App Store Optimization
Terminology | Glossary
Everything you need to know for App Store & Google Play success and beyond.


A
A/B testing
App Store A/B testing is the science of running an experiment on elements inside a product page on the app stores in order to compare two or more variants.
Read More
A/B Testing Statistics
A/B testing statistics refers to the statistical model used in the conduction of an A/B test.
Read More
App Store Acquisition Channels
App Store Acquisition Channels are all the potential channels that user acquisition (UA) teams can utilize, to advertise an app or game and generate more visitors.
Read More
App Store Audience Testing
App Store audience testing is the practice of testing different segments of an audience and measuring how they respond to app store marketing creatives.
Read More
App Store Optimization (ASO)
App store optimization, or ASO for short, is the science of improving the performance of an app store listing.
Read More
Apple App Store Connect
App Store Connect is the platform that Apple provides to app developers to publish and to track their app’s performance on the App Store.
Read More
Apple Arcade
Apple Arcade is a paid mobile game subscription service on the App Store that allows users to sign up and enjoy high-quality games straight from a separate tab.
Read More
Attribution
Attribution is the science of attributing a user to its source.
Read More
B
App Store Behavior
App Store behavior is the science of understanding how users engage with app store pages.
Read More
App Store Browse
App Store Browse is an organic traffic source which includes all visitors that arrived to an app while browsing Top Charts, Category Charts, the Today tab or Featuring placements.
Read More
C
App Store Categories
Apps are listed and categorized according to the requirements a user needs them.
Read More
App Store Conversion Rate
Conversion rate = total conversions/app store impressions OR app store product page views.
Read More
App Store Creatives
App store creatives are all the visual elements that appear on an App Store or Google Play product page.
Read More
App Store Culturalization
App Store culturalization is the practice of changing an app’s product page to be in line textually and visually with the region’s unique nuances and values.
Read More
Cost per Install
Cost per install (CPI) is the term that describes the pricing model of mobile user acquisition (UA) efforts to drive installations.
Read More
Google Play Creatives
Google Play creatives are all the visual elements that appear in a Google Play product page.
Read More
D
App Store App Description
The app description is a text paragraph explaining to users about the app or game.
Read More
App Store Description Read Rate
Description read rate is the percentage of users that tap to read more of the description on a product page, past the text that shows at a first impression.
Read More
Google Play Long Description
The Google Play long description is a full paragraph of text describing an app or game that appears on a product page.
Read More
Google Play Short Description
The Google Play short description is a sentence that’ll appear in the first impression of your Google Play product page below the screenshot.
Read More
F
App Store Featuring
App Store featuring is the process whereby App Store editors feature an app in one of a few placement locations within the App Store.
Read More
Google Play Featuring
Google Play Featuring refers to an app being ‘featured’ on the Google Play Store in one of a number of different types of featured apps lists.
Read More
G
Google Play Console
Google Play Console is the platform that Google provides for Google Play and Android developers to publish and monitor their app’s performance in the Google Play store.
Read More
Google Play Experiments
Google Play Store listing experiments or GEx, is the A/B testing functionality provided by Google.
Read More
Google Play Pass
Google Play Pass is a paid for subscription service that provides access to high-quality, curated games without ads and in-app purchases.
Read More
Google Play Points
Google Play Points are part of an award system whereby Google Play users earn points on their regular behavior in the Google Play store.
Read More
I
App Install Rates
App install rates are the percentage of users that decide to install an app after visiting an App Store or Google Play product page.
Read More
App Store Icon
The app store icon is the only creative element that appears throughout the user journey in the app stores.
Read More
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is the practice of using influencers from an app’s industry or category in order to promote and bring traffic to an app/game.
Read More
K
App Store and Google Play Keywords Optimization
Keyword optimization is the ongoing process of measuring the impact of keywords on an app’s ranking and search traffic.
Read More
App Store Keywords
App Store keywords are standalone words or those that form part of a phrase, which are entered as search queries in order to locate an app or game.
Read More
App Store Keywords Research
A keywords research is the process of gathering information to help a developer decide which keywords to add to an app listing’s metadata.
Read More
Google Play Keywords
Google Play keywords are single words or part of phrases that a user uses to search for an android app or game.
Read More
Keyword Localization
Keyword localization is the process of implementing translated and localized keywords/creatives located in the metadata of an app’s product page.
