ASO Expert Interview: Johannes von Cramon

This week, we’re having the pleasure to present you to our German ASO expert Johannes, fromGrowfirst. Discover his background, app marketing experiences and insights on organic growth strategies.

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and your company?

I’m 25, from Munich & began my journey in the field of app marketing during the 6. semester of my bachelor’s degree. Back then I worked at the mobile development agency NEXT Munich as an inhouse consultant regarding mobile acquisition and retention strategies. More or less exactly 12 months ago my former boss, my friend Benjamin Günther and I decided to co-found the new consultancy Growfirst with a strong focus on organic growth strategies and a data driven approach.

2. For how long have you been involved in ASO or app marketing?

A little bit more than 2 years now.

3. What was it about this industry that made you choose it as a primary job?

Being a digital native I was always highly interested in mobile, especially since the app store launch in 2008. But as I recognised how important it is for a successful app to have a decent marketing strategy and how badly they are enforced by german publishers I wanted to bring those Silicon Valley growth stories to our neighbourhood.

4. How do you see the world of ASO and App marketing evolving?

Mobile is eating the world, but also changing pretty quick. With all the new technologies on the rise like IoT, VR, Chatbots etc. the app stores might loose some traffic to other platforms in the future. Nevertheless, organic search will stay one of the most important acquisition channels for every business and there will always be some kind of a showcase with icons, screenshots, videos etc. to give users a preview of the UX. For app marketing in general it’s the same thing. New strategies will evolve and existing one will have to change due to their circumstances.

5. What should be the biggest focus for app developers and marketers in 2017?

That depends on where you’re standing right now. Generally speaking the focus should be on really doing stuff instead of just talking about it. Almost everything in app marketing comes down to testing. In order to receive valuable insights you have to get your key metrics and tracking straight first.

6. What was your favourite app in 2016?

We’re discovering great apps on a daily basis, but from a personal perspective it was definitely the relaunch of Outbank. Great work in terms of ASO, UI and UX. One of the few which made it to my relevant set last year.

7. Tell us about your most challenging ASO “experiment”

This one is actually still going on as we speak. We’re supporting a national supermarket chain on the makeover of their ASO and set the goal to beat their strongest competitor in search visibility. The update isn’t live yet, but I’m quiet confident at this stage.

8. Tell us about your experience with AppTweak and give us your favorite feature.

In the last year we tried and compared almost every keyword tool out there and sticked to AppTweak since day 1 of our trial period, because it’s more intuitive and reliable than it’s competitors. My favorite feature is the keyword suggestion tab since those are very important to an agency like us with clients from different verticals.

9. Do you have any “masterchef” ASO tips?

Updates to a new version of you iOS app can boost your search rankings as they count as “little downloads”. The more and faster, the better. So please put some more thoughts in your update descriptions than “minor bug fixes” and increase your app’s retention simultaneously.

Johannes is working with Benjamin Günther (also an AppTweak ASO Expert) at Growfirst, data drien app marketing agency. Feel free to contact them if you need help with your ASO and app marketing strategies especially in the German market.

Want to contact Johannes? Find all details on his ASO Expert profile page.