
Smartphones are becoming the ultimate sous chef for millennials, who are bringing their mobile devices into the kitchen. They are turning to mobile at every stage of the cooking process - deciding what to make, learning how to prepare, and actually cooking or baking - and smart brands are there to help at every micro-moment.
Through research with mcgarrybowen and Kraft Foods, we found that while people over 35 are more likely to print out recipes, 59 percent of 25 to 34 year-olds use a smartphone or tablet for cooking. In addition, apps that are part of the fitness industry also include healthy recipes as part of their mobile app structure.
As Christmas is approaching, people are celebrating with their families and friends. Ultimately, they need to throw a big dinner party to celebrate. Your food recipe app will witness a growing opportunity in this holiday.
How can you improve it with ASO practice?
Recipes may not be a photo editor, but it's still a pretty competitive market. In fact, more than 23 million people have searched for recipes and cooking apps in the US, Canada, India and Australia. We'll take Yummly, the #1 recipe app, and break down its ASO strategy as an example.
Click "
Learn More" to drive your apps & games business with
ASO World
app promotion service now.
App keywords
The basics rule of optimizing keywords in the app store:
- No repetition of keywords
- Use more than 20 characters in the name
- More than 20 characters in the subtitle
- Most popular keywords first
- Keyword combinations to create more search terms
To learn more about ASO keywords optimization guides, you can check "
ASO Tutorial: A Complete Guide to Choose the Right Keywords for Your App Step by Step" of our previous articles.
In this case, we see.
As a food recipe app, you have three types of keywords to optimize:
- Types of food you can make. healthy, vegetarian,gluten free
- Meal types. breakfast,dinner
- Words related to food. nutrition, cook book,planner
These combinations of names and subtitles produce a huge bundle of combinations such as meal plan, healthy recipes, recipe book.
App screenshots

Here's how you can optimize these screenshots so they convert more page views into downloads, starting with the most important ones.
- Sell benefits rather than features. If they just introduce features, the captions do their job, but there's little about them that's enticing or exciting. Users want to make great food and they want a list of their favorite finds.
- Create more contrast. You can try solid or dark backgrounds to make the text easier to read.
- Ask for a download. If the viewer sees the last screenshot, it means they took the time to look up the application, view it and scroll through the screenshots. They are interested. All you need to do is ask.
To learn more about screenshots optimization, you can check "
How to Optimize Google Play Store Screenshots" of our previous articles.
App preview video
Yummly's competitor, Tasty puts videos in their Google Play page that bring together the features of Buzzfeed's viral marketing in a short and engaging way. Videos provide an excellent way to grab the attention of potential users in your app listings.
To learn more about preview video optimizations, you can check "
App Store Preview Video - How to Convince Users to Download" of our previous articles.
Trending features to engage users in recipe apps
Video guides
For each recipe, a video guide can be provided to the app user. Video tutorials are very useful when cooking because they provide step-by-step instructions. To improve the user experience, you can also build cooking apps with video guides. It has been shown that people are more receptive to visual information, so take advantage of it. However, this feature can be very helpful for unskilled cooks. In fact, for some of them, the presence of a video guide in the app may be a decisive factor.
Shopping list
It often happens that users find a great recipe, but are unable to cook it due to a lack of ingredients. Let them have a shopping list in your app! This will encourage people to use the app more often (not only when they are preparing food, but also when shopping).
Food scanner
This feature allows barcodes or ingredients to be scanned through your device's camera. Afterwards, users can get a list of recipes that contain the scanned ingredients.
Ingredient information
If you are wondering how to make a recipe app using the improved ingredient information screen - this would be one of the best examples for you. So, you can place the following on this screen to make it useful for the user.
- A general description of an ingredient.
- Selection and storage tips.
- Cooking tips.
- Seasonality - vegetables and fruits.
- Health benefits.
- List of recipes containing this ingredient.
Voice search
Millennials seek guidance in the preparation process in the kitchen. Questions such as "What's the temperature of the roast chicken?" are increasingly being asked via mobile devices. If hands are occupied, voice search becomes indispensable: 23% of adults use it while cooking.
How to monetize your food recipe app
Now you know which features are critical to the success of your application. Let us know how you can profit from your app.
In-App Purchases
Thousands of apps in the App Store and Play Store are using this strategy.
Your subscription provides a mobile app for opening some new features or content for a specific period of time. After the subscription period ends, users can subscribe again if they like the features.
In addition, offering an ad-blocking option can help you earn more revenue.
In-app ads
Today, digital ads are becoming very popular in the global market. They are everywhere, and mobile apps are not immune to them.
Using in-app ads in your recipe app, you can advertise your members' products or services, etc.
When a user clicks on an ad or interacts with it, you earn revenue.
Freemium
To benefit from this monetization model, you should have a second paid version of your app.
If users use the free version of your application, they are likely to download your paid application with additional features.
Sponsorship
If your cooking recipe app is as successful as you think it will be, you can contact sponsors and have them design your app to match the sponsor's brand.
In this way, you can get a monthly sponsorship fee or you can share the revenue with the sponsor.