The process doesn’t stop at identifying these terms; app store keyword optimization involves strategically incorporating these phrases into your app’s title, description, and metadata to improve search ranking. Key to this strategy is ASO research and development, which involves analyzing competitors, monitoring app store keyword search volume, and continuously tweaking your strategy based on data. ASO keyword optimization is an ongoing process, requiring regular updates in response to changing user search patterns and marketplace algorithms. For those targeting Android users, Play Store keyword research is essential, ensuring your app effectively reaches its intended audience on that platform.

Click here to download free Ultimate ASO Guide.

If you want to improve your app’s visibility and drive more downloads, conducting thorough app keyword research is critical. By using an app store keyword tool, you can analyze app store keyword search volume and find the right keywords to target in your app’s title, description, and other metadata. This will help your app rank higher in search results and increase its visibility to potential users.

Overall, the importance of app store keyword research cannot be overstated. By using a keyword tool for the Play Store, you can identify high-traffic, low-competition keywords that will help your app stand out from the crowd. This, in turn, will lead to increased visibility, more downloads, and ultimately, a higher level of success in the app store marketplace.

If you are an app developer or are planning on an upcoming mobile app launch, then it’s vital that you understand what app store optimization (ASO) is, and how keyword research plays an important role in implementing this strategy. In this article, we’ll discuss the definition of ASO, why keyword research is essential in making it work, and how you can perform keyword research effectively to meet your marketing goals.

What is App Store Optimization (ASO)?

App store optimization has been defined as:

“The process of optimizing a mobile app to rank higher in app store results. The app stores include App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android… App store optimization also focuses on click-through rate (CTR).”

Think of ASO as the app equivalent of SEO (search engine optimization). Instead of attempting to make your website more visible through higher rankings on Google’s search results, you’re trying to make your app more visible through higher rankings in Google Play’s search results.

Why is App Store Optimization Important?

As you can imagine, app stores make for a crowded marketplace. There are millions upon millions of apps available in the iOS App Store and Google Play, not to mention lesser-known stores like Samsung Galaxy Apps and LG SmartWorld. With such market saturation, it’s critical that your app gains as much visibility as possible, so that it can “stand out from the crowd” and develop a sizable following.

Apart from sheer visibility, effective ASO matters because you can earn free downloads from users. Even if the basic version of your app is free, you need to build up your total number of users in order to ultimately convert some of them into paying customers via in-app purchases. App store optimization allows you to do this in an “organic” way, instead of through pay-per-click ads that users see at the top of their search results.

Of course, ASO is a continual process, and one that needs refining in order to obtain the best possible results. Keywords, in particular, are perhaps the biggest single piece of the ASO puzzle. If you want to increase the conversion rate for your app, then you must pay constant attention to the keywords you are using to capture search traffic.

How to Perform Keyword Research for App Store Optimization

In many ways, ASO keyword research follows a similar process to SEO keyword research. The biggest differences involve the platforms and tools you use for ASO versus SEO. Let’s walk through the basic process together:

Step #1: Research the Market

The first step in successful ASO is gaining a well-rounded understanding of the market for your app. You’ll need to perform some careful, comprehensive research in order to come up with potential keywords for use in your ASO strategy. Your research will likely include:

• Brainstorming a list of topics that relate to your app. For example, if you’re marketing a note-taking app, then you may include topics such as “meeting notes,” “notes for school lectures,” and “journaling apps.” Try to think of all the keywords that could relate to your app in some way, either because of the category your app will be in, its functionalities, or other factors that would be relevant to your potential users. If you have trouble coming up with topics or terms on your own, you can always look at similar apps from competitors, and see what pulls up when you type in specific search phrases.
• Analyzing your competitors’ keywords. Spend some time “spying” on your competitors by seeing which keywords they rank for, and how they’ve strategized their ASO process. You can use platforms like Keyword Tool for Google Play to help you figure out where your competitors are coming from, and spot any weaknesses in their keyword usage.
• Searching out suggested keywords. You can build on the list you’ve already developed by looking for keyword suggestions — especially for long-tail keywords (generally defined as search phrases that are three words or longer). Long-tail keywords are important in ASO, since there will likely be less competition, and they’ll attract users with a higher potential value to your app (i.e., users interested in apps related to the specific search phrase). You can use ASO tools like thetool.io and appkeywords.net to find these helpful keyword suggestions.

