Get Your App Ready for Christmas App Store

Christmas 2021 is another chance for your mobile app growth

The increase in organic downloads during Christmas is due to:

• Users spend a lot during this period.
• People naturally spend more time on their devices during the holidays.
• A large number of users are using new gadgets that they may have received as gifts or gotten in sales.

Christmas offers opportunities to optimize family-centric activities. Since families are free from work and schools to spend time together, entertainment apps should take advantage of their holiday offerings.

Fitness apps are also great for increasing downloads as users are more motivated to lose weight, gain muscle or live healthier as part of their New Year's resolution. During this busy time, you can see a significant increase in searches for the term "weight loss" in Google Trends.

In addition, people will receive brand new devices as gifts and they may download many fun apps to try out their new tablets and phones. The next generation of consoles and games will also be released, so mobile games in the app store will need to be optimized to stay competitive.



It's unusual to see such extreme spikes in search volume in the games category, as the keyword "sniper" continues to have the same popularity over the Christmas period. However, over Christmas and New Year's, users made more in-app purchases than ever before.

Users spend more on games than any other category. In order to compete in the market, you better make sure that your game icons, screenshots or at least the cover of your app preview videos are eye-catching so that you can take a bigger share of the profits.

Get your app Christmas ready on app stores and to reengage users

Optimize your apps and games performance and get ready to take the opportunities would be the most important thing for many app developers and marketers. Strategies and things below may help your make the most out of the Christmas rewards:

● app visibility
● creative designs
● creative user experience

Boost your app visibility with App Store Optimization

For many app marketers, to study and follow our detailed strategies to rank your apps would be the most important thing.

● upload rate;
● accelerate the app installs;
● optimize app ratings and reviews

For many apps and games, things above would be the most effective way to rank your app and increase your apps visibility Significantly within 1 month.


Click "Learn More" to drive your apps & games business with ASO World app promotion service now.

Update your apps every 3 months

According to our ranking algorithm, the update rate also be accounted into the app store ranking factors. Update your apps or games every 3 months is the best.
The two main advantages of updating your product details before the end of the year are:

• After seeing your seasonal assets, users can be confident that your app is up to date. 
• Seasonal assets can encourage users to download your app because it may contain some exclusive seasonal content such as specials, gifts or discounts.

Last but not least. If you are developing a new app, it needs to be launched in a timely manner. The same is true for any new features, versions or rebranding processes for existing apps. It's not too late. You have 2 to 3 weeks to get Apple's approval. You can create new visuals, new features, new discounts, and more for your app to increase downloads in time for Christmas. While this can make your users happy, it may also get your audience's attention. Use it as a competitive advantage and do it quickly.

App downloads and installs also the key ranking factor

Title, subtitle, keywords should go carefully selected hot words, they are likely to appear in the search results, especially keywords have 100 characters, if you can have a good spelling, eventually cover more than 300 words are completely possible.

To learn more about Keyword Ranking Algorithm, you can check "Google Play Keyword Ranking Algorithm" of our previous articles.

Optimize app ratings and reviews

This strategy should work well all year round, not just at Christmas, although it is particularly handy during the holiday season. How does it work? Reviews are taken into account when listing apps in the App Store. Positive feedback will result in your app ranking higher on iOS and Android. Visibility is everything when users are using their new phones to search for great apps to download.

According to a study by Apptentive, 59% of customers check reviews before downloading an app. So the more 4 and 5-star ratings you receive, the better your chances of getting great Christmas sales. Encourage users to rate your app using user-friendly methods to ensure you don't annoy anyone with annoying pop-ups.

To learn more about rating and reviews, you can check "How Do App Reviews and Ratings Affect Users' decisions?" of our previous articles.

Paid marketing

If you really want to get a leg up on the competition, aggressive bidding on paid ad campaigns is a great way to get your app in front of more potential users. When running your campaigns, your keyword research will be the perfect asset in determining which holiday keywords you should run ads for. For Apple Search Ads, choosing relevant keywords will help you achieve the greatest ROAS (return on ad sales). Just like in App Store Optimization, choose keywords that are popular for the season and that potential audiences use to search for apps like yours.

Paid ad campaigns, especially in terms of bid costs, are most competitive in the fourth quarter and during the holiday season. With this in mind, it becomes even more important to bring home the need to optimize your app for organic search, which can reduce overall CPI by working in coordination with paid efforts.

Creative design and user experience to make your apps be featured in app store category

While marketing your app for the holidays is definitely more than just the ubiquitous Santa hat - the little hats are still a big part of it. It's important to create a new holiday-themed design for your app. So decorate the halls and make your app Christmas pretty.

Don't just think about increasing conversions from a marketing perspective; think more deeply about what seasonal content you should be creating in your app. Always ask yourself what your users want during Christmas.

Enabling potential users to download your app starts with one of the most important processes for app developers: ASO. In order for target audience to like your new design, they must first find your app in the app stores.

Change all content if you can: icons, screenshots, app preview videos or at least the cover of the app preview video.

Featured design

Mobile retailers should also consider advertising their special holiday offers in screenshots and videos. According to Apple, nearly 80 percent of users download directly from search, so they may never have the opportunity to read more about offers and discounts. That means screenshots and preview videos are often the biggest drivers of conversions.

In addition, developers may want to consider updating their icons to reflect the holiday spirit. Including small elements like snowflakes and Santa hats can make a user's day and set the app apart from competitors who aren't doing anything festive with their listings. The icon is usually the first asset to change during the holidays, as it gives your app a chance to stand out in the category top charts and keyword search results, which may increase page views.

Screenshots are a bit difficult as these can be higher production value assets and cost more to update than icons. Unless your app or game is experiencing some type of internal seasonal change or promotion during the holidays, it's best not to update your screenshots.Screenshots in app store listings are critical for conversion to app installs and are the best place to highlight features and value propositions. In ASO, if you have the resources, updating screenshots is worth testing.

To learn more about December ASO, you can check "Seasonal App Store Optimization: Optimize your App in Holiday During December" of our previous articles.

Prepare two sets of assets for the end of the year

When designing assets for Christmas, you should also consider assets for the New Year (if applicable), as the demand will be huge. This is especially important if your app falls into the shopping, fitness and gaming categories.

Special offers and notifications

The holidays are also the perfect time to share the love with your already loyal subscribers.

You can treat them by adding a special promo code to unlock more features in your app, or by offering discounts on your in-app purchases. The more personalized the offer, the better.

In-app purchases are a great way to increase sales during the Christmas season. You can create offers that appeal not only to current users but also to potential users, as in-app purchases show up in search results in the Apple App Store. Here are some ideas for in-app purchases.

• Show Christmas card gifts in the store assets of the collage app.
• If you have games, add seasonal avatars, free gifts or discounts. Offer Christmas levels with a winter theme. Introduce new limited-time characters, such as Santa, elves, or any Christmas-related gear.
• Provide suitable workouts in your fitness app for the post-Christmas period, as users will want to lose weight after eating a lot of food. You don't need a lot of resources, just creativity: for example, rename your current workout "Six Pack Abs 2022". Introduce a unique onboarding process for people who make New Year's resolutions. To increase revenue, consider offering a discount to new users who download the app in January. This could give them extra motivation to achieve their fitness goals!

To learn more about fitness app marketing, you can check "Get Your Health and Fitness App Ready for Christmas and New Year Resolution" of our previous articles.


A great way to notify existing users of your holiday promotions is through in-app messaging or push notifications. If you're not into special offers, you can still connect with your users by simply wishing them a happy holiday. Remember, when it comes to push notifications, less is more. So, don't overdo it.