5 ASO trends in 2021

Imagine the situation: you’ve been developing a mobile app or game for a long time, went through many challenges and finally reached the release day. But the only thing you see in the App Store the next day is zero downloads. And that is why you need ASO in 2021!

Reports have shown that a well-designed app page in the App Store and Google Play can increase the installs by 17-24%. Therefore, it is important to test different versions of the icons, screenshots and other page features to choose the ones that perform best. All mobile publishers and advertisers must follow the current marketing tendencies.

In this article, we’ve put together 5 main ASO trends of 2021.

1. More interconnection with User Acquisition

ASO and UA have always gone hand in hand. Now, those connections are becoming even more important for the overall marketing performance.

User acquisition is a great way of driving new users from different platforms all over the internet. But the latest concerns around data privacy will make the life of advertisers much more difficult causing the need to use an omnichannel approach.

Users will perform more actions directly in the App Stores and find apps themselves. As a result, advertisers will allocate more and more budget to ASO and App Store Search Ads to optimize paid conversions. Gradually user acquisition and ASO will become completely interconnected processes.

2. Wider Localization

Localization of metadata and descriptions is a key part of an app’s search engine optimization. Sooner or later every publisher starts looking for ways to expand to new markets and to increase the number of users. Quality localization of an app affects the effectiveness of ASO optimization and its attractiveness for users in local markets.

With help of localization and translation of your app into different languages, you will reach a much wider audience and promote your app among the wide variety of popular searches in different countries. As a result, you will outrun your competitors in local markets.

In the App Store and Google Play, you have to pay attention not only to the popular searches but adapt every element as much as possible to cultural and linguistic characteristics and find the keywords and slang words that will lead potential users to the right page. Don’t forget about country-specific regulations!

3. More Focus on Ratings and Reviews

The rating downgrade can lower your search ranking position and decrease the number of installs. There are many ways to ask users for leaving a review in the App Store. 

For example, set up a pop-up window asking users a question on the app. But be careful: do not interrupt the user’s interaction with the app at an inappropriate moment, let it appear after a completed action. If the answer is positive, you can ask the user to rate the app. If it’s negative — just ask to leave feedback, it would be much better than having a negative review on the App Store page.

The key is to use the right question form. Just shamelessly asking for a review is more likely to cause irritation and rejection.

You can also reply to reviews on the App Store. Especially you should respond to the negative reviews as soon as possible. The user will receive an email notification about your response. There is always a real chance that his negative review will be changed to positive.

4. A/B testings of ASO elements

Here is another example of growing interconnection with UA. Traffic teams tend to test lots of creatives for each campaign. The winning concepts can be also used as a preview in the app stores to deliver an attractive message to the users.

A/B testing of every app store feature is also an important thing. You test different hypotheses like variations of background colors and fonts on the screenshot or arrangement options on the app’s page description. You see what performs best for a particular audience, analyze the details, and then use it. The same goes for videos, icons and practically every element on the page.

It’s very similar to the process of testing creatives for UA with the only difference that you have to test much more elements in the case of ASO.

5. Trending Categories

The huge growth of the mobile market that happened in 2020 will continue this year. This state of affairs logically leads to a significant increase in the role of ASO. Publishers compete for the attention of users who are unable to leave their homes due to pandemics so they are looking for online solutions to meet their needs now.

All kinds of leisure and hobby apps are in high demand. This also applies to social, exercising, video apps and games. However, there will be a decrease in demand for business apps, which have achieved great success this year but overflown the market. The same goes for video conferencing apps.

In 2021 things will continue to get more and more complicated for ASO, but it will pay itself off with great results. Using the right tools will make it much easier to find new features and understand app store logic.

ASO is not a one-time task. It’s a constantly developing ecosystem of events that you have to study in-depth if you want your app to succeed. You need to constantly test and analyze the results, your competitors, and keep up with all the trends in the mobile marketing world. At SLON Media we help mobile companies to improve their performance on the app stores. Let’s get in touch and discuss how we can enchance your mobile app or game with an effective ASO.