Step #2: Analyze and Select Your Keywords

Now that you’ve compiled a long list of keywords and key phrases (the longer the list, the better), it’s time to leave some of those keywords “on the cutting room floor.” You want to focus on the keywords that will attract the highest amount of users to your app with the least amount of competition. You’ll also need to decide which fields each keyword should go in. For instance, the most important fields in the iOS App Store are:

• App Name
• Subtitle
• Keywords Field
• Promotional Text

The vital fields in Android app stores are:

• Title
• Short Description
• Description

Finding the Balance Between Traffic and Difficulty

Two of the most important elements of a potential keyword that you need to consider are traffic (or search volume) and keyword difficulty. 

Traffic tells you how many users search for that keyword on a regular basis. Obviously, this is an important piece of information to know since using keywords with low search volume won’t move the needle in terms of attracting people to your app. 

Keyword difficulty is an indicator of how much competition you’ll have to face if you decide to optimize your app for the keyword in question. The higher the difficulty number is, the more competition you can expect over the selected keyword. (Again, you can also examine your competitors’ rankings directly, either through your own search queries or through the use of a keyword research tool, like those mentioned in the previous section.)

You’ll likely want to find keywords that have a relatively high search volume, but also don’t have an insane amount of competition, either. It’s important to strike a fine balance between these two elements when performing ASO, since going to an extreme in either direction will almost certainly result in reduced traffic to your app.

Once you’ve chosen your keywords, you’ll want to check their performance in terms of how many downloads it is generating and how many users are converting compared to the total number of search “hits” your app receives. If your app is on an Android platform, you can utilize the “Installs per Keyword” feature from your keyword tool; if your app is located on iOS, you can use Apple Search Ads to uncover the relationship between conversion rate and search volume for specific keywords.

Step #3: Optimize Your Store Listing

With all your keywords in hand, it’s time to add them to your store listing to optimize your product page. This is a key step toward winning increased visibility in your selected app store. 

As you edit the metadata fields for your listing, try to use your keyword list as much as possible. (Remember not to use the same keyword in multiple fields if you’re in the iOS App Store.)

Step #4: Track the Performance of Your Keywords

Once your optimized store listing is live, you’ll want to keep track of how well your keywords are performing in terms of increased visibility and conversion rate. Remember to allow your app store between three and four weeks to implement your updates fully. After that point, use your preferred keyword research/analysis tool to determine whether your app is trending up or down on the store’s search rankings or whether it’s staying at the same level. If you do feel the need to make further changes, strive to do so in an iterative manner — e.g., don’t change everything all at once, but make incremental refinements to your keyword strategy.

As mentioned before, app store optimization is a continual process. Don’t be too discouraged or disappointed if you need to make occasional “tweaks” to your strategy to boost performance. Simply follow the same basic 4-step process discussed above to add new keywords to your listing and remove low-performing ones. 

Final Thoughts

In summary, ASO is a powerful strategy for increasing your app’s visibility and winning more views and clicks. When implemented properly, it can help your app to stand head and shoulders above competing products and slowly build a loyal following of users.

Keywords are a big part of effective app store optimization, so approach their selection with care and diligence. Research which search terms will be most relevant to your target audience, which phrases your competitors are optimizing for, and which keywords live in that “sweet spot” where high search volume and low difficulty meet. Most importantly, be willing to adjust your keyword strategy continually — ASO is not a “set it and forget it” process.

If you’d like to learn more about the importance of ASO to your app, and how keyword research can play a huge role in its success, reach out to our team at AppSamurai today.

We’re a one-stop-shop platform that can help you drive high-quality traffic to your app and boost your conversion rate.

The post The Importance of Keyword Research for App Store Optimization (ASO) first appeared on AppSamurai.

Furthermore, in September, people witnessed the release of the Alice in Wonderland AR quest by “Avatarico.” And only after the month, the game became the 10th free AR-kit game in the world in terms of downloads on App Store.

And in the next couple of months, the dame was included in the best App on store list of 2017.

It’s hard to believe that it was only a year after the game was the 4th popular AR game in the world. And still, it enjoys high reviews and ratings and a high number of downloads among the AR games.

In this read, we will show you how developers made it possible and how you can promote an AR game with organic sources and traffic.

Introduction

The decision made by Avatarico to create a historical AR game was not accidental by any means, but yes, it was fast.

Before that, Avatarico was a well-known name in the gaming industry, and they have developed many famous VR games. Since 2014 the brand has released five games and was selling commercial licenses to location-based entertainment. To be precise, presently, Avatarico has over 70 partners worldwide.

During the course, the company has mastered the new technologies, and they know how to make use of them so that it won’t be formal anymore. Similarly, the company knows how to promote AR games with organic traffic and sell such products to consumers.

So back in 2017, when Apple’s iOs 11 was announced, the brand knew that have to catch the moment, and they must create an AR game in 4 months.

