ASO Glossary

A/B testing is a process that allows you to test 2 versions of the same variable to see which one performs better. It’s very often used in marketing to test web pages, ad creatives, emails, newsletters and more.

An experiment in which we compare two or more variants of page elements against a default page, also run as an experiment page outside of the actual default page, to determine which worked better (for example, received a higher conversion rate or helped improve app positions). This allows for data that can be deemed as more confident.

(aka Pirate Funnel or A3R3 Funnel)
For a company to grow, it must be continuously pushing clients through this funnel. This funnel provides companies a way to see where they lose and gain the most people, so they know where to focus their attention.

An element within a campaign in Apple Search Ads, an ad group contains a collection of similar ads and keywords grouped for organizational and optimization purposes.

The Ad Intelligence tool is a tool that provides AppTweak users with data and insights to optimize their Apple Search Ads campaigns.

Android is the mobile operating system developed by Google. It serves the same purpose as Apple’s mobile operating system (iOS): allowing users to run all kind of applications on their mobile devices. Android and iOS are the most widely used, but other companies such as Blackberry, Windows and Amazon have also developed mobile operating systems.

An API (aka Application Programming Interface) uses a set of clearly defined methods of communication among various components to make it easier to develop a computer program by providing all the building blocks, which are then put together by the programmer. AppTweak provides an access to its own API to allow users to build and automate their data requests and generate data reports.

The app category is the category in which an app is published in the app stores, that reflects an app’s purpose. Those categories are fixed by the app stores publishers (like Google or Apple) and are meant to regroup similar types of apps to make it easier for users to navigate the app store.

An app download or unit represents an occurrence when an app was downloaded on a user’s phone. The total number of downloads represents the total number of times that an app was downloaded. Since an app can only be downloaded once per device, that number is not always equal to app installs, which represent the number of times an app was installed on a phone. An app can be un-installed and re-installed several times on the same device.

App engagement is a measure of how actively users are opening and using an app while it’s on their phone.

The app icon is the symbol or logo that represents your app. The icon must be available in different sizes as it will be displayed several times once the app is installed on a user’s phone. The icon for the metadata is the largest one, meant to be displayed on the app page of the app stores. Smaller icons are then used for the home screen and throughout the system.

An app install represents an occurrence when an app was installed on a user’s phone. To be installed, the app had to be previously downloaded by a user. An app can be un-installed and re-installed several times by a user once it’s been downloaded, which is why the number of downloads and installs can be different.

The app keyword field is one of the fields of the app’s metadata on iOS. It exists only on Apple (for iOS apps), and is one of the three indexed fields of the metadata. It is 100 characters long and is not displayed to users on the app preview page (its purpose is only to indicate to the algorithm which keywords you’d like your app to rank on).

The app long description is a metadata field for Google Play apps. It is one of the three indexed fields on Google Play, and can be up to 4000 characters. The best practice is to repeat keywords enough to achieve a good keyword density, to indicate to Google which keywords are important to your app.

App market insights are facts about your app’s market that can generate profits when leveraged.

App marketing is the process of branding and promoting your app, through a variety of initiatives and campaigns (online/offline, organic/paid, …).

The metadata of an app are all the data used to describe and qualify an app (developer name, app name, subtitle, screenshots, description…). They are displayed on the app preview page on the app stores, and are an important source of information about your app. Monitoring and improving the app’s metadata is a key aspect of ASO.

App monetization is the process of making money from an app without making users pay for the app.

The app name is the name of the app, the first thing that users see in the app store. It is the brand name of the app, and therefore a subject of much discussion and reflexion for companies. It can appear alone in the app title or it can be followed by several more keywords.

The app power is an indicator developed by AppTweak that indicates the global power of an app on the app stores, tied to an app’s category rankings and overall rankings. It allows easy comparison with competitors, even if they are not ranked in the same category.

