Blog Posts

Unity Mobile Insights 2022: Growth and Monetization

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Important Report for all business owners of mobile applications: Unity Mobile Insights 2022: Growth and Monetization. Enclosed are some of the main points that resonate with today’s app owners:-

Soft Launch

  • Canada is the preferred location for a soft launch
  • January is the preferred month for a soft launch
  • On average, a soft launch takes six and a half weeks to complete

Spend your Budget Wisely

  • Advertising in hypercasual games has 38% higher CTR than other genres
  • Games that are advertised in games of the same genre generally perform better with cannibalization not being a concern
  • D7 retention is much higher for games targeted at casual audiences for word, board, and puzzle games, than hardcore gamers for racing, role-playing, and simulation games

Sharpen your Ad Creatives

  • Ad creatives that showed actual gameplay performed better than any other ad content
  • Voice-over performs better than on-screen text for instructions
  • Showing gameplay of the player losing or failing at the game is effective

Create additional versions of your App Store product page

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Custom product pages

Create additional versions of your App Store product page, each of which highlights a feature or specific content, then share a page’s unique URL in your corresponding marketing efforts.

Overview

You can create additional versions of your App Store product page on iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 or later to showcase different features or content within your app — such as a particular sport, character, show, or gameplay feature — and share them with different audiences through unique URLs. You can also use these pages to showcase seasonal or culturally relevant content. Each custom product page can include screenshots, promotional text, and app previews that are different from those on your default product page.

Configuring in App Store Connect

When creating a custom product page in App Store Connect, you can choose to start with a copy of your default product page or a blank page. You can then customize screenshots, promotional text, and app previews for any of your page’s localizations. Any metadata you provide must be submitted for review, which you can do independent of an app update. You can have up to 35 custom product pages per app published on the App Store at a time. For a smooth review experience, make sure your screenshots and app previews follow the specifications and that all metadata follows the App Store Review Guidelines.

Marketing custom product pages

Once you’ve created a custom product page, you can use its unique URL to share it through your marketing efforts, such as social media advertising or promotional communications. For example, you can promote a sports team in an email campaign and link to the custom product page that highlights that team. The unique URL adds a new product page ID parameter to the default product page URL. For example: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mountain-climber/id12345678?ppid=45812c9b-c296-43d3-c6a0-c5a02f74bf6e

Advertising networks can also use custom product pages in StoreKit-rendered advertisements. They’ll use the custom product page ID as the customProductPageIdentifier when using SKOverlay, or as the SKStoreProductParameterCustomProductPageIdentifier when using SKStoreProductViewController.

Early next year, you’ll be able to use custom product pages to create ad variations with Apple Search Ads. Custom product pages will be available to select right from your Apple Search Ads account, letting you create more relevant ads for different audiences.

Learn more about Apple Search Ads

Custom product pages don’t appear when someone searches for your app or game on the App Store, but may appear in editorially curated selections on the Today, Games, and Apps tabs.

Measuring success

Once your custom product pages are live, you can measure their performance in App Analytics in App Store Connect. Under the Acquisition tab, you’ll see product page impressions, downloads, redownloads, and conversion rates to understand how effective each page is at encouraging app downloads. You can also view retention data and average proceeds per paying user for each custom product page. Additionally, you can compare the performance of your custom product pages against your default product page, and see whether people who downloaded your app from a custom product page stay engaged longer or spend more on in-app purchases.

ASO Tip #5 – The Importance of Reviews & Ratings

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ASO Tip #5 - Ratings and Reviews

Welcome back to the last of our 5-part series of App Store Optimization (ASO) tips.

The goal of this series was to help app publishers and developers with a critical part in the app ecosystem: the app store product page. So far we have covered off improving your name; looked at how important it was to get your icon right; reviewed what to do to improve your screenshots; and, last week, revealed the secret formula to writing a successful product description.

This week we focus our last tip on the importance of reviews and ratings especially as it relates to discovery and downloads.

We all know how important customer feedback is. Comments and ratings provides invaluable information direct from the consumers of our applications. This is obvious a great source of learnings which can be taken back to influence the application’s product roadmap whether its through a bug fix or feature enhancement.

What might not be well known is how important ratings and reviews factor into discovery and download of your app.

