Keyapp.top ASO glossary

API (application programming interface) - a software interface which allows software components to interact with each other using a specific protocol (read more here).
App Monetization - is the process of making money from a mobile app without charging but using your own online resource. Possible app monetization resources:
  • App promotion;
  • Advertising;
  • In-app purchases;
  • Freemium model (when a basic version of an app is available free and a premium version is paid);
  • Sponsorship.
App Store Optimization (ASO) - the process of optimizing mobile apps for the purpose of increasing your app stores visibility by achieving a higher rank in the app store search results and TOP charts rankings. The function of optimization is to improve the visibility of a mobile app in Google Play. The ASO consists of 5 important points:
  1. Title and description optimization (adding relevant, most searched keywords to your title and app description);
  2. Keyword analysis (a process of attributing keywords' relevance, competition rate and monetary profit for chosen keywords);
  3. App's description (an app store optimized product (app's) definition that describes all advantages and main features of the app);
  4. Icon and screenshots optimization (creating eye-catching visuals that convey the idea and value of the app);
  5. Video optimization (creating a short and interesting video to catch user's attention and make them download the app).
    App Store Ranking - identifies the popularity of an app measured by rank or category within the app store. The higher the app store ranking is the more visible and organic users it has.
    ASO Tools - are the tools that are designed to monitor and capture specific keywords performance data, provide app developers with keyword analytics and suggest ways to optimize a mobile app marketing copy elements such as title, keywords set and description. They also give a possibility to check your competitors' keyword, their ranks. Such tools can provide you with your personal organic report, your ASO analysis report.
    Boost\Burst Campaign - is an effective app promotion technique which helps you to reach a specific category/overall ranking by driving a large volume of installs in a short period of time, eventually for organic user acquisition. It helps startups and developers to rank at the TOP of any category in order to reach their audience.
    CPI (Cost-per-install) - is a pricing model used in mobile user acquisition campaigns in which app advertisers pay each time a user installs their app from their ad.
    Engagement Rate - is a percentage of total impressions which includes ad clicks and other user activity in the app. Incentive installs don't influence engagement rank much but can increase keyword ranks of the app on the market.
    Google Play Developer Console - a personal panel of a developer on Google Play. It gives all the necessary stats to measure your app's performance. You can track all installs by specifying the dates when you were promoting your application, using promotion services. It gives all the necessary stats to measure your app's performance. You get such data like number of installs and uninstalls per day/month/year.
    Incentive (Motivated) Traffic - the term which refers to the traffic coming from all types of advertisements in return for a reward. In other words, it's the users who are paid or rewarded in some ways to install an app. Usually, such installs are bought to achieve a certain goal, like increasing keyword ranks on the store or increasing a total number of installs.
    Incentive Acquisition - is a type of paid user acquisition whereby users receive a certain value exchange for installing an app. Examples of incentives include virtual currency or a game item.
    Keywords - are words or phrases that represent users search queries. Using keywords in your app's name and description helps users find needed applications faster.
    Keyword Promotion - is a process of installing your app by the required keyword (by which a user finds your app). The more keyword installs an app has the higher it's ranked for the keyword. Top positions for popular keywords can give an app a significant number of organic installs and great visibility on the market.
    Keyword research - is a process of analyzing and differentiating the most competitive keywords (that could bring the most organic traffic) for a particular app. It is one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in-app promotion field. By researching your market's keyword demand, you can not only choose which terms and phrases to target your app with, but also learn your competitors.
    Keyword strategy - is a step-by-step plan of app promotion in order to increase its keyword positions as much as possible, make an app rank for more competitive keywords which will lead to more organic installs and more profit.
    Long Tail Keywords - are search phrases that are highly relevant to your specific niche, product, service or topic, have low competition level, comparatively low search volume and, generally, consist of 3+ words. The longer and more specific keyword phrases are, the more visitors are likely to use it when they are searching something they need specifically.

    For example: let's consider a generic keyword – «candy». The keyword has extremely high competition (over 15 000 apps on the Play Market were found) and it means that a user wasn't going to find something special. If he wanted to find a special app he would type "candy soda mania puzzle" and find an app he was searching, as this keyword is long-tail, less competitive and more targeted (only 1 800 apps were found by chosen keyword).
    Organic Flow - is a number of unique users that came from store's search, lists in categories etc. They are all potential customers interested in trying the product.
    Package ID - is a unique name that identifies your app that can be found in your URL address.
    Package ID install - is a direct install by a package ID of the app or in other words by an app's direct link. Usually users order package ID installs if they just want to have more installs in the statistics or they have recently published their application on the market. The more installs an app has the more reliable it looks to users and therefore attracts more potential customers.
    Positions - is the ranked position of an app within the app store listings or 3rd party app catalog listing. App rankings may appear in the form of primary (main) category or subcategory listings (top paid app vs top free games apps). App store and catalog rankings in charts are determined through a mix of proprietary app store algorithms and weighted factors. Higher rankings bring an app more visibility, traffic, and downloads.
    Promotion Strategy - a set of methods to make an app visible on the market. That includes app promotion with AdWords ads, promotion with incentivized traffic, social media promotion and other methods. One of the effective keyword strategies with incentive installs is described in this article here.
    Rate - a star point from 1 to 5 that a user gives to an app. The more positive rates an app gets on the store the better it ranks in categories and keyword ranks. As a result higher rank increases organic installs and affects the effectiveness of the promotion.
    Referral Program - is a way to encourage people to tell other people about a product or service, offering special bonuses. Read more about Keyapp.top referral program here!
    Retention Rate - a metric indicating how frequently a user opens the app after downloading the app.
    Review - comments that users write on app's page on Google Play. Potential users often read first few comments on the app page to know if the app is really worth installing. Positive reviews give an app more chances to attract more users. User reviews of directly affect its ranking in the TOP. To be more precise, reviews affect the promotion of mobile applications in the form of such indicators:
    • positions in the TOP that take into account the algorithms of Google Play and the App Store;
    • user's opinion often based on other people's ratings and comments. Before installing an app, the user reads that others are writing about them, and then decides whether to install it;
    • increasing the chances of featured advertising and demonstration of the program in advantageous places of the store.
      Reward App - an app to which users receive tasks to install apps for a certain reward, usually for money. Such apps are created and used by incentive traffic providers or companies to promote apps on app markets.
      Semantic core - is a set of keywords (key phrases) that describes an application in the clearest way possible. Creating your app's semantic core is one of the most important things in ASO because after creating the semantic core you can choose which keywords to use and which ones to skip on. Creation of the semantic core consists of 3 stages:
      • keywords selection (to add some keywords that will vary on your applications topic, theme, idea);
      • competitors Research (to pick your applications, major competitors);
      • analyzing (to monitor the traffic score of each and every keyword of the semantic core).
        Short Tail keywords - are very competitive keywords and they have high search volume. Usually contains up to 3 words.

        For example: the keyword «instagram followers». It has over 11 493 search requests per day so the competition for it is very high. If you wish to target that keyword in your content, you're not going to rank highly for it for a very long time. You need to add it to your description and create a keyword promotion strategy to get into its rank. For example, first to target long tail keywords like 'instagram followers for free' and gradually move to shorter keywords.
        Uninstall Rate - a ratio of app uninstalls to app installs (daily, monthly, yearly).
        Visibility - is a score that measures how visible your app is in app stores. High visibility will lead to more downloads and vice versa. In other words, good visibility includes top ranks in categories and search results on the web and app market, featuring in a popular blog or another online source, social media.