Concept

When developers were experimenting with beta-version of AR framework and kit, the Avatarico was busy in creating and grabbing wow-effects on Twitter.

One of the wow-effects was the portal. The company selected Alice in Wonderland as a setting.

Development

Of course, no one can gain such a massive response through popular settings only. When anyone searches for ‘Alice in wonderland on App Store, users will find a bunch of unknown games based on the story.

But Avatarico came up with the surprise, Augmented Reality. And they knew how to create a wow experience with it. If you explore the AR games section on the App Store, you will come across many games using AR just as a formality.

But Avatarico wanted to give its users a unique experience that they can’t get from anywhere else.

If notice closely, the small hole in the floor looks ahead of the player. And the lovely rabbit comes out of it; the feel is terrific. And when a player catches the rabbit, it opens a portal to dreamy Wonderland.

Then you will see the player walks through the portal holding the phone in his hand. It’s fabulous for many users, and the simple instructions ensure there is no mystery.

Furthermore, the player can roam around without any issue in the portal, meet and greet the Cheshire cat and other game characters.

Release, Features, and Downloads

Due to their excellent promotional strategy and AR-kit framework, the game got featured on the top of the Games section at App Store.

In the initial days of its release, they managed to get a few hundred thousand downloads with great user reviews, and every product on the app store needs those pleasant reviews. In simple words, the users were thrilled to play and visit Wonderland.

All this time, Avatarico officials were busy. They wrote and designed new chapters to make the game more exciting. In the first phase, the players can explore and understand the beautiful Wonderland. And in the next stage, they come back into the land to help the people pressurized by the Red Queen. Every chapter is unique and features a different location.

Thanks to these exciting updates, Avatarico featured in the top regularly, and users continued to love the game.

Surprisingly, the game received appreciation from across the globe, and it was also a hit in Asian countries like China, Japan, and South Korea. Similarly, Alice in Wonderland was one of the best AR games in Russia.

So, Avatarico interpreted the game into many languages and used the localization strategy to their advantage.

Review and User Feedback

If you notice at the AR section in the Russian App Store, the game has unprecedented user reviews. In other words, users love the game in Russia for many reasons, and the game’s rating in Russia was 4.8 with more than 54k reviews.

Similarly, the game enjoys a top rating in China as well, up to 4.9 with 143k reviews. In the USA, the game enjoys high ratings as well up to 4.7 with 124k reviews.

According to user feedback and reviews, gamers love the portal sequences due to their incredible graphics and lovely transition from the fantasy world to the real world.

Those who know about AR technology understand that this game utilizes AR technology in the best way.

Final Outcome

Alice in Wonderland is at the 4th spot in AR games across the world in terms of downloads.

Alice in the Wonderland is the 3rd AR game in the world with a high number of reviews.

The game shares the top position with YuME in China with the highest rating in the country.

6 Benefits of Augmented Reality for Promoters:

Augmented reality or AR provides many benefits that you will get from traditional marketing techniques. By acquiring these benefits of AR marketing, you can easily get an edge over your competitors and achieve your desired results.

Optimizing The User Experience

Integrating augmented reality into your mobile promotional strategy gives your target prospects a whole new and highly engaging experience.

For example, if you look at IKEA Place, which considerably saves users the time and effort of calculating whether the product they are purchasing a product for their home. IKEA user augmented reality to gives consumers a clear understanding of how that particular product will look in their house.

Marketers and AR game developers must consider how to incorporate AR in their marketing campaigns as it simplifies the UX.

By giving users an optimized way, you can provide users more confidence in their purchases, and it also helps in building brand loyalty. Similarly, it can bring you healthy and more user reviews.

Increase Engagement

Using or integrating augmented reality in your AR game’s promotional strategy is valuable as it helps to boost user engagement. The AR has an interactive nature that generates more organic traffic and encourages users to come back to the app for more. You can drastically enhance engagement by using AR marketing and make them coming back to the game.

Boost Retention Rates

Another significant benefit of using the interactivity nature of augmented reality promotion is that you can retain the users for longer. This comes in handy when you are trying to spread or build brand awareness and increase monetization opportunities.

According to a report published in the Wall Street Journal, augmented reality provides particularly useful tools for envisaging data because it involves the spatial awareness of users’ brains that allows them to recognize complex concepts quickly and promotes greater user retention.

Geo-targeting to Boosts Sales

Mobile and game marketers know the effectiveness of geo-targeting, but not many know that AR can take your marketing strategy one step ahead.

For example, mobile marketers who are already utilizing e geo-targeting for their AR games can easily make their gaming experience more engaging.

