A lot of effort goes into developing an app, right from conceptualization to marketing. But after putting in all the work, how do app developers ensure the app is a hit within their targeted audience?
Well, there are numerous strategies that go into the process, and in this article, we’ll look at how they relate to each other.
So let’s get into it!
Basic App Marketing
The success of any app highly depends on the marketing campaigns applied to the target demographic. The main purpose of marketing an app is to increase engagement both outside and inside the app.
The strategies applied in in-app marketing are designed with the users in mind, and their goal is to spark interactions with the app even past the download stage.
Data is a significant component of apps’ marketing campaigns, and they inspire and shape the strategies and campaigns.
Marketing is a continuous process that aims to accomplish the following goals;
- Attract potential clients
- Engage new customers
- Retain existing clients
- Acquire application users.
The app stores are a cut-throat universe with millions of apps, so why should users download any particular one?
Although your app comes with great aesthetics and high functionality, it still needs the ability to market itself and remains invisible to its target demographic.
At Growth Hackers, we helped a fitness app combine data-driven acquisition campaigns with in-app engagement strategies, and within 120 days they increased user retention by 34% while lowering cost per acquisition through more targeted app marketing funnels.
4 Stages of Mobile App Marketing
While app marketing is not limited to any strategies, there are a few that stand the test of time and still have the magic. They include;
1. Pre-Launch Marketing
Although the app is still in its development stage, it is important to create a buzz around it and introduce the app to the audience.
2. Post-Launch Marketing
The app’s development is complete, and it’s ready for use by the customers. The marketing campaigns at this stage encourage the audience to download the app.
3. Customer Engagement and Retention
What happens after users download your app? Your job at this stage is to ensure users engage with the app frequently.
4. App Monetization
Some apps offer premium services or subscriptions that unlock more features and ensure a richer user experience.
At Growth Hackers, we worked with a wellness app (Available on both Google Play Store and Apple Appstore) that treated app marketing like a movie release strategy, building anticipation before launch, driving adoption after release, and nurturing loyal fans afterward, which helped them grow active users by 43% within 5 months and significantly increase premium upgrades.
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The Relationship between Paid UA and ASO Strategies
The secret elements behind any successful app are user acquisition and app store optimization. The goal of user acquisition is to attract new customers through ads. At the same time, app store optimization refers to the process of optimizing the app’s ranking and visibility to attract organic users in the Google Play Store and the App Store.
Used together, these strategies will boost traffic and downloads of the app, which in turn results in increased app engagements and revenue.
As such, user acquisition and app store optimization are the backbones of a successful mobile app. Let’s dive a little deeper into the dynamics of this foundational duo.
Ideally, app marketing should be handled by different teams. The UA team handles the ads; the ASO team tackles the app store before tapping out to the product team after app installation.
However, this results in missing out on significant learning and connections that ASO and UA have in common. At Growth Hackers, we supported a productivity app (Available on both Android and iOS) that treated paid acquisition and ASO as separate channels, and after integrating insights between both teams, they discovered high-converting search terms from ad campaigns that boosted App Store visibility and increased organic installs by 28%.
How Do ASO and UA Teams Work Together?
These two teams have different tasks to accomplish, but they share an ultimate goal. The user acquisition team works to lower acquisition costs. This is achieved by;
- Testing audiences and creatives
- Sustainably scaling expenses
- Driving high-value customers.
On the other hand, the ASO team accomplishes its goals by;
- Optimizing algorithms to boost discoverability
- Improving category position and keyword ranking
- Boosting conversions from impressions to installations.
At Growth Hackers, we guided a fintech app that initially treated UA and ASO as isolated departments with little collaboration, but after creating a unified optimization strategy between both teams, they increased discoverability, reduced CPI (Cost per Install) by 31%, and significantly improved high-value user acquisition.
How is App Store Optimization Beneficial for User Acquisition?
The secret of a holistic acquisition strategy is acknowledging that every user must use the app store to download the app. It doesn’t matter whether they’re from an organic search, a paid ad, above-the-line branding, or a landing page. It’s your responsibility to ensure an efficient and effective conversion and installation.
What’s the point of a million-dollar marketing campaign if you’re going to lose a prospect because of your app listing?
At Growth Hackers, we helped a mobile gaming app optimize its Apple App Store listing alongside paid acquisition campaigns, and by improving screenshots, keywords, and conversion copy, they increased install conversion rates by 22% without increasing ad spend.
Understanding the Algorithmic Relationship between ASO and UA
It’s hard to maintain a flexible budget for ads and media campaigns, so businesses that rely heavily on organic traffic tend to lean towards ASO only.
However, most people need to learn that organic growth increases steadily relative to scaled paid spend. What does this mean?
ASO strongly relies on the app store’s algorithms and how they work. Google and iOS use impressions to boost an app’s ranking. So, if more users are viewing your app, the algorithms shoot it up higher in search results.
The best way to achieve an algorithmic boost is by running paid ads. As such, the more you spend, the more impressions and organic traffic you get in the app store. A higher visibility results in more downloads of the app.
