App Store Optimization Battle — Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas vs. Slotomania
We decided to introduce a series of articles about App Store Optimization on our blog where we will analyze and evaluate metadata and App Store Optimization strategies of the most popular mobile apps and games.
We are going to call this series App Store Optimization (ASO) Battle. In it, we will compare two applications from the same category in terms of different metadata, position on a given keyword, and app position in the ranking in a given category. I will not be analyzing icons, screenshots and promotional videos here because the casino games industry makes practically all of them in the same style and color scheme. Two casino slots games from two of the most popular casino games developers and publishers — Huuuge Games and Playtika — will have first fire. Paid traffic for mobile social casino games can be pricey. The paid cost of installing casino games is up to several dollars depending on the advertising network. On top of that, paid acquisition for casino games is a bit steep.
According to data from the LiftOff report, the “Casino” category cost of installation in the United States is $5.55, and the cost of acquiring a first-time paying player is $40.15. Mobile casino games in the United States also have a high payment ratio (installation -> payment) of 13.8%. Does it pay publishers of mobile casino games to invest in paid user acquisition? Yes, it does. According to Appsflyer, social casino games are characterized by exceptional performance indicators (KPIs).
Day 1 retention for social casino games is 32.2%, day 3–17.1%, day 7–11%, day 14–7.2, and day 30–4.2%.
For the United States and social casino games, these figures are even more acute, where day 1 retention is 33.8%, day 3–19.5%, day 7–13.3%, day 14–9.2%, and day 30–5.8%.
According to data from SuperData Research, mobile casino players spend 57 minutes in the game per session, generating $39.87 per month. The LTV for mobile social casino games at $324 is also very high. As you can see, social casino players are non-random; they enjoy spending and staying in the game in the long run. The numbers that we are talking about in the “casino” category can be best seen in the AppMagic ranking which shows the revenues of publishers such as Playtika, Huuuge Games, Scopely or Murka Games.
In addition to paid traffic, there is organic traffic which is a huge factor in generating revenue for mobile games. In today’s article, we will look at two social slot machine games in the Android version, i.e., Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas and Slotomania™ Slots: Casino Slot Machine Games.
Keywords in the ranking
We start the analysis of the two games Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas and Slotomania™ Slots: Casino Slot Machine with keywords that play a huge role in downloads from search results. We will analyze those keywords that have a volume (the Google Play estimation volume of one of the App Store Optimization tools) of at least 20 in search results in the United States (both apps are indexed for the number of words above 1000, so we will focus on the most popular ones). We will also take into account one day (August 17 and TOP 10 positions) because keywords in Google Play record daily large increases and decreases in ranks.
The above results are merely an estimation of downloads for August 17. Some may find it interesting that the proposition from Huuuge Games studio for the keyword ‘slotomania’ is ranked only on 64th position in 2021, while in 2017 it was able to make a leap to number 2 in Google Play search results.
For two years, we have noticed that the game from Huuuge Games studio for the keyword ‘slotomania’ has seen a reduction in the ranking. For both slot games, the bulk of their job will be to enter the TOP 1 on keywords ‘slots’ and ‘casino’. When analyzing the positions in terms of keywords, I believe that Slotomania does better in terms of the number of daily downloads.
Title and short description
Playtika uses 44 characters (Slotomania™ Slots: Casino Slot Machine Games) which is very much the right move (double use of the word ‘slot’ and adding the word ‘games’). But due to changes in the metadata policy (limiting the game title to 30 characters) on Google Play, it will have to limit the number of characters at the end of this year. Huuuge Games uses 29 characters in the title, and it can still easily add strong keywords to it. Both games are also making good use of the short description. Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas 777 uses 100% of this field (80 characters Casino games & free slots, Spin slot machines, Hit the Jackpots in online casino), building the importance of keywords. Slotomania has filled it with 65 characters (Choose from endless slots games at Slotomania! Get 1M free coins!). On the other hand, Playtika’s short description is missing the keyword ‘casino’, which is essential to building organic game installations.
Long description (keywords, keyword density)
Google Play allows for use of up to 4000 characters in the long description. Around 2% players actually read it, so it doesn’t play a major role when converting to a game or app installation. The long description is relevant for searches for a given keyword result. Huuuge Games uses 2551 characters in the description, focusing on words such as casino, jackpot, machines, slot, slot machines. Playtika acts similarly; it uses 3560 characters and concentrates on words like free (used 35 times in the description), slots (27 times), casino (22 times), slot (15 times). Keep reading to see what the density of the most important keywords in the long description looks like for both games on Google Play in the United States.
The following data was checked on August 18, 2021 and may differ from the above.
