In the ever-changing landscape of App Store Optimization, one thing holds true: If you’re not constantly optimizing or testing creatives in the app stores, you risk leaving valuable installs on the table.
This isn’t just for organic installs either. If you think about the broader landscape of the app stores, the majority of apps are supporting their apps with multiple user acquisition channels, be it App Store Optimization, Meta Ads, Apple Search Ads, Google Ads or anything in between.
However, there’s just one app store listing (two if you’re on both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store). How can any marketer create the ideal page to better convert every user, no matter the journey?
With Apple and Google’s latest capabilities, the possibilities are endless. Gone are the days of a one-size-fits-all strategy, with every conversion depending on a single page. Apple’s Custom Product Pages and Google’s Custom Store Listings allow you to create unique experiences for every funnel, giving you a better chance at increasing your conversion rates and lowering your acquisition costs.
How can you best use these features to increase your conversion rates and maximize your ROI? Let’s break down the basics.
User acquisition
User acquisition is the act of acquiring new users across a multitude of different channels. Your ultimate goal could be to increase your total number of installs or to drive down-funnel conversion, but your sources of traffic are coming from paid media channels such as Apple Search Ads, Google Ads or Meta ads (just to name a few). User acquisition can also occur on owned channels, such as your website, which can aid in driving users directly to the app stores to install. No matter how you cut it, the goal of UA is to increase your installs, your users and your usage, which can get pricey if your app store listing isn’t converting well.
Apple’s Custom Product Pages
Custom Product Pages (CPP) are custom landing pages specifically for your app. Developers can create up to 35 pages per GEO and change videos, screenshots and promotional text. With every CPP submitted, Apple provides a custom URL that you can attach to different campaigns and/or your Apple Search Ads campaigns.
Google’s Custom Store Listings
Custom Store Listings (CSL) are Google’s equivalent to the CPP. Developers can create up to 50 CSLs that can override your Main Store Listing in certain GEOs, be attached to Google Ads campaigns, or be connected to organic search terms. CSLs can also generate a custom URL, allowing you to tie the page to your own marketing campaigns.
How does this all come together?
With the introduction of the custom app pages over the last few years, developers now harness the power of completely customizing user experiences across different user journeys, all driven by your user acquisition campaigns. No matter where a user is coming from, the overall user journey needs to hold a user’s attention long enough for them to reach the install button in the app stores. Let’s take a look at a few use cases that could use the help of a custom app page.
Use case 1 – Optimizing for mobile ad install campaigns
Acquisition channels such as Apple Search Ads, Google Ads and Meta Ads depend on you to manually input information (and money) for the ads to be served. As data collects in the respective dashboards, you’ll be able to get an understanding of what keyword or ad gets the most engagement at the top of the funnel.
If you have an MMP integrated, you can follow that user journey to see if users in that funnel are dropping off. More likely than not, if you’re experiencing a high rate of drop-off from ad to install, it’s likely due to user confusion driven by an expectation set from the ad level and the app store not matching that expectation.
Custom pages can be created on a per-ad basis, giving you the ability to create a custom page per top-performing ad that you see in your dashboards. If the custom page is more reflective of what a user saw in the ad, the more likely they’ll turn into an install and potentially a user.
Assess your ads that see the highest engagement and see what type of language or visuals you can incorporate in your app store creative, specifically for your custom pages.
Use case 2 – Optimizing for web traffic
A lot of developers support their app and their brand with a website, relying on their own SEO strategies to drive traffic to web pages which ultimately point a user back to the app stores with some sort of “Download now!” button. The same concept applies here – If your app store experience doesn’t align with what users saw on the original web pages, you can be hurting your chances of converting users.
It becomes less of a concern when your media mix is mostly driven by mobile user acquisition, but installs are installs, no matter the source. Consider leveraging similar copy and/or creative in your custom app page screenshots (or copy where applicable) to build a cohesive experience for all of your users.
Use Case 3 – Optimizing for Organic
Google Play provides developers with the option of a unique Custom Store Listing that you can tie to search terms. You can now create a custom page that gets attached to specific keyword searches, giving you the added advantage of being able to better align your page with search intention.
Not only can you create a brand new listing tailored to a specific keyword (or group of keywords), but you can also A/B test using Store Listing Experiments, unlocking a brand new avenue to increase organic installs. Similar to how you would approach Custom Product Pages in Apple Search Ads, Custom Store Listings can be updated and adjusted to increase conversion rates on those terms, which ultimately can drive up your keyword rankings too.
A/B testing your evergreen page
Optimizing your different traffic funnels is great, but don’t neglect your main storefront! Users that fall outside of those traffic channels will still land in the app store. No matter what optimizations are taking place for each individual funnel, it’s important to continue optimizing and A/B testing on your main page to truly maximize your chances of getting more installs and increasing your overall conversion rates.
Conclusion
Optimizing within the app stores is a great way to ensure that you’re converting as many users as you can that come in from different app store discovery lanes. However, if you look at customizing the app store experience for users across different funnels, you’ll find more success not just in converting users into installs but potentially turning them into long-term users.
