Marketing Strategy When Promoting a Website vs. Mobile App
It’s natural to believe that promoting an app and a website necessitates the same tactics.
They both lie under the umbrella of digital marketing, so how far apart can they be?
Wrong.
Of course, there are certain overlaps and comparable language,
and they both necessitate frequent upgrades.
However, the methods used to do these differ in almost every detail.
If you use the same marketing strategy for your app as you do for your website,
you’re likely passing on some low-hanging fruit.
App stores and search engines are two very different online environments, with very different requirements, constraints, and algorithms.
Targeting your strategy can help you make the most of everything they have to offer.
ASO vs SEO: What’s the Difference?
SEO is perhaps the more well-known of the two terms.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
is the practice of improving a web page to achieve the highest possible ranking in search engines in order to drive organic traffic to the site.
You want to boost the number of visitors to your website as well as the number of relevant visitors.
There are other approaches to this, which we will discuss in more detail later.
ASO is an abbreviation for App Store Optimization.
It frequently referred to as app SEO.
Except that ASO isn’t attempting to direct organic traffic to a site,
but rather organic app downloads by optimizing an app to rank as high as possible in the app store.
It tries to enhance visibility for both search results and browse-related traffic
(for example, category ranking and being listed on a peer app’s website under the “Similar Apps” section).
The key point to note here is that you cannot use the same method for both.
You are constrained by the limits of the various app stores while using ASO.
There are substantial disparities in requirements even between the two frontrunners, Apple App Store and Google Play.
For example, each app title has a character limit, and screenshots must fit inside specific dimensions.
The App Name and Subtitle can only be 30 characters long in iOS.
In Google Play, the App Name can be 50 characters long and the Short Description can be 80 characters long.
Whereas with SEO, you have a lot more freedom to take your website in any direction you want.
Although certain approaches are bound to outperform others, it is not necessary to create them with this in mind.
When it comes to search results listings, the roles are reversed, with ASO providing more leeway.
You can experiment with icons, videos, screenshots, titles, and descriptions in the search results pages of app stores.
But what do you see when you run a Google search on the internet?
It’s mostly a large list of blue links and a lot of text.
In this regard, visuals have a larger significance in ASO.
You guessed it, the elements that influence both ASO and SEO…
They also differ.
There is a long list for both, and we won’t go over it all (that’s a topic for another day).
ASO influenced by the app title and short description, screenshots and other visual aspects, localization, and so on.
UX, metadata, and user engagement, to name a few factors, all have an impact on SEO.
Keywords: Are You Using Them Right?
In the world of app and web marketing, you must be strategic in your use of keywords.
Nobody wants to read a keyword-stuffed text that provides little value other than every possibly relevant keyword.
Anyhow, this isn’t required for the App Store since it penalizes you for it,
and it isn’t required for a web page
because Google is quite sophisticated and can grasp what you’re trying to convey anyway.
One of the most significant distinctions is that app stores only allow a fixed number of characters for different metadata.
The App Store, for example, only permits subtitles of up to 30 characters, while Google Play only allows app titles of up to 50 characters.
This greatly limits the number of keywords that can utilized, especially when compared to web pages, where the possibilities are virtually limitless.
You can only use each term once to prevent exceeding the maximum number of characters, so choose wisely.
Using a term more than once in the Apple App Store does not affect your rating.
This is not the case for the Google Play Store or the SEO sector, where employing more keywords will help you rank higher.
Interestingly, the app description in the App Store is not indexable and
thus has no impact on the ASO ranking, despite constituting the majority of the content.
Keywords are less relevant in this case.
However, in the Google Play store, the keywords are indexed and affect ASO.
The same is true for web pages, where keywords in the main body of text are undoubtedly indexed and have an impact on ranking.
One of the most significant aspects of SEO writing is the usage of relevant and popular keywords that are easy to remember.
However, keyword research is the only thing that ASO and SEO have in common.
Why you might ask?
In both ASO and SEO, we employ specific metrics to validate keywords.
Keyword popularity/search volume to keyword difficulty, with many in between.
You may locate these indicators using online research tools and determine which keywords will give you the highest chance of ranking.
AppTweak is an example of a platform and tool that we endorse.
Whether you’re trying to rank in an app store or a search engine, the keyword difficulty,
for example, will tell you how difficult (or easy) it will be to rank for the specified phrase.
This is the ultimate goal of both.
Although the tools for ASO and SEO keyword research differ
(for example, AppTweak for ASO and Ahrefs for web SEO),
the metrics and subsequent evaluation processes are the same.
This is since in their respective fields, both ASO and SEO aim for the same result – discovering the relevant keywords and ranking better for them.
