It’s no secret that the app-stores are a crowded place. Simply uploading your app and sitting back waiting for the downloads to start rolling in just won’t cut it (nor will it work). As an app developer or marketer you need to invest time and energy into a process known as app store optimisation if you want to stand any chance at getting noticed by your target audience.
If you’re not familiar with ASO then you can read all about it in depth here. However in a nutshell, app store optimisation is the process of optimising your mobile app store page by enhancing factors such as your keywords, description, icon, screenshots etc., in an attempt to rank higher in the app-store and increase app downloads.
Getting started with your app store optimisation can be tricky, and it might feel like you are going in there completely blind. However this is not totally true as there are so many great tools out there that focus solely on enabling you to have the best ASO strategy possible.
Check out our top 7 app store optimisation tools and discover how you can use them to improve your ASO and boost your app’s rank and discoverability on the app-stores...
7 App Store Optimisation Tools to Improve Your ASO
AppAnnie’s freebie version is perfect for tracking your apps performance in terms of keyword rankings, ratings and reviews. You can also use this version to check out what keywords your competitors are ranking for, making this the ideal tool for keyword research as it points you exactly in the right direction of what keywords you should be going after for you own app. If you have the budget available for AppAnnie’s premium version then you can unlock a huge amounts of data and analytics on every major mobile app that could be extremely helpful for your ASO. For example, keyword search volume, difficulty and traffic share, estimates for downloads and revenue, usage estimates, app audience estimates and much much more.
AppAnnie's Dashboard
Mobile Action is an ASO Intelligence product that helps you to drive more downloads for your apps with its 4 key features: Keyword Tracking, Keyword Suggestion, Keyword Intelligence and Competitor Tracking. These tools allow you to see how you rank for every keyword, explore your keyword ranking history, gain insight on your competitors keywords and access to long lists of related keywords so you never run out of ideas.
What makes this tool stand out, however, is the ‘Recommended Actions’ feature. This is connected with your iTunes Connect or Google Play Developer Console account and gives you factually supported advice on how you need to improve based on your main goal.
Recommended insights from Mobile Action
The clue is in the name. This free, easy-to-use, basic tool is exactly what you need to kick-start your keyword research. Using the App Store autocomplete, this tool generates hundreds of both short and long-tail keywords related to the words or phrase you entered in the search box. While it lacks in a lot of extra useful information such as search volumes, difficulty etc., it’s still a handy tool for apps at the beginning of the research process and for those with no budget for any expensive, fancy ASO tools.
The Keyword Tool search bar
StoreMaven invented App Store A/B testing in 2014 and has since helped over 60% of top mobile publishers (such as Google, King, Facebook, and Uber) improve their ASO strategies and reduce an app’s acquisition costs. StoreMaven allows you to clone your app-store page, changing particular elements such as your icon, screenshots, video or other. It then sends a portion of your traffic to this test URL, analysing which page performs better on the realtime dashboard. This allows you to figure out what designs work best at converting those people who view your app-store page to users. 
This tool has the ability to seamlessly translate your iOS or Android app into any language, claiming to save up to 60% in process time. With their user-friendly dashboard you can view the whole task at a glance and quickly access any missing translations or view translations needing proofread in a few clicks.
Split Metrics is an all-in-one A/B testing and analytics platform for App Store and Google Play. It allows you to test various elements on your app-store page to figure out which content brings in the most downloads. The team dashboard also allows for you to collaborate on your app store page creatives with your team and get feedback fast. As well as that their platform enables you to track every tap and scroll of users on your app-page so you can understand how users interact with each element of your app page e.g. do they scroll screenshots, which one caught their eye, how long they watch the video for etc. Another neat feature is the best practices and insights that give you tips on how to design your app store page for maximum conversion by analysing the latest design trends and data from thousands of new experiments.
TheTool claims to be the only ASO tool you need to use. It tracks everything relating to your ASO strategy, including organic & non-organic installs, keyword rankings and intelligence, Top Charts rankings, user ratings (feedback), conversion rate, revenue and much more. Their latest feature, ASO Score, is a smart algorithm that revises your Apple App Store or Google Play listing. It finds flaws to be resolved in each of its elements: Title / App Name, Subtitle, Keywords Field, Short and Long Description, Promotional text, Graphic Elements (Icon, Screenshots, Video), Conversion Rate, Localisation and more.
If you want to learn more about ASO then you might want to check out our guide ‘ASO: What The Industry Experts Have To Say’. We spoke to some industry experts and it contains all their top tips and tricks to help boost your downloads and increase your app ranking. You can also reach out to me directly via emma@hurree.co and I’d be happy to answer any of your app marketing related questions.
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The Importance and Benefits of App Store Optimisation (ASO) to Mobile Marketers
How to Improve User Acquisition with App Store Optimisation
