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KEY HIGHLIGHTS

📊 There are a couple of ways for reporting ASO impact. It’s crucial to select the setup that works best in your case. 📞 Communicating with UA and data teams is essential for the process.
⏲️ Depending on time and resources there are 3 levels of customization: store native consoles, third-party solutions, or custom dashboards

FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW

Understanding ASO

Before we dive into the details, let’s first clarify what ASO is. There are multiple definitions but in essence is a process aimed at increasing organic installs and conversion rate. A higher rank boosts your app’s visibility to potential customers. But, how can we precisely evaluate its true impact?

Company Internal Data and Reporting Structure

To assess the true impact of ASO, companies frequently rely on internal data and structured reporting. This includes monitoring metrics such as impressions, downloads, conversion and retention rates. However, developing an effective reporting structure to precisely collect and visualize this data isn’t always straightforward since store consoles, especially Google Play, don’t exactly report clean organic traffic, it’s mixed with paid UA, search in particular. 

Today I will describe some of the key considerations and recommended approaches to building ASO dashboards.

Dashboards and Tools

Dashboards serve as the central hub of ASO analytics, offering an overview of your app’s performance in the app store. Nonetheless, selecting the appropriate dashboard can be challenging. Native store consoles like Google Play Console and Apple’s App Store Connect offer a plethora of analytics and insights but aren’t ideal in many regards. Meanwhile, third-party solutions integrate data from various platforms and APIs, providing a more holistic viewpoint. 

It is also very important to mention that a dashboard customized to fit your needs will save you a significant amount of time and headache, especially if you are managing a portfolio of multiple apps possibly on different accounts. 

If you’re working with purely stores API, you can create multiple graphs for metrics such as impressions, page views, downloads, CVR, in one view or break down metrics by multiple dimensions, such as app/country/source. It is also much more convenient to track reviews and crash rates/vitals from one spot. If we add some third-party API to the mix you can track category rankings, keywords rankings as well as their stats among other things.

If building internal dashboards seems too time-consuming, and standard consoles don’t satisfy your needs, numerous services offer varying pricing and customization. Some notable options include:

– EasyAppReports

– App Figures

– ASO Tools like AppTweak, MobileAction, etc.

Many of them provide APIs that allow tracking additional metrics, as well as pre-built dashboards with essential information that you can customize or use as is.

Essential metrics to monitor are downloads and conversion rates across both stores, along with impressions for iOS and page views on Google Play. If you’re feeling adventurous, you could also integrate information from PPO or In-App events through API connections.

Distinguishing Organic Traffic from Paid Sources

With paid campaigns, it becomes increasingly difficult to segregate organic traffic from paid sources. This is where the expertise in data analytics comes into play, helping filter out the noise and focusing on the real metrics that matter.

As I mentioned previously, store dashboards do not necessarily report pure organic data, and you might find yourself arguing with other marketing departments about numbers. It is often the case when UA reports one set of data and ASO paints a different picture, as a consequence total numbers do not add up.

One of the solutions is to take organics from MMP and work with that. The downside is that you cannot split between search and browse. This is often called “organic traffic is any traffic that we’re not paying for”.

If you have a data analyst available, they can help you “clean” the console traffic by using custom formulas or delivering customized data from the API to your dashboard.

As a side note, It is vital to collaborate closely with the User Acquisition (UA) department to determine their reporting routines on installations, conversion rates, revenue, etc. Based on this information, you can either develop a complementary reporting framework or start from scratch, creating a system that aligns with your professional needs and vision.

Building your own Dashboards

If you want to go with building your internal dashboard but don’t know where to start, you will need to talk to a data person and explain the requirements. 

Usually, the easiest way is to connect store APIs to a data connector and from there visualize data on the dashboard like Looker Studio or Tableau. It should look something like this:

Store/MMP API -> Data connector/warehouse -> Dashboard

Here’s a more detailed step-by-step description of this process:

🦋 Connection:

• First, you need to establish the connection between the API of your choice (App Store and/or MMPs)
• then a connection between your data warehouse and your dashboard tool. This often involves specifying the database type, providing credentials, and setting any necessary permissions.

🐣 Data Modeling: Even though the data is stored in a structured manner in the data warehouse, it might require further modeling to suit visualization needs. This involves creating measures, dimensions, and sometimes aggregating data.

🚣‍♂️ Visualization Creation: Using the dashboard tool, design and create visualizations. This could be charts, tables, graphs, or more complex visuals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, measuring the real impact of ASO is indeed a complex process. It requires a blend of the right tools, expertise, and a deep understanding of the app market dynamics.

Whether you choose to build an in-house solution or opt for third-party tools, the goal remains the same – to accurately showcase the effectiveness of your ASO strategies and to continually adapt to the ever-changing app store landscape.mi8

A REQUEST BEFORE YOU GO

I have a very important favor to ask, which as those of you who know me know I don’t do often. If you get any pleasure or inspiration from this episode, could you PLEASE leave a review on your favorite podcasting platform – be it iTunes, Overcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast fix. This podcast is very much a labor of love – and each episode takes many many hours to put together. When you write a review, it will not only be a great deal of encouragement to us, but it will also support getting the word out about the Mobile User Acquisition Show.

Constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement are welcome, whether on podcasting platforms – or by email to shamanth@rocketshiphq.com. We read all the reviews & I want to make this podcast better.

Thank you – and I look forward to seeing you with the next episode!