Tabarak Paracha
Starting with keyword research for ASO even before you develop an app might seem counterintuitive, but it works! We hosted Steve P. Young, CEO of App Masters and Indie App Santa, on our YouTube channel who explains how this strategy works.
Steve dives into the following ASO gems:
- – How to conduct keyword research the right way to organically rank #1 on the App Store (with a FREE template included)
- – A real-life example of generating around $1,600 in sales in just 22 days using free ASO techniques
- – His favorite free tool for ASO
This is especially relevant for small developers.
What is ASO?
In simple words, ASO is SEO for the App Store. As people search for your keywords, they find your app and download the app.
As an indie app developer, the key to standing out in the crowded app marketplace is to focus on strategic keyword research and App Store Optimization (ASO). While the big players in the industry may be pouring massive budgets into user acquisition (UA) campaigns, you can gain a competitive edge by honing in on the right keywords and optimizing your app’s presence in the App Store.
In the rest of the article (and video), Steve provides a systematic breakdown for ASO for indie app developers using a real life example.
His first and most crucial piece of advice…
Dude! Do (Keyword) Research
Keyword research is crucial, and the more specific you are with your keywords, the higher your revenue per download tends to be. This is because targeting niche keywords allows you to avoid competition from larger companies.
Steve shares a real case study involving a competitor of Endel, a niche focus and sound app. He underscores the importance of always conducting a competitive analysis. Endel, according to AppMagic, generates $200,000 in monthly revenue and garners over 100,000 downloads. Steve explains that by focusing on niche markets with adequate traffic, you can achieve higher revenue per download without needing a massive number of downloads.
Next, Steve breaks down the keywords and the keyword traffic score you should go after, as well as what potential each keyword level has.
Steve’s preferred keyword research tool is appfollow.io. When conducting keyword research, the key metrics to focus on are search traffic scores, which in Steve’s example are 30 and 28, respectively. He also observed that these high-ranking keywords were not used in any app titles. With this insight, Steve confidently assured his client that he could secure the #1 ranking on the App Store for those keywords.
Within the first week of the app’s launch, Steve successfully delivered on his promise.
As the images above show, within the first month Steve was able to get his client 145 downloads, out of which 143 came organically from App Store search, only through the two keywords.
Also during the first month, his client was able to make about $1600. According to RevenueCat, only 17% of all the Apps on the App Store that RevenueCat is tracking make at least $1000 a month.
They were able to make nearly $1600 in 22 days for free because they did the keyword research. A year later this app is the client’s biggest app from a downloads perspective.
Next, Steve gives an overview of exact numbers from his own app where the strategy he used was to first find the keyword and then build the app.
As you can see in row 3, Steve was able to make $933 just by doing keyword research first and then building the app. For Steve, it makes sense to build 10 to 20 apps that make $10,000 a month organically instead of building 1 app that makes the same amount of money, but on which you would need to run a lot of UA campaigns on.
Watch the video above for the full story and access the FREE ASO template.