The app preview video is a video showing a teaser of an app that can be added to the app’s metadata. It has been shown to increase user conversion, especially in the Games category, where seeing how the game works is really key in order to decide whether or not to download it.

The app product page is the full page that contains all an app’s metadata. It’s the page that a user sees when he taps on an app in an app store search results. The goal of ASO is to optimize the fields on that page to make the app as visible as possible.

The app promotional field is one of the app’s metadata field. It is not indexed, meaning that keywords used do not help your app’s visibility. However, it can be edited at any time without requiring Apple’s approval which makes it very useful to promote new features or communicate on seasonal or temporary discounts.

An app publisher refers to an individual or a company that develops, releases, and maintains an application. They oversee the overall quality of the app, ensuring an enhanced user experience and continuous updates according to user feedback and technological advancements.

In AppTweak, The App Rank indicates the rank of your app on that keyword, i.e the position of your app in the search results for that keyword.

App screenshots are images that depict what the user can expect from an app. They are displayed in the search results & on an app’s listing page, providing a visual preview of the app’s interface and functionality. They can also be localized, if your app is available in different languages.

The app short description is a metadata field for Google Play apps. It is one of the three indexed fields on Google Play (the others are the app title and the app long description), and can be up to 80 characters. Repeating keywords throughout those 3 fields is recommended to increase chances of ranking on those keywords.

The app size is usually expressed in MBs. The general best practice is to have an app as small as possible, so that it doesn’t take up too much space on the users’ phone and is downloadable through cellular data. Otherwise, users might decide not to download the app.

The App Store, also know as the Apple App Store, is Apple’s app marketplace, where owners of an Apple device can browse, buy and download apps. The equivalent on Android phones is the Google Play Store, owned and operated by Google on Android devices. Both stores have their own set of rules and guidelines for app publishers who want to make their apps available on those stores.

The App Store Connect account is the Apple account that developers/publishers of apps will use to publish and manage their app on the App Store. It’s where they can update their metadata and used to be called iTunes Connect.

This refers to user-generated ratings and feedback provided on your app in the app stores. They play a crucial role in boosting your app visibility and persuading potential customers to download your app.

The app subtitle is one of the fields of the app’s metadata on iOS. It exists only on Apple (the corresponding field on Google is the short description), and is one of the three indexed fields of the metadata. It can be up to 30 characters long and is displayed to users on the app preview page.

The app updates are all the changes you make to your app after it has been published to the stores. On iOS, most of the updates require publishing a new version of your app.

The extent to which the App Store or Google Play displays the app in search results. This takes into account the number of indexed queries, as well as how high the app is displayed in the search results.

Proprietary technology of AppTweak that enables you to decode your app’s DNA, giving a profound understanding of its visibility, keyword strategy, metadata, and performance compared to competitors.

It is a mobile advertising platform offered by Apple exclusively for promoting iOS apps on the App Store. App developers and marketers can use Apple Search Ads to reach potential customers who are searching for apps similar to theirs, thereby improving their visibility and discoverability on the App Store. The ads are displayed at the top of search results (clearly marked as “ads” in the App Store and highlighted by a blue banner), directly leading to an increased number of impressions and potential downloads. Apple Search Ads uses a cost-per-tap model, meaning advertisers only pay when a user taps on their ad.

The Apple Search Popularity is Apple’s indication of how popular a keyword is, meaning how many users use that keyword to search for an app on the apple app store. It is an exponential indicator between 5 and 100, that is only available for the countries where Apple has released its Search Ads platform.

ASO, or App Store Optimization, is the process of improving an app’s visibility in the app stores with the objective of increasing organic app downloads. ASO focuses mostly on two pillars: keyword optimization and conversion rate optimization. It represents an important part of the mobile growth stack and if you are not investing in ASO you’re missing out on the largest discovery channel available to your app!

On AppTweak, the ASO Report shows you a complete view of an app’s metadata as currently published on the app stores, and indicates which metadata field(s) could be improved in terms of format, based on ASO best practices.

