Insights on App Store Promotion

Merely uploading your app to the store isn't enough to kickstart its promotion. Understanding how store algorithms work, and why some products make it to the top while others never will, is crucial. Are poor reviews, aggressive design, limited promotion budget, or poorly constructed semantics to blame? In this piece, with assistance from the iRent team, we've delved into the "devilish" details of ASO optimization.

How long does it take to get a keyword to the top? How can this period be shortened?

Reaching the third place usually takes around two weeks. Transitioning from third to first place can take anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks, depending on the competition level with other apps. This period can be shortened by increasing the amount of motivated traffic and reviews. However, we find it quite risky, as such actions could lead to an app being banned.

What's the minimum number of keywords that usually lead to good profit?

There are two approaches. The first is creating a specialized app for a single keyword and only including it in the title, nothing else. This is often sufficient. The second approach involves creating a universal app with numerous keywords, trying to add as many as the AppStore supports. They must be relevant to the app's design.

Is there a "golden" keyword that brings in significantly more than the rest? Has there ever been a keyword that consistently led apps to profit?

Yes, but not all apps will fit. There's always a correlation between keywords and designs - certain keywords fit certain designs but not others. Therefore, if the keyword and the app don't quite match, the results won't be very good.

Does additional profit come from FB*/UAC/In-App for ASO apps? Or could this harm the app in the store and it's better not to risk it?

Using FB*/UAC/In-App on an app can, over time, lead to new indexing of new keywords for that app. The AppStore always responds well to "purchased" traffic, adding a bit of trust to the app. If you only boost the app through motivated traffic without adding FB*, the AppStore might trigger a premature ban. Running motivated and FB* traffic concurrently will likely blend these traffic types without arousing system suspicion.

What's the cost of iOS and Android apps in iRent? How many apps do you produce monthly on average?

One development cycle costs us between $800 and $1200. But including banned apps and other expenses, the cost of one app released into the store goes up to about $2000–2500. We produce 3–5 apps for ASO monthly and 5–10 for public (rental) per month.

How does an app's aggressive design impact bans and conversion? Is there a middle ground in this matter to maintain conversion rates without catching bans? Share some life hacks.

An overly aggressive app design might not pass the initial check within the store. Moderators might be okay with everything up to the placeholder, but the design itself could raise suspicions of real-money gambling, leading to a rejection of "Hidden Functionality." Over time, iOS app arbitrage with the AppStore has somewhat adjusted, understanding more about what we're trying to discreetly do. Aim to present a conditionally white app to moderators. Recently, we've focused on concepts that pass moderation and yield good conversion rates.

Do you work with app reviews and ratings? How does addressing reviews affect trust from the markets and/or conversion from these apps?

If our app accumulates a bunch of bad reviews, and the target audience sees a rating of, say, 1–2–3 upon installation, it's not good. So, we simply overlay them with good reviews. We don't deal with responding to negative reviews — overlaying is sufficient. We balance the rating to 4 with driven visitors. We achieve normal conversion with a GEO rating of 3.5 and above. If it drops below 3, conversion starts to decline.

What mistakes do newcomers to ASO most often make, in your opinion?

It's hard to say definitively. Competing with strong ASO apps was one issue we encountered starting. Newcomers might enter into expensive competitions, but if an app with a strong design is popular, competing will be costly and not always sensible. Even from the top position, users (organic traffic) might still prefer an app with a stronger design from the second position. Another mistake is choosing app themes. Sometimes, analysis tools might show high traffic for a keyword, but in reality, it's half that amount. And the keyword itself might not be very relevant or converting. There's no ready solution to this problem - it's all about learning through experience.

What's the minimum budget newcomers should prepare for launching into ASO?

It's difficult for me to answer, as everyone has different business models. In our case, we already had a quality app development process set up for Facebook*, so entering ASO equated to roughly a monthly traffic budget of about $10–15K for us. If a team doesn't have its development, it's a different story altogether. For example, buying five apps at $3,000 each plus a traffic budget. Under different circumstances, it turns out that for a start, you need from $10,000 to $30,000 and more.