Performing a mobile app competitive analysis can help improve your App Store Optimization and marketing strategy. As you may already know, the app market is a crowded place. There are millions of apps available for download and hundreds of new apps are added each month.
Part of running an app business is knowing who you are up against and how they are getting more users. If you know that your competitors are getting more success than you, then you can be certain that they are doing something better than what you’re doing right now.
With this in mind, it is a must that you do a competitive analysis if you wish to outperform your competitors. The question now is, “How?” How does competitive analysis work?
Thankfully, you don’t have to worry about that because we have your back. Continue reading and discover how you can perform effective and reliable competitive analysis that will surely improve your app performance.
1. Identify your competitors
Before you can perform a mobile app competitive analysis, you need to first identify which apps you should analyze. Obviously, you shouldn’t concern yourself with every app in the app store. They are not all your direct competitors.
When determining who your competitors are, here are some important criteria to consider:
- Apps that fall within the same category or niche
- Apps that cater to the same audience
- Apps that share similar functionalities and features
- Apps that target the same keywords
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Identifying your competitors can be done manually, but if you choose this path, understand that it will be a time- and energy-consuming experience. You might save a few pennies here and there, but ultimately, you will lose a lot of precious resources.
Thankfully, you can use App Store Optimization (ASO) tools to help you quickly and accurately determine your competitors. What’s more, you don’t just get a list of competitors but also crucial data that would help you formulate an effective marketing strategy.
2. Rank your competitors
Not all apps are created equal, and definitely, they are not equal in ranking. You don’t want to focus on the least popular competitors. You want to study the ones that actually lead the way in your category or niche.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that you won’t find anything useful when analyzing other apps with a lower rank. The point is that you need to prioritize which competitors you want to study to get the most crucial data.
Again, you can use an ASO tool to know who your competitors are and their ranking. Depending on your chosen ASO tool, you can rank your competitors based on categories and keywords.
3. Know what you want to compare
When doing an app competitive analysis, you should have a list of criteria or factors you want to compare. This gives direction and structure to your analysis.
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Here are some of the factors that you might want to compare:
- Target audience
- Core features and functionalities
- Keyword ranking
- Category ranking
- User experience
- User interface
- Performance
- Monetization strategies
All these factors would help you identify how you are better than your competitors. It would also give you an idea of how you can further improve your app.
4. Read your competitors’ review section
The ratings and reviews section is a rich avenue for knowing what people are saying about your competitors. Not only that, but reviews help you know the common issues your competitors have in their apps.
Of course, you should also read the positive reviews to help you gain a better perspective of what makes your audience happy and satisfied.
5. Identify key weaknesses and strengths
One of the main reasons you need to perform the competitive analysis is that you can determine where you are lagging or leading in relation to your competitors.
With your app competitive analysis, see the things that your competitors are doing better than what you are doing. From there, you can improve your app based on those findings.
On the other hand, identify how your app is better than your competitors. You can then capitalize on that. Use your advantages over your competitors as your main selling point.
6. Study the ads run by your competitors
While organic app store rankings are an integral part of your app’s success, you shouldn’t ignore the impact that ads may have.
When studying your competitors’ ads, you can know the following:
- Keywords that are most important to your competitors
- How much they are spending on ads
- How aggressive they are in their ads
- How your competitors’ ads affect your app ranking
7. Know your competitors’ presence outside of the app stores
To truly get a good idea of how your competitors are doing their marketing strategy, you need to look at what they do outside of app stores. Bear in mind that most app owners and marketers recognize the extreme competition going on in app stores. So, it is a must that they explore other marketing avenues aside from app store ads and App Store Optimization.
What are the things that you should check? Here are some of them:
- Website
- Social media pages or profiles (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube)
- Email marketing strategy
- Offline campaigns such as TV, radio, and print ads
As you can see, there are just so many ways businesses promote their apps. Thus, you should be familiar with them so you don’t miss golden opportunities on how you get an edge over your competitors.
Improve your mobile app competitive analysis
Mobile app competitive analysis plays a vital role in your app’s success. You don’t want to ignore it or just let anyone do it for you. Thankfully, you can confidently work with ShyftUp to analyze your competitors and formulate effective marketing strategies.
ShyftUp is among the leading user acquisition agencies today that will perform competitive analysis for your app. Aside from that, they will help you gain more users to reach your business goals.
Give them a call today and see how they can improve your app marketing strategies!
What are the key steps to perform a mobile app competitive analysis?
The key steps to perform a mobile app competitive analysis include identifying and ranking your competitors, gathering data on their target keywords and audience and how they perform their marketing strategies, identifying the weaknesses and strengths of your competitors, and formulating effective marketing strategies based on the data you have gathered.
Why is app competitive analysis important?
App competitive analysis is important because it helps you identify market opportunities — meaning, you get to know where your competitors are lacking and how you can fill that need. Moreover, app competitive analysis helps you improve your own app and stand out from the crowd. There’s also a chance for you to gain fresh insights into the preference of your users based on the app competitors’ ratings and reviews. You can also study your competitors and how they monetize their apps.
What metrics should I consider when analyzing my competitors' apps?
The metrics you should include in your analysis include the number of downloads, app store rankings, keyword rankings, ratings, social media presence, and app performance to name a few.
