App Screenshots ASO Optimization For Apps & Games - Complete Guide

Why you should optimize your app screenshots?

The screenshot may be the most visible element on your application page (and in the App Store search results)!

In general, the image is eye-catcher and shop visitors the first impression has your application.
The screenshot may be the most important element on your application page to help users decide whether to download your application or not.

As a result, if you want to increase the conversion rate of your application, you must start by reviewing and redesigning, and optimize your app screenshots first.

We have listed some important tips to help you design the best screenshots that make your application stand out from the crowd and encourage users to download your application.

The purpose of screen catches is to provide potential customers with more information about what applications, show what can be expected from the application before it has been downloaded.

This is a very important aspect because people prefer to see the screens’ catch instead of reading the long description to get a sense of what the application is.

Indeed, impulsive people and often use their emotions to make decisions. Many users will base their decisions about whether to download your application on how interesting the screenshot is!

Read these tips on how you can optimize the screenshot to improve your application installs:

1. Screenshot must explain what your application is

Basic Checklist to Start:

• Explain the main features of your application
• Give customers ideas about what they can expect when they download your application
• Show off the user experience
• Use a short title to deliver your message better, but make sure the font is big enough so that people can read it

Some applications choose to be very simple in their screenshots, just show the main features and add some short titles. The advantage of this is that your users will see a real showcase from the strength of your application.

However, this type of screen catch tends to lose visibility in a very competitive category, where applications prefer more creative visuals to attract users.

E.G: Application “Sudoku.com – Puzzle Game” shows some simple screen catches from the main features. They also use short sentences to highlight the main sales propositions.

Screenshots You can be very simple, but you have to avoid just inserting the screen catch directly from your application. This is a bad practice and shows a lack of effort in showing the main features of your application aesthetically.

E.G: Fidelity has added several application screens directly. This is not too recommended; When your user compares this screen’s catch into another application’, they might get the first wrong impression and lose your main USPS.

On the other hand, some complex applications in the utility category make customized posters that display additional visual content and some text to explain more clearly what application is done.

The purpose of this is to convince your audience and selling your application with interesting sentences.

If you are not confident enough, you can hire a professional designer to do this for you!

E.g: Here, we see the screenshot “Slack”. This screenshot shows the function of the main application such as chat messages, preview images, documents, dynamic filters, etc.

Do you want to challenge yourself? If the answer is yes, you can show your main application features in the “storyline”! It will be more attractive to customers because design plays an important role in the message you are trying to convey.

E.G: Bird has built a “storyline” in their screenshot, where all screenshots are integrated to communicate all their value propositions.

On the Google Play Store, screenshots are only displayed on the application page. However, they are one of the main focal points on the application page, and must immediately help you achieve your mission to convert users.

2. Place the most attractive screenshots at first

We previously discussed how the screenshots catch affected the customer’s first impressions of your application. This is especially true for the App Store because screenshots also appear in search results along with icons and application titles.

The truth is you only have a few seconds to attract the attention of users. Therefore, make sure to design the first screenshot that is interesting with thick and bright colors that make your application stand out.

E.G: Food delivery has used the first two screenshot catches to clearly communicate that you can get restaurant food sent by browsing them to their application. The first image invites users to buy food from their application.

E.G: Screenshot of Skyscanner shows a continuous story instead of a separate screen catch (iOS, US). This effect can be made by combining one image into a different screenshot to increase your attention and conversion rates.

Your application also competes with superior advertisements and stories in search results. Therefore, visuals become more and more important because users must scroll more to find applications that match their search intentions.

READ ALSO: Best Mobile App Development Principles | The Perfect Guide

3. Portrait vs. landscape orientation

Usually challenging to choose which orientation is the best for your screenshot.

For the App Store, there are 2 main devices where the application can be downloaded:

• On iPhone
• On iPad

If your application is available on the iPhone and iPad, you should ideally make a different screenshot for each according to the correct size and pixel.

iPhone:

iPad.

E.G: For each device, Angry Birds 2 (iOS, US) has added the same screenshot version with a different size. It’s important to guarantee you display the right image to the user.