AR Brings More Personalization Opportunities

With the right information, augmented reality allows you to provide your prospects a personalized experience. Personalization can directly impact your AR game’s marketing campaign and its overall performance.

According to reports, 59% of consumers claim to purchase or use something due to personalization.

Moreover, only 18% of apps feature adequate personalization. So, this is another effective way to stay ahead of your competitors.

Improves Brand Awareness and Loyalty

Augmented reality is the quickest and ideal way to spread brand awareness and loyalty. This is because you can share your AR experiences on social media. Apart from gaming, augmented reality is also beneficial for B2B marketing.

Tips for Your AR Game Marketing Strategy: 

Tip #1: Study and understand your options before launching the campaign

Let’s look at it this way. Most of us are tempted to get a hip convertible, while our actual need is a standard family van.

Here Augmented Reality sneaks directly into advertising conversations; users can come to your doorstep requesting you to develop the “next Pokémon GO” and stuff it with plenty of fancy functions in the hope that it will make the game “viral” overnight.

The point is, never use technology such as AR just to get the bandwagon. Instead, you should look and consider all the alternatives before submitting or choosing a particular solution. And you can easily find plenty of options on the market.

For example, you can use image recognition to design a promotional campaign where your consumers can scan a product package and visit the website to check out your offerings, reviews, or videos. Or, you can make engaging ads and publish them in magazines, leading to landing pages.

Now the question is how it differs from AR? When a consumer scans a picture via their smartphone, the Augmented Reality covers the digital content such as 3D models, buttons, etc., as per the camera image of the actual object.

Thus, Augmented Reality adds to the user experience whenever needed and allows users to view the content as a normal part of the environment.

There are various examples of this AR usage. Think of IKEA’s popular catalog app that allows users to try what a couch will look like inside their living room.

Similarly, try to remember the tremendous outdoor marketing campaign by National Health Service UK. Users can view the impacts of blood donation just by pointing the smartphone over their skin.

Of course, the same will be only possible when you combine this experience with additional functionalities and features like geolocation, character recognition to recognize texts, scanning of barcodes, etc.

So, we will advise you to pay attention to the holistic customer experience and what it offers to users before stuffing your AR game with features.

Tip #2: Try to use a simple and clear concept

One clever strategy to promote your AR game with organic traffic is making the user’s experience more memorable without forcing them. This is vital for any AR game’s marketing campaigns.

The same thing you will witness in the campaign of Mandiri with WWF. The whole campaign was simple and provide users a memorable experience for their clients using the Augmented Reality.

The marketing campaign is clear and doesn’t make things complicated or keep people guessing. It was designed to offer a simple and fun way to raise the global issue and answer the user’s problem creatively without being too pushy.

Conclusion

To conclude the matter, these fantastic results are due to these factors:

Amazing “Wow experience.” If users don’t like to play the game, they will love its uniqueness. Similarly, the game utilizes Augmented Reality in the best possible way and offers wonderful real-life situations. The essence of the AR effects are clearly visible in the game, and it is incredible to see how the gaming world interacts with the real world.

Lastly, great features and unique settings make this AR game a hit across the globe.

The post How to Promote Your AR Games Through Organic Traffic Document first appeared on AppSamurai.

“That’s a million-dollar idea,” you excitedly think to yourself about your new mobile app idea. You might even design and develop the app yourself! But if you’re not a mobile app development studio, you’re probably going to run into some obstacles. These issues are often avoidable and easy to plan for with the right knowledge. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve compiled eight common issues that arise when building a mobile app so you can get a head start on your awesome idea.

#1: Poorly Planned Backend

Apps with bad back-ends are prone to crashing, glitchy interactions, and frustrating transitions that never finish loading. If your back-end is slow or sluggish, you can assume most of your users will uninstall your app due to frustration. The great news is that you can optimize your back-end by checking for the following issues: Do you have a conflict with your infrastructure and server? To troubleshoot, try to pinpoint where the issue is coming from. For example, is it from an interactive element that triggers a waterfall of slow network requests? The Application Dependency Mapping (ADM) can help pin down the exact source.
Another potential solution might be to lessen the server’s load by issuing a reverse proxy server. If your back-end responds more quickly with this in place, you’ll also see faster web requests, caching, and more.
Running an application with no bugs or crashes can be incredibly difficult at first. But with adequate planning from Day 1 and some patient troubleshooting, you should start seeing fewer problems as you make your way toward a seamless app experience.