The ASO Score of an app on AppTweak is the overall optimization score of your app for its currently published version on the store, based on the analysis of all metadata included in the ASO Report.

This section on AppTweak contains a wealth of information on your competitor’s ASO strategy. AppTweak tracks all of the metadata updates of any app in the app stores, as well as A/B tests & Promotional Content for Android apps, and Product Page Optimization (PPO) & In-App Events for iOS apps.

In the context of Apple Search Ads, this term refers to the period of time in which a user’s action (such as installing an app) is credited to a particular ad click or view. The attribution window can greatly influence the evaluation of an ad campaign’s performance.

This term is associated with Apple Search Ads, referring to the maximum amount an advertiser is willing to pay for a user click or tap on their ad. Adjusting bids is an essential part of optimizing ad campaigns for cost-effectiveness.

A keyword match type in Apple Search Ads denoting that an ad may appear for searches that include misspellings, synonyms, related searches, and other relevant variations of the designated keywords.

Within the context of Apple Search Ads, a campaign is a structured set of ad groups (ads, keywords, and bids) aimed at achieving a specific advertising goal.

The category ranking is a classification of all apps in category. The higher the app ranks, the more visible and powerful it is on the app store. Some apps don’t rank at all, meaning they have very weak visibility. A high visibility is usually tied to a high amount of downloads.

In AppTweak, the Chance indicator aims to show the likelihood that your app would specifically manage to rank in the top 10 of that keyword. It takes into account the strength (using the App Power indicator) of the main app that you’re tracking and the difficulty of the keyword.

The event of a customer stopping to use your product/service.

The competition score on AppTweak is a score between 1 and 100 that indicates how competitive a keyword is, based on the number of apps already ranking on that keyword. Generally, the more competitive a keyword, the harder it is for an app to be visible on that keyword (since it has to compete with many other apps).

The number of people who complete a goal (signing up, subscribing to a newsletter…) out of the total number of people who showed an interest in that action.

The ratio of the number of users who installed an app to the number of users who viewed the app page.

In the context of Apple Search Ads, this term refers to the average amount spent on acquiring a user who completes a desired action. By optimizing this metric, advertisers can ensure that their ad spend is yielding profitable results.

The amount you spend for each click on any one of your ads. The goal is to spend as little as possible for each click. For CPC bidding campaigns, you set a max CPC bid.

The price that the publisher pays for a single install of the app. This is the ratio of the ad campaign budget to the total number of app installs. This metric allows you to assess the effectiveness of ads.

Unlike other ad platforms that use cost-per-click (CPC) bidding, Apple Search Ads uses cost-per-tap (CPT) bidding, where advertisers only pay when a user taps on their ad. This helps to ensure that advertisers are getting value for their money and only paying for engaged users.

A feature offered by Apple’s App Store, allowing developers to customize their product pages for different user segments or ad campaigns.

In AppTweak, the Difficulty indicator of a keyword represents how difficult it would be for any app to rank in the top 10 for that keyword. It ranges from 0 to 100, 100 meaning that it is very difficult to rank on that keyword.

The download estimates on AppTweak are an estimation of how many daily downloads an app gets in a specific country. The total number of downloads for a country over a given period of time is also available, as well as a spread of worldwide downloads per country.

This refers to the keyword match type in Apple Search Ads that triggers an ad only when the exact keyword or close variations are used in the search.

The static image that appears when a video is not playing on the Google Play Store. This shows before the screenshots. Without a feature graphic, your app cannot be considered for a feature placement. This can be displayed when doing a brand search, in the “recommended” section on the Play Store, and in the Ads section of the Play Store.

In the context of ASO, featured apps are those that have been specially highlighted or promoted by Apple in the App Store. Being featured in the App Store not only increases the visibility of the app but also adds an element of prestige, as these apps are hand-picked by the editorial team at Apple for their exceptional quality or value. The equivalent section in the Play Store is referred to as “Editor’s Choice”.