From a Discovery perspective: ratings and reviews are considered as metadata for search and can even help to categorize your app in search results according to news which broke this week on TechCrunch on possible enhancements Apple is making from their recent acquisition of Chomp, a leading app search engine, which uses customer feedback to influence discovery. If this is true, then gaining reviews becomes key for app publishers not only to get valuable feedback but also to ensure that their page is rich with keywords which can help them be found in search results.

From a Download perspective: ratings and reviews could mean the difference of a potential user downloading your app over a direct competitors – especially in list view on the device. We covered how important it was to stand out from the crowd with a great name and especially a killer icon. Well those little stars that get lit up when you get a rating and the numbers that grow when reviews are written are another way for your app to get noticed. If there is an app in the list that is similar to yours and you have stars (any stars) and more reviews, you are much more likely to be the one that is tapped on to continue forward and downloaded. Of course, when you start to be compared to others that also have many reviews and ratings, the importance of what your star rating and how many positive reviews you have become a factor.

So what to do? How do you get reviews and ratings? Here are a couple of ideas to get you started

  • Ask for them! Have a call to action to “Rate and Review Our App” on your product description, in your marketing materials, your emails and newsletters, your social networks – wherever it makes sense
  • Use pop-up notification reminders in your app to ask for active users to give their feedback
  • Build a resident area in your app, like in your menu, which prompts users to rate and review
  • Hold contests and promotions to gather feedback leveraging your social networks and databases

We hope you have enjoyed the ASO (App Store Optimization) Series. Please feel free to reach out to us directly at info@app-promo.com if you have any questions or keep the conversation going on our Twitter account @AppPromo.

 

ASO Tip #4 – The Secret Product Description Formula

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App Store Writers BlockWelcome back to the ASO (App Store Optimization) article series.

We have covered so far in this series ensuring that your name and image assets: icon and screenshots are working hard to sell your app within the app store environment. Today we tackle the product page element which usually takes the most time to complete and because of this work effort is often left untapped – the product description.

App stores provide developers and app publishers with 4000 characters to tell potential downloaders in words what their app is all about. Since often marketing copy is not there forte, we find app descriptions with a few lines, incorrectly focused on providing support and FAQ or even left blank.

Product descriptions are powerful marketing opportunities for two reasons:

  1. They spell out what your app is and why the consumer should download it (in this way they are the word counterpart to your screenshots). A great product description will convince users who have tapped onto your app for more information to download.
  2. Descriptions, if done correctly, will also be keyword rich making them a powerful tool for search engine results helping fuel additional discovery.

So why do app publishers often resort to not utilizing this area properly? Bottom line is that they are often overwhelmed and don’t know how to begin writing it. In essence they get app store writers block.

To help you move past this block and to ensure that your app description is written to maximize conversions and search discovery, we break down our secret formula.

  • Start with your Elevator pitch – what is this app and why should the user download it (USP/Benefit)
  • Move into reconfirming your price or use this area for price promotions
  • Highlight ratings/reviews/awards/press – keep this area updated as you receive these
  • List Features make sure to include all core features and avoid being too technical
  • Wrap up with a final sentence which reconfirms why the consumer should download the app
  • Provide additional contact points – links to your Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and your website
  • Remind users to rate and review your app

ASO Tip #3 – Screenshots Sell Your App

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Welcome back to the App Store Optimization Series (ASO).

In this series we are focused on better positioning your app within the app store environment to increase the saleability and discovery of your app which will ultimately help you succeed. We’ve covered improvements on your app name and tips to better your app icon and in today’s post we will tackle selling with screenshots.

Like your app icon which is another illustrative asset on your product page, your screenshots go along way in telling prospective downloaders what your app is all about, even moreso than what you explain in words in your product description.

Here are 3 things you should be considering when creating your screenshots to ensure you are representing your app in the best way possible to help it gain downloads.

1. Start by showing the “meat” of your app

If your app is a game, start with a screenshot of game play. If its a recipe selector, start with a screenshot showing how a recipe is selected. Whatever your app is, your first screenshot should focus on the “meat” or the core action the app has to offer. Often times prospective downloaders scroll to the bottom of the page to review screenshots and don’t bother to scroll left and right to see more than what the few that are immediately available leaving your first screenshot with the heavy burden to depict your app in one still image enough to get the consumer interested. Don’t waste this opportunity with a settings page, a splash or title page or a shot of your app that doesn’t resonate what your app is all about.

