ASO 201 Tutorial for GDC
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Transcript of ASO 201 Tutorial for GDC
Matthäus Krzykowski, Xyo Co-Founder Games Developer Conference San Francisco, March 28th
www.slideshare.net/xyologic
The Most Hands ASO Tutorial A Game Developer Can Get Today
Matthäus Krzykowski - @matthausk
- Co-founder Xyo, heading growth
- Multiple PM & business unit leader roles in mobile & digital since 2006. In “mobile growth” since 2007 where I was a PM at Admob’s largest publisher of that time
- Since then we saw 3 waves of user acquisition: 1) “Open Mobile Web” Advertising 2) Display Advertising (Admob/Quattro/Mobclix) 3) Installs (Tapjoy/Flurry) source: http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/21/apples-app-discovery-lead-on-google-is-shrinking-but-mobile-publishers-shouldnt-be-too-worried/
- Xyo, invested in by Rick Thompson’s Signia Venture Partners & Flaregames’ Klaas Kersting, is a tech play that aims to re-define how app stores look like in future
“22% Install Click Rate Across 14 Languages”
“75% of apps get 90% of downloads”
We Enable The Long Tail Of App Search
Promoted by:
www.techcrunch.com/2012/12/06/xyo-nokia/
App Discovery & State of ASO
"It's brutal, it sucks. [...] I ask my 9-year-old 'How are you picking these games?' and he says 'Dad, I don't know, it's in the top 25.' That's a shitty reason. Really? That's the best you can do?”
Rob Dyer, Head of Partner Publishing, Zynga
Most app marketing channels don’t work well enough for most publishers
apps
0.1% 50%downloads
get
Implication: The app discovery problem
Every store is different, but they have a lot in common:
- Title, description
- Downloads
- Ratings & reviews
- Icon & screenshots
- Backlinks & social signals
- Browsing & search
ASO: “A set of techniques to improve ranking for specific user queries in the app store”
“These are the super early days of ASO.”Tomasz Kolinko, AppCodes
The Super Early Days Of ASOA Simple Model To Compare SEO & ASO, February 2013
*Since the Chomp update last autumn trials around popularity of queries
** Early trials with external signals (appstore.com vanity urls etc)
***External signals (web links, Google+ ratings) "will" become more important
SEO ASOASOASO
Web Apple App Store Google Play Windows Phone Store
Keywords Advanced Simple + Trials* Simple Simple
Popularity Backlinks Ratings + Trials** Rating + Trials*** Ratings
Conversion Optimization
Title, Descrip-on, rel=author, markups
like ra-ngs...
Title, Icon, Description, Screenshots, Ratings, Reviews
Title, Icon, Description, Screenshots, Videos,
Ratings, Reviews
Title, Icon, Description, Screenshots, Ratings, Reviews
Apply Changes easy
hard -‐ if you change anything you need to submit a new version of the app and go through the approval
process, this makes changes and a/b tes-ng hard
medium hard
Bidding yes
State Of ASO Somewhere between 30%* & 61%** of installs come through app store search
* Source: Circumstantial evidence; ** Nielsen Mobile Market Report Q3, 2011
State Of ASO
**** Source: Xyo, ASO providers, publisher interviews as of March 2013
Racing Games
* Top Game Publishers defined as game publishers with more than 10M downloads & at least a 3.5 star rating for at least 1 game; ** Big Game Indies defined as game publishers with more than 1M downloads & at least a 3.5 star rating for at least 1 game; *** Game Indies defined as game publishers with more than 10k downloads & & at least a 3.5 star rating for at least 1 game
220
over 1300
over 10.000
Nascar + Racing Games
Games With + Fast + Nascar + Cars
Top Game Publishers*
Big Game Indies**
Game Indies***
No of Publishers Examples of Queries They Compete on
Different classes of game publishers compete on different types of user queries
State Of ASO
Very High
High
Low
Traffic Volume
Racing Games
Nascar + Racing Games
Games With + Fast + Nascar + Cars
Examples of Queries They Compete on
>100
>50
5-25
No of Hits in the SERP
Top Game Publishers*
Big Game Indies**
Game Indies***
There’s considerable competition for the high volume user queries
State Of ASO
2M
0.5M
5k- 150k
Additional Downloads Per Month Through ASO (USA, iPhone)
Racing Games
Nascar + Racing Games
Games With + Fast + Nascar + Cars
