The mobile app market is certainly a crowded space, with millions of apps available for download in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. 

For app companies to stand out among the countless technological marvels, the app idea must be brilliant, should leverage the right technology, and should have a competitive advantage. As companies are focused on identifying and mitigating risk, app companies must know who else is in their race. 

A lot of work needs to be done to conduct a thorough analysis of the market before launching the product. Continue to maintain the product after launch. Many factors change over time, such as local competitors, market trends and app store algorithms, just to name a few. If you fall behind, you will miss out on valuable downloads. Analyzing your competitors will give you tips, new ideas and areas for product growth.

Step 1: Know your competitors

This is an essential step in mobile app competitive analysis - you must know exactly what you're up against so your mobile app developers can develop a successful strategy to compete with them.

A good place to start is to search the Internet using keyword phrases closely related to your own app idea to see what's already out there. 80% of apps use relevant search requests (booking, online viewing series) or category titles (magic puzzles, to-do lists, etc.) in their name or description. For example, if you have a vacation booking app, you can see which apps show up in the search results for the keyword "vacation".

If you're having trouble thinking about these keywords, pretend you're a user who needs the actual service of the app - which keywords are relevant to its functionality and performance?

Google is also your friend, because entering these exact keyword phrases into Google will also provide you with results for related applications. These applications are your competitors. 

It is important to remember that you have different competitors in each local app store. Therefore, your competition in the US may not be the same as your competition in Australia.

Finally, you can find out more about your competitors by looking at the relevant top chart rankings.

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Step 2. Competition Research on app store

In this step of the optimization strategy, we compare our results with those of our competitors. This usually helps with ASO and products.

Check the App Store ranking of your competitors

Another important part of the mobile app competitor analysis is the App Store ranking. Only when you know exactly what you are competing against can you develop an effective strategy to overcome their position in the market.

You want to see which keywords your competitor's app is ranking for in the top 10. An app's ranking is where it appears in the search results for a specific keyword or query. An organic growth strategy called App Store Optimization involves working to improve App Store rankings. Apps rank in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store based on a variety of factors, the main one being keywords. By determining which keywords your competitors are ranking highly for, you will be able to gather relevant keywords for your own App Store optimization strategy. 

In addition, knowing your competitors' top-ranking keywords will allow you to get used to the words and language people use to find apps like yours. 

Analyze competitors' App Store ratings and reviews

Knowing how your competitors are performing among your target audience is crucial, and you can rely on app store ratings and reviews to gain this knowledge.

Check out your competitors' apps in the app store for information on data usage, keywords, number of installs, and active users. Find out which competitors have the most impressive active user base and retention trends. This information helps to understand the current growth trends of other apps. Even user reviews can attest to the app's usage experience just as well.

Delving into these reports will reveal the features they like and dislike about competing apps. Any ongoing complaints about competitor apps should be properly documented and must avoid affecting your own app's user experience.

After sifting through the reviews of your target audience, take note of their potential pain points. Effective review monitoring of competitor apps allows you to identify specific features that users intend to see in the app before they are implemented by competitors.

Where competitors are advertising

Knowing where your competitors are advertising is another valuable piece of information when conducting an audit. You can benefit from this investigation in two ways. 

First, as we know, social platforms can vary in terms of the demographics of their users and the experience people expect to have there. Therefore, knowing how your competitors are customizing their messages for each platform can be equally helpful to how you do. 

In addition, by going through the process of looking at all the places your competitors are advertising, you may end up finding out where users are hanging out that you might not have thought to check otherwise.

What keywords are your competitors' apps advertising on?

Organic app store rankings are not the only way to see which keywords are important to your competitors. A great way to identify keywords and audiences that are critical to your competitor's growth strategy is to discover their app store advertising strategy. 

This is an important part of your competitor analysis. It will answer questions such as. 

• How much money is my competitor spending on UA?
• How aggressive is my competitor's UA strategy? 
• Is my application's brand name under attack? 

You may be wondering what these questions mean, especially in regards to your brand name being under attack. We're about to find out. 

The more money app developers, marketers and publishers are willing to spend on user acquisition, the more aggressive their growth and acquisition strategies will be. When they are very aggressive, they will place ads on your app's brand name. As a result, when people search for your app in the app store, your competitors will appear before you in the search results. 

Analyze their content marketing strategy

There is significant value in analyzing your competitors' content marketing strategies. Each marketing strategy reveals insights about the target user. Analyze the frequency of their postings, their quality, their relevance to their products or services, and how they target users with their content.

By looking at each media and platform your competitors are utilizing, you can better understand which format types their audiences prefer. A significant advantage of examining marketing channels is that each channel typically has a visible marker for popularity and engagement. Look for patterns of engagement to understand how their content is performing.

App content and functionality

You should check the content of your competitor's app. Download and install their apps to see how their functionality compares to your own.

 By analyzing we can also find the unique value offerings of our competitors. Every business has a unique selling point (USP); something that sets it apart from everything else. What we mean by this is that each company brings its own "value offering". You can identify your application competition on this particular paradigm.

You need to find out exactly what makes your competitors' applications attractive to customers. Ideally, your app should also include these selling points - and then take it a step further by introducing something new that makes it unique and more attractive than other apps.

App Store Optimization

The content of the app pages is equally important. The metadata, keywords, screenshots and app store preview videos used by competitors can provide you with valuable information and inspiration. 

Ask yourself the following questions: 

• What is the style of the screenshots?
• What keywords and phrases do they use in the app name and description?
• What style are the app descriptions written in?
• Are they effectively targeted to the target audience? 

Build your ASO technique by quickly breaking down your competitors' information. You can discover areas for improvement in the app title, including videos in the app page, or remove videos from the app page. 

Most importantly, discover what metadata you are missing. This will help get detailed information on competitive targeting marketing strategies for the app.

Step 3: Define what to change

By now, you should have a good understanding of your competitors' strengths and weaknesses, which should tell you how to exploit the weaknesses and offset their strengths to some extent. If you can outperform your competitors' strengths while avoiding any mistakes or problems they encounter along the way, then you should be well positioned to become a player in the market you want to be in.

Paid app install campaigns and ASO are the most widely used methods by marketers looking to acquire users for their apps. As a result, your competitors have likely spent countless hours and budgets creating assets, running campaigns, testing, and performing conversion optimization. In other words, they've done the heavy lifting for you, providing you with a plethora of concepts for you to use. Now all that's left to do is sift through them, identify the ads, keywords, etc. that work best, and you'll have a wealth of tested creative that you can use for your own campaigns and strategies.

When it comes to mobile app install ad materials and ASO, it helps to know what others in your vertical are doing to help you succeed.

Conducting effective competitive analysis requires the ability to evaluate creative, ASO and analytics, so make sure anyone you choose is up to the task.

In short, never stop learning from your competitors. Pay attention to their behavior and leverage their experience, using their successes and failures to your advantage.