#2: Ignoring the Major Differences Between Platforms

Between Android, iOS, and Windows, targeting specific platforms before others can be a strong strategy for many mobile app verticals. Think about your core user base: are they domestic or international? Do they use tablets more than smartphones? Think about every option and possibility. This is not a decision to be taken lightly.
Some stereotypes aren’t always true; monetization isn’t necessarily easier on Apple’s App Store, and most global users are using Android over iOS. Each platform has its own advantages and disadvantages, but building an Android application involves different workflows than application development for Apple or Windows. Additionally, each platform gives its own style guides and framework, and they all differ in their approval processes.
Device compatibility is also a priority. Double- and triple-check that your app looks and works great on tablets, larger smartphones, and the smallest phones. No button should be too big or too small, and it should be a consistent experience across every device, no matter its width or height. Pay close attention to resolution, size, and pixel density.
It’s worthwhile to compile a list of devices that will be able to use the app for referencing throughout the development process.#3: Badly Designed UI

Design and development are two completely separate parts of a mobile app. Creating a beautiful and easy-to-understand user interface (UI) is time-consuming and highly iterative, but it can hook in new users and keep current ones engaged.
Screen real estate is important to maintain; keep consistent white space and simplify the number of actions on each screen. Make sure your application is sleek and sharp across all of the devices on your chosen platform(s).
If you feel like you’re wasting too much time finding the “perfect design,” A/B testing different iterations can really help drive the design process. Prioritize navigation and screen flow for users. Add analytics tools to measure where users frequently drop off and figure out what’s going wrong. Heatmaps tools can also generate valuable insights.

#4: Assuming Websites and Mobile Apps Are Related

Mobile apps and websites are related: they provide a coherent brand experience for users and can complement each others’ purposes. But if you think a mobile app is an extension of a website, you’re very wrong. An app should provide a different and unique value from the website; therefore, using a website design and screen flow to inform your app’s design and flow will result in major flaws.
Apps should leverage device features like texting and calling, using the camera, using other apps, device storage and data, and more.#5: Third-Party Library Control

Using third-party libraries is very common among app developers across the world. But sometimes the perfect third-party library is outdated and unsecured. Trying to limit the number of third-party libraries can mitigate these risks. Additionally, stick with high-quality libraries that are constantly updated and maintained.
There’s no point in reinventing the wheel, but if the library you’re using is something you can build, you should try to avoid depending on a third party. On the other hand, if the library is huge but only used for one feature, ask yourself if that feature is the true core of your app. If not, you might want to consider removing that library.
Add monitoring tools to your app from Day 1. Do not wait for your app to be hacked to start thinking about security.

#6: Targeting Everyone Instead of Someone

Do you have a target user? Have you explored that user base in-depth, asking yourself what are their problems, their demographics, their goals? If you’re not targeting specific user profiles or demographics, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
No app is made for everyone, and every app should be made for someone specific. Validate your app idea with your target audience. If they hate it, they’re not your target audience. But don’t give up on the idea; your app could be perfect for an audience you never thought about.
Find your competitors and research their marketing, design principles, and their target market.

#7: Marketing, Promotion, and Branding

Just because you consider yourself a designer or developer (or both!) doesn’t mean you can let marketing, promotion, and branding take a back seat. These three aspects of mobile app development must be the driver, not a passenger.
Mobile apps face tough competition, short-attention user base, tight timelines, and difficulty in establishing themselves.
If you don’t market and promote your app, you will not see nearly as much revenue, engagement, and social media love as you would with a strong marketing strategy.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

#8: Device Performance and Battery

If your app starts draining the user’s battery, that user will be compelled to uninstall and even write a bad review to warn other users. This would be a huge hindrance to growing your app’s user base, so prioritize performance from the beginning of the development cycle.
To ensure you’re conducting testing correctly, try to test on old, slow devices. New devices make any app feel lightning fast, but can you pass the test on an iPhone 6? By involving developers during the design and ideation phase, you can prevent many performance issues.The Bottom Line on Building a Mobile App

Your app will never be completely finished. You’ll need to iterate, optimize, redesign, add features, and much more over the app’s lifetime to ensure you have a sustainable product-market fit. But if you can launch your app with these eight common issues already resolved, you will be well on your way toward building a mobile app that’s set up for success.

Marc Fischer is Co-Founder and CEO of Dogtown Media, an award-winning mobile app development company. Dogtown Media has achieved incredible successes, including being named as a Top Mobile App Developer by Technology Research firm Clutch and ranked on Inc. Magazine’s exclusive 5000 List of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies two years running.

The post Avoid These 8 Common Issues When Building a Mobile App first appeared on AppSamurai.