Examples of Queries They Compete on
Top Game Publishers*
Big Game Indies**
Game Indies***
ASO is not a miracle cure - with ASO you can grab a premium that is specific to your “class”
"For developers without access to a giant ad budget to boost-market their App into the Top Apple Charts, App Store SEO might be the best bet to improve discoverability inside the over-crowded App Store." Niren Hiro, Searchman
ASO Case Study for Indie Game Developers
ASO Case Study for Indie Game Developers
Courtesy: AppCodes.com
“Super Early days of ASO” boils down to manipulation of fairly simple keyword search, really
Pick probable keywords & check for the number of hits in the SERP
racing game fighting game laser game wheelsrobotsrobots on wheels robot gamesexy robots fighter robots
>100>100 90 >100 >100 10 15 305
ASO Case Study for Indie Game Developers
No of HitsSERP
Courtesy: AppCodes.com
As an indie game developer you will likely only be able to compete on some of the fringe keywords
racing game fighting game laser game wheelsrobotsrobots on wheels robot gamesexy robots fighter robots
5 331
ASO Case Study for Indie Game Developers
>100>100 90 >100 >100 10 15 305
No of HitsSERP Position in SERP
Courtesy: AppCodes.com
App Title
- Title is important
- Use keywords: “Lyrics”, “Bike Race Free”
For consumers the iOS 6 App Store update has significantly shortened the title space they can view.
For App Search
For Consumers
App Description
- Explain what the game does; first 2-3 lines key
- Use bullet points / keep it simple
- Important for conversion
Dos
Don’ts - Don’t brag about how consumers love your games;
you are wasting the 2-3 first lines
“For descriptions, we've advocated exactly what you have on there, but we also advocate including authoritative reviews in the description (certainly not in the top part of the description though -- we agree that's just a waste of text). For Google Play, it's even better if you can include reviews that include targeted keywords.”
Patrick Haig, MobiledevHQ
Ratings & Reviews
- Getting more and more important (see above)
Ratings Are A Minimum Requirement
Internal and external reviews
- Happy about that 4 star average rating? The average rating on the App Store is 3.8
New users don’t understand if your game is any good as only the most positive ratings are a meaningful signal to users
- “Prompt users for feedback so users can convey problem before they post a negative review” (Appnique)
- Ask for reviews
“We have an article here from InsideMobileApps that illuminates how important ratings are, segmented by each store (Google Play and iTunes). Also, it's becoming even more important for publishers to improve upon their current version rating, as that's the only rating seen by a searcher in-device (i.e., searching on their iPhone or iPad). Users have to dig in order to see the All Versions rating, which just doesn't happen.”
Patrick Haig, MobiledevHQ
App Icon
- Do not use words
- Do not use standard gloss
- Keep it simple and clean
- Consistent with the app
Source: http://www.pixelresort.com/blog/iphone-app-icon-design-best-practises/
Screenshots
Jai Jaisimha, Appnique
“Moment of truth: iOS6 design increases importance of the screenshot because that is mostly what they see in the App Store client on the phone” “Definitely agree with where you're headed here. Screenshots need to be more than just screenshots. Advertising copy can be really helpful. Treating screenshots like a stop-motion commercial can be powerful.” Patrick Haig, MobiledevHQ
Competition Around App Search Queries
Where the mobile game gold rush is atTop 5 Mobile Consumer Game Interests, USA, iPhone
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% of Actives in Total Gaming, iPhone % of Apps in Total Gaming, iPhone
Build & Manage SimsRacing GamesClassic ArcadeJump & RunRole-Playing Games
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%!of!Ac1ves!in!Category!
%!of!Apps!in!Category!
% of Actives in Total Gaming, iPhone % of Apps in Total Gaming, iPhone
Learning Games for KidsSpace & AliensQuiz TriviaBlock GamesBoard Games
Where you currently don’t want to beTop 5 Game Interests with the highest discovery problem, USA, iPhone
Thank you