Why do you need ASO before releasing your app?
The approach to promoting an app before its release is slightly different from the approach when you have a history and analysis of your achievements and mistakes. Potential competitors will help us in the pre-release ASO step. You need to get into the max number of collections, get the Choice of the store, and get mentioned in the media. It is almost impossible to get featured without ASO, so app creators often cut off a huge traffic flow this way.
The stores give new apps a boost in the first week after release, that’s why laying the foundation during this time is so important. It’s crucial to get the first audience and positive reviews.
1. Collecting semantics
According to statistics, regardless of your category, apps get 70% of traffic from the search.
Place the keywords correctly. Different text elements affect the ranking differently. For example, an app title has the greatest influence, and a developer’s name has the least influence. Different elements can work in different stores. Use the chart above as an example. The task is to add words that are most likely to lead users to your app. If we speak about the game keywords can be related to the genre and game features.
You can prioritize keywords with the Keywords Tracking tool by focusing on key metrics. Among them are Search Volume (SV), Impressions, Branded Keywords, Difficulty (at Checkaso it is measured individually for each app), and others. For example, if you’re new in the store, you should focus on low-frequency and medium-frequency queries.
Analyze all metrics and decide what keywords should be tested first. You can group them for different iterations. For example, use those that help you boost your ranking first. Then, when your app gets popular, you can try using more competitive keywords.
2. Text optimization
In this step, you should start to evaluate the relevant words from the semantic core and arrange the metadata so that they get indexed by a large number of words in high positions.
Let’s say you have a logic game. Describe what the user should do and make your product valuable. You can tell how the app will help to improve the user’s creativity or how he can use it to sharpen his memory. Fill the description of the game with more special features. Promise users that they can play with all shapes of the circle!
You can also specify the difficulty. A high level of difficulty can be an incredible growth driver. You can provide information about multiplayer features and the number of supported languages. Give the word to reward both new and returning users.
Keep in mind that the ordinary description without relevant keywords won’t bring you desired visibility in stores.
3. Graphic optimization
The graphic optimization step is the most tricky one for the pre-release ASO, because we can’t do audience A/B testing. We have to decide for ourselves what the design of our app will be.
First of all, we need graphics to grab the user’s attention. It applies to the app icon, screenshots, and video. Video is not essential for apps, but it’s a good opportunity for games to show gameplay features and graphics.
Screenshots should be very illustrative and text should be easy to read even at medium brightness settings. Don’t get tired of asking yourself if the text is easy to read if it contrasts with a pic, and how the font size looks on the small screens.
The most significant thing in this optimization step is the app icon. Remember that it’s not a permanent element and is worth experimenting with to find the best option for converting into installs and scale-up decisions made when creating it.
P.S.
After you have taken all pre-release ASO steps, you can click the ‘Publish’ button without fear. Good luck! Pre-release ASO will help your app to get more visibility. We hope that the result will not be long in coming.
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