This is a specialized variation of AppDNA, designed specifically for games. It provides insights into a game’s visibility, keyword strategy, metadata, and competitive landscape in gaming specific app stores.

The app analytics dashboard provided by Google to developers who publish an app to the Google Play Store.

Google Play Search Ads are the paying ad service provided by Google that lets companies bid on a keyword to place their ads in the first position in the results of a keyword search.

The Google Play Install Keywords are keywords that bring the app the most installs. The data is provided by Google and is helpful to understand your app’s performance.

In the context of ASO, it refers to the number of times an app listing is viewed or seen by users in the app store search results or category listings. In the context of Apple Search Ads, an impression denotes the instance when an ad is shown on a search result page. This metric provides valuable insight into the visibility of an ad.

These are special activities or offers that occur within an app and are displayed on the app product page to attract potential users. In-app events are App Store specific (iOS), while promotional content represents the same but in the Play Store (Android).

In-app purchases are extra content or subscriptions that you buy inside an app. Not all apps offer in-app purchases. To check if an app offers in-app purchases before you buy or download it, find it in the store. In the App Store, look for “In-App Purchases” near the app’s price or Get button. In the Google Play Store, look for “In-App Purchases” near the app’s price or Install button.

Paid installs from users who receive a reward for downloading an app from search. Such traffic can help improve an app’s position for certain keyword queries. This practice is banned by the app stores, as it manipulates app store metrics.

An app’s visibility for keywords in Google Play or the App Store. If an app is indexed for a keyword, users can find it using that word.

The indicator that a user has downloaded an app and also successfully launched it for the first time.

iOS is Apple’s operating system for mobile devices.

The “KEI” is the Keyword Efficiency Index: it aims to show which keywords have the best potential for your app, by finding the best combination of high volume and high chance score. Keywords with a high KEI are usually keywords you have a likely chance to rank in the top 10 AND have a good volume.

The keyword density is the number of times a keyword appears in a text/on a page compared to the total number of keywords in that text/on that page. It’s important to take into account when optimizing your app’s keywords on Google Play

A field in the App Store, hidden from users, where the developer enters keywords that they want to target. The character limit for this field is 100.

The keyword live search on AppTweak shows the real time search results that currently appear when a user searches a specific keyword or combination of keywords.

A keyword monitoring process is meant to keep track of the ranking progression of specific keywords. It should also track an app’s overall visibility on a set of keywords, as well as other indicators of app performance.

A keyword optimization process is meant to improve the choice of keywords used in an app’s metadata. It generally includes an extensive keyword research and analysis. The final choice of which keywords to actually use in the app’s metadata will depend on a number of factors like volume, chance, relevance etc.

The keyword picking tool on AppTweak is meant to provide users with a large pool of keywords. The goal is for the users to get many ideas of types of keywords potentially relevant to his/her app to add to their analysis, in order to make the best possible choice.

The position of an app in the search results for a specific keyword.

The keyword research process is meant to improve the quality of your keyword research, in order to make sure that your analysis is as complete as possible and that you target the best possible keywords for you app.

The keyword shuffler tool on AppTweak is a tool that lets you create long-tail keyword combinations. You simply enter up to 5 single keywords, and it provides you with all single, double and triple combinations of those keywords. It also lets you identify the high volume combination of those keywords at a glance.

The keyword volume of a keyword is a measure of how often the keyword is used to look for an app on the app stores. It is specific and differs from country to country, as people from different culture and language do not necessarily use the same keywords/reasoning to search for the same app.

The localization process is the process of adapting an app for a specific country, for example by translating the metadata in that country’s language. The screenshots and promotional video can also be adapted. Localizing your app is highly recommended, at least in your app’s most important countries.

This is a targeting method where an advertiser identifies a demographic similar to their existing audience. Using lookalike audiences can help increase the reach of an ad campaign to potential users who are likely to be interested in the product.

