It is easy to assume that both promoting a website and an app require the same strategies.

Both fall under the digital marketing umbrella, so how can they be separated? Wrong. There are overlaps and similar terminology. Both require constant updates. However, the methods of achieving these goals differ in almost every detail.

You’re missing opportunities if you don’t use the same marketing strategy to promote your app as your website. Search engines and app stores are two very different online spaces. They have different restrictions, requirements, and algorithms. You can leverage all they have by targeting your strategy.

Moburst is a mobile marketing agency that will help you understand the differences between your app and web marketing strategies.

What is the difference between SEO and ASO?

SEO is the most commonly used term. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s the process that optimizes a website to achieve the highest rank possible in search engines. This will drive organic traffic to the site. You want to increase website visits and the number of relevant visitors. There are many ways to achieve this. We’ll go into more detail.

ASO stands for App Store Optimization. Sometimes it’s called SEO for apps. ASO doesn’t aim to drive organic traffic to a website but to increase organic downloads of apps. It optimizes an app to make it rank high in the app store. Its goal is to improve visibility for both browse-related traffic and search results. It is possible to be ranked in the category and featured under the “Similar Apps” section of a page for peer apps.

It is important to remember that you cannot use the same strategy for each.

ASO is subject to the restrictions of each app store. There are many differences between the requirements of both Apple App Store (Google Play) and Google Play (Apple). Each app title has a limit of characters, screenshots must be within certain dimensions, and so forth.

iOS allows for a maximum of 30 characters per App Name and Subtitle. Google Play allows the App Name to be up to 50 characters and the Short Description to be as long as 80. SEO allows you to move your website in any direction you want. While certain techniques will perform better than others it is not necessary to do so.

Roles reverse in search results listings. ASO provides more flexibility. You can customize the search result pages in app stores by adding icons, videos, and screenshots. What do you see when you Google search the web? It’s mostly a long list with blue links and lots of text. ASO places a greater emphasis on visuals.

You’ve probably guessed that many factors can affect both ASO AND SEO. Both are vastly different and there is a lot to choose from. We won’t be covering them all, but that’s another topic. ASO is affected by the app title, short description, screenshots, and other visual elements. Localization also plays a role. SEO is affected by UX, metadata, and user engagement.

Keywords: Are you using them correctly?

It’s important to be strategic about how you use keywords in both web and app marketing. Nobody wants to be reading a text with too many keywords. This is not necessary for the App Store as it will penalize you. It is also not necessary on a website because Google is very clever and can understand what your message is.

App stores allow only a certain number of characters to be used for metadata. This is one of the most significant differences. The App Store allows sub-titles up to 30 characters and Google Play allows app titles up to 50 characters. This is a significant limitation on the number of keywords you can use, especially when compared to web pages that allow unlimited keyword possibilities.

To avoid using too many characters, you can only use each keyword one time. Be strategic about what keywords you use. Your ranking in the Apple App Store is not affected by using a keyword more often than once. However, this is not true for the Google Play Store or SEO world where more keywords can increase your ranking.

The App Store’s app description, while it is the bulk of the text, is not indexable. This means that the ASO ranking does not reflect the app description. Keywords are not as important. 

However, keywords in the Google Play Store are indexed and have an impact on ASO. Web pages are the same. Keywords in the main text of the page are indexed and can impact their ranking. SEO writing is dominated by the use of popular and relevant keywords with low difficulty.

Keyword research is the most common aspect of both ASO and SEO. You may be wondering why? There are certain metrics that we use to validate keywords both in ASO and SEO. These metrics include keyword popularity/search volume and keyword difficulty. There are many others.

Online research tools can be used to identify these metrics and determine which keywords will give you the greatest chance of ranking. We recommend AppTweak and Ahrefs as well as MobileAction, SEMRush, and MobileAction as platforms and tools.

The keyword difficulty will give you an indication of the difficulty (or ease) to rank for the chosen keyword in the app store or search engine. This is the ultimate goal of both.

The tools used to do ASO keyword research and SEO keyword research might differ (e.g. AppTweak is used for ASO keyword research and Ahrefs web SEO, but the metrics and subsequent evaluations are the same. Both ASO and SEO are aiming for the same goal in their respective fields: finding the right keywords and ranking higher.

What does user behavior have to do with marketing strategy?

It would be foolish to assume that user behavior will be the same for apps and the web. Apps can only be used on tablets and mobile phones, while web pages can also be accessed from a computer. The average American consumer spends four hours per day on their smartphone. We live in a mobile-first society. Research has shown that apps account for nearly three-quarters of the four hours.

This presents a problem for tracking. Research shows that users will spend more time browsing apps than they do on the internet to purchase the final product. To avoid bad customer acquisition costs, if one user switches between platforms (an application and a website), then the marketing strategy should consider them as one user. It is impossible to count the same user twice when they switch between the app and a website.

Mobile users are always on the move, which allows us to use geo-marketing and push notifications to increase traffic and conversions. Geo-marketing refers to when marketers use a user’s geo-location as part of their marketing strategy. For example, push notifications are sent to you when you’re close to a physical shop.

Timing is another advantage. You will be able to see when users are most active on the phone. This is because we look at our phones for around four hours a day.

These usage patterns are crucial to remember when developing your app or web marketing strategy.

The Marketing Funnel is worth considering

Because a website is immediately available, while an app is only available after installation, the funnels are different. Because you must take action to access an app, an app’s marketing funnel is faster and more focused on immediate actions.

A web page’s funnel, on the other hand, is about creating a user journey that leads to conversion. A web marketing funnel does not require action at the beginning (such as downloading an app), but only the later stages. Making a purchase.