Both long descriptions are very well-prepared in terms of App Store Optimization, but analyzing the above items, we can see that even a high frequency of the same keywords does not guarantee high positions for a given keyword. The most important keywords should be placed in the title, the short description and the description, the URL of the package, the anchors (in links leading to the product page on Google Play), and comments on Google Play. “Age” (Slotomania was listed on Google Play in 2012 and Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas in 2015) is also something that affects the position of keyword data on Google Play, as does the frequency of changes. Entering a given keyword position sometimes takes a couple of months of work, so metadata updates should be made every 3–4 months.
Package URL
An important factor in App Store Optimization is the package URL on Google Play. In it, Slotomania uses the two keywords ‘Playtika’ and ‘Slotomania’. In this case, the URL lacks strong keywords such as ‘casino’ or ‘jackpot’. Once a game is uploaded to Google Play, it is not possible to change the URL. In terms of keywords, the game from Huuuge Games studio fares better when using phrases like ‘casino’ (on August 20, 2021 Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas was ranked 2nd in the search results) or ‘slots’ in the URL. If you are introducing a new game to Google Play, make sure to put the most important keywords in its URL.
Ranking in the “Casino” and “Games” categories
The ranking in a given category or in the main ranking of games on Google Play depends on the daily number of downloads. If your daily downloads in the “Casino” category drop, your ranking drops automatically. Below I’ve included an estimate (United States) of how many daily downloads are necessary in the “Casino” category and in the main “Games” category to rank number 1, 2, 3, 5 and how many to make it to the top 10, 50, 100.
“Casino” category
Rank 1–11,000 downloads per day
Rank 2–6800 downloads per day
Rank 3–6600 downloads per day
Rank 5–5700 downloads per day
TOP 10–3800 downloads per day
TOP 50–1120 downloads per day
TOP 100–369 downloads per day
The main category “Games” without division
Rank 1–47,000 downloads per day
Rank 2–46,000 downloads per day
Rank 3–41,000 downloads per day
Rank 5–29,000 downloads per day
TOP 10–24,000 downloads per day
TOP 50–11,800 downloads per day
TOP 100–8700 downloads per day
As of August 19, Slotomania is ranked higher in the “Casino” category (the position that is listed at no. 4). The game from Huuuge Games is listed at position 23. Over the past 6 months, Slotomania has averaged 3rd in the “Casino” category and Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas has averaged 20th.
A higher position in a given category means more organic downloads from browsing and more organic traffic revenue.
App Store Optimization is not just about preparing the title, short description, description and screenshots with texts in English addressed to users from the United States. App Store Optimization is also about the localization of product pages in other countries and languages. What is product page localization on Google Play? Localizing a product page means creating a title, a short description and a long description in a given language, e.g., German. Added to this is preparation of screenshot texts and a dedicated video in a given language (voiceover or subtitles). How does Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas and Slotomania perform in terms of product page localization? Slotomania has an inconsistent strategy for localizing product pages. For example, the German version has a localized title (Slotomania™ Casino: Spielautomaten Kasino 777), short description (Spiel Slotomania, das weltbeste kostenlose Slots-Spiel!), description, one screenshot and partly an advertising film (English voiceover, graphics in the film partly in German).It is an almost perfect mix of localized metadata. For other languages, such as French, there is a localized title (Slotomania™: Machines à Sous Gratuites de Vegas), short description (Jouez à Slotomania, le meilleur jeu de machines à sous gratuit au monde !), and description, but screenshots are not localized (even 1) and the advertising video is in English with English graphics, and we all know how the French are very particular about their language. In my opinion, the icons are missing an element associated with a given country that could raise the CTR (click-through rate) from search results to visits to the product page.
Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas does extremely well with language localization; it optimizes titles, short descriptions, descriptions, screenshots and advertising videos. Also, different icons are tested in different countries.
The language localization strategy adopted by Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas is more consistent and much better prepared.
Rating and number of ratings
Both games have a similar rating (Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas 777–4.3 and Slotomania 4.4). These are very good. Lotomania has a higher number of ratings on Google Play due to its longer standing. One of the essentials in mobile gaming is player support on Google Play. Slotomania and Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas 777 responds only to some of the comments. As for other ones, their support does not reply to them at all. So, to conclude, in terms of building metadata (keywords, frequency of changes, building the weight of keywords), maintaining a high position in the category “Casino” and player acquisition by browsing, in my opinion the strategy adopted by Slotomania is much more effective. As for graphic localization (movie, screenshots), Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas 777 does it much more thoroughly and just better. The “casino” category (especially slot games) is a hard nut to crack in terms of gaining organic traffic.
Peter Plachta, ARPU Brothers Founder, Mobile User Acquisition & App Store Optimization Agency
Originally published at https://arpubrothers.com on August 23, 2021.
