App store optimization, or ASO, is extremely important in getting your app discovered, but it is also the most ignored marketing tactic. And App Store Optimization tools make your life much simpler!
Mobile app distribution is different from promoting a website or a web app. There are many channels of discovery for a website. However, for a mobile app, these are fairly limited.
Mobile apps don’t come up in organic Google searches unless you’re looking specifically for an app. Your best bet then is being discovered on the app store, where most people go to find apps.
App Store Optimization can give your app a push in discoverability and, therefore, downloads. Understanding what components go into good app store optimization will make sure your app stands out from the rest and also help people discover your app when they’re searching through the app stores.
According to a report by Nielsen, 63% of Android and iOS users have utilised search to discover new apps in their respective app stores.
There are many app store optimization tools available to get you started and help you boost downloads for your mobile app. Here are some of those.
Appnique
This app store optimization tool helps you analyse your app keywords before its launched or updated. It helps in identifying keywords your audience is using. Appnique also uses its engine to programmatically identify competitors you may have missed out on.
With their keyword recommendations, they take into account keyword popularity, difficulty, and the rank score. Appnique then presents them in ways that enable you select the best keywords for your app.
AppCodes
They call themselves the ‘Swiss army knife for app store optimization’. AppCodes helps you perform App Store SEO, track your competitors, check out popular keywords and dispense your apps’ promo codes effectively.
This tool comes from indie developers who didn’t have much to invest in PR or other paid marketing to promote their iOS apps. They then looked at where their apps ranked when users searched for keywords that related to their apps.
They discovered their apps ranked nowhere near to their audience discovering their apps. And this led to the founders creating this app store optimization tool that has helped their apps getting visibility and traction.
App Annie
With over 300,000 customers, App Annie is an app store optimization tool that helps you from app market data analysis to app store optimization.
Over the years, App Annie has built a complete platform offering various tools such as Store Stats (free) – helping you monitor the app ecosystem and your competitors through ranking history, search keywords and featured placements, and the Store Stats Pro enables you to track even your competitor’s daily app downloads and revenue.
Apart from this, you also get app store analytics (free) to analyze your app store sales data as well as advertising analytics (free) that provides a unified dashboard for all your mobile advertising and monetization data.
SensorTower
This app store optimization tool has an impressive list of over 35,000 companies (such as Skype, Flipboard, Strava, etc) using their product. SensorTower helps you take control of your visibility in the App Store and gain valuable App Intelligence insights.
SensorTower’s app store optimization toolkit automatically tracks daily keyword rankings for your app and the apps of your competitors. It also helps you discover and identify the most worthwhile keywords to include in your app, guided by their keyword suggestions, search traffic estimates, and competitiveness difficulty ratings.
You can also translate your newly selected keywords into dozens of languages and localizations using this app store optimization tool.
App Radar
This is an online tool that helps app developers to understand and optimize their app store appearance. It is the process of improving visibility of your app within app stores.
It comes with useful keyword tracking & research functionality and is the first tool that lets them publish and manage app store listings for both Google Play & Apple App Store in one place. Thus app owners can unleash the full potential of their app and boost downloads.