ASO for games. Welcome to the Rabbit Hole
We all think ASO is going to bring us tons of traffic but what happens when we really look into ASO for games. Here is one for all those Indie Game developers out there.
I believe ASO works… trust me 😉 but sometimes the expectations about the power of ASO are 100% wrong.
Game developers think ASO comes as the LAST step of the process of market research vs the 1st step towards building a proper marketing research strategy.
That’s why I think is important that we stop for 2 seconds and get some points clear:
– ASO works when SEARCH intent exists.
Let see the case of Flappy Birds….
Flappy birds was gone but people still searched for Flappy… right?
The intention was there… therefor the goal of ASO is to provide the results for that demand. Easy concept.
People want bananas, then give them bananas.
But the “real” app world doesn’t work like that, companies build games and choose the most obscure topics. They choose characters with unique names, they choose little cute aliens that are not aliens but they are not monsters and although they look like dinosaurs, they are not dinosaurs.
Sounds familiar?
Well, the reason for this is because we believe that if WE CREATE IT, they will come….
And in reality gamers, will always go for the every green topics.Ever green keywords = not the keywords you just created. (Unless you manage to generate a new trend like Flappy Birds)
So where do we start? Where is the balance?
If you are coming up with games about Ninjas… the question YOU need to ask yourself is, even ninjas have a huge followers… are those followers and traffic worth to go for when in reality other keywords can bring the same type of traffic with potential less competitors?
Not knowing the level of competitors and popularity of those potential long tail keywords we are trying to go for, is a capital sin.
Research, Research, Research…
Knowing your market and understanding GAMERS are not the same, will allowed you to sneak into a sub niche of the game industry and find the ideal the perfect keywords to target.