Why your ASO doesn’t work

It happens that ASO-optimization tactics don’t work at all or as expected. But sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees. It especially applies to indie-developers or small companies who have to do many things by themselves or people who think that their app is absolutely the best when it really isn’t. There are some things that we need to pay attention to first before starting dangling with keywords, screenshots and etc. Here’s a small list of them:

1. App quality. App quality applies to both user engagement (proper onboarding, user’s journey, etc.) and having few app crashes — it leads to good user experience.
   If the app quality is meh, then it means that users are not engaged. If the users are not engaged, then store algorithms figure out that the app is of poor quality, so why rank it high?
2. Learn who your actual target audience is. Sometimes we don’t really understand who is using the app and how they are using it. Because of that you might not target correct keywords since you don’t know their “pains”. App screenshots might not that appealing for the majority of you actual potential users. And many more.
   Make sure that you have a refined list of User Personas.
3. Don’t end up in the “You just never had a chance in the first place” situation. Can you count how many times you’ve heard about new Twitters, Instagrams and Facebooks? Or about new “amazing” to-do list apps? If the app idea is bad, if monetization and marketing strategy are not thought out, if business model is unclear — then no wonder ASO efforts don’t bring results.

And only then you can start thinking about what went wrong with your ASO-optimization strategy. In my opinion, it boils down to the following statement:

ASO-optimization strategy that doesn’t work is built on wrong hypothesis.

Let me give you a couple of examples here:

1. You have good impressions but your conversion rate is really low?
   Time for A/B testing with a proper hypothesis on what attracts your users.
2. You are targeting a bunch of keywords but can’t get into top-10 no matter what? Have you researched the competitors well for these keywords? Have you made sure that your app is the solution for the “pain” users are trying to solve when looking up those keywords? Do you objectively stand a chance against your competitors for top-3?
   Time for proper competitor analysis, niche analysis and semantic core with relevant mid-tail and long-tail keywords.
3. And etc.

There can be many reasons why something ASO-related doesn’t work as expected. After all, ASO is a process of trial and error. But you always have to know your target audience well, have an engaging product with good metrics to back up such statement and a good business model — then coming up with a proper ASO-optimization strategy becomes easier.