2. Use High Quality Images

Work with your design team to use the original design assets to create screenshots using the correct aspect ratio and sizes dictated by the particular app store your are submitting to. Stretched, low quality, fuzzy screenshots will degrade the impact these selling assets have on your product page and may ultimately detract from the download.

3. Give some context to your screenshots

You don’t have to just use a screenshot still from your app. Use this opportunity to layer on some marketing copy and branding on the image before submitting. Adding short, impactful phrases which put the screenshot in context are extremely beneficial and go along way to communicating to users what your app is all about. Additional branding elements like brand colors, game characters or fonts also reinforce the style and flare of your product to the user adding a professional and polished look to your shots.

Here are some great screenshots from our client, City King, which we worked with them to apply ASO tips to maximize their effectiveness in the app store.

City King Screenshot  City King Screenshot

ASO Tip #2 – An Icon is Worth a Thousand Words

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App Store Optimization Tip #2 - Icon

Welcome Back to our App Store Optimization (ASO) series.

Last week we took a look at how to improve discoverablity of your app by using keywords in your app name. This week we will focus on another key branding element of your app, your icon.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. The impact of your icon, being an image or picture, is extremely powerful. In many ways, your app icon is even more important than your name is as it is the first thing a user will notice in the list of applications and is often the element of your app branding that is most remembered by a potential downloader. This shouldn’t come as a surprise seeing how much real estate and prominence app icons get both in the store and on device.

Your app icon is like the packaging for your app. It is there to catch people’s attention and communicate in seconds what your app is all about. Its in those seconds that a potential user will make their decision as to whether or not they will want to download or pay for your application.

In our experience a potential user is factoring in the following when they look through a list of app icons to decide their next download:

Design: Is the icon overcomplicated or crowded? Is there text or an image that is hard to make out. Your app icon is pretty small so don’t try to fit the entire app in it. Avoid just using a screenshot and if you have a long title don’t even bother trying to squeeze that in. Work with a graphic designer to create an eye appealing icon that is easy to read and even more importantly recall.

Color: Are the colors of the app appropriate for the genre or subject of the app? Do they stand out from the crowd? Are they too dark and bland? Choosing the right colors is just as important as the right design. You want to make sure that your app stands out from the crowd while not selecting colors that take your app too far out of the genre norm.

Quality: Is the icon fuzzy? Are the images pixelated? Are the colors faded? A poor quality app icon can make or break a decision against you and your competitors. Take the extra time to create high definition icons that are crystal clear and meet the specs of the devices that are out there. Keep this updated as screens improve. It will go a long way to selling your application.

Context: What is this app all about? Does this icon make sense to the user in context to the category they are in and in reference to the name that you have given it? Often times users make their decision right at the list view so you will not have the chance to explain yourself like you can when they hit the product description. You will want to make sure that your app icon relates to the core features of your app so that there is no confusion what this app is all about.

 

 

ASO Tip #1 – Use Keywords in Your App Name

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App Store Optimization Tip 1 - App NameOne of the most popular services we provide at App Promo is ASO or App Store Optimization. Our App Store Optimization service includes a thorough review of how your app is positioned or will be positioned within the app store and recommendations on potential changes that would better serve your app within this environment to increase discovery and sales.

We have created a series of articles that break out 5 tips we have found to be most useful when it comes to optimizing your app within a storefront. This is the first post of the five. In this post, we will take a look at one of the critical marketing elements of your product in the app store – your App Name.

Your app name is at the core of your product brand. This along with your icon act like the cover of a book for your app. It is essential that your app name be creative, thoughtful, enticing and indicative of what your app does but often times app publishers forget that it is also critical that the name itself contains keywords which are core to your app.

The name of your app is one of the strongest areas search engines both within the store and outside the store online will use for search discovery. For this reason, it is important to think about what your user will search for when they are looking for your app and consider using some of these keywords in your name. If your app is an Apple Puzzle game that be sure to use Apple or Puzzle in your app name somewhere, for example.

