App Store Optimization: Marketing's New Growth Formula. Secure stable inflow to your app through app store optimization
App Store Optimization: Marketing’s New Growth Formula
Marketing costs exceeded this month again. CPI continues to rise, ROAS falls...
This is a problem that any product owner or marketer has probably experienced at least once. Paid advertising costs rise every year, users become insensitive to advertising, and click-through rates gradually drop. The cost-effectiveness of paid advertising is decreasing every year. Moreover, the moment you turn off paid advertising, the inflow stops as if you turned off the faucet, making it a difficult marketing method to secure a stable inflow.
But here's an interesting statistic. According to Apple65% of keyword searches lead to downloads in the App Store, andUsers acquired organically have an average 25% higher long-term retention than users acquired through paid advertising.is true.(Source: App Radar, ASO)
The reason is simple. Because organic users felt the need and searched for, found, and installed the app,Users have much higher expectations and willingness to use the app than users who installed it impulsively after seeing an advertisement.. Just as a restaurant you visit in person stays in your memory longer than a place you learned about through an advertisement.
1. App Store Optimization: The Hidden Key to Product Growth
App Store Optimization (ASO)is an optimization strategy that increases app visibility and downloads in the App Store and Google Play. Like your website's SEO, it includes all activities that increase your search rankings in app stores and improve conversion rates.
Traffic × Conversion Rate = Number of Downloads
- traffic increase: Help more people discover your app (keyword optimization)
- Conversion rate improvement: Ensure that people who discover it actually download it (store page optimization)
In order to download an app, 99.9% of users must go through the App Store.No matter how good an advertisement you create, users ultimately make their final decision by looking at the App Store page.
In this article, for traffic,App Store Optimization (ASO)Let’s take a look.
2. ASO Practical Guide: Getting Started with Data
Step 1: Find out your current location (ASO Audit)
Before starting ASO, we must first understand the current state of our app.
Key indicators to check:
- What keywords are you currently ranking for?
- Are actual downloads occurring for each keyword?
- What is our app’s visibility score compared to competing apps?
- How does your current conversion rate compare to the category average?
💡 ASO tools like AppTweak, App Annie, and Sensor Tower can help you understand this data at a glance. In particular, AppTweak’s ‘ASO Score’ shows the app’s optimization level on a scale of 0–100, allowing you to quickly find improvement points.
Step 2: Keyword Research—The Treasure Hunt Begins
🔍 Effective keyword discovery process:
- Start with brainstorming
- Words that describe the app's core features
- Problems users want to solve
- Terms actually used by users (review analysis)
2. Competitor analysis
- Keywords used by top ranking competitive apps
- Niche keywords that your competitors are missing
- Utilize the ‘Keyword Spy’ feature of ASO tools
3. Prioritize keywords
Keyword Score = (Search Volume × Relevance) ÷ Competition
This is the process of finding the most appropriate keywords that will lead to app downloads. If the competition is less intense and the keywords match the needs of the app, the conversion rate will be advantageous!
3. Does our app compete with Coupang on the ‘shopping’ keyword?: How to survive among large platforms
“How do we get involved in keywords that are taken over by all major corporate apps?”
This is the most sighing question I hear when doing ASO consulting. Big keywords are already tightly controlled by large companies. But here's the twist.
- Big keywords (e.g. “shopping”): Monthly search volume 1 million+, all top 10 MAU 1 million+ large company apps, probability of a new app being in the top 10: less than 0.1%
- Long-tail keywords (e.g. “men’s clothing shopping”): Monthly search volume 5,000, conversion rate 3 times higher
In fact, since it is a specific keyword, it has a high probability of leading to a download (conversion rate). Users who search for ‘shopping’ often just browse, but users who search for ‘men’s clothing shopping’ have a clear need to purchase men’s clothing right now.
If you run a used trading app, it is realistic to start with long-tail keywords such as “used college textbooks” and “used baby products” instead of highly competitive keywords such as “used trading” and start ASO with a solid conversion rate and less competition.
In order to discover long-tail keywords, it is important to discover expressions frequently used by users in our app and specific target/situation keywords that competitors ignore.
💡 real case:
A meditation app started with long-tail keywords like “sleep meditation” (8,000 searches, 45 competition) and “5-minute meditation” (3,000 searches, 30 competition) rather than “meditation” (50,000 searches, 95 competition) and increased organic downloads by 250% in three months.
10 small but reliable marketsgo1 large uncertain marketIt's better than
4. Timing is everything: Seasonal keyword strategy
“The diet app I created will be downloaded in January.10 times“It’s increased, but we didn’t do anything?”
Sometimes, there are apps where you experience this kind of ‘good luck’. But it's not luckseasonalityIt is innate. One of ASO’s hidden weapons isSeasonal keyword strategyIt is.
Year-round ASO calendar
New Year (3-day resolution season): Golden time for habits, diet, exercise, and education apps
• Keyword examples: “planner”, “schedule management”, “home training”
March (new semester): Demand for education, productivity, and shopping apps surges
• Keyword examples: “timetable”, “study timer”, “student discount”
June - August (summer vacation): Preparing for summer vacation and travel
• Keyword examples: “accommodation reservation”, “flight reservation”, “exercise”
December (end of year): Apps related to dating, shopping, and reflection
• Keyword examples: “date”, “year-end shopping”, “new year goals”
💡 It is important to preoccupy the keywords of the target season in advance with search keywords that frequently occur by season, such as those mentioned above.ASOSince the effect usually takes more than two weeks, the key is to calculate the product's keywords in advance in preparation for the season.
Slow Food Marketing, ASO
fade marketingIf it's fast food,ASOis slow food.
There are no immediate results after implementation, but once established, it ensures a continuous and stable inflow. Even without burning advertising costs, many new users come voluntarily every day.
“ASO is not a one-time project. The app store algorithm continues to change, and the competitive environment also changes. But because of that, there are even more opportunities.”
Of course, it is good to eat all foods equally, so it is most important to carry out appropriate marketing according to the situation of the product.
I hope that all of your services are successful, and thank you for reading this long post!