ASO Tips for Mobile Games
This is a guest post by Marine Nozerand from Apptamin
ASO is a cornerstone of mobile game marketing. You need to carefully craft your listing page to convert as many users as possible. Let’s walk through the essential steps of App Store Optimization for mobile games.
Select an icon-ic character to represent your game
Choosing the perfect icon is a tricky thing. If you have characters in your game, it’s a good idea to pick one for your icon. It will give your game a more personalized approach and you can even play with that character for seasonal effect (give them a Santa hat for Christmas season or heart eyes for Valentine’s day). A character will draw attention to your app and help people feel more connected to your game.
However, if there are no characters in your game, just showcase a predominant aspect of your game like letters for word puzzles for example.
Invest in a game trailer
Preview videos are a must-have for mobile games. People want to know what to expect and preview videos are the only way to show what the gameplay will look like in action to your users (screenshots may give you a glimpse but it’s not the same). With a video, you can also immerse the viewer in your game’s universe, give them a taste and leave them wanting more.
There are several rules you need to follow while creating your preview video. It depends on the store (whether it’s for the App Store or the Play Store, or any other store like the Huawei App Gallery), the genre of your game, etc. An important rule is that your preview video should not be longer than 1 minute.
Source:Vungle
Making a game trailer is not an easy thing, you need to take a lot into consideration: which music should you choose, do you want a voice-over or not, what message are you trying to convey to users, which gamer motivations are you targeting…
To make it easier, you can always rely on an agency like Apptamin to help you, we can work together to create the perfect preview video for your game.
While we’re talking about creative assets, use your screenshots to highlight several game characteristics. Show different things, use them as an opportunity to display everything your game can do. You never know what may resonate with a user.
Additional tip: don’t forget to localize all your creative assets!
Make it seasonal
According to GameRefinery, seasonal events occur in 90% of the top 100-grossing mobile games. All around the world, developers are taking advantage of international and national holidays and celebrations.
If you create a seasonal event within your game, your ASO strategy has to follow up on that. Create a seasonal icon and change your screenshots, if possible, a seasonal preview video is always a plus. Having a listing page with seasonal elements in it will boost your downloads during the event. Don’t miss out on it!
Here are the most typical seasonal events for mobile games:
- Christmas
- New Year
- Lunar New Year
- Valentine’s Day
- St. Patricks Day
- Easter
- May Day
- Midsummer
- 4th of July
- Thanksgiving
- Halloween
- Harvest Festival
- Octoberfest
Let’s talk about keywords
Keywords are a tricky thing. You have to find a balance between the generic keywords you’re using and more specific and niche ones. The mobile games market is very competitive and it’s not always easy to stand out.
Ryan Kelly, ASO Specialist, gave us some recommendations:
- Don’t over-index, the fewer keywords you use, the better it is
- Don’t repeat keywords in the title and subtitle and then in the hidden keyword field
- Learn paid search
- Build a brand outside of the store and drive them to the store
You can listen to the rest of his recommendations here:
Reviews and ratings
If you want your game to be successful you can’t forget reviews and ratings. The ground rule is to always answer as many reviews as you can. Especially the negative ones.
Moreover, reviews and ratings are now localized on the Play Store. Meaning it’s important to answer reviews in all languages. Not only monitoring your reviews will help you figure out issues or bugs that may be encountered in your game but if you can reassure your players, and answer their questions, you may lower your churn rate.
Players like seeing their concerns addressed, they feel important and will be more likely to keep playing your game (or come back to it) if you can find a solution to the problem they’re having.
Now you’re all set to create a great ASO strategy for your mobile game! With all these tips, you should be able to boost your mobile games’ app store presence, you only need to give it a try. Once you’ve prepared your metadata and creative assets, don’t forget to A/B test to find out what works best for you!
