Apple recently announced several significant updates related to the App Store during WWDC21. There were some significant tweaks for App Store Optimization, and the most important announcement was the launch of custom product pages. Highly customized landing pages have been a staple in the web marketing for years, yet the App Store was lacking this feature so far, showing only one App Store page and image set to all users of a country. Custom product pages are directly connected to both App Store Optimization and App Store Ads. In this blog post, we will take an in-depth look at custom product pages and their impact. In addition to that, we will answer the following questions;
Table of Contents
- What are custom product pages? When to use them?
- How will custom product pages impact ASO?
- How to leverage custom product pages in your ASA campaigns?
Let’s get started!
What are custom product pages?
According to Apple, custom product pages are alternative versions of the App Store product page. It allows marketers to create pages that highlight app functionality, content, or offers. This will result in more personalization, where marketers create pages that are more relevant to certain segments of their target audience. You can create up to 35 customized variants of your default app store product page where you’ll be able to change the promotional text, the screenshots, or the app preview video.
Those custom product pages will have unique URLs where app marketers are going to A/B test them with custom messaging outside the app store. This means that you’ll be able to send traffic from your influencer campaign to a unique URL for a custom product page designed especially for that influencer campaign. However, you still need to check with your ad network if they’re compatible with custom product pages. Especially that this feature may not be available immediately with iOS 15, which means that some ad networks will probably be behind in supporting it. On the other side, Apple announced that this feature will be immediately compatible with Apple Search Ads (ASA) once released and will operate to replace the legacy “Creative Sets” feature. This gives ASA a head start where advertisers can test and learn there before any other network.
When and how to use custom product pages?
With 35 custom product pages, you can do so many fun things to test and find the best App Store listing for your app. Also, to personalize the user’s experience as much as possible. Here are a couple of use cases. There are much more use cases for custom product pages, all you need is just a bit of brainstorming and testing to leverage this great feature to your needs.
Highlight features or benefits
Your features or benefits will benefit different user personas. You can use custom product pages to talk about the feature that will benefit every segment of your target audience on a single page. For example, Bumble offers Dating, BFF, and Bizz. A good use case for them is to create a custom product page for each of these main functionalities. This will make the app store page personalized for every user that visits their app store listing from the corresponding marketing campaign.
Content preferences
You can customize the app store listing with custom product pages that promotes one or more of the various contents you offer. For example, ESPN sports can create different custom product pages for the corresponding sport. One for American Football and another for NBA playoffs…etc. and this will help make their app store listing more relevant to users coming from a campaign promoting NBA playoffs. Now, the user visiting the app store listing will be able to see his/her favorite teams/players highlighted, which will increase conversion rates.
Promotions and seasonal events
If your app or game offers special discounts or if you’re A/B testing to find the best performing offer, then custom product pages are what you need. You can create personalized landing pages with different offers, then measure the effect on your conversion rates. This can also be used for seasonal events, such as Valentine’s Day…etc.
Returning users
For returning users, a custom page can be used to showcase the new functionalities of your app since launch.
How will custom product pages impact ASO?
Unlike what you may have thought about custom product pages, they won’t allow you to change the app’s title, keywords, subtitle, or category. This means it won’t have a direct impact on your app store’s organic growth or visibility. However, you still can create pages for the different features your app has or the different problems you solve. This should boost the conversion rates and accordingly your organic installs. Probably, Apple will include custom product pages as one of the factors that determine your app store ranking in the future. Things to keep in mind:
- Uploading new assets to your custom product page won’t require an app release. So, marketers will be able to submit this themselves.
- Apple is still going to review any custom product page you create against the App Store terms and policy. So, submit your pages a couple of days before your campaign goes live.
- You can create custom product pages from the App Store Connect console.
- You have up to 35 custom product pages to create. However, there is not a lot of information from Apple about the localization yet.
- You can use keywords specific to every custom product page. It could help boost your organic growth.
Generally, custom product pages still don’t have a clear effect on ASO strategy, but your team needs to start testing and tweaking this feature to your needs.
How to leverage custom product pages in your ASA campaigns?
Custom product pages are the new Creative Sets for Apple Search ads, which means that marketers will be able to leverage custom product pages to make their ads more relevant to a user’s search. A better alignment between the marketing message and the offering should ideally be resulting in a higher TTR (tap-through rate) and lower CPA on ASA. You can create a custom product page within your ASA advanced search result ad group. However, within the ASA dashboard, you’re not allowed to completely create those new custom product pages, but only use the ones you have created in the App Store Connect already. They allow marketers to align their creatives with specific keywords, which means a higher tap-through rate and accordingly a higher conversion rate. This is a step in the right direction by Apple because it’s likely to enhance the user’s search experience within the app store. Though, an important thing to note is that the ad groups using custom product pages only going to serve iOS15.2 or later users. No worries, the iOS15 adaption rate is through the roof.
Here is how to add new variations to your ad group after creating your custom product pages in the App Store Connect:
- From the ASA dashboard, navigate to the Ad group, then click access the Ads dashboard.
- Click on the Create Ad button on the Ads dashboard.
- Set your ads up;
- Name your new custom ad.
- Select the custom product page you want.
- Preview your custom ad.
- Click save.
Conclusion
Apple is developing its ad business to keep it sustainable, now we got the ability to create custom creative by creating custom product pages, and later we will be able to launch ads within other apps and optimize for in-app purchases. The custom product page feature is really important, and your team should start experimenting with it. It will unlock so much more potential with the level of personalization it offers. For more industry insights, don’t hesitate to visit our blog.
