5 Tips From Mobile Growth Experts (ASO Conference 2020 Highlights)

Thanks to today’s advanced video conferencing and remote communication technology, our world’s new socially-more-distant ways don’t keep us from getting helpful learnings about the ever-evolving mobile app industry. Attending conferences, workshops, and forums are an invaluable source of information.

 

So even though this year’s 2020 ASO Conference on May 13th switched from its typically in-person event to a fully online conference, this didn’t stop the world from gaining access to a wealth of mobile growth tips from the industry’s leading ASO and app business leaders.

 

Take a look at these 5 tips from top mobile app experts:

 

1. Deciphering organic uplift

 

What is organic uplift in mobile marketing and why does it matter?  Organic uplift is a value that represents the perceived correlation between non-organic and organic installs. It matters greatly with user acquisition because it measures how a paid marketing activity will affect the number of additional organic users that will install the app.

 

Incipia’s Co-founder, Gabe Kwakyi, pointed out that a reason organic uplift is hard to measure is that it’s primarily recognized with hours or days of a paid download but may actually be realized weeks or months afterward due to referrals made later on.

 

An important takeaway here is that organic uplift – and user value – that existed pre-COVID is no longer applicable. There’s most likely a “new normal” to consider, and that may also evolve as countries reopen.

 

2. Find the common ground between ASO, Paid UA and Brand

 

If you have a team that divides the responsibilities of ASO, paid user acquisition, and branding, it can be difficult to connect all 3 areas. The reality is that all 3 are connected. 

 

As explained by Hily’s Marketing Manager, the thing that connects these areas is the product. At the end of the day, the product has to be solid in order for anyone to reach their goal.

 

ASO takes a discoverability-first approach. It’s all about relevance and concision. For performance marketing (or paid UA) the approach is ROI-first. The goal is to lower the price and maximize LTV. Whereas for brand, it’s a mission-first approach. Their ultimate goal is to snag a spot in people’s heads.

 

How do you create coherency between these? First, it’s important to communicate – in detail. Share presentations, research, and brainstorm together. Performance marketing results can provide valuable insights to ASO – just like performance marketing can benefit from brand input, and so on. Most importantly, be ready to listen!

 

 

3.  Optimize app ratings and review with an NPS Flow

 

A Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customers’ experience on a scale of 0 to 10 and uses in-app surveys to measure user loyalty and their willingness to recommend your app to their own network. NPS

 

When done correctly, NPS can effectively prompt promoters to refer and rate your app. Phiture’s growth consultants cited the following 4 benefits that NPS offers:

 

1. Churn prevention strategies
2. Go viral
3. Increase app rating
4. Identify problems with your product

 

The key is getting your NPS prompt in-app message right. You must make it clear and easy for the user to take action and find the best time to deliver the message so as not to be too intrusive. 

 

Make sure your in-app message asks for a score with individual buttons versus a scroller as a scroller can often lead to erroneous data. It’s important to identify detractors – respondents that give a score between 0 and 6 – and get the “why” of their low score. You also want to identify who your promoters are and ask for their rating or referral at the time when they’re most likely to do so – like at a moment of a positive experience or successful completion of a task.

 

4. Use Apple Search Ads to Boost ASO

 

An interesting panel discussion by top mobile marketers pointed out valuable insights on just how much ASA can inform ASO efforts – namely on the keyword and conversion side. For keywords, ASA can open up a “black box” of ASO. 

 

Two recommended ways to use ASA are 1) monitor search volume over time and 2) track quality and post-install performance. 

 

A very useful tip that was revealed is to make sure you have synergy between your app keywords and screenshots or landing page. Use ASA to identify some of these important keywords and make sure to leverage them in your ASO creative.

 

5. Mitigate False Positive A/B Test Results in Google Play Experiments

 

AppTweak’s head of ASO presented some eye-opening insights on a testing protocol that can help identify false positives in GP Experiments. Lack of control is essentially was causes false-positive results. In order for the testing protocol to reach adequate statistical significance, a weighty amount of downloads are needed in each test sample.

 

Simon Thillay, Head of ASO at AppTweak, presented this slide as the guiding principles to follow when running A/B/B tests on GP:

 

To wrap up, it’s always a good idea to tune into live events where mobile app experts share their knowledge. This is a collaborative community, and we all have much to teach and learn from each other. We’re all in this together, right?