App positioning. All the secrets every marketing expert should know

App positioning. All the secrets every marketing expert should know

The app market has become very competitive. Even though the sheer number of app downloads is on the rise each year, promoting an app is a totally new challenge. Therefore, a need arises to position apps and optimise their search results — from the English acronym ASO, App Store Optimisation.

How apps are found in stores

1. App / Google Store searches: 47–53%
2. Referrals: 12–15%
3. Website references: 11–12%
4. Top App lists: 9–10%
5. Ads: 6–11%

Fundamental requirements for apps

The B2B app market is on the rise but the majority of the market share still belongs to consumer apps. We need to bear in mind that the individual customers are, on one hand, demanding, while not always being competent in apps and technologies on the other. An app needs to meet very high expectations nowadays:

• serve a particular purpose: as late as a few years ago, users were apt to test all the new things, wander around app stores, and download all weird apps of the “drinking buddy” type just because these were funny;
• be available “here and now”: delivered to meet a specific need and available on request;
• look attractive: according to the current UX/UI standards;
• require just as much information as needed to run properly: users, following the implementation of the GDPR, are more reluctant to release their personal information. In order to reach trust levels of Uber, Revolut or Spotify, i.e. requesting credit card details upon the first launch, you really need to represent a well-known brand. A user will not hand over even the most fundamental data to an unknown app, therefore marketing is crucial.
• offer gradual involvement. Many contemporary apps ask for permissions to display notifications and synchronise user data on the first launch, as well as e.g. GPS access. If we ask for permission without the user knowing the reason, we lose the user.
• finally, the app needs to run perfectly. If your app is “untested”, perish any thought of investing in marketing because all it will do is lower your reputation. Hulaj is a good, or rather infamous example here — its users made large promotion investments but the app… simply does not work. Even picking up the pieces will not work here, as no one will trust an app with a 1,7 rating.

How to improve the app rating on Google or Apple Store?

First, consider good keywords — ones that are actually being sought for by the customers. Let us make an experiment: you are releasing an app that checks barcodes or offers discount coupons. The chance that users will search for these exact keywords is small but instead they will go for #lidl #biedronka and #żabka, so it is worth putting them in the description. Similarly as with SEO, we need to consider not only what the app does but what keywords the potential user can type into the search box. Avoid complicated words and technical descriptions. Is your app based on a complex AR with AI/ML engines, and collects large amounts of IoT data? Cool! But most customers do not go for technical novelties but rather specific usage — explain to them what they will gain upon installing the app.

Second, take pains to give your app a good name. On Google Store app names can repeat but on Apple Store they need to be unique — you might need to add a suffix, such as the #AppName App.

Google offers you 30 characters for the name of your app and all are visible. AppStore offers 255 characters but displays only the initial 25.

The third important element is the description. If the app does not come from a recognised brand, it will not gather momentum. Also, since the title does not allow you to convey specific information, the description is the place where you can precisely state what the app does. Also, the description translates to app positioning on Google!

Take heed: 95–97% of users do not read the extended description: You therefore have only a few lines of text to draw their attention.

What may induce users to read the full description?

• Bullet points
• Please note that
• Almost every app
• Uses these
• Because they draw readers’ attention
• And make reading simpler.

Remember, a phone user tends to scan the contents with their eyes, instead of reading through the full text, so the structure needs to be clear and coherent, with the most important elements focusing the reader’s attention.

The fourth way to increase app visibility on the Stores is a good app icon. It is just 50x50 pixels! So little to express your identity! Just when you look at a few logos that are clear it is hard to believe these logos can be so simple and at the same time successful.

ProTip: On Google, you can use a few app logos and make some A/B tests to decide which one sells best. Even though logos are set, please note that even successful brands evolve in their visual presentation aspects.

The fifth important element of app positioning are the screenshots. We may approach it the usual way, simply by offering in-app screenshots. It pays, though, to be more creative and this is the selling point of really good apps. Look at the example below: the best app of 2018, Calm. It presents the gains from installing and just some fragments of the actual app. Rossman and Blix follow similar tactics.

