WWDC 2020 took place — remotely — in June, announcing the arrival of iOS 14. Even though it is expected to be officially released in September, the update is already yielding feedback and new creations of marketing strategies among mobile experts.
This is because the changes will especially affect the mobile app search system in the Apple App Store, which can interfere in the organic acquisition of users. RankMyAPP has separated the main news about iOS 14 features and how they influence the work of ASO (App Store Optimization) and media campaigns. Read below.
Privacy guidelines
One of the major changes announced at the event, which was broadcasted on Apple’s major channels (including YouTube for the first time in history), was about greater clarity in the app’s privacy guidelines, which will be described on the download page. These include:
- What user information will be collected, such as your contacts,
- Location data that can be used for crawling in other apps and websites.
However, this novelty brings big changes for mobile experts. If users choose not to accept the conditions proposed in the guidelines — about 10% of the public tend to accept the conditions —, advertising will be affected as it will not be possible to work with the information collected by IDFA.
That way, companies will no longer be unable to understand and evaluate the performance of their ad campaigns, since “limit ad tracking” mode will be enabled. Currently, this option can be activated by the user in the device settings.
However, with the update, the person can choose whether or not to turn it on at the time of download. With this, it will not be possible to evaluate user behavior and thus create even more strategic acquisition campaigns.
Regarding privacy, The Mobile Performance Key Account of RankMyAPP, Mariana Carvalho, believes that this issue will make it difficult to measure results, but it will not be a limiting factor. “The big question is how players and brands will study, adapt to change and learn how to work with the tools available”, says the professional.
Mariana adds that “privacy will continue to be an increasingly discussed topic, and not only does Apple promote the protection of its users, but we also have the LGPD knocking on our door, and we need to be prepared.”
Featured cards
In iOS 13, the second app suggestion is just below the featured card collection, and with the release of Apple iOS 14, that same featured app will appear after two other options and without any highlighting. Although it seems unimportant, it is believed that this change will affect the rates of organic downloads.
That’s because, in the first option, users tended to download the app with just one click, considering its prominence. In addition, it was the first option viewed, which further increased the chances of the application being installed.
With the iOS update, the mobile apps (which was once the only one on the page) came to occupy the third place. With this change, you’ll need to rethink all the ASO work of the app, since you won’t have the preview before and thus may have fewer downloads.
On this topic, RankMyAPP Mobile Growth Specialist Laura Kemp points out that this update could be detrimental to some apps: “The biggest highlight of the update is on the list cards. As it’s a new feature that already directs the user to specific apps, those on those on those lists will gain more prominence, while the other organic results end up in the background”.
App Clips
App Clips is one of the big iOS 14 new features. It will be a kind of preview of the application, where the user can use some of the functions and services of the mobile application, such as a discounted purchase or a hotel reservation, but without the need to download it.
About this update, Mariana believes that it will be important for the evolution of the “trackeamento” of information. “That’s because there, in that little piece of app, will happen much of the measurement of results of campaigns, especially when it comes to transaction.”
The professional also says that “this means that platforms will need to be adapted to collect user information in print/click, and later identify a branch in their path.”
Automatic correction
Another novelty that will yield extra work in creating strategies for mobile is automatic correction in the search within the store. With iPhone iOS 14, typing will be automatically corrected and will display only the correct search terms.
Although it does not seem to influence the App Store Optimization, this update will end some strategies used so far. The most common was the classification of wrong spellings. That is, if before the name of an application was entered wrong, it would have chances to be found, since mobile experts used these errors to create strategies.
But with iOS 14, the results will be presented based on the correctly typed term —unless the user clicks the “you really meant it” link, as in Google searches. That is, with this update, the chances of an app ranking better in searches end up decreasing.
Another novelty is the “autocomplete” option, in the search field within the Apple Store. In this regard, RankMyAPP Mobile Intelligence Strategist Monica Lima states that “changing the search engine to consider autocomplete and list cards in the results should substantially change some strategies and move the pointer in the organic navigation acquisition channel.”
Review process
With the arrival of iOS 14, Apple may challenge some specific guidelines if your app is rejected. However, it is also possible to resort to the challenge, proving that there is no violation and that the application is able to integrate the listing of the App Store.
Critical corrections will be approved as long as they have no legal problems. However, to release the next version of your application, you’ll need to fix all the violations you’ve pointed out.
Forum for mobile experts
Additional channels will be created so mobile experts can share their ideas, questions, and suggestions about Apple services. Thus, the company can contribute with improvements to the owners of the applications.
Family app subscriptions and purchases
With the iOS 14 update it will be possible to share app subscriptions, which may result in decreased revenues from mobile app owners. However, the mobile specialist will have the option to activate the function in App Store Connect, since it is disabled (default setting).
But it’s important to pay attention when choosing to turn on family subscription sharing, as it can’t be disabled later!
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