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Let`s start our investigation and find the answer to the question - who is an ASO specialist and how to become one?
A little about the ASO habitat and the rapid growth of the mobile application market
In 2022, it is difficult to imagine a person without a mobile phone in their hands. People use smartphones everywhere - for transport, leisure, and work. Someone listens to music, someone shops, someone plans a route, someone hangs out on social networks.
Once on the phone you could only make calls and send texts, now you can do absolutely everything using your smartphone - draw, write, send voice messages, and take and edit photos and videos. Live fully. Work fully. To be mobile, informed, up-to-date, to be on time everywhere, and to brag about your achievements every second of your life.
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.
By the way, an interesting fact is that the mobile industry market is the only market that has not been affected by the pandemic. On the contrary, it has increased momentum since 2019.
While the entire global business was going through hard times, the App Store and Google Play were earning themselves and giving others the opportunity to do so. Global trends show that not only the number of app installations is increasing, but also the average time spent on them. This means that more and more people "live" by phone. Therefore, the mobile application market will only grow and develop.
The App Store and Google Play host millions of apps. Briefly, it looks this way:
Who places apps on the App Store and Google Play?
They are customers - companies, firms, and even the developers themselves. Anyone who wants to enter the mobile app market with their product - a game, a calendar, an online shopping app, whatever.
Who makes apps?
Developers do. Sometimes the developer and the customer are the same people, sometimes not. In any case, if the customer has no experience, but has a desire to create an application, then the developer market is at his service.
Who promotes apps on the App Store and Google Play?
In general, the product is promoted by a team of UA managers, but a specific application is led to the top of the top charts by an ASO specialist. Although during the existence of the stores, such an application promotion specialist has come a long way from an SEO specialist to a full-fledged marketer. A modern ASO expert understands many related areas - the more they know, the more successful their ASO strategy is.
Who uses ASO?
Everyone does - developers, owners, users, stores. Everyone needs ASO optimization. But owners and stores need it to receive money, and users - to find the required applications easily. But it is worth remembering that the development and implementation of the ASO strategy lie entirely on the shoulders of the ASO specialist, and the owners, stores, and users are the consumers of the results of the ASO strategy.
Who earns?
Developers, owners, stores, ASO specialists. Without the latter ones, neither the owners nor the stores will earn much. Because without a competent ASO strategy, the application will not be seen by “buyers”, in our case, users. And no users, no money.
The term ASO itself stands for App Store Optimization. It is ASO optimization that is the link between the application and its users. It is ASO that helps users find and see an application among others with similar functionality. Actually, increasing the visibility of the application in the search results is what an ASO specialist does.
We analyzed the market of ASO specialists, got acquainted with open vacancies, and prepared answers to a number of important questions
Who is an ASO Specialist?
Higher education institutions do not let you get a degree of “ASO specialists”. Such a specialist, as a rule, grows out of an SEO specialist and Internet marketers, or even out of third-party specialties (the market knows quite successful cases of the latter option). Many employers, by the way, tend not to teach people from scratch the intricacies of ASO, but to retrain former SEO specialists for themselves. Therefore, the pioneers of ASO mostly learned from mistakes by manually selecting keywords, and did not use algorithms, like their contemporaries. In general, we analyzed the market a lot, conducted research, and selected hypotheses. For the most part, it was painstaking manual labor. Now there are many more tools and possibilities. The easiest way to understand this is with the help of specialized courses, where experienced experts in ASO will share with you a wealth of experience.
- An ASO specialist makes an app popular on the App Store and Google Play Market.
- The goal of the ASO specialist is to get into the TOPs of stores, in the categories of stores (App of the day, TOP-10, Recommended, etc). And you can get there by increasing the visibility of the application for the user. The logic is simple - the more they see, the more often they install, and the more the stores recommend. The circle is closed. Here, visual elements are especially important, which trigger the saw-found cycle thanks to a competent textual ASO-selected-installed. And all thanks to icons and screenshots, purely visual elements.
- What an ASO specialist does: selects relevant keywords, creates a name, and makes a correct description (taking into account locales); visual optimization: icon, logo, screenshots, video.
Below we will consider the scope of responsibilities of an application promotion specialist in more detail.
What are the responsibilities of ASO specialists?
