Free App Store Optimization (ASO) tools (2020 Update)
Hi! My name is Maryna and I’m App Marketer/ASO specialist.
I’m continuously testing different ASO tools and understand that it’s impossible to buy them all, but desire to find more insights is unlimited :)
I found interesting instruments within free subscription plans of popular ASO tools: AppFollow, SensorTower, and AppAnnie.
The article will be useful for:
- ASO newcomers;
- ASO managers with low budgets;
- ASO managers who’re always looking for some interesting free stuff.
Let’s start! :)
AppFollow
AppFollow presents a great variety of free tools for ASO and I’d like to stress the most interesting of them.
The instrument has the following sections: App Analytics, Store Analytics, Organic Traffic & ASO, Ratings & Reviews, Reply to Reviews, Semantic Insights, Reports, Integrations.
I want to show the most interesting and useful tools in every section.
App Analytics: Category Rankings
This section provides information about the app’s rankings in different countries and their changes.
Store Analytics: Conversion Benchmarks
The instrument is available both for Apple App Store (even for different placements) and Google Play Console.
Guys from AppFollow collected data for more than 898 million unique iOS apps impressions (July 2020).
I have a screenshot with the same information that I’ve made for the previous version of the article. It’s interesting to see the changes.
Store Analytics: Featured
Check up your app featuring in one place with date, geos, and placements. It’s cool, isn’t it? Take into account that it’s available only for Apple Store. Info of app featuring in Google Play Store you can check in App Annie.
Moreover, in section Featured Today you can find out all store info on a particular day: Game of the Day, App of the Day, and different app collections (Now Trending, Just For Fun, etc).
Organic traffic & ASO: Competitors Overview
AppFollow is a great tool for keyword search, analysis and it provides 20 free keywords. Yeah, it’s quite a small amount, but even with them, we can conduct a little research. For example, to see our competitors in terms of different keywords.
Organic traffic & ASO: App Update Timeline
In this section, you can follow your competitor’s changes of ASO assets: from app size to screenshots.
AppFollow also has a lot of useful features to work with keywords: Keyword Tracking, Keyword Live Tracking, Keyword Spy, Search Ads Recommendation.
Organic traffic & ASO: App preview. One of my favorite features. In a few seconds, you can create an example of your app store listing by uploading image assets and inserting text. This can help you see store listing before the release (and yes, it can be done in Photoshop, but it’s easier to create them here).
Ratings & Reviews
- Ratings & Reviews Dashboard. Here you can discover the dynamic of your ratings and reviews.
- Reviews chart. Find out info about the number and type of ratings on a particular day/week in a chosen country.
- Reviews analysis. Sort reviews by app version, country, and period.
I need to say that AppFollow has Ranking chart, but I recommend using other tools: SensorTower or App Annie (we will talk about them later).
By the way, AppFollow has an interesting ASO blog and I recommend everyone to read it.
SensorTower
Let’s investigate free possibilities of the second tool — SensorTower.
App profile: Overview
As for me, it’s the most interesting feature in SensorTower in terms of competitors’ research. This page is a snap of the app’s main characteristics: downloads, revenue, reviews, ratings, ranking history, ad creatives, and platforms of user acquisition.
! Please note that revenue means subscription revenue !
Review history. Good reviews filters and country breakdown.
App Store Optimization
The main problem of this section is that SenworTower allows you to track and manage only 5 (!) keywords in a free version, so use it solely for keyword search. Nevertheless, I’ve found something interesting here.
- Keyword optimization. All we know that Apple Store allows using 100 characters in the keyword field. In SensorTower you can check these keywords and understand their value and utilize all characters.
- Keyword translation. If you have a multi-language app and require a quick translation of keywords — try this tool. Moreover, it even shows the character usage of the keyword field.
App Annie
In comparison with the previous tools, App Annie has limited free functionality, but its main advantages are the management of 100 keywords and world-known app ranking.
App Store Rankings
- Top charts. Famous App Annie ranking.
- Daily ranks + ranks history. I use this feature every week to track the rankings of apps. The most important thing for me is that you can see daily ranks in different countries, history rankings (90 days in free accounts), and the highest rank your app has ever had.
User acquisition: ASO Keywords
The keyword list in the free version has two columns: keyword rank (app’s position) and results (number of apps that are ranked by this keyword). The only thing I cannot understand the number of free keywords available. I’ve added 865 keywords and I can track all of them.
That’s all. Thanks for your attention. I hope, you find something interesting and useful.
Maryna