On AppTweak, Max Reach represents an estimation of the total number of times a specific keyword is searched for. In other words, it represents the total number of impressions an app would receive if it was continuously ranking #1 for a specific keyword.

The elements of an app page used to increase its visibility and optimize conversion. Metadata can either be textual or visual. Text metadata includes the title, subtitle, and keywords (App Store), short description (Google Play), promo text (App Store), and app description. Visual metadata includes the icon, screenshots, video previews, promotional artwork (App Store) and featured image (Google Play).

In the context of Apple Search Ads, these are terms or phrases that advertisers do not want their ads to be displayed for. By adding negative keywords to an ad group or campaign, advertisers can improve their ad relevance and avoid unqualified clicks.

Installs from users who visited an app page from search, categories, top charts, or similar apps in the App Store or Google Play.

The static image that appears when a video is not playing on the App Store. This shows before the video autoplays, when a different video in the search results is playing, for all users who have turned off video autoplay in their phone settings, and for users on low power mode.

This is a critical aspect of App Store Optimization (ASO) that focuses on enhancing the elements of an app’s product page to improve its visibility in an App Store’s search results, and to improve conversion rates.

The ranking history of an app is the evolution of an app’s ranking on specific keywords over time.

The rating of an app is a score between 1 and 5 (represented by stars) that users can give an app to indicate what they think of the app. It’s very helpful for other users who are considering downloading the app and is therefore an influential factor for how well your app is ranked overall on the app store.

The relevancy score is an indicator between 0 and 100, indicating how relevant a keyword is for your app. A higher score indicates higher relevancy. The relevancy score is based on the app store ranking algorithm, hence targeting highly relevant keywords ensures that your app shows up when users search for the solution you offer.

A metric that measures the revenue generated from ad spending. ROAS helps advertisers evaluate the profitability of their campaigns and make informed decisions about future advertising investments.

A ratio between net income and investment to measure a company’s financial returns from a specific effort. Net Profit / Cost of Investment X 100 = ROI

The revenue estimates on AppTweak are an estimation of how much revenue an app gets in a specific country. The total amount of revenue for a country over a given period of time is also available, as well as a spread of worldwide revenue per country.

Rich formatting is a type of text formatting that allows to emphasize some elements with font styles like bold, italic and underline. Rich formatting can be used in an app description to highlight some parts of the text.

In the context of ASO (App Store Optimization), these are related terms or phrases that closely align with your app’s offerings. Incorporating semantic keywords in app descriptions or metadata can enhance app visibility in app stores by providing a context to the app’s relevance to user searches.

A measurement to dictate the portion of the market your brand owns compared to your competitors. This acts as a gauge for your brand’s visibility. This is a term commonly used when discussing Apple Search Ads (ASA) to determine who the highest bidders are on certain keywords.

This metric is a ratio of the number of users who tap on an ad to the number of total impressions. Higher TTR indicates that an ad is relevant and appealing to users.

The “Today” page is a new feature of the App Store on iOS 12. It’s the first page that users see when opening the App Store, and displays tips from Apple, the “app of the day” as well as the “game of the day”. It is updated every day.

The top charts are the lists of the best apps in every country, per category, on the app stores.

The top free apps is a list of the best free apps in every country, per category, on the app stores.

The top grossing apps is a list of the highest grossing apps in every country, per category, on the app stores.

The top paid apps is a list of the best paid apps in every country, per category, on the app stores.

A feature or characteristic of a product, service, etc. that distinguishes it from others of a similar nature and makes it more appealing.

The user acquisition process is a process that can include a variety of marketing initiatives, with the goal of increasing the number of users of your app.

The version history on AppTweak shows you a list of all versions of an app published on the app stores.

The visibility score is a score that shows the evolution of an app’s visibility on an app store, for a specific set of keywords

This typically follows a brainstorming session and is usually one of the first phases of a design process. This allows for changes to be made before the full creative design is conducted.