The Official App Store Optimization Conference 2019 Berlin Recap

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App Store Optimization Stack

8 min readJun 20, 2019

With the first official ASO Conference in Berlin concluded, it’s time for the content recap. The following is a high-level overview of the content covered throughout the conference, with the names of presenters, and if applicable, links to each presentation.

As a summary, some of the concepts covered throughout the presentation included:

· Data-driven insights is a must for ASO in 2019 and beyond (e.g. organic uplift)

· While there are plenty of ASO tools now available, some companies have seen success in building their own tools using scrapers and APIs

· The ASO game has changed (algorithms are more complicated and difficult to influence)

· Google is really stepping up the algorithm updates, bringing in other factors such as retention rate or vitals, and personalizing the Play Store discovery experience for each user

Session #1: Keynote

Presented by Moritz Daan, Co-Founder of Phiture & Gabe Kwakyi, Co-Founder of Incipia.

Opening Remarks & 2019 ASO Stack Update

Main takeaway: ASO has become much more complex, and now requires advanced insights to stay ahead of the competition.

Main content covered:

· Early days of ASO

· The new ASO Stack 2019

· The future of ASO

Session #2: ASO: The Game Has Changed

Presented by Thomas Petit, Mobile Growth / Apple Search Ads Expert

ASO: The Game Has Changed

Main takeaway: with so much competition and so many changes to the game of ASO, ASO has evolved from a mostly keyword-driven practice, to a more complicated combination of focuses, including learning to leverage store ads, earn browse traffic through features, app collections and top charts, and conversion rate optimization has become extremely important to success.

Main content covered:

· The early days of ASO

· What’s changed

· Where is ASO in 2019

Session #3: How to Deal with Ongoing Store Personalization in ASO

Presented by Aude Boscher, ASO lead, Phiture

How to Deal with The Ongoing Stores Personalization in ASO

Main takeaway: personalization has arrived at both stores, but the effect of personalization is much stronger and challenging for ASO success in Android than in iOS.

Main content covered:

· How App Store discovery affects ASO

· How Play Store discovery affects ASO

· Specific examples of how personalization affects ASO outcomes

Session #4: Decrypting Google Play Discovery Algorithms

Presented by Gabe Kwakyi, Co-Founder, Incipia

Growing Keyword and App Related Visibility

Main takeaway: Google’s algorithms are complex and becoming more-so; ASO must now focus on more than just metadata and CRO to achieve success in 2019.

Main content covered:

· Clues from Google on how its algorithms work

· Warning signs from Google on how its algorithms are changing

· How to apply the learnings

Session #5: ASO: Amplifying the Research and Hypothesize Part of the Conversion Optimization Loop

Presented by Wolfgang Peters, Head of Performance Marketing, Flaregames

The Conversion Optimization Loop

Main takeaway: doing your due diligence and research in order to form better hypotheses (rather than testing random ideas) and implementing a clear testing plan can deliver better, more continuous results.

Main content covered:

· Establishing relevance for users

· Building trust with users

· Orienting users

· Stimulating users with creative

Session #6: ASO: Ratings & Reviews: Unlocking the iOS Native Prompt

Presented by Tim Jones, Founder, LaunchMatic

Unlock the Full Potential of iOS Rating Prompt

Main takeaway: leveraging Apple’s native prompt can deliver huge results, if complimented with a testing strategy.

Main content covered:

· The market trends of ratings & reviews

· How ratings/reviews affect social proof

· Experimentation with the iOS native prompt

Session #7: Ask Us Anything

Moderated by Cécile Guibé, Junior ASO Consultant, Phiture and Natalie Rozenblat, Senior Marketing Associate, Incipia.

· Thomas Petit, Mobile Growth / Apple Search Ads Expert

· Romain Golfier, Mobile Marketing Manager, Spil Games

· Tim Jones, Founder, LaunchMatic

· Nika Gregoreva, Mobile Marketing Manager, MoCoMedia

· Olivier Lemarie, CMO, Molotov Games

Main takeaway: when expanding into new networks, it’s crucial to understand regional behavior and language.

Apple Search Ads can aid in developing market expansion ASO strategies with its insights into visibility and volume. While there is no silver bullet method to store testing, ASA creative set tests (along with other platform tests) can also help apps to hone in on specific audiences and uncover extremely valuable learnings.

Our panel of experts also touched on and shared examples of Cannibalization.

Main content covered:

· Cannibalization

· ASO & ASA and how they can work together

· ASA creative set testing/Creative testing in general — reliability & insights

· Localization tips & strategy

Session #8: Organic Uplift

Presented by Gabe Kwakyi, Co-Founder of Incipia & Oliver Jiang, Director of Strategy, Incipia

How to Measure, Manage and Maintain Organic Uplift

Main takeaway: organic uplift is an important influence on ASO visibility, but is not always straightforward to apply and can have widely different results depending on the context of your app.

Main content covered:

· What is organic uplift?

· Examples of organic uplift

· Sample coefficients

Session #9: How Phiture Built its Keyword Tracking Tool

Presented by Abdul Majeed Kattan, Software and Data Engineer, Phiture and Moritz Daan, Co-Founder of Phiture.

Building A Keyword Tracking Tool

Main takeaway: building your own keyword tracking system is a massive undertaking to start and maintain that is not recommended, but for companies with the resources to do it, it is possible and can yield more insights customized to specific needs and data ownership that 3rd parties can’t or don’t provide.

Main content covered:

· Technologies used

· Challenges in implementation

· Lessons learned

Session #10: Leverage Scrapers & APIs in ASO

Presented by Romain Golfier, Mobile Marketing Manager, Spil Games

Leverage API’s and Scrapers for ASO Automation & to Improve Decision Making

Main takeaway: there are a small set open source tools that can help you to build your own ASO scraping infrastructure.

Main content covered:

· What are APIs and Scrapers?

· 4 ways to leverage them in ASO

· Combine APIs with Tagging Automation

Session #11: Competing with Yourself in ASO: How to Drive Growth Without Cannibalization

Presented by Anja Obermüller, UA & ASO Manager, Runtastic GmbH

Competing with Yourself in ASO

Main takeaway: managing a multi-app portfolio can be challenging and time-consuming, but also highly beneficial for generating insights from testing that can be applied across the portfolio.

Main content covered:

· What managing a multi-app portfolio looks like

· Leveraging multiple apps or CRO testing

· Managing keyword sets across multiple apps