How do I increase organic traffic on the mobile app?

So you have created a cool app that will solve problems and make life easier for millions of users. Many months of a whole team of developers, designers, marketers have been invested in its development.

The bottom line is an app ready to be downloaded on Google Play and the App Store. There is a name, a slogan, a marketing strategy, and a vision for its further life cycle. Users must queue to download!

At the end of the article, you can find a 40% discount coupon for the first month of using ASOMobile - a tool for creating ASO and researching competitors in the mobile app market.

But after lots of months of development, target audience search, and positioning, you can face equally difficult obstacles:

•  the user doesn't have a clue about your app;
•  after the release of the app on Google Play and the App Store, even you cannot find it in the search results;
• and the most annoying thing: to see how a competing application gets installs and takes away your target users. But our app is much better!

How can these problems be resolved? Advertising, promotion in social networks, word-of-mouth, or what else can you think of?

Fortunately, there is an optimal and rather obvious solution - application ASO optimization, a solution that will provide your app with a long-term flow of organic traffic.

How can you solve the pool of submitted requests with its help? This is exactly what we'll figure out, but first, let's talk about the concept of organic traffic.

What is organic traffic?

Organic traffic is traffic that comes to an app page from search results, recommendations, editorials, and top charts. In addition, App Store users have access to a separate Trending Searches screen - the top of the most popular searches.

In other words, when a user finds and installs an application without any help or incentive.

All things being equal, organic traffic comes from user searches as they scroll through search results, view ratings, Top Charts, and Favorites.

Basically, all traffic can and should be divided into the following categories:

• organic traffic;
• motivated traffic;
• advertising traffic.

If everything is more or less clear with organic traffic, then motivated traffic is installations for which users receive a reward. They are motivated to complete the installation of the app. Users can make installations by keyword to grow the application by a specific request, by direct link, by tracking links, write positive reviews, and perform other tasks.

Advertising traffic is paid advertising within a store or market. Also, non-motivated traffic includes app installs that follow the classic advertising model: users notice an app ad that is interesting to them and click on the link.

Considering what was mentioned above, choosing one traffic channel can be risky, since it can be expensive to wait for users to find you in the search results, to drain budgets for motivated and advertising traffic, and the effect will last a little longer than run out of money.

That is why the best way out of this situation is to combine traffic channels, keeping them under close scrutiny and constantly adjusting their proportions to each other.

ASO optimization as a source of organic traffic

Organic traffic of a mobile application is almost synonymous with ASO optimization. Let's take a look at how you can use optimization to your advantage and turn it into a long-term source of organic traffic:

Find and grab the user's attention!

The first is the task of text optimization, correspondingly, your application can be found as a search result according to relevant key queries. Previously, these queries were collected, analyzed, and embedded in application metadata.

Grabbing the attention of users is a somewhat more difficult question, since if we are talking about text optimization, then there are fairly clear rules and expected results. But everything related to the attention and reaction of users is extremely difficult to predict. But there are solutions and tricks too.

You can only make the first impression once. That is why the visual elements of your application are the most important conversion lever. The application icon should catch the eye, 3 seconds of the user's attention and he scrolls further. Take full advantage of the power to impress - a clean and simple icon, contrasting colors, and seasonal updates.

If you successfully solve the first problem and bring the user to the app page in the store, proceed further!

Screenshots are the next element to grab the user's attention. Make the most of this communication channel - bright and attractive screenshots that make up a single picture between themselves and the icon. Nice and accessible to reveal the full potential of the app functionality.

Working with the app rating is another thing because installing an app is like buying a pig in a poke. The desire to know what is inside, how this application works, and whether it is suitable for solving the tasks at hand is a fully justified aspiration. And someone else's experience in this matter will be a great help - what users write, who have already installed and used the application, how they appreciated the efforts of the developers. All of this is carefully studied and has a rather tangible effect on conversion.

This is why some active work with user reviews can show your future target audience that you value comments and are working on bugs. Everyone is happy to be heard, sometimes feedback is a great way to correct a bad grade.

Inform your target users, use different channels to promote - those are great ways of word of mouth in the virtual space when influencers and opinion leaders start talking about you. Order an advertisement from a famous blogger or organize a mention of the application in his work.

Use a viral marketing strategy - essentially a set of tactics that encourage users to talk about an app and generate a strong desire to share it (or any content created in it) with other people. Everyone has heard the expression "It went viral" - it means that many people learned about something very quickly and massively.

Promotion channels are highly dependent on the target audience - what kind of user profile did you draw while preparing your application? Sometimes accidental mentions of applications lead to a sharp jump in popularity and an equally sharp decrease in interest. Applications aimed at solving any business goals or anything other than fleeting trends require their own balanced promotion and advertising policies.

But this is all more from the category of UA, but we are still discussing the points related to organic traffic.

Make your app popular!

The good news is that you are not alone in this  - app stores also strive to introduce users to high-quality and interesting apps and games. A selection of store or market recommendations is an excellent source of organic traffic. These collections often feature apps related to the theme of the day, such as holidays, local events, or even what you do.

We discussed in detail how to get into the selection in the article: HOW TO GET AN APP FEATURED IN THE APP STORE: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE

Unfortunately for app developers, there are no clear instructions on how to get on this magical list. In particular, we know that your application must provide usability, security, and functionality. That is why it is highly recommended to work on the user interface (UI and UX), optimized for iOS or Android devices, update your app, localize it for different countries, and focus on ASO optimization.

Do not forget that we live in the information age - create content about your app, publish on blog platforms, inform users not only about the application. After all, you will create something cognitive, and informationally useful and thereby form a prepared user audience - people who are already familiar with your application and want to download it.

As a result:

If you put the time and effort into setting up the right organic growth channels for your app and continue to regularly review and tweak your results, you can be sure that results are coming soon! In our case, we can paraphrase “fast is slow, but non-stop”: organic traffic is slow but constant steps forward towards success.

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