How to Optimize Metadata of FPS Mobile Games to Increase Visibility Score?

It's no secret that the mobile gaming industry is thriving. Over the last few years, mobile games have broken records and generated billions of dollars in revenue. Mobile devices are being used by an increasing number of gamers to play games. It's convenient, easy, and enjoyable. Furthermore, unlike PC or console gaming, it lets gamers play games wherever they are.

In the competitive market of mobile games, many apps directly disappear from the top charts just because they didn't pay enough attention to their metadata — the most obvious information — in App Store or Google Play.

This article will take FPS games as an example to show you how can we optimize metadata with the help of Appranking ASO report.

FPS games market

During the past few years, FPS games have become a very important category of mobile games, being the sixth largest game genre in the US iOS market, generating about 6% of the market revenue.

The huge success of Call of Duty: Mobile has stimulated many 3A developers to turn to handheld platforms. With more than two years passing since the last top-grossing shooter, there are several interesting candidates on the horizon from the industry's largest studios. Valorant Mobile, Apex Legends Mobile, Battlefield Mobile, and Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier are among them. Will these games effectively challenge the "Big Three" of mobile shooters in the coming months, bringing new life to a sluggish market? That is yet to be determined.

Challenges

But in general, it has been a while since there was a new hit in the market. In the past two years, not a single newly released shooter game has managed to make it to the Top 200 US revenue list.

With the overall performance of such apps not so strong in the short term, it is a good opportunity for you to overtake them.

For external factors, you can use Appranking's Competitor Analysis and other features to conduct in-depth market research and redefine your app's marketing strategy. For internal factors, you should consider whether your FPS game's text metadata in the App Store accurately showcase your highlights.

Solution

The metadata of the app within the app store includes the app's name, subtitle, description, updated information, etc. Don't underestimate the importance of these words! There are many apps that don't pay attention to this information when they are published and just upload random text, causing them to get lost in the sea of similar apps. In this case, no matter how good their app is they can't be SEEN.

Next, I will use Call of Duty: Mobile, Apex Legends Mobile, Modern Ops: Online Shooter FPS, and PUBG MOBILE as examples to compare and analyze whether these apps make full use of metadata to improve their visibility.

App Name

The name can be considered one of the most important parts of an app in the promotion process. It is the business card of the app and must let the user know at first glance roughly what the app is for. In the app store, you also need to be careful that the name is not too long in characters, otherwise, it is not conducive to display.

Keywords

In general, the core keywords of the product should be covered in the title of the application. Adding core keywords not only improves the ranking of the keywords but also allows users to understand the core features of the product and the services it can provide.

Number of characters

In addition to the layout of keywords, you need to pay attention to the number of characters. By comparison, we can see that the vast majority of these apps do not take full advantage of the character count. Although it is said that the name needs to be simple and memorable, within the app store, it is possible to adopt the Mordern Ops: Online Shooter FPS treatment, i.e., the main name followed by a phrase indicating its nature.

The other three games in the picture are further mobile versions launched after the success of building IP on the PC side, so there is not much effort in the name selection. But for new games, one must choose one's name carefully to stand out.

Subtitle

The weighted ranking of the influencing factors of ASO is Name > Subtitle > Keyword > Description > Review. The role of a subtitle is generally to supplement important information that the title fails to convey for various reasons.

The following are common ways of naming subtitles.

Adding benefits

The subtitle can highlight the recent activities of the app or the benefits it can bring to users. In the case of FPS games, it is feasible to show various promotions or recharge events that may be available in the near future.

Avoid competing keywords

The subtitle should not use competing words, induce download, and other words, easy to audit rejected, and easy to be reported by the competition.

In the optimization process, marketers must keep in mind that Apple has a direct channel to receive reports. If you add competing keywords to your product, such as the name of the competing application, it is easy to be found and reported by the competitor.

Description

Application description refers to the content displayed under the screenshot of an app after users click on it. The role of the application description is to show the advantages, value, and other information of the product through text description, and the screenshot of the app, to help users understand the functions of the product more comprehensively

In this section, you can show as much information about the game as you want your players to know. So you can use the allowed number of characters as much as possible and increase the density of keywords in the description as much as possible.

Conclusion

Metadata is the first sign to attract users to "discover" you in the app stores, so App Store Optimization is an essential part of improving your visibility.

Appranking can directly generate ASO diagnostic reports for app owners or marketers, comparing information between your product and competitors, and providing you with optimization suggestions to make your app more preferred by Apple's or Google's App Store algorithms.

Hurry up and apply for a trial!