Jump is missing out on several more keywords it could include. It could include terms that it doesn’t rank highly for so as to better target them, so as to boost its relevance for those keywords. Description: The description for Magikarp Jump works well for the most part. It uses short lines that are straight and to the point, as well as a bulleted list to make lengthier sections easier to read. Yet it stops using the bullet points for the feature sections, instead making each header a bullet them putting slightly longer lines underneath them. While it is still relatively easy to read, it could benefit by turning the features into bullet lists. 
Doing so could also allow it to expand on more keywords. The description does not use enough keywords throughout it, aside from “Pokemon” and “Magikarp.” Including more keywords in the description can be beneficial for Apple Search Ads campaigns.
Google Play
On Google Play, Magikarp Jump is the sixth-highest app for the “Pokemon” keyword and ranks in the top ten for many other Pokemon terms. Unlike on the Apple App Store, however, it’s ranked #142 for “Pokemon Go.” While it does rank for “Jump” keywords, its rankings aren’t particularly high, at #27 for “high jump” and 38 for “mega jump.” Creatives: The icon and screenshot on Google Play are exactly the same as on iOS. Once more, it does not use a video, although it could likely benefit from the use of one that shows off the game in action. The screenshots still demonstrate different features of the game, although it repeats the same five screenshots rather than use the extra space to show off more additions and features. 
Metadata & Description: The description is identical to that of the iOS version, so while it’s formatted well, the sentence structure does not help it index for keywords on Google Play. Google’s algorithm crawls the description for keywords, starting from the beginning of each line and sentence. As such, Magikarp Jump’s description will make the algorithm pick up phrases like “What is this world coming to” and “many surprising events” for it, rather than key phrases like “tap game” or “jump game.” It does occasionally include relevant keywords like “Pokemon game,” but it doesn’t use enough keywords with the frequency it needs to properly index for many of the terms it should.
Overall
While Magikarp Jump does many things right, particularly with the screenshots it uses and use of bullet lists in its descriptions, it doesn’t do them quite enough. More explanatory screenshots or a video could help boost its conversion rate, while the description and subtitle should include more keywords to get the app discovered in the first place. This is especially important on Google Play, where its keyword rankings for keywords other than “Pokemon” terms drop very quickly. As the app pages on both iOS and Google Play use identical screenshots and descriptions, it fails to optimize each page to its specific store. The current Store Listing setup makes it harder to rank for relevant gameplay and demographic based keywords, particularly on Google Play. An app should have a different description for each App Store, optimized for the specific store. Although Magikarp Jump is a fun, casual game, it shouldn’t take its ASO casually. A strong App Store Optimization strategy could help the app jump up higher in the search results and rankings, but as it is now, it’s not very effective. Want more information regarding App Store Optimization? Contact Gummicube and we’ll help get your strategy started.
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