— 8 Aug 2017

App Store Description: How to Increase its Efficiency

Liza Knotko

Every app marketer has faced the challenge of writing an efficient app description for the app store page which will not only meet store guidelines but will also be engaging with potential customers, reflect app’s features, contain keywords, and trigger downloads growth. To squeeze all these in about 250 characters of app’s short description on the app store isn’t the easiest task indeed.

Our guest writer Mary Walton, a content manager at OXEssays and editor at Resumention Resume Writing Service, deconstructed core ingredients of an impactful app store description for your mobile product in the following article.

Your app is ready and waiting to go on the app store. Congratulations! Now, you just need to write the right app description before it can go up. A good app description will tell potential customers the exact features of your product, how users can use it, and why they should download your app. Here is how you can write the perfect app description, and convince app store visitors they want to download your product and try it out.

App Store Description Guidelines

It goes without saying that every app store description should meet the following guidelines:

  • You have only first 5 lines (about 250 characters) on an app product page before “more” button;
  • App descriptions are limited to 4000 characters;
  • Moderators won’t approve app store description stuffed with keywords, so it’s vital to integrate them into the text naturally;
  • Eliminate all types of errors and misprints;
  • Make your paragraphs short and easy-to-read, it’s preferable to stick to less than 4 lines;
  • Don’t falsify app’s features and customers’ testimonial.

App Store description tip #1: put yourself in the shoes of potential users

As the creator of your app, you’ve got a lot of feelings about it. You want to tell potential customers all about the app and what it’s capable of. That’s understandable, but in fact, it’s not the right way to go about writing an app description. Instead of just reciting product’s features, tell potential customers what the app can do for them. What problem does it solve? How can it help potential users in their everyday life? Remember, a customer wants a good reason to download your app, so give them one.

Read also: App Store SEO

App Store description tip #2: highlight your app’s key features

The key to a good app is one that addresses a problem. There may be other apps that are attempting to do the same, but your app should be doing something that the others aren’t. With this in mind, make sure that you address all the key features of your app.

“When you write this part, keep potential users in mind. A feature won’t be interesting unless it helps them directly. That means your messaging app may use particular software, but that won’t be of interest to them. Instead, tell them about how you can create folders to divide up conversations or alter message tones depending on who messages you,” suggests writer Tony Oliver from AustralianHelp.

App Store description tip #3: first impressions count

When a user comes across your app in the app store, they’ll see about 255 characters of your description before they click through. Those 255 characters are your opportunity to get their attention and convince them to download your app or trigger their desire to learn more about your product. This means that you need to give them the top feature or reason for downloading in your first couple of sentences. For example, if you’ve made a messaging app, you could say ‘Organise and find your messages quickly with this app.’

In a few months, the Apple App Store will be adding a subtitle and promo text feature to the store, too. That means if you can come up with a snappy subtitle, you can draw in more potential customers too. For example, using the messaging app, you could use ‘Keep track of all your conversations in one screen.’

App Store description tip #4: size up the competition of your app

There’ll be people making similar apps to yours, so go look at what they’re doing in their descriptions. Who are they aiming their app products at? What language are they using? What keywords are they using? The more successful they are, the more you want to look at what they’re doing in their descriptions. Take notes, and use some of their successful strategies in your own writing.

App Store description tip #5: use keywords

As mentioned in the above point, the most successful descriptions are using keywords in them. Just like a search engine, the app store will bring up the most important search results when a customer goes looking for an app. Think about what your potential customers are looking for, and what keywords they may use.

Read also: The Ultimate Guide to App Keyword Optimization

Writing a good app description is an art in its own right. If you get it right, you can pull in new users easily. If you don’t, though, you’ll be missing out. Use this guide when you write app store description, and you’ll be able to convince your audience that yours is the app they want to download and try.

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Liza Knotko
Liza Knotko
Ex-Marketing Manager at SplitMetrics
5 years of experience in mobile marketing, responsible for helping app publishers, such as MSQRD, Prisma, ZeptoLab, Rovio and Wargaming, succeed in their conversion optimization strategies.
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