In general, tasks look this way:
- development, implementation, updating (iteration) of ASO strategies
- increase in conversion into useful action (most often this is the installation of the application, with the main emphasis on organic)
- measuring the quality indicators of the ASO strategy (testing)
- text optimization: search results, keywords, descriptions, localization, work with metadata
- visual optimization: working with icons, screenshots, videos
- search and analysis of competitors
- definition and control of KPI
- work with in-app purchases
- work with app reviews and ratings
- full-time or freelance, office or remote
And the requirements are like this:
- At least one year of experience as an ASO specialist
- Experience with ASO and SEO tools
- Knowledge of the basics of marketing and SMM
- Experience with organic and paid (UA) traffic
- Experience with A/B testing and their interpretation (analysis)
- Experience working with artists/designers (experience required for graphic optimization)
- Knowledge of English (intermediate and above)
- Knowledge of ASA is an advantage
Constant "experience" and "knowledge". And what about the salary?
What is the salary of an ASO specialist?
So, the money invested in ASO training will be paid off in the first salaries, depending on the chosen training courses and further employment. On average, from $ 1,000 per month, if the position is in the state. Freelancers get paid on a per-project basis. We warn you that freelancers are mainly experienced ASO specialists with extensive experience and knowledge.
And what is the demand for ASO specialists? And is there a market for ASO specialists?
The demand for ASO specialists is such that the market cannot fully satisfy them. We have already written in this article about the explosive development of the mobile application market, and this trend is only growing. More and more companies are moving to mobile platforms and creating their own applications. The number of applications on the App Store and Google Play Market is growing exponentially. With such competition, it is no longer possible to do without ASO, otherwise, the application will simply be lost among similar ones.
There is an acute shortage of experts on the market. Many employers are ready and take on newcomers who have just completed courses. Of course, you will be interviewed, and at least theoretical knowledge will be appreciated, but they will take you without work experience. And the existing ASO courses not only provide knowledge but often help in finding a job. So it makes sense to invest in yourself. Recall that the money spent on paying for training courses pays off in the first months of work as an ASO specialist.
On our behalf, we want to advise if you want to become an ASO specialist, and all of the above is close in spirit to you - welcome to our blog, which contains all the news of the mobile industry and theoretical and practical cases of ASO optimization. From vocabulary to analytics. And, of course, don't miss the YouTube channel, where the basic steps of app optimization are explained straightforwardly and understandably.
When we clarified a little about what ASO is and who is involved in it, I would like to highlight two important nuances.
- How is ASO different from SEO?
Do not forget that ASO originally grew out of SEO. Future experts in ASO were mainly engaged in collecting the semantic core, searching for relevant keywords, and compiling a correct description. Today's tasks of an ASO specialist are much broader and more interesting. And there are many more tools to achieve the goals of the ASO strategy than back in 2008.
ASO vs SEO
- Where do they optimize?
ASO on App Store, Google Play Market, Huawei App Gallery, etc
SEO on Google, Yandex, etc
- What is optimized?
Mobile Apps by ASO
Websites by SEO
- What is the aim of optimization?
ASO increases the visibility of the application in the search results for the request of users within the stores
SEO also increases the visibility of web resources in search engines.
As you can see, ASO and SEO are complementary areas, so making an SEO specialist an ASO is much easier. There is an opinion among employers that retraining from SEO to ASO is cheaper and easier than looking for and hiring a ready-made ASO specialist.
- ASO and ASA specialist - what's the difference between them?
- ASO (App Store Optimization) is an organic (free) promotion of applications on the App Store and Google Play Market
ASO contractors are paid to promote the application. ASO is focused on optimizing the application in such a way as to show the application as often and as high as possible upon user request. Advertising is not used, but the application itself is improved with the help of relevant keywords (which users enter into the store search engine), optimization of the application description, and updating icons, screenshots, and videos.
- ASA (Apple Search Ads) is a paid advertisement for the App Store
It uses paid ads that put the app at the top of the search results. This automatically increases the app's visibility to users.
Nuance: ASA serves as an additional source for relevant keywords, which in turn are used for ASO.
Let's summarize:
- ASO is a promising direction due to the constant growth of the mobile applications market and its users.
- The labor market cannot fully satisfy the demand for ASO specialists. There are fewer than they need.
- Candidates may be hired without work experience, but with a good theoretical base
- A great start to a career in the mobile business. ASO assumes knowledge of related areas (SEO, SMM, marketing, advertising, etc.), which significantly expands the career horizons of a young ASO specialist
- with decent salaries
- interesting tasks, and constant growth of skills
- Universities do not let you get a degree from ASO specialists. You can study on your own or take some special training course. An app promoter is a good investment in yourself. The money you pay for educational courses will be paid off by the first or second salary
Keep up with the times, master modern jobs and always be in trend!