How Does User Behaviour Impact the Marketing Strategy?
Because the web and applications are two distinct entities, expecting user habits to be the same would be naïve.
Apps are typically only available for usage on mobile devices and tablets,
whereas web pages can also accessed on a desktop computer.
We live in a mobile-first society, with the average US consumer spending four hours each day on their phone.
According to statistics, roughly three of those four hours spent on applications.
This makes tracking difficult.
Finally, research reveals that many people will browse via an app before making final purchase on the web.
If a user transitions between platforms (for example, an app and a website),
the marketing plan must treat them as a single user to avoid incurring unnecessary customer acquisition expenditures
(e.g. counting the same user twice when they switch from the app to a website).
All of these usage habits should considered when developing your app and web marketing tactics.
Take Into Consideration the Marketing Funnel
The funnels differ since a website is instantly accessible whereas an app is available after installation.
Because you have to take action to access an app, the marketing funnel for that app moves faster
and is more targeted toward instant activities.
A web page’s funnel, on the other hand, is more concerned with curating an ideal user experience to the end goal of conversion.
Unlike an app, which requires an action from the start (the download),
a web marketing funnel only requires activity in the later stages, such as making a purchase.
Are Mobile and Web Attribution the Same?
The more challenging of the two is mobile attribution.
This is due mostly to the fact that it can break at so many spots throughout the trip, which is as follows:
Campaign -> Store -> Download -> Engagement.
However, the retailer does not send attribution information.
It is common for a user to download an app days after viewing an ad online, and there is no way to attribute this traffic to its source.
This necessitates the usage of third-party services; two significant companies that assist in the resolution of attribution issues for mobile apps are AppsFlyer and Adjust.
The entire conversion funnel must covered by mobile attribution.
In this example, that is the user reaction to viewing the ad, whether or not they install the app after seeing the ad, and how they behave after doing so.
Understanding and then attributing the touch-points (the ways a customer might interact with your business)
of a consumer journey through the online, both on mobile browsers and desktop browsers, is required for web attribution.
It tracks user web events and gathers them to attribute them to the site a user visited before the site in issue.
A marketer can design a tailored user experience that allows them to quantify the influence of different online elements on their overall goals if they put up attribution links ahead of time.
In general, the last non-direct touchpoint that engaged a user will credited with the activity.
For example, if a user clicks on a Facebook Ad to visit a website and then does several steps that eventually lead to a purchase, Facebook receives credit.
Web attribution and mobile attribution complement one another to form a comprehensive approach to attribution.
As users’ journeys today cross channels, devices, and platforms, the attribution process can become fragmented.
We don’t merely use the web on a computer or apps on a mobile device.
Web advertisements are used by firms with a mobile-first mentality to optimize the cross-platform/device user journey and boost conversions.
A person may view an ad on web social media but then download the app and make a purchase the next day.
This could be misconstrued for an organic lead if cross-platform attribution not used.
Landing Pages: How Do They Differ?
In this context, app pages are referred to as landing pages as opposed to online landing pages.
App pages cannot updated like landing pages, and their points of engagement fixed.
A web landing page, on the other hand,
allows you to identify the points of engagement and narrow them down to a specific event,
such as filling out a lead form, subscribing to a newsletter, downloading software, and so on.
For both, it is the first page where potential users properly introduced to your brand,
thus it is critical to strike the right tone (even if the limitations of app pages make this harder).
You want people to notice the value in your app right away, don’t you?
The objectives we seek and the resources at our disposal differ between app pages and web landing pages.
The former provides us with a template in which we set our content and visuals, but the web provides us with greater flexibility,
albeit with simpler goals: on online landing pages, we want readers to fill out a form, buy a product, or subscribe to a newsletter.
Our major goal on app sites is to get consumers to download the app.
However, we also want to encourage customers to explore the app page by having them scroll through our screenshots and read the lengthy description.
These touch-points will inform us if they are interested in our app and will provide us with more data to optimize conversion.
A/B Testing 101: Mobile vs Web
The most significant distinction between A/B testing for applications and web pages is that for apps,
you test the app page in the store rather than the app itself.
Websites, on the other hand, are A/B tested when people arrive at the site.
A/B testing for applications can done on a variety of platforms.
If you’re looking for a free Android app,
Google Play Experiments is the way to go.
However, no A/B testing tools are available for iOS.
Conclusion
Although there are some parallels between the two marketing methods, they are more dissimilar than they are similar.
It pays to remember this if you want to get somewhere with either.
You can contact Nummero, a top digital marketing agency in Bangalore.