Using ASO to engage more readers for Metro.
Metro is an incredibly popular free newspaper, loved by commuters in cities across the UK. But how could it improve the readership of its app?
The scenario
Metro is a popular free UK newspaper with a young and mobile-savvy metropolitan audience. Its app aligns with the paper version, offering global news coverage, in-depth features, celeb gossip, sports, puzzles and a whole lot more.
It came to us when it wanted to improve the app’s visibility and reach. We evaluated its popularity at the beginning of 2021, and our ASO team prepared a strategy brief to target areas for improvement such as share of voice, app downloads and ratings.
31%
Store listing visitors
+10
Position in ‘News and Magazines’ category
+34%
Installs
Our approach
To get a sense of how Metro’s app was performing, we collected analytics data via proprietary built share of voice tool. This identified a clear need for keyword optimization, which informed our ASO strategy.
We initially focused on the UK-EN and US-EN app metadata, carrying out continuous iterations to ensure better keyword targeting. We also tested several versions of the app’s promotional text on the store listing to see what would best engage users.
Our creative team designed new screenshots for the App Store and Play Store, monitoring both competitors and trends to come up with eye-catching new listings. On top of that, we also work to suppressed negative reviews, which boosted the app ratings.
By raising the app’s visibility to the right audiences we were able to increase organic search traffic, and ultimately improve conversion rates.
The result
The metadata updates brought in higher traffic to the Metro app storefront, with a 31% increase in visitors to the app’s store listing and a 34% increase in installs. There was also an increase in impressions and app units (first-time downloads). With all of these KPIs having climbed ever since.
Our strategy resulted in the Metro app reaching 8th position in the App Store 'Magazines & Newspapers' category and moving up 10 places to reach 18th position in the Play Store ‘News and Magazines’ category. This further promoted Metro’s role as a major newspaper in the UK.
“The ConsultMyApp team has become a strategic partner of our marketing group. Their expertise in ASO and ASA has helped us significantly improve app performance, especially around critical events like the Kentucky Derby.
— Evan Morris, Director of Marketing at Twinspires