So you have your app live in the App Store. You know that you need to do ASO and you know that you need keywords to do it. How do you find these keywords though? A good place to get your keywords can be from your competitors. There are a few ways that you can find these competitors. Here we have a list of five ways that you can find competitors with ASO Intelligence, and how to apply your findings to your own ASO.
1. Generic keyword
The first way to find competitors is by searching for generic keywords in the Keyword Tracking tool.
What is a generic keyword? A generic keyword is any keyword that is not a branded word from either your app or another app. This generic keyword should display a feature of your app.
Let’s use the example of Royal Match. This is a match-three game. These games require you to match tiles to make them disappear, based on the game’s rules. They are also known as puzzle games. Therefore, we can use the search term “match three.”
To think of generic keywords, you should put yourself in the shoes of a user. In this case, perhaps the user has in mind that they specifically want to play a match-three game. They may already like match-three games and be looking for a new one for example. You could also use the term “puzzle game” for this purpose.
You should try to find as many of these generic keywords as possible. Your goal should be to find the ones that have the most potential of bringing installs. It is also essential to consider the volumes of the keywords that you find.
After you have located one of these generic keywords that are relevant to your app, you should click the live button. Here you will find the apps that are ranking for this keyword. You can then scroll through these apps to find your competitors. Choose the ones that are the most similar and relevant to your app and add them to your competitor list.
You should have around 20-30 competitors on your list at one time. We will touch on why you need this list later on.
2. Using your brand keyword
The second way to find competitors is by searching for your brand name. This method involves following the same process as the generic keyword method. Some apps may be using generic keywords in their app name, which will make this method less useful. However, it is a good idea to check and see if you can find some competitors this way.
After searching for your brand name, you will again click the live button and scroll through the apps that you find until you find the most similar apps to yours to add as competitors.
Once you are on this list, find the apps that are the most similar to your app. For this example, we are looking for match-three games that also have a renovation aspect.
You can also complete the same process with the brand names of other known competitors.
3. Keyword Intelligence Tool
You can also use the keyword intelligence tool to find other competitors. If you enter the same generic or brand keywords into this tool, it will show you which apps are ranking for these same keywords.
This can be an extremely useful tool to show you your competitors. You can also see which apps are using Apple Search ads for these keywords.
4. MobileAction suggested competitors
This method is quicker than the first three methods. You can find these keywords as suggested keywords under your app name in the top left corner of your screen.
This method doesn’t allow you to see what exactly the details are of each app, so you may want to use the first 3 methods first. This method can work best if your app has been in the store for a while already.
5. App Intelligence
This fifth way to find your competitors is by scrolling down in the App Intelligence tool until you reach the “similar apps” list. This method can be good if you are already in the app intelligence tool and you want to see which apps are recommended as similar. However, this is one will require slightly more time as you much copy and paste the name of the app into the search bar so that you can investigate if they are similar enough to your app before adding them to your competitor list. It can be a very useful way to find similar apps different from the other methods.
You can choose the ones that seem like they will have relevance to your app and then look them up to see if your guess was correct. If they are a good match you can add them to your list.
Creating a keyword pool
This is why we have been spending all this time collecting a group of competitors. It is now time to browse through their keywords to find the ones that you should be adding to your list. The first thing you will need to do is to go to the Keyword Spy feature on MobileAction.
Keywords spy feature:
From the keyword spy feature, you should scroll down to the ranked keyword list. From here you want to add the relevant keywords. You should repeat the process for each one of your competitors. Go one by one and add relevant high-ranking keywords.
So there you have it! You are now equipped to add competitors, and sift through their keywords to give yourself the best ASO possible! For these ASO tools and many more, sign up for a demo and start your ASO journey.