If you know how to use them properly they’re helpful to increase your conversion rates and grow your email list as well. Popups are also very effective to increase email subscriptions and boost the opt-in rate.
Today we’re talking especially about Mobile Popup Ads.  According to StatCounter, mobile devices now account for as much as 50% of the total web traffic.
AWeber found that a pop-up form converted 1375% better than traditional forms for driving blog subscriptions.
Research and markets estimate mobile commerce share of online retail will exceed 50% by 2021.
As you can see, the numbers are huge. In order to succeed in mobile pop-up ads, we should pay attention to it.
Did you know that website visitors can’t just abandon email capture on mobile?
This is a great opportunity that we can’t miss at all!

In mobile, we should develop some strategies to make it better. Maybe we can start it by using the pop-up ad to promote an internal offering first. Encouraging your website visitors to subscribe to your email list is only possible by providing something great and valuable. Why not offering them a premium content, like an ebook?
Believe me, your conversion rates will be surprising for you!
Remember, improving your strategy is totally up to you. For example, you can implement a promotion of one of your popular product into that particular premium content. Keep your visitor within your sales funnel and promote additional offers through smart mobile popups.

5 Tips to Create Effective Mobile Popup Ads

Don’t Occupy The Entire Page With Popup Ads

Let’s start the most important tip for mobile ads. If you follow the Google Updates, there is a new regulation. According to this update, the website and webpage will penalize if a banner uses a reasonable amount of screen space. That means you shouldn’t interrupt the user-experience in mobile.

Obviously, we should be careful!
In order to provide a user-friendly mobile experience and avoid being penalized by Google, use pop-up ads that don’t take up the entire screen of the page on mobile devices.
For example, instead of using popups in the entire page and hidden your content use it by occupying the top quarter of the screen or vice versa. This will allow you to show the main content of the webpage. Still visible, still works for your benefit.

Use Popup Ads on Landing Page & Don’t Hide Your Content

Another biggest mistake is to show mobile pop-up ads once the user arrives on the website. Believe me, it won’t help to increase your conversions. Considering the algorithms of Google, this is now highly discouraged because it simply interrupts the user experience.
Put yourself into your visitor’s shoes. Wouldn’t you leave the website immediately if a popup appears as soon as you visit the website?
I think your answer is yes!

Never Use Popup Ads Upon Page Load

You should show your mobile popup ads after some period of time has passed. In this case trigger your popup to relevant users, at the right time!
Think about it, if a website visitor spends some time in your website, s/he is probably interested. In this case, you can implement the ad such that it only loads when the user has reached the end of a particular page. You may use exit-intent popups to prevent cart abandonment. These are smart ways to use mobile popup ads in a productive manner. You better hit them when they are at their most receptive moment!

Use Strong Call-to-Action to Trigger Your Popup Ads

You need CTA-triggered popups in order to succeed in mobile advertising and marketing. It’s kind of cool to provide powerful and relevant call-to-action which appears on every page of your website. Considering that, it’s somehow user-friendly and SEO-compliant, you can give them more space to input their email. It simply enhances the chance of clicking as well as conversions.

Customize Popup Ads & Make Them Visible

Pay attention to the customizing options. Reflect your brand’s look and functionality with your mobile popup ads. Use strong call-to-action to convey your message properly.
Call-to-action or CTA is something you should definitely take advantage of to trigger an immediate response in your audience. They’re generally comprised of short phrases like “Call Now”.
I guess we’re all interested here in the digital newsletter, so we better use clickable buttons that will take a customer to a landing page. You should always think about its quality. Simply, the right CTA will be helpful to increase sales by giving your audience a simple action to perform.
Have unique and responsive designs. Don’t make your customers disappointed in terms of different dimensions such as a mobile or tablet.

In a nutshell, if you know how to play the game with sticky rules, there is no reason for missing the benefits of mobile pop-up ads. All you need to do is paying attention to the must-have points. In this case, don’t forget to have a great popup builder tool.
Remember, all you have to do are;

• choose the right triggering event
• use the responsive system not to interrupt the user experience
• display mobile popup ads to the right people at the right time!

It’s time to get the benefit of mobile advertising!
Hope you find this article useful, thank you for your time!

Author Bio: Mia Mowry is the Content Marketing Manager of PopupSmart. She is also the author of PopupSmart’s Blog. You can find her on LinkedIn, or you can directly reach her through PopupSmart’s website.

The post 5 Proven Methods: How to Create Effective Mobile Popup Ads? first appeared on AppSamurai.