Read More
P
App Store Page Scroll Rate
The App Store page scroll rate is the percentage of users that scroll down an App Store product page in the direction of the reviews section.
Read More
App Store Personalization
App Store personalization is Apple’s process in surfacing the most relevant apps to individual users at the most relevant time.
Read More
App Store Pre-Launch
App Store pre-launch is a phase in marketing directly before the launch of a new game or app.
Read More
App Store Preview Videos
The App Store promo video is a short video that appears on both the App Store product page and within search results.
Read More
App Store Product Page
The App Store product page is the landing page for a mobile app or game distributed and published on Apple’s App Store.
Read More
Google Play Personalization
The process of personalizing the Google Play experience for each user, surfacing apps that are relevant to them based on a variety of metrics.
Read More
Google Play Product Page
The Google Play product page is the landing page for a mobile app or game distributed and published on the Google Play store.
Read More
Pre/Post App Store Tests
A pre/post App Store test is the practise of testing a creative asset and measuring its impact on mobile marketing and growth KPIs before placement and after.
Read More
R
App Store App Referral
App Store app referral is a traffic source that includes visitors that come to an app store listing via apps (not from the web).
Read More
App Store Ranking
If an app’s discoverability is low, this will result in fewer impressions and limited growth.
Read More
App Store Ratings
In the App Store, each app gets a rating of 0.0-5 which is based on users’ opinions.
Read More
App Store Review Engagement Rate
A review engagement rate is the percentage of users who actually engage with the reviews on an app or game’s product page.
Read More
App Store Reviews
In the App Store, reviews are presented in the review gallery below-the-fold. This means that only about 20%-25% of users are exposed to it.
Read More
App Store Web Referral
App Store web referral is a traffic source which includes all visitors that arrive at an app listing from an external source (mobile web), most commonly the iOS Safari browser.
Read More
Google Play Ranking
Google Play ranking is a crucial element to an app’s visibility and audience impressions which is why the industry and ASO teams look to it as a priority when strategizing.
Read More
Google Play Third-party Referral
Google Play third-party referrals refer to traffic sourced by users that open a link, that takes them straight to the product page in Google Play.
Read More
Re-engagement
Re-engagement is the marketing strategy that targets and entices users who are no longer engaged in an app when once they were via a campaign, usually of the ad variety.
Read More
Replicated App Store Page
A replicated App Store page is a tool that third-party A/B testing platforms use to replicate an App Store or Google Play environment in order to understand on-page behavior and run A/B tests.
Read More
S
App Size
Every app has a megabyte size which determines the amount of storage it requires in order to run on on users’ devices
Read More
App Store Screenshot View Rate
Screenshot view rate is the percentage of users that view each screenshot in the gallery section of an app’s product page.
Read More
App Store Screenshots
App Store screenshots are the main visual element within the App Store product page.
Read More
App Store Search
App Store Search is an organic traffic source that includes all users who find an app after searching for a query or keyword in the search tab in the App Store.
Read More
App Store Seasonality
App Store seasonality is the process of updating an app’s product page to coincide with seasonal events/public holidays.
Read More
App Store Subtitle
The app store subtitle is an element all users view in their journey to install an app.
Read More
Google Play Search
Google Play Search is an organic traffic source that includes all users who find an app after searching for a query or keyword in the search bar in the Play Store.
Read More
Search Ads
Apple search ads (ASA) are paid adverts located at the top of the search results page on the iOS App Store.
Read More
T
App Store Title
The app store title is the name of a mobile app or game as it appears throughout the app stores on all different placements.
Read More
Test Traffic
App store test traffic is a sample group of users being sent to a replicated app store test which is a statistically representative sample of the traffic an app will target outside the test.
Read More
U
App Store Update
An update is a newer version of the app than the one that’s available to download in the App Store.
Read More
Decisive Users
Decisive users are visitors that upon landing on an App Store or Google Play Store product page make minimal engagement before deciding to install or drop.
Read More
Explorative Users
Explorative users are visitors that upon landing on a store page explore the content that’s presented to them before making the decision to install or drop.
Read More
Organic User Acquisition
Organic user acquisition (UA) is the science of leveraging a set of marketing initiatives to drive organic installs.
Read More
Paid User Acquisition
Paid user acquisition is the process of paying to advertise an app or game on UA channels in efforts to drive relevant traffic to an app store and convert new users.
Read More