It is reported that the Food waste apps add 14 million new Android users recently. Some data brings our attention not only to social apps, but also to the food & drink app market.

 

You may have noticed a trend in the Apple App Store: the explosion in the popularity of food and drink apps. The Android user base of top European food waste apps like FoodCloud grew by 36% between March 2021 and February 2022. Combined with iOS downloads, this could be equivalent to about 75 million users in Europe or one in ten adults.

 

Food waste apps have become popular during the pandemic, highlighting consumer demand for more sustainable options.

 

We'll take a look at several of the top apps in the food & drink app category in the app store, analyze their ASO strategies and take a look at how developers use ASO to ensure their apps cater to the masses.

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The story

Some of the apps we analyzed under the food and drink category, such as Uber Eats, enable customers to order food from a variety of restaurants and have it delivered to their door. Others are owned and operated by specific restaurant chains, the Starbucks app being a good example.

 

Food & Drink is a separate category, and while many of the top-ranked apps in the Food & Drink category are household names, advanced ASO strategies can still help some new food apps gain room to grow, by optimizing some impact CVR factors to expand the user base of food applications.

 

In fact, the online food delivery industry revenue exceeded $31.908 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow another 5.8% in 2022. All in all, 111 million Americans used the Food & Drink app in 2021.

 

Solution: How to use ASO to Promote Your Food & Drink Apps?

Title and subtitle optimization

We know that for app store metadata optimization, the title and subtitle optimization are crucial and it directly determine the search ranking of the app in the app store. We'd like to take a moment to understand the role of these top restaurant apps in these segments here and share the found as below:

 

• 60% of the apps we analyzed used their brand name only in the title. For example, if you search the iOS store for "Chipotle," you'll see the Chipotle app named "Chipotle."

• 36% of the apps we analyzed mentioned the word "delivery" in their titles, which helped clarify to potential users what they could do with these apps. The Instacart app is a good example. It's titled "Instacart: Grocery Delivery."

• Little Caesars is the only top app in this category that doesn't use a subtitles section. This is a missed opportunity. Of course, Little Caesars is a well-known brand. But it never hurts to clarify the purpose and/or benefits of your app in subtitles.

• 80% of the top apps explained what you can do with their app in subtitle. For example, OpenTable's subtitle is "Find Restaurant Reservations," which succinctly points out the application's purpose and even hints at the benefits of using it.

 

A combination of exclusivity and utility content in your app subtitle can make your app very powerful!

 

Taco Bell, the fast food giant's titled "Taco Bell – For Our Fans," created a sense of exclusivity and led to more downloads for users. Potential users might see Taco Bell's headline and think, "I love that Cheesy Gordita Crunch. I should install the app and see what's going on!"

 

Points to pay attention to:

• It is important to test and optimize your icons. It can significantly improve CVR.

• When in doubt, use red in the icon as it catches the eye easily.

• Unless you're showing a well-known character, a brand icon is your best bet.

• Use your title and subtitle sections to succinctly explain why users should download your app.

• If your app has a delivery option, consider mentioning this in the title or subtitle.

• Don't be afraid to think outside the box and try new things like Taco Bell.

 

Food and Drink Apps: Icon Optimization

First, let's take a look at the optimization of app icons. If you run a Facebook ad to promote your app, potential users will see your app icon. Visitors who are searching on the App Store will see this icon if your app appears in search results. And, if your app is popular enough to make it into the category recommendation list, more users will view your food app's icon.

That's why app icon optimization can improve CVR by up to 20%!

So how do top apps in the food and drink category design their icons to appeal to their target audience? The first thing we noticed in our analysis was not using a wide range of colors. In fact, 48% of the more than two dozen apps we researched used red in some way, and some apps use more than one kind of color.

In terms of elements used by icons, 92% of them use brand icons, i.e. icons that clearly display the brand logo, and very few applications use character-based icons.

 

Food and Drink Applications: Video Optimization

Video is a powerful tool for your app ranking on app store. Done right, you can increase your conversion rate by 40%. But get it wrong and watch your CVR plummet. Every ASO expert has his own opinion, but we firmly believe in the "Video is great" .

The secret to creating killer videos for your app is experimentation. Start with tried and true principles; then test different things until you find a winner.

 

Things need to pay attention to:

• The first 1-3 seconds of the video are the most important. Act now, it is what users want to see.

• The average App Store user spends 6-8 seconds watching a video. You need to start your video quickly. Don't waste important time on brand splash screens.

• 65-70% of users decide whether to download an app within the first 3-6 seconds.

 

Currently, only 20% of the top-grossing restaurant apps use video. They are McDonald's, Instacart, Gopuff, Dutch Bros and Pizza Hut.

 

How to make your video really work?

• All app videos use fairly fast clips to keep users interested. Long shots can affect application video and should be avoided if possible.

• All app videos make good use of subtitles. Captions help clarify what the user is seeing and can be used to explain the benefits of the application.

• None of the app videos relies too much on sound. In fact, three of the five videos use no sound at all. This is important because 98% of app store users watch silent videos. In short, the background soundtrack is fine.

• You need to make an important decision: will you use video to promote your Food & Drink app? We recommend that you do so. After all, our research shows that users who watch app videos are three times more likely to download an app.

 

You have to optimize your video for better results. Otherwise you risk hurting your conversion rate instead of boosting it.

 

Key takeaways:

• Optimized app videos can improve CVR by 20%, while unoptimized videos can reduce CVR by 20%. You need to make your video correctly to be successful!

• The best app videos launch quickly and use short clips to keep users interested. Do yourself a favor and skip the branding splash screen.

• Captions are handy for explaining features, clarifying benefits, and more. Use subtitles instead of voice-over content for these purposes.

 

Food and Drink Apps: Screenshot Optimization

Let's focus on some app screenshot-related information:

 

• Optimized screenshots can increase conversions by up to 28%.

• Unfortunately, untested screenshots can reduce conversion rates by 15-25%.

• Users are 10 times more likely to see a screenshot than to read a description.

• Using the same creative on the iOS Store and Google Play Store can reduce installs by 20-30%. Different stores require different ideas.

 

Let's start by looking at screenshots of how the most popular dining apps handle them:

 

First, every app we analyzed uses portrait-style screenshots. Digging deeper, we also see that every app uses at least some screenshots to show what's inside the app.

 

Additionally, 96% of analytics applications use subtitles regularly. Developers use subtitles to explain the features and benefits of their applications.

 

The top apps in the Food & Drink category use anywhere from 3 to 10 screenshots. While we did find that 68% use at least six screenshots, the vast majority of users only watch 2-3 screenshots. Make sure your story tells a coherent story.

 

There are two more things that might make your food app even more different:

 

• First, 36% of the apps we analyzed in this category started their screenshot library with artistic images that don't show in-app lenses. These 36% use their first screenshot to reinforce the benefits of downloading an app, or to build their brand.

 

• Second, almost half of all analytics applications use panoramic screenshots. Panoramic screenshots are images that span two or more images in the App Store gallery.

 

Key takeaways:

• Screenshots are a very important part of your ASO strategy.

• You should use screenshots to display in-app footage.

• Use titles in screenshots to clarify features, explain benefits, and more.

• Don't be afraid to get creative with your screenshots. Try starting your gallery with an artistic image. Or create panoramic screenshots that help pull the user from one image to the next.

 

In summary

Dining apps allow users to order food, earn rewards, and otherwise simplify the cooking experience. As a result, they became very popular, leading to a flood of new applications entering the market. To stand out in this category, you need to have a successful ASO strategy. Start your optimization by following our strategy details step by step, and you'll see amazing changes in no time!