The sixth, very important, element are user reviews. As already said, if you commission an unfinished app, MVP, an app with poor visuals, or one that simple does not work, you will be subject to ostracism that will be hard to fight down.

Apps with score of 4.0 or lower are not trusted and less frequently downloaded. If you want to make a head start, give your app five stars and ask 20 of your friends to do the same. It is often enough for Google or Apple to index the new app better.

At the same time, it pays to react to user comments, at least for two reasons:

The first reason is to make dialogue with the community. We receive valuable feedback. If it is of the negative sort, we need to get our hands dirty and fix the issues. Often, when some “hate” is coming our way, it is the effect of the app running too slow. The negative comments can also be the result of the misunderstanding of UX. Some things may seem obvious to us, the creators, but the users struggle to find individual functions. Yet other reasons for negative comments are attempts to file a bug report when registering or accessing payments. If this path does not work, we need to make it work.

Looking at the bright side: if users praise the app, it means they found what they were looking for. We often find the “Rate app” feature popping up on our phones. App developers are actively asking us to rate their app as they know this brings new users. Advanced app process creators know where to put the relevant button.

Currently, we can post replies to app ratings both on Google and Apple Store. It is worth remembering that a response will not change the user’s rating of the app but it may convince future potential users or help the reviewer change their opinion.

Data analysis

Upon delivering the six fundamental elements of app positioning, as with any marketing effort, result analysis is the next step.

We most often measure app downloads but it is not the only important factor. Most likely, you would be better off looking at the number and average rating from user reviews.

Yet another important parameter is measuring the sales funnel at a few places. For instance:

1. How many users downloaded the app but never got around to launching it? Maybe the registration process scared them off or the onboarding was too complex?
2. How many users got through registration, if it was the first step upon launching, but do not use the app? Maybe they did not find value in the app or got put off by the so-called empty state, which occurs when the app remains dormant until the user takes action.
3. How many MAU (monthly active users) do you have and can you convert them into DAU — daily active users?
4. How much time do users spend in-app — what can you do to make them stay just a bit longer?
5. What are the most often trodden paths? Are you sure that these are the functions at the fingertips of the user? They do not necessarily have to be on the top of the list!

Below you will find an example graph from an app of one of the universities. The app has several functions but half of the user activity focuses on the Daily Schedule. The runner-up is the mail service — 19%. Those are the functions that ought to be at the fingertip of the users — not necessarily first, though.

The world’s most popular app traffic tool is AppAnnie. We may want to start off with tools that analyse the data from the Polish market, such as JustRunApp. They serve to better understand the app analytics and allow to locate the users and where — once they are found — make them stay the longest and leave positive reviews.

Finally: is it worth investing in ads?

The recent few years saw the possibility, similarly to search engines, to purchase in-store app ads, both on Google and Apple stores. What is the cost and is it an efficient method of promoting an app?

Let us start with efficiency: it depends on the parameters we set. Similarly to organic downloads, we need to optimise the choice of categories, keywords, target group, and target markets. The last parameter is often neglected and maybe it is exactly our intention to penetrate the market in one specific point, say, Asia or Scandinavia? I know cases in which the same app was a failure in Europe but became successful in Central America or Asia.

Considering installation prices, it is not a small amount: with an optimised process, you will pay a few zlotys for a single install. Before you start investing in ads, however, develop the sales funnel well so that a customer for whose app install you will pay stays with the app as long as possible.

In order to reach the top app tier, a few thousand installs are necessary, on a daily basis. Ads may therefore be a good success leverage, good to try out for start. To summarise: when is it good to advertise?

1. the outlays will return themselves in the lifecycle of the customer;
2. we want to boost initial app downloads, e.g. build a community;
3. we have a lot of money and little idea where to locate it.

Experience tells me that a campaign in other places: Instagram, YouTube or Facebook, may be a cheaper solution. Ads build an image and reach a wide array of customers. Also, the social media sites have much more customer information — i.e. information about your target group — than app stores. It is therefore often that social media sites help target ads.

Author: Dr Krzysztof Wojewodzic, CEO of a software house https://escolasoft.com