Increase App Visibility

Social media accounts are free to create and use, so that provides a huge pool for you to reel in your audience from. There are more than three billion social media network users worldwide, with 9 in 10 of these individuals using mobile phones to access them. Here are three ways to carve out your own space on the internet and get your app seen:

• A Strong Visual Identity

What sets your app apart from the multitude of others on the marketplace? To differentiate yourself from other apps that boast similar features, cultivate your visual identity online and keep it consistent with the feel of your user interface. Sticking to certain design choices in posts makes your app more distinct and lends it credibility. Some ways to do this: Feature your logo in profile pictures, cover photos, and image borders. Use similar typography when adding text to posts. Keep a limited color palette for graphic design that complements what your app icon looks like. Make the process easier by having a photo editing app with what you need on hand.

• User-Generated Content

Reposted content from users who mention your app is the new form of customer testimonial. Whether you screenshot or repost from Instagram, create graphics to upload on Facebook and LinkedIn, or retweet on Twitter, letting the wider social media landscape know how well your app works acts as digital word-of-mouth.

• Branded Hashtags

Make it easier for both you and your audience to find content related to your brand by creating a branded hashtag. The hashtag can be as simple as your account name or your app’s name, but the important bit is to use it consistently in the original content you share on social media. Reinforcing this hashtag—and creating new ones for campaigns or events—makes tracking so much easier and you’ll be able to quickly find user-generated content and contest entries (if applicable). So, when creating captions, think about how you can incorporate your brand hashtag seamlessly into the sentence—or, if that isn’t the case, always find a space for it at the end.

Customer Service and Reputation Management

One thing that businesses tend to forget about social media is that more than the posts and self-promotion, what matters to those who use it is the interaction. Now, you won’t have to dole out surveys or send emails to learn what users think about your app, and likewise, you won’t have to jump through hoops to respond to them either. Here are three ways to monitor how your app is doing.

• Online Reviews

 
Don’t be scared of reviews, and don’t activate the option to hide them. They’re a barometer that gauges app performance and a way for you to pinpoint its most prevalent issues for future fixes. Additionally, having visibly good reviews matters—According to Adweek, 50% of consumers actively seek out online reviews before deciding on something and 63% trust businesses that have overall ratings of four out of five. So as part of your daily monitoring routine, check any new reviews that arrive and respond to them with thanks (yes, even the negative ones).   

• Social Media Listening

What is social media listening? It’s monitoring social media channels for mentions of your app’s name, official hashtag, and related keywords and locations. Using your preferred social media management tool, you can set up feeds for monitoring what’s said about your brand as well as what’s trending within your industry. This helps with finding people to interact with on social media as well as populating your own feeds by sharing relevant news or blog posts. This way, your account shares value. Using the search functions and checking out what’s trending on each platform can also give you an idea of what to talk about in the future.

• Open Communication

Keeping your brand open to communication with your users on social media is critical to your success on the platforms. According to Social Media Today, it has fast become the default mode of preference for people who want to raise concerns, with 67% of consumers using social media for customer service and 60% of them expecting a response within an hour. Engage with your user base on accessible platforms like Facebook and Twitter and encourage them to report any bugs or issues with your app. Not only will you get information on what needs to be fixed, but you also show how much you care about your audience’s opinions.

Social Media Advertising

Last, but not least, did you know that 78% of companies use paid advertising to earn app installs? While the ability to gain users organically is a big plus to social media’s effectiveness as an affordable marketing tool, it doesn’t hurt to give those efforts a push with the addition of social media advertising. All social media channels have some form of paid option, the most useful of which are links to website pages, but when it comes to growing your app Facebook and Twitter have different ad options specifically tailored to mobile installs. Using these platforms will enable you to choose where to place your ads, what they look like, how often they appear, whether they appear for iOS or Android users, and more.

Convinced yet? Make proper social media management and brand-building a standard part of your digital marketing playbook. Growing your mobile app through social media will take some effort, but you can reap the rewards as long as you keep maintaining your stride.

The post How Apps Can Use Social Media to Grow first appeared on AppSamurai.

