Windows Phone ASO App store optimization summary for Windows Phone

Mika Levo 19.09.2013.

Outline

1.  About me: Introduction & expertise 2.  What is ASO?

•  Example 1 – Candy Store •  Example 2 – App Performance

3.  ASO Impact – A case study 4.  Main Elements of ASO

1.  Icon 2.  App Name / Title + Exercise 1 3.  Description 1 + Exercise 2 4.  Reviews 5.  Localization 6.  Screenshots 7.  Keywords 8.  Description 2 + Exercise 3

5.  ASO Tools 6.  Contact Information

About me

•  Entrepreneur at Levotation Ltd. •  A product management and marketing professional with more

than 15 years of international experience in entertainment SW, mobile applications and internet services

•  Currently working as independent entrepreneur supporting several mobile application SW developer companies to make the most out of their business through Application Marketing and App Store Optimization (ASO)

•  Working with Apple App Store, Windows Phone Store and Google Play

•  My App Track Record: –  Total 14 application launches (Apple, WP & Google) –  3 times in number #1 spot in Finland –  5 times in TOP 10 ranking globally –  15 times in TOP 50 ranking globally, including countries like:

Finland, France, Singapore, New Zealand, Portugal, Greece, Hungary etc.

What is ASO?

•  Process of improving the visibility of a mobile app (such as an iPhone/iPad, Windows Phone or Android app) in an app store (such as iTunes, Windows Phone Store or Google Play)

•  App store optimization is closely related to search engine optimization (SEO). Specifically, app store optimization aims for getting higher ranking in an app store's search results and top charts rankings

•  In short: ASO is the way to build your app store presence in a way that your product gets found!

Example 1 – Candy Store

Which candies do you think will sell better?

Example 2 - App Performance

If you do it right, (ASO and App Marketing) you could get in here:

If you just upload you code and hope for the best, you will most likely end up like this:

Artwork Empty Pockets Public Domain Clip-art

ASO Impact – A Case Study

Since ASO was started app reached #1 spot in less than 2 months

During this time there were several ASO improvement releases (the app itself remained unchanged)

Main Elements of ASO

DESCRIPTION 1

SALES PITCH for your app

ICON

FIRST IMPRESSION to pick your app from the

mass

APP NAME/TITLE

INFORMATION for the

consumer and DISCOVERABILITY in

the search

DESCRIPTION 2

TOTAL OFFERING of your app described in

more detail

SCREENSHOTS

VISUAL SHOWCASE of your app that

convinces people to download

KEYWORDS

BETTER SEARCH VISIBILITY for getting

discovered

LOCALIZATION

DIFFERENTIATION from the 85% of apps

that are in English only

REVIEWS

Effects your RANKING and increases

CONVERSION RATE

ICON

•  A good icon draws consumers’ attention, gives promise about the app and helps to stand out from the competition!

What do these two applications do?

Which one is more informative?

Which one would you download?

Which icon is more appealing?

APP NAME / TITLE

•  App name should be appealing and original

•  It should describe the app and be easy to remember

•  Title of more than ~20 characters will be truncated in the app listing

DESCRIPTION 1

•  The 3 first lines of the description are the ones shown without expanding the view in the mobile

•  Make them as sellable as you can!

c

REVIEWS

•  Ratings and reviews give advantage in competition. An app with stars and more reviews is more likely to be downloaded.

•  Once your app has been launched, make sure it gets reviewed. Ask for reviews!

c

DESCRIPTION 2

•  Provokes curiosity in consumers to ultimately download your app

•  Can include e.g. app features, awards achieved, mentions in the press, good reviews, star ratings etc.

LOCALIZATION

•  Some of the biggest non-English speaking app markets: China, Japan, Korea, Germany and Spain. They still buy apps in English but imagine what would happen if you’d serve them in their native language?

SCREENSHOTS

•  Good quality pictures of different screens of your application

•  Give a very clear picture of the exact functionality of the app. Go from “this” to “this”.

KEYWORDS

•  Main factors in the keywords optimization: – Popularity/traffic – Difficulty to rank – Number of apps using the same keyword

•  Combination of these result in the keywords ranking

ASO - TOOLS

•  Keyword Optimization & Competitor analysis –  SensorTower –  Appcodes –  MobiledevHQ –  Straply –  Searchman SEO

•  NOTE! None of the above are available yet for Windows Phone but will give a good overall insight of keywords and competitors

Contact Information

Mika Levo mika@levotation.com

Mob: +358 50 486 8471 www.levotation.com

www.facebook.com/levotation