Is Mobile Attribution the same as Web Attribution?

Mobile attribution is more complicated than the other. It can break in many places along the journey. This is Campaign -> Store-> Download -> Engagement. The store does not transfer any attribution data.

It is common for users to download an app after they have seen an advertisement online. There is no way to attribute this traffic to the source. AppsFlyer or Adjust are two of the key players in solving attribution issues for mobile apps.

Mobile attribution must include all stages of the conversion funnel. This would include the user’s reaction to the advertisement, their behavior after viewing the ad, and whether or not they decide to install the app.

Web attribution involves understanding and attributing touchpoints (the ways a consumer interacts with your business) that are part of a consumer’s journey through the internet, on both mobile browsers as well as desktops.

It records users’ web activities and allows them to be attributed to the site they came from before visiting the site. Marketers can create a customized user experience by setting up attribution links in advance. This allows them to track the impact of different web features on their overall goals.

The credit will be given to the user whose last non-direct contact was the most important. If a user clicks on Facebook Ads to visit a website and then takes actions that ultimately lead to a purchase of the product, credit is given to Facebook.

Mobile attribution and web attribution can be combined to create an integrated approach to attribution. Because users are now using multiple devices, platforms, and channels, the process of attributing can become fragmented. It’s not enough to use the web from a computer or only use apps on a smartphone.

Web ads can be used by companies that have a mobile-first mindset to increase conversions. An ad may be seen on social media, but the user might purchase after downloading the app. This could be mistakenly interpreted as an organic lead without cross-platform attribution.

How do Landing Pages differ?

We refer to app pages as landing pages, not web landing pages. App pages are not able to be modified and their points for engagement cannot be fixed.

A web landing page, on the other hand, allows you to identify points of engagement and limit them to a specific event. Filling out a lead form, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading software. It’s where potential customers are first introduced to your brand. Users should see the value of your app right from the beginning.

It is imperative to keep your most compelling copy higher than the fold when creating landing pages for mobile apps. The fold, which is the point at which the text stops being visible above the fold, is where you can scroll down or click “read more” to continue reading the rest. Many users don’t get past the fold, as you can see. The app’s most appealing features and core message should be displayed before the app cuts off. 

App pages and web landing pages have different goals and resources. The web allows us to place text and visuals in a premade template. However, the web offers more freedom, although we are often working with simpler goals. For example, web landing pages allow users to fill out a form to purchase a product or sign up for a newsletter.

Our primary goal on app pages is to get users to download the app. We also want to encourage users to explore the page, so we make sure they scroll through the screenshots and read the lengthy description. These touch points will let us know if our app is interesting to them and give us more data to optimize conversion.

A/B Testing 101: Mobile vs Web

It is important to note that A/B testing apps and web pages differ in one key way. For apps, you only test the page, not the actual app. Websites, on the other hand, are A/B tested by visitors who visit the site directly.

Different platforms can be used to test apps for A/B. Google Play Experiments offers Android users a free alternative. iOS does not offer any A/B testing tools.

SplitMetrics and StoreMaven are two options if you need a more detailed report. Although these mimic the appearance of app stores, the traffic from the testers’ campaigns is not live store traffic so they may behave differently. They are best described as a rough approximation to live store traffic. They are different from Google Play Experiments, which allow you to perform A/B testing on actual users who visit the page.

Our tips for app A/B Testing:

• You can test for graphical or textual assets. Usually, screenshots, orientations, videos, and USPs are required.

• You can compare different designs and copy them against one another, but only one variable change per variable is necessary so that you can quickly determine what has changed.

• Analyze the results to determine if you can implement changes or build new tests. What are the most important items? Sometimes, this means tweaking concepts or combining USPs from different concepts with screenshots.

A/B testing is a technique that shows different versions of a web page to different visitors at once. This allows for more conversions. While the ultimate goal is to identify the best-performing variables, the methods for doing this are different from those of app A/B testing.

There are many tools available, such as Optimizely. Optimizely and other protocols are different by their nature, which targets different behavioral tendencies, devices, and platforms.

Conclusion

Let’s look at the similarities and differences between app and web marketing.

Similarities:

1. The Organic Ranking algorithms: These algorithms take into account the app’s keywords, popularity, and reputation.
2. Keyword research should always be done for both. These are vital discovery tools for new users that both web and mobile assets can benefit from. We use the same metrics for this, e.g. Keyword difficulty and search volume are the same metrics for both.
3. Mobile and Web attribution are often combined to provide a holistic approach to attribution. This is especially important because users frequently switch between both.
4. A/B Testing applies to both. Both require statistical best practices, sound hypotheses, and a large budget to test.

Differences:

1. Organic ranking algorithms for the web: It’s based upon the quality and quantity of incoming links and engagement metrics (e.g. bounce rate, time on site, etc). Mobile apps are all about ratings, reviews, category rankings (which can affect keyword ranking), download velocity, and conversion rates.
2. Keyword research in ASO is much easier if you use shorter-tail keywords. At least half of the keywords must be branded. ASO has stricter character limits, so app names and subtitles are limited.
3. Because the conversion occurs at the end, the marketing funnel web is less action-oriented. With app marketing, the first conversion must be a purchase.
4. Mobile Attribution is more complex than Web Attribution because there are more disconnects along the user journey.
5. Landing Pages for the Web have more flexibility to decide the points of engagement than app pages, which are set engagement points.
6. A/B Testing is a great tool for web marketing. There are many points of engagement. You cannot get iOS testing at no cost. Also, the Google Play Experiment’s Android free platform is not available. It’s important to note that it provides very few insights and isn’t a good option.