For Google Play Store, you can also add a landscape screenshot or portrait orientation. To publish your store list, you must provide a minimum of 2 screenshots, JPEG or 24-bit PNG, minimum dimensions: 320 px, and maximum dimensions: 3840 px.

 

E.G: Super Mario Run (Google Play) shows the landscape and portrait screen catches to the users.

4. Design and adjust your screenshot for all devices

It is strongly recommended to use all screenshots available to increase your conversion rate. Besides that for clear devices, you can also design screenshots for applications available on Apple Watch and Apple TV if you are interested in launching your application on all channels.

Apple allows developers to upload up to 10 screenshots, while Google Play allows up to 8 per device (telephone, tablet, Android TV, and set OS).

As previously said, people like visual content – the more you have, the better. Use this for your advantage and see it as an opportunity to show more than one feature.

 

We help you to easily identify how many screenshots you use your competitors. With our screenshot feature, we identify that Dragon Ball Legends has 21 screenshots. If you scroll between screenshots, you will detect changes in size associated with the device they use. Remember, Google allows up to 8 screenshots per device.

5. 1 screenshot = 1 feature!

Remember – people browse small mobile devices, so don’t make your screen catch too complicated. Quick tip to help you keep simple things focus on one feature per screenshot. Select your best features and design screenshot for each.

E.G: FaceApp- AI Face Editor uses one feature per screenshot to highlight its main function.

Help users better understand how they can benefit from using your features by enlarging certain elements. This helps focus the user’s attention on what is important and will help you communicate your main value proposition.

If your application doesn’t have many features, use a different angle to introduce the main. You can also show a typical concrete example of what users can do with your application.

E.G: Waze Navigation & Live Traffic (iOS, USA) uses a different perspective to show the strength of its features.

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6. Localization of your screenshot

If you want to market your application in various countries, it’s important to upload different screenshots in the local language of each country. It’s always better and easier to convince people in their mother tongue than in a foreign language.

For example, if your initial target is the US market but you expand your application to Russia, don’t use English on your screenshot; This is a bad practice. Instead, use the main local language of the country you are targeting.

English, United States, iOS:

Spain, United States, IOS:

Russia, Russia, iOS:

E.G: According to ASO best practices, TripAdvisor has placed the screenshots to various languages ​​for the market they are targeting. For example, in the US they display screenshots both in English and in Spanish (for two different audiences in one country); For Russia, they have also adapted screen catches to local languages.

If you want to maximize localization and increase your business in other areas, don’t just translate your screen catch to fit the local language. It is important to examine local cultural and design preferences.

Trip.com, Korea:

Trip.com, USA:

Map, Brazil:

Google Maps, USA:

E.G: This application has stepped further, not only localizing languages but also settings and landscapes. This definitely helps local users identify easier with brands and download applications.

7. Show devices

E.G: Starbucks following this trend, show some of their application niche mockups on the iPhone.

8. Monitor your competitors

Just like for icons – and actually every other factor in Aso – it’s important to monitor your competitor’s application (i.e., check what they choose to display and how they do it).

Benchmarking is always a good source of inspiration. The best thing you can do is collect all screenshots from your most successful competitors and try to understand what really works.

You can also take the most successful competitor’s screenshot and try to avoid possible mistakes they might make.

Remember that screenshots are clearly not the only factor that determines the success of the application. An application may have a good icon, perfect description, extraordinary screenshot, and targeted keywords, but if it’s not a great application itself, it won’t work.

E.G: With the Timeline Table, you can easily identify every time one of your competitors has applied changes in their screen catches and you can also see before/after.

This can help you also identify several seasons and trends that you must follow. For example, on Google Play Store, Temple Run 2 changes the screenshot of the “Holi Festival” to “missing Jungle”.

9. Test A / B

It’s always good to test what you do. Test some screenshots and see which one is most suitable.

You can now test A / B on Google Play for free, which is a much better way to see which screen catches are the best.

Many applications test various versions of their screenshots to determine which colors and titles have the highest conversion rate.

E.g: If we look closer to the “gardenscapes” strategy, we can identify testing A / B for screenshots and keywords used to measure the highest impact on conversions.