In addition, as mobile app store users make most of their download decisions within the list of apps they scroll through on their device, it is essential to grab their attention with your name. Using keywords which accurately and succinctly describe what your app is all about will help users understand in the a small amount of time what your app is all about and will help increase downloads but more importantly qualified downloads of your app.

Here are some TIPS when selecting a name which is optimized to market your app using keywords:

  1. Select a name that has something to do with the core offerings of your app – don’t be afraid to state the obvious here
  2. Be creative but don’t sacrifice clarity for cleverness (again a spade can be a spade)
  3. Identify keywords for your app by thinking like a user and figuring out what they would search for and include some of these keywords in your name
  4. Look to your direct competitors to understand the format and keywords used in their app titles to learn from those around you
  5. Utilize a two part name separated by a dash or a colon to free up room to use keywords e.g. Monkey Madness – Kids Puzzle Fun

Look for the next post in this App Store Optimization article series next week at www.app-promo.com.

ASOLE- App Store Optimization- Limited Edition

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@AppPromo we understand the importance of ASO (App Store Optimization).  That is why we created A S O L E  App Store Optimization Limited Edition. It is our breakthrough package to help you get started with your application’s best chance of being discovered.

Optimization of Your App Store Product Page is Key to Your App’s Success

It is the destination for all of your marketing efforts – ads, search, social media – and is the first thing users see when they come across your app within the app marketplace. We offer ASO services for New or Existing apps on iOS and Android platforms.

Benefits of App Store Optimization

  • Improve search results and immediate app comprehension within app store lists with an optimized name
  • Take advantage of app ranking opportunities with our category and sub-category recommendations
  • Improve brand recall and rapid app comprehension and increase conversion with icon & screenshots suggestions
  • Increase sales conversions and improve search discovery with a SEO focused Product Description

To ensure that you are leveraging the power of your app store page, choose from one of our App Store Optimization packages – rapid, ready-to-go services created to improve discovery, downloads and success of your app within any storefront.

Its easy to reach out to one of our ASO Specialists,  you can reach us on Skype, WhatsApp or Zoom, or email gary@app-promo.com to get instant response and results.

🎄 Over 90% of App Developers have seen more downloads as result of the COVID-19 Pandemic

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🎄Holiday App Marketing Spend increasing by 67% according to latest survey of App-Promo.

🎄 Over 90% of App Developers have seen more downloads as result of the COVID-19 Pandemic

 

Oct 13, 2020
Toronto, Ontario

App-Promo, an award-winning App Marketing Firm, is pleased to share the results of its Holiday Spend/Covid-19 App Marketing survey. Over the period of Oct 1-7th, 540 app marketers in the USA and Canada were sampled with three questions.

How has COVID 19 affected your App Marketing Spend this holiday season?  Over 67% of users responding said they would be spending more on app marketing over this holiday season, with 17% saying they would be spending the same amount.  Only 8.4% responded they would be spending less.

When will you be starting your App Marketing Holiday campaign spend? Over 67% of users responding said that they have already started their App Marketing Campaign spend in October, with the remaining 33% responding they would start no later than November 2020.

Are you seeing more or less app downloads as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?  An overwhelming 92% responded they are seeing more downloads, with no one responding they are seeing less downloads.

“In the worst of times we see the best of times for App Developers. It is reassuring to note that the App Business has continued to grow during the COVID-19 pandemic with developers seeing more users and more revenue than previous times” commented Gary Yentin, CEO of App-Promo.

In response to this increased demand and revenue, App-Promo is pleased to offer App Developers a 20% discount on its App Marketing Services for the Holiday period.  The goal is to empower the app community with professional and proven marketing services to help them make even more revenue during these challenging times.

 

About App-Promo
App-Promo’s (http://www.app-promo.com) mission is to educate, equip and assist app publishers (developers, brands, advertisers and agencies) succeed in the Business of Mobile Applications: App Strategy, Marketing & Monetization and App Store Optimization (ASO) services.

With over 3 million applications in the app marketplace today, App publishers can no longer lean on the idea that “if they build it, they will come”. We believe that a proper plan, a strong business model and a robust marketing strategy are necessary ingredients for any app to thrive in a saturated and noisy ecosystem. Follow us @AppPromo or contact gary@app-promo.com

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