Mobile applications and businesses have a direct correlation especially with how the trend of using technology has changed. The world has transformed into a digital landscape and has become completely mobile. All desktop functions are now packed into a 6-inch screen from where daily routines and work is taken care of. More so, for a business owner, this is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of as they should be able to design an application to run the business online. But the question to ponder upon is what type of application are you thinking of and do you need it for Windows, iOS, Ipad, Blackberry or all of these operating platforms. If you just need one platform, you’ll require a native application in contrast to a multiplatform one. According to Madhu Kasavan, cross-platform applications are becoming popular by the day as there are increasing numbers of business owners who want to target a wider set of users.
According to the blog post on Reinvently, C programming language was one of the first cross-platform application, and as time goes by, there have been major improvements in different types of multiplatform applications. All such applications are targeted to a wide set of audiences and not just iOS or Android users particularly, hence highlighting the importance of multiplatform technology.
AirG reviews that cross-platform applications are always the right way to go about for any business giving the example of most of their applications which follow a cross-platform pattern as they provide a variety of services ranging from games, analysis of demographics to cater to different target markets to virtual currency accounts. All such applications are targeted to a wide set of audiences and not just iOS or Android users particularly, hence highlighting the importance of multiplatform technology.
The idea around which a cross-platform application circulates is that it is built once but is able to run everywhere. However, even though cross-platform apps seem to be the perfect solution for your business, they also have some risks attached to them. We will be taking a closer look at both the advantages and disadvantages of these applications and understand in what way they affect our business.

Advantages Of Developing A Cross-Platform App

There are many advantages to using cross-platform apps some of which are:

Unlimited Use Of The Created Code

Along with being a pretty time-consuming business, it is equally rewarding. Developers do not need to create different codes for different platforms. All they have to do is create one unique code and engage it through multiple different platforms thus customizing the application along with the type of platform it is being used on.

Quicker Development In Fewer Costs

This comes forward as the most promising attribute of cross-platform applications. Since the developer is not spending as much time as he would had it been a native application, it allows the business to launch its products at a quicker pace leading to faster turnaround for the business. In addition to this, since the business is investing their money in developing only once code, they have a high chance of cost-cutting in contrast to native applications making this a win-win situation and also improving business efficiency.

Integration With The Cloud Space

As stated in Madhu Kasavans’ research, platforms such as PhoneGap or Appcelerator have various plug-INS which enable enhanced security as there is only one app to protect rather than several. This provides authenticity, credibility, and validity to app functionalities. Furthermore, due to the development of an application that is widely accessible across the globe, businesses can take advantage of all the money producing benefits of the working system by integrating cloud storage for hosting services.

No Complex Updates

Nearly all cross-platform applications can be accessed using the internet thus not requiring every individual to separately download mobile updates. This can lead to different users having a different version of the apps. Rather these apps are automatically updated for everyone, so almost everyone has the current version of the application.
According to a mobile development company based in Dallas, Seven tablets, the above features of using a cross-app development program provides business owners with an open chance to have a quicker turnaround enabling a higher ROI in contrast to native applications that take more of our time and money.

Disadvantages Of Developing A Cross-Platform App

In addition to the pros discussed above, cross-platform apps also have their lows which investors and mobile developers have to be on a lookout for. Some of these are;

Lags In Performance

While the idea of having one integrated application for various platforms sounds like the perfect solution, it isn’t as easy. Cross platforms apps sometimes fail to integrate seamlessly into all systems as native apps do. As a result, this can cause slowing down of applied functions, freezing of the software as non-native codes cannot always communicate with different devices’ hardware or software. These glitches also limit device functionality and prevent users from accessing device functions like a camera or microphone etc.

Lock-In By Java

According to Techopedia, a JavaScript is a unique programming language that does not need to be compiled and is mostly used to enhance HTML images hence also called a dynamic language. Most of the cross-platform applications use their own subset of JavaScript which basically prevents the users’ device to recognize the old source code if the user is using a new platform causing the app to freeze.

Lack Of Storage Options

It isn’t always an easy task to compile together local time, preferences and settings with the application thus causing problems and making the user restart their device on a continuous basis. Storage options are also very limited, and users have to look for third-party cloud service to be provided with a storage solution.

Poor Graphics

As the world becomes more digitally oriented, users, look for high definition and high-quality features to fit in their screens. Yet hybrid technology like cross-platform applications does not provide attractive images or three-dimensional support which comes off as a major disadvantage to those users who are highly driven by pixel power.

Wrapping It Up

While cross-platform applications are highly popular, they do have both pros and cons tied to their working space. As neither of the two is deniable, it is up to the business owner to weigh in their investment against the return they would be getting if they were to implement a cross-platform app into their system. There are two sides to every coin, and one will outrun the other. If owners feel they can bear the weight of the few hindrances they encounter, these apps are a good solution. But if a business is run on a smaller scale with accessibility and targeting going out to only a few customers, launching a cross-platform application will become more of a problem than of a solution.

Author Bio: Michelle Joe is a blogger by choice. She loves to discover the world around her. She likes to share her discoveries, experiences, and express herself through her blogs. You can find her on twitter: @michellejoe524

The post The Benefits And Risks Of Developing A Cross-Platform App first appeared on AppSamurai.