Mobile growth expert Thomas Petit on ASO, conversion optimization, what to keep in mind when optimizing UA for subscription apps and the importance of creatives.
You are left with 2 major levers on the marketing side: 1. The data/event you are feeding back to the machine/algorithm 2. The creatives you are showing to users (⚠️ including the store page!).
A growing trend for non-gaming apps is to have a landing page in-between the ad and the store page (even though it adds another step).
It's not just about your ad CTR because if your conversion rate is low in the stores then you need to bid much higher for advertising. ASO is not enough to win, but if you don’t do it you’ll loose.
Value-based optimization (VO) doesn't work very well for the subscription model (vs. apps/games with huge variance in revenue - example: players that spend a lot) because if you are selling the same subscription then LTV of users is fairly similar and value optimization becomes kind of useless.
Most subscription apps optimize on “have you subscribed?” but the problem is that your conversion is hard to optimize for Facebook/Google when you have low conversion rates (like 2-3%) because it takes a while to train the AI.
Optimizing on AEO for free trials is good because you manage to make event optimization work but problematic because starting a free trial doesn’t fully correlate to LTV (huge differences depending on users' age for example).
If you optimize for free trials Google might start optimizing exactly for that and you might end of with users that know very well how to cancel subscriptions and bring down the trial to paid subscription conversion rate.
You need to look carefully at your cohorts: don’t assume they’re all going to behave the same.
You are left with 2 major levers on the marketing side: 1. The data/event you are feeding back to the machine/algorithm 2. The creatives you are showing to users (⚠️ including the store page!).
A growing trend for non-gaming apps is to have a landing page in-between the ad and the store page (even though it adds another step).
It's not just about your ad CTR because if your conversion rate is low in the stores then you need to bid much higher for advertising. ASO is not enough to win, but if you don’t do it you’ll loose.
Value-based optimization (VO) doesn't work very well for the subscription model (vs. apps/games with huge variance in revenue - example: players that spend a lot) because if you are selling the same subscription then LTV of users is fairly similar and value optimization becomes kind of useless.
Most subscription apps optimize on “have you subscribed?” but the problem is that your conversion is hard to optimize for Facebook/Google when you have low conversion rates (like 2-3%) because it takes a while to train the AI.
Optimizing on AEO for free trials is good because you manage to make event optimization work but problematic because starting a free trial doesn’t fully correlate to LTV (huge differences depending on users' age for example).
If you optimize for free trials Google might start optimizing exactly for that and you might end of with users that know very well how to cancel subscriptions and bring down the trial to paid subscription conversion rate.
You need to look carefully at your cohorts: don’t assume they’re all going to behave the same.
You are left with 2 major levers on the marketing side: 1. The data/event you are feeding back to the machine/algorithm 2. The creatives you are showing to users (⚠️ including the store page!).
A growing trend for non-gaming apps is to have a landing page in-between the ad and the store page (even though it adds another step).
It's not just about your ad CTR because if your conversion rate is low in the stores then you need to bid much higher for advertising. ASO is not enough to win, but if you don’t do it you’ll loose.
Value-based optimization (VO) doesn't work very well for the subscription model (vs. apps/games with huge variance in revenue - example: players that spend a lot) because if you are selling the same subscription then LTV of users is fairly similar and value optimization becomes kind of useless.
Most subscription apps optimize on “have you subscribed?” but the problem is that your conversion is hard to optimize for Facebook/Google when you have low conversion rates (like 2-3%) because it takes a while to train the AI.
Optimizing on AEO for free trials is good because you manage to make event optimization work but problematic because starting a free trial doesn’t fully correlate to LTV (huge differences depending on users' age for example).
If you optimize for free trials Google might start optimizing exactly for that and you might end of with users that know very well how to cancel subscriptions and bring down the trial to paid subscription conversion rate.
You need to look carefully at your cohorts: don’t assume they’re all going to behave the same.
Notes for this resource are currently being transferred and will be available soon.
ASO is now a much broader thing. Today, keywords are relatively not that important:
=> Big topic is now conversion optimization through visuals (applies to everything: search, browse, advertising)
[💎@09:55] It's not just about your ad CTR because if your conversion rate is low in the stores then you need to bid much higher for advertising. ASO is not enough to win, but if you don’t do it you’ll loose.
Getting featured: impact lower now. Not a sustainable strategy. More helpful to indie apps.
The more you go down the funnel, the more the data becomes complex (and there's more of it).
A lot of new tools have emerged. Marketers have become much more like data analysts.
When focused on subscription, you have to interpret your LTV differently.
Platforms (FB and Google) have moved from optimizing for installs to optimizing for events and value-based => [💎@23:10] Doesn’t work very well for the subscription model (vs. apps/games with huge variance in revenue - example: players that spend a lot). If you are selling the same subscription, LTV of users is fairly similar and Value Optimization becomes kind of useless.
[💎@24:12] Most subscription apps optimize on “have you subscribed?” → problem is that your conversion is hard to optimize for Facebook/Google when you have low conversion rates (like 2-3%) because it takes a while to train the AI. Better if low price (or huge budget!).
[💎@25:00] As a result, a lot of subscription apps optimize based on free trials:
In short: be careful what you’re optimizing for (what you need to optimize for might not be that intuitive). Thomas mentioned some tricks (not shared here).
