App Promotion Strategy

Leveraging App Store Optimization (ASO) for User Acquisition

check keyword spamming aso

Most developers create mobile apps with the aim of driving as many downloads as possible. As such, the work of an app developer doesn’t end when their user-friendly app has been created – developers also have to put in the effort to market their apps amid the rising competition. That’s why a mobile app user acquisition strategy is essential to mobile marketing.

Table of Contents

successful app user acquisition strategy will create a large audience for your app and therefore increase downloads. It is not always easy to build an acquisition strategy that will guarantee long-term success. You may be required to start developing a plan of action to maximize your chance of success even before your app launches in the stores.

We spoke to Ritesh Kant, co-founder of wowTalkies, to discuss how ASO currently fuels growth for his apps and plays a pivotal role in his app marketing strategy.

Relationship between ASO and user acquisition

The most prominent challenge mobile app marketers face today is driving organic traffic to their app. While paid traffic is a good boost, app marketers consider organic traffic and downloads to be the most valuable component of their marketing efforts. To drive organic downloads, increase the visibility of your app, create an integrated marketing approach, and find niches and user segments, ASO has been proven as a valuable method. It takes a long-term approach to be the most valuable component of their marketing efforts.

Discover our 4 methods of driving organic downloads to your app

How to build your user acquisition strategy with ASO

wowTalkies is a start-up based in India looking to expand the ways movie fans, artists, and studios engage and build strong connections. wowTalkies is the ultimate fan engagement platform for movie fans and was initially launched in Tamil and English. This is an emerging market space in India, with apps now providing an interface for fans, celebrities, and artists to engage and form connections.

wowTalkies currently leverages ASO and AppTweak to research an array of keywords and drive visibility to the app. With fan-based engagement being a growing industry in India, the app’s success depends on deep research into how fans search for, find, and interact with apps and features on the Play Store. To facilitate their market research with AppTweak, the wowTalkies team created a semantic dictionary with the goal of researching and understanding keyword movements, visibility, and the impact of metadata changes.

Use App Store Optimization to Gain a Competitive Advantage

Ritesh describes wowTalkies as a combination of multiple categories including Entertainment, Communication, and Social Networking. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram, dedicated talk shows, and news sites already allow movie fans to follow and learn about their favorite celebrities. However, these platforms don’t always promote personal interactions between celebrities and their fans; this is a market need that wowTalkies aims to satisfy. Fans today look to emulate celebrity behaviors and display a deep sense of attachment to celebrity lives. wowTalkies seeks to leverage this to build its app engagement.

With ASO and AppTweak, wowTalkies aims to strengthen its local reach and visibility before expanding nationally and globally. According to Statista, the South Indian movie industry is currently valued at $11 billion and has been growing at a steady rate of 10% for the last four years. wowTalkies tracks and closely monitors their visibility growth on relevant keywords. With a list of semantic keywords, wowTalkies leverages AppTweak to find opportunity keywords to compete and succeed in the market.

Visibility history for the keyword “Tamil” over the last 60 days.

Develop a long-term acquisition & retention strategy with ASO

While paid user acquisition has its own benefits, Ritesh has seen an incremental LTV (lifetime value) for users acquired organically on the app stores. With organic installs accompanied by a lower cost of acquisition and higher retention rates, focusing on organic user acquisition is beneficial for a company looking to establish itself. For app marketers turning to paid acquisition, Ritesh recommends using this medium wisely. He suggests that paid acquisition can be a good way to drive awareness and attention to new features or a new market. According to Ritesh, paid acquisition should be used as a tactic but not as a strategy, while virality can only come from organic user acquisition.

wowTalkies saw an increment in daily downloads for the top 10 keywords in the niche segment of Tamil movie stickers.

Advance your product & app strategy with ASO

As apps develop and evolve to suit market preferences, ASO becomes key for competitor research and benchmarking. wowTalkies leverages ASO and AppTweak to understand user search trends, keyword popularity, and the evolution of its competition. wowTalkies’ latest features and app capabilities derive from steps taken to make the app experience suitable for market demands. A/B testing different metadata fields and working to understand user feedback with reviews and ratings have helped wowTalkies find and bridge gaps in its user experience and maintain a strong conversion and retention rate.