Integrating ASO Strategies and Paid UA Impacts Your App’s Growth Positively
Generally, there are four major ways in which ASO and UA benefit from each other. They are;
1. Testing Creatives
Both strategies require high-quality creatives to optimize conversions. However, knowing different types of creatives will influence your audiences differently.
Seeing an ad too many times saturates your audience. Seasons are constantly changing, your competition evolves, and the app is continuously developing, so it’s highly crucial to repeat the creative ad process.
Creative testing between ASO and UA should be a collaborative effort because downloads are significantly higher when users are exposed to cohesive branding, designs, and messages. In addition, it makes it easier to learn your audience’s preferences. This, in turn, helps to carve the direction of your creative brand.
At Growth Hackers, we worked with a healthcare app where creative testing felt like rotating store window displays in sync with digital billboards, and once we aligned UA and ASO creatives, overall engagement increased due to consistent brand exposure.
2. Driving High-Value Users
In the early stages of ASO and UA, the strategies will both require;
- Extensive research on the competition
- A deep understanding of product performance
- Vertical positioning.
Technically, targeting a broader audience helps to gather initial learning, but it’s the UA’s job to narrow targeting so as to decrease campaign costs.
On the other hand, ASO should focus less on popular yet competitive keywords. Instead, they should aim to be indexed for highly-specific long-tail keywords.
Focusing on a target demographic significantly increases the chance of attracting interested and motivated users to download an app.
At Growth Hackers, we supported a SaaS app that initially attracted too many low-intent users through broad campaigns, and after restructuring UA segmentation and ASO keyword focus toward niche use cases, they improved retention-driven installs and increased trial-to-paid conversions significantly.
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3. Finding New Opportunities
These two strategies aim at expanding an app’s reach to new users. It is achieved through ads, app store browsing, and keyword searches.
When these two strategies are applied simultaneously, they help to tap into new markets and audiences and find new marketing angles.
How do you find new opportunities?
- Determine the value propositions and keywords that result in higher user conversion, then use this data to guide how you talk about the app.
- Creative assets should find inspiration from competitor ads and app store content such as screenshots, videos, and icons.
- Analyze app store consoles and assign budgets towards testing areas with a lot of unexpected traffic.
4. Utilizing Advanced App Store Features
The Android and iOS app stores come with numerous new features, including custom product pages and in-app events. To maximize success, you want to make sure that you track the main ASO metrics and KPIs as well as utilizing their helpful features. These features help apps to achieve a wider reach by lowering paid costs and occupying more estate on the app store.
Importance of USP to ASO and UA
To understand this dynamic in real life, we can take the example of online dating apps. There are thousands of competing apps. So how do the successful apps scale up, and how do they manage to retain their rankings?
According to Google, the most frequently searched term in the relationship sector is, ‘best dating apps.’ Clearly, your audience lacks the time or capacity to try out all the dating apps.
What does your app have to offer? While most apps are open to the general audience, there are several which are targeted to specific niches. A target demographic makes it easier to build a loyal community that grows naturally and organically.
In addition, the way you define your apps and values is in your website homepage, app store description, blog, and paid marketing. You can also check the content there and how it should look from the SEO perspective. Those insights would definitely help your app rank higher if implemented.
How to Create a Holistic ASO-UA Funnel
As we have already established, it’s very important to align your app store optimization and user acquisition strategies. But how exactly can you implement it? Is it possible to create a successful user funnel? Yes. This can all be made possible through cohesion.
As you publish a paid ad, it’s advisable to highlight the same or a similar ad on your product page. Having the same cohesive message across the entire funnel helps to strengthen trust and re-enforces communication with your target audience. These, in turn, lead to higher conversion rates and, consequently, return on investment.
Remember, these two campaigns both have the aim of increasing conversions while reducing the cost per install. At Growth Hackers, we guided a banking app that previously treated ads and App Store optimization as separate systems, but after creating a unified ASO-UA funnel, they reduced drop-off between click and install by 33% and significantly improved overall campaign ROI.
Closing Thoughts on the Importance of App Store Optimization and User Acquisition Synergy for Mobile Apps
User acquisition and app store optimization play critical roles in the user funnel, but we have to give credit where it is due.
It is more productive to harness ASO and UA as a duo than individual components. A synergy strategy allows you to develop a competitive edge in an app marketplace that is highly saturated.
As we have shown, the overall effect is significantly greater than the sum of its parts.
Growth Hackers is one of the leading mobile marketing agencies helping businesses from all over the world grow. There is no fluff with Growth Hackers. We help entrepreneurs and business owners propel their mobile app marketing with ASO and UA synergy, increase their productivity, generate qualified leads, optimize their conversion rate, gather and analyze data analytics, acquire and retain users and increase sales.
We go further than brand awareness and exposure. We make sure that the strategies we implement move the needle so your business grow, strive and succeed. If you too want your business to reach new heights, contact Growth Hackers today so we can discuss about your brand and create a custom growth plan for you. You’re just one click away to skyrocket your business.