If you’re an indie, you can’t afford the tooling and building manually is costing both time and money. Might be best to focus on the product. There’s a minimum amount that you need to trigger the optimization.
On creative being the main/only differentiator (article by Miri Growth here): [💎@36:15] we are now at a time where the goal is to unite the data and a brillant creative concept.
"you reach a point where the creative is really where the big wins are going to be made"
[💎@37:40] It leaves you with 2 major levers on the marketing side:
[💎@38:35] A growing trend is also to have a landing page in-between the ad and the store page (even though it adds another step).
Challenge for teams: analytical people are often less creative and vice versa. Teams should hire for both (or someone that is both, but that's rare to find).
Facebook and Google have been enablers for the mobile industry. If you can’t make Google and Facebook work for you it’s going to be extremely hard to get to the very top.
ASO is now a much broader thing. Today, keywords are relatively not that important:
=> Big topic is now conversion optimization through visuals (applies to everything: search, browse, advertising)
[💎@09:55] It's not just about your ad CTR because if your conversion rate is low in the stores then you need to bid much higher for advertising. ASO is not enough to win, but if you don’t do it you’ll loose.
Getting featured: impact lower now. Not a sustainable strategy. More helpful to indie apps.
The more you go down the funnel, the more the data becomes complex (and there's more of it).
A lot of new tools have emerged. Marketers have become much more like data analysts.
When focused on subscription, you have to interpret your LTV differently.
Platforms (FB and Google) have moved from optimizing for installs to optimizing for events and value-based => [💎@23:10] Doesn’t work very well for the subscription model (vs. apps/games with huge variance in revenue - example: players that spend a lot). If you are selling the same subscription, LTV of users is fairly similar and Value Optimization becomes kind of useless.
[💎@24:12] Most subscription apps optimize on “have you subscribed?” → problem is that your conversion is hard to optimize for Facebook/Google when you have low conversion rates (like 2-3%) because it takes a while to train the AI. Better if low price (or huge budget!).
[💎@25:00] As a result, a lot of subscription apps optimize based on free trials:
In short: be careful what you’re optimizing for (what you need to optimize for might not be that intuitive). Thomas mentioned some tricks (not shared here).
If you’re an indie, you can’t afford the tooling and building manually is costing both time and money. Might be best to focus on the product. There’s a minimum amount that you need to trigger the optimization.
On creative being the main/only differentiator (article by Miri Growth here): [💎@36:15] we are now at a time where the goal is to unite the data and a brillant creative concept.
"you reach a point where the creative is really where the big wins are going to be made"
[💎@37:40] It leaves you with 2 major levers on the marketing side:
[💎@38:35] A growing trend is also to have a landing page in-between the ad and the store page (even though it adds another step).
Challenge for teams: analytical people are often less creative and vice versa. Teams should hire for both (or someone that is both, but that's rare to find).
Facebook and Google have been enablers for the mobile industry. If you can’t make Google and Facebook work for you it’s going to be extremely hard to get to the very top.
ASO is now a much broader thing. Today, keywords are relatively not that important:
=> Big topic is now conversion optimization through visuals (applies to everything: search, browse, advertising)
[💎@09:55] It's not just about your ad CTR because if your conversion rate is low in the stores then you need to bid much higher for advertising. ASO is not enough to win, but if you don’t do it you’ll loose.
Getting featured: impact lower now. Not a sustainable strategy. More helpful to indie apps.
The more you go down the funnel, the more the data becomes complex (and there's more of it).
A lot of new tools have emerged. Marketers have become much more like data analysts.
When focused on subscription, you have to interpret your LTV differently.
Platforms (FB and Google) have moved from optimizing for installs to optimizing for events and value-based => [💎@23:10] Doesn’t work very well for the subscription model (vs. apps/games with huge variance in revenue - example: players that spend a lot). If you are selling the same subscription, LTV of users is fairly similar and Value Optimization becomes kind of useless.
[💎@24:12] Most subscription apps optimize on “have you subscribed?” → problem is that your conversion is hard to optimize for Facebook/Google when you have low conversion rates (like 2-3%) because it takes a while to train the AI. Better if low price (or huge budget!).
[💎@25:00] As a result, a lot of subscription apps optimize based on free trials:
In short: be careful what you’re optimizing for (what you need to optimize for might not be that intuitive). Thomas mentioned some tricks (not shared here).
If you’re an indie, you can’t afford the tooling and building manually is costing both time and money. Might be best to focus on the product. There’s a minimum amount that you need to trigger the optimization.
On creative being the main/only differentiator (article by Miri Growth here): [💎@36:15] we are now at a time where the goal is to unite the data and a brillant creative concept.
"you reach a point where the creative is really where the big wins are going to be made"
[💎@37:40] It leaves you with 2 major levers on the marketing side:
[💎@38:35] A growing trend is also to have a landing page in-between the ad and the store page (even though it adds another step).
Challenge for teams: analytical people are often less creative and vice versa. Teams should hire for both (or someone that is both, but that's rare to find).
Facebook and Google have been enablers for the mobile industry. If you can’t make Google and Facebook work for you it’s going to be extremely hard to get to the very top.
