0:12
You now understand how tools can be used and
how to consider some of the data and reports available.
Let's now consider some case studies.
These are from an industry and competitive examples that I'm familiar with, and
are based on my assessment of public data.
By understanding the overall strategy,
it helps to see where optimization fits within the big picture.
1:06
This feature enabled this app to become a clear
differentiation against its competition and
approach the number one competitor in this space only a month later,
in terms of the amount of visibility for that particular app's keyword.
Some will question whether keywords in the title matter.
They absolutely do, and this data from MobileDevHQ shows
a 10% ranking increase by having the keyword in the title.
Why wouldn't you have it?
It simply makes a lot of sense.
And beyond just ranking, it gives users a clear indicator of what that app is about.
This graph from Search Man shows
in early November that the app was declining in search visibility.
Perhaps that was due to low ratings and reviews.
But also, we can determine that the title and keyword needed updating.
That was the only element besides the app refresh that occurred in
that first week of November, bringing the app to a standard of visibility
that sustained itself over the subsequent two launches in mid-December and
mid-February, and proves the value simply of getting the title and
keyword aligned to the overall visibility score objectives.
In this case study, we see a number of app updates in a very short amount of time,
3:52
implies that the app's quality is good, the ratings are also good, and
we believe that we can rank well for a competitive term.
And that proved to be true with this particular app.
This app is a regional slice for Japan of the prior slide's visibility score.
For this client, we saw that adding an improved title
with more relevant keywords had a significant impact on the discoverability.
This app had gone through a number of updates through the month of October and
November, and
saw a significant spike in mid-November simply due to the title enrichment.
So this comes back to issues of control versus influence.
You can control the title.
And by writing it in a way that incorporates keywords and
is relevant to those who are looking quickly in the App Store and
trying to make a download decision, it can have a significant impact on visibility.
An app I'm aware of from an industry source
4:57
went through a particular challenging time where it had a poor rating profile,
keyword selection wasn't optimized, poor messaging,
description wasn't compelling, images were uninspired,
there was no demo video, and no professional third party reviews.
Some real challenging issues here.
5:19
As a result, this team took initiative to make some improvements.
First, they looked at solicitation of ratings following the positive
user events like sharing a video, asking users to submit ratings.
They optimized their keywords,
monitored and updated them at every launch, updated the on-page content,
added a demo video, solicited professional reviews from third parties,
added those into the description, saw continuous monitoring of ratings and
reviews, and provided that feedback into the product development teams.
Therefore, they didn't need to update the title optimization to improve
search visibility.
6:02
When all of these improvements were taken into account,
the improvement in visibility was significant.
This shows that there are combination of factors at play.
In blue, at the time of this first launch update, the spike was significant and
sustained through the second launch update in July,
whereas the competition, in green, started to fall.
And so the success of this particular effort was significant and
really helped this client's apps to gain not only the visibility,
but they knew the app was great.
They knew that they needed to put some additional firepower behind it.
And that was proved out by the data that they received.
Checklists can be helpful as you think through the step-by-step procedures.
In this scenario it's important to identify
app opportunities you have to improve visibility.
The app quality always sets the baseline for
where your improvements can be made against.
If you have a poor quality app, there's only so
much improvement you can make through optimization.
Second is, look at the factors you can control and influence to improve rankings.
Titles, keywords, images, and descriptions are easily in your control and
should be the first place you go to start making improvements.
Third, use some of the tools shared earlier to assess your competitors.
At the keyword level, at the brand level, look at the data that they have, and
how they're interpreting their data against you, so
that you can better understand how to compete against them.
Fourth is, how do you measure success using tools and reports?
Which KPIs will you choose?
I've shared a number of examples already, but you need to make sense for
your own business.
And fifth, what changes will you make to update your apps on a regular basis?
Are you committed to update titles and keywords with each new launch?
Will you revise images or descriptions to better reflect what that app is about?
By having this checklist and a commitment to see your app's quality and
app optimization improve, you can compete very effectively in the marketplace.
8:20
In these three case studies, you saw unique ways that challenges were overcome.
There's nothing inherently difficult about what was shared, but
it does give a more strategic view of the potential opportunities.
These types of practices across teams help create a culture of improvement and
innovation that generates great business results.
8:44
As a result, your apps continue to improve their performance and
become those the market, for your keywords, will find more regularly.
In this lesson, we looked at what factors influence the outcome,
how to use data and reports to assess app performance, and
I shared with you a checklist to help improve your app findability.
Dave LloydSenior Manager, Global Search Marketing
