Best Tips for ASO Holiday Season

The holiday season and special events in a given calendar year give you a unique opportunity to promote your app. You shouldn’t ignore seasonality. Instead, you need to make sure that your App Store Optimization strategies are configured to take advantage of these once-a-year opportunities.

The question now is, “How can you set your ASO to get more downloads and users during special occasions?”

That’s precisely what you’re going to learn today.

Why should you change your ASO strategy for a specific holiday?

Holidays and special events affect the behavior of your users. It changes their needs, how they use apps, and how they spend their money.

Simply put: holiday seasons give you new marketing opportunities that will help you improve your app success.

There’s no denying that people change their behavior depending on the time of the year. Yes, it is true that holidays give you more chances of getting noticed by your users. However, you’re not the only one trying to take advantage of seasonalities. It can also quickly get too competitive, and without an effective ASO strategy in place, you might not be able to get as many results as possible.

That’s the reason that you need to make sure that your ASO is set for the holiday and get as many users as possible during this limited time.

Case in point: a study was done on how seasonality affects app ranking in app stores. The study shows how the top 10 shopping apps are essentially the same for November and the previous months. However, by the end of November, almost half of the shopping apps in the top 10 rankings changed.

The change happened because new shopping apps entered the top 10 list by targeting keywords that are relevant to the holiday season. This proves that having a good ASO strategy for the holiday works and should be a top priority for many.

So, how can you improve your ASO during the holiday season? Here are important tips to remember:

1. Change your app images

Depending on the upcoming season, you can change your app to ensure you’re into the holiday beat. There are a few things you can change here.

For example, your app icon can feature elements from the holidays. When it’s Christmas, you can add Santa’s red hat, snow, snowflakes, Christmas trees, stars, and other elements that are related to Christmas.

Aside from the app icon, feel free to change your screenshots as well. These images should reflect the current seasons you are in so that people can quickly establish a connection with your app.

2. Change your app’s theme

You can change your app’s theme to conform with the current holiday season. One good example of this is the gaming app: Hey Day.

The app didn’t simply change its app icon or screenshots, but it went as far as actually changing the theme of the game. So, during the third quarter of the year, their farm animals got some Christmas makeovers. They even added snow to their farm.

3. Change your targeted keywords

There are certain keywords that work best during a specific season. Normally, you don’t use a “Christmas sale” in March or June, right? This type of keyword isn’t that popular during the rest of the year. However, it becomes highly popular as the year ends.

Some of the examples of keywords that become popular during the holiday season include Black Friday, Christmas shopping, Santa tracker, wish, best buy, gaming toys, and others.

While your targeted keywords could be different from others, you simply need to do some keyword research that would apply to the holiday season. From there, you should be able to find keywords relevant to the occasion. Use those and see how your downloads would increase.

Be sure to add seasonal keywords to your app’s title or name, subtitle, description (Play Store), and keyword field (iOS).

4. Focus on relevant features

You might already have an existing feature that would be perfect for the holiday. If you have that, you can highlight the feature immediately.

However, you might not have a feature ready for the holiday. Thus, if you can, add a new feature that specifically becomes useful for users.

Just an example, online retailers such as Amazon already have features that make it easy for users to shop through their platforms. However, they also add new features during the holiday to help users compare special items that are on sale only in November and December.

5. Study your competitors

Studying your competition can give you huge insights into effective marketing practices. You can look at your competitors and see how they change their app listing page. You can also use a keyword research tool and see what keywords they are targeting.

When you look into your competition, you can identify their weaknesses. You can then try to capitalize on that and try to offer things they fail to do. This gives you an edge over them.

6. Run seasonal marketing campaigns

You can create specific ads that would target users who would most likely get engaged. You can do this through Apple’s Search Ads or Google ads. You can also do separate marketing campaigns on social media. 

Aside from that, you can perform marketing campaigns within your app that target existing users, or you can mobilize your existing users to promote your app by giving rewards.

7. Plan ahead

The holiday season can quickly happen. If you don’t plan ahead, you might miss out on great business opportunities for your app. Once that’s gone, then you have to wait for next year.

Thankfully, holiday seasons are predictable, and they come at the same time of the year. That gives you ample time to prepare. However, don’t procrastinate. The right timing is important here.

Remember, you’re not the only one who tries to take advantage of the holiday season. So, planning is essential. You need to create your marketing plan ahead of time. Prepare your creatives, copy, and questions, and plan out a timeline that leads to the holiday season.

Learn from your experiences in the previous year. See what things you have done right and in which area you need to improve.

All these should help you become more prepared to take on the holiday season and improve your ASO effort.

Make the most of the holiday season

Every once in a while, you are given an opportunity that could help you improve your app ranking. When you use ASO to take advantage of the holiday season, you can dramatically increase your downloads, get more users, and increase your earning potential.

Of course, that’s easier said than done. Thankfully, you can always get help from ShyftUp.

ShyftUp is one of the best user acquisition agencies today. They have the right knowledge, experience, and expertise to help you fully take advantage of the holiday season. Aside from that, they specialized in helping you get as many users as possible.

It’s time that your app receives the attention it deserves. Get in touch with ShyftUp today!

What is app store seasonality?

App store seasonality refers to the tendency of how certain events, seasons, and trends affect app ranking. Holidays in certain regions are seen to increase the popularity of specific apps. World events and trends also affect how users behave and spend.

How can you use in-app events to increase visibility during the holiday season?

In-app events are events or activities that can happen within the app. These events may include live-streamed experiences, competitions, challenges, and movie premiers. You can use in-app events that are specifically related to the holiday season to further engage and reach both existing and potential users.

Which apps are most affected by end-of-year seasonality?

The most affected end-of-year seasonality includes shopping apps, health and fitness apps, budget apps, and educational apps.