How to finesse your app store optimisation strategy

Building top drawer digital products is one thing, but what happens when that product is ready to launch into the big wide world? Over the past couple of years, we’ve listened to the needs of our clients and have established a dedicated area of the business that we refer to as our ‘Apadmi Performance team’; a knowledgeable team, clued up on the latest product launch, management and optimisation tactics. 

Within this remit is our dedicated product marketing team. Through a blend of promotion, optimisation and ongoing measurement, our team can help increase app visibility and downloads for businesses and brands with a dedicated optimisation strategy.

“Our 3-step approach is simple yet effective and will drive your app’s presence using organic optimisation strategies”

Jess Hill, from our product marketing team, joined when we were building the foundations of the Apadmi Performance remit. Since, Jess has become an app optimisation whizz with a special focus on keyword optimisation, in-app events and community management for our clients. 

With over 2.87 million apps currently in the Google Play Store and over 1.9 million in the app store, the process of increasing app visibility and driving downloads can seem daunting to clients. Whether working with a business from build through to launch, or coming onboard to drive results for an existing app, we often recommend our 3 step approach.

The three core areas: app store optimisation, app store promotion and community management are the fundamentals to any organic optimisation approach. Here’s an overview of each area:

App store optimisation (ASO)

ASO is the process of organically improving an app's listing in both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store. We believe it is one of the most effective ways to get more app downloads without paying for ads, which is why it’s always a crucial part of our organic strategies. Typically, you can expect to see keyword optimisation, metadata refinement, iterative testing and regular updates to ensure apps show up in more search results and conversion rate is higher, turning more impressions into downloads. 

App store promotion

App store promotion is the process of using the features and opportunities in the app store to enhance the visibility of your app. At Apadmi we work closely with the Apple editorial team and the Google Play Store to champion our client’s apps and encourage them to rank in relevant listings. Did you know, every year over 215,000 app store submissions are rejected by Apple for violating privacy guidelines? And every week a team of over 500 dedicated experts from around the world review over 100k apps. Which is why we’ve helped a number of businesses to advance their app by providing our knowledgeable teams to drive their promotional strategies. 

Community management

Ever read an app rating or review and decided against downloading an app? Here’s where community management comes in as one of the most important things a brand can control to enhance their credibility amongst users. By increasing your ranking by just 1 star, e.g. moving from a 3 star app rating to a 4 star rating, has proven to increase conversions by 89%. When working with our clients, we immerse ourselves into their world, taking on their brand values and tone of voice to ensure reviews are monitored and managed effectively and user feedback is integrated into the wider product strategy. 

Let’s look at our approach with the Co-op

Apadmi has been a trusted partner of Co-op since 2017 and we introduced product marketing in 2020 to drive organic performance at the point of relaunch. Since introducing app store optimisation and community management into their marketing mix we have seen a considerable rise in app downloads and created the first ever Apple in-app event in the retail sector. We continue to work together with their team on a dedicated product marketing roadmap, which is heavily focused on organic optimisation and refinement, inline with their wider marketing channels.

Insight from Dominic Adams, eCommerce and Membership Marketing Manager for the Co-op

“Back in 2017, we developed an app, working from a very small prototype introduced to staff, right through to a product we brought to market and today has reached over 2.3million app downloads. The app design, build and launch was part of the Co-op’s ‘closest to you’ strategy, which ultimately aims to deepen the connection that we’ve got with our customers, members and communities.

“Fast-forward to where we are now, we identified a need to give the app more oxygen to help us acquire new customers and members to heighten business growth, but also to use it as a retention tool. In 2020 we relaunched our membership proposition and kicked off a new unit of work with Apadmi focused on app optimisation with an organic approach. 

“Together, we’ve run A/B split testing protocols to optimise our keywords and had the first in-app event in the app store for retail apps which has massively driven our conversion rate. 

“The difficult thing for any business at the app launch stage is investment. There’s so much data out there arguing to put loads of paid spend behind your strategy as opposed to organic marketing. We did do this at one point. But our refinement and dedication to our app optimisation strategy with Apadmi is what has ultimately driven our downloads, enhanced our conversion rate and pushed that app ranking from 2.8 to 4.8 stars.” 

Let’s take a look at the results so far…

Ranked as the #1 Shopping App and #2 App overall in the App Store during launch week

Amassed over 1 million downloads in the first month

Accumulated over 30,000 new reviews and boosted the app rating from 2.8 to 4.8 stars, which has increased visibility across the app stores

The impact…

The main touchpoint for Co-op’s 1m+ members is their app. Since working together to relaunch it in 2020, we’ve helped them to gain 184,000 new members - a 103% rise year on year. 

Not only that, but our Performance team has integrated with their internal teams to provide  a focused, organic marketing strategy that has helped them to hit their commercial business goals. 

If you’d like to find out more about our wider relationship with the Co-op, click here.

In summary

Building great products is just the beginning. With the help of our Performance team we can guide you through the launch and continual optimisation phases needed to ensure your digital product has the impact on your audience and community it needs. 

To delve deeper into app optimisation, our Advance your App webinar covers our 3 step approach covering keyword optimisation, promotion and community management, you can tune into this here. 

For more on building a dedicated launch, optimisation or performance strategy, speak to our in-house performance team today. Contact us.