Case Study: Hellobot

Introduction

Hellobot is a chatbot application, developed by Korea’s app provider, Thingsflow Inc. This chatbot provides various charming characters that tell users fortunes with Tarot cards, astrology, and past-life talk, while it can just be a go-to friend when having a bad day. The app’s characters and interesting fortunetelling seemed to have enough potential to not only succeed in Korea but also around the globe. Especially, the success in the Japanese market seemed likely because the Japanese culture is already familiar with fortunetelling and cute character designs. However, the initial result in Japan was not as smooth as expected. Its visibility was not high enough to increase the awareness and recognition among Japanese users. This is when Hellobot reached out to us and decided to start ASO. The major ASO we did for Hellobot was meta keyword optimization (MKO), while only a little bit of conversion rate optimization (CRO) was implemented in the screenshots. Soon after our ASO application, Hellobot’s graph turned its direction upward and began to see what was initially expected. 

Search Visibility in iOS

Before ASO, the metadata of Hellobot’s iOS had several assets that required improvement. Among those, a major improvement took place in its keyword field. Initially, the keyword field was empty, so we conducted market research and social listening to discover the most appropriate set of keywords for Hellobot and filled the keyword fields with them. Another optimization process was to localize the metadata. Some words conveyed the meaning, but their connotation did not fit the context. Our Japanese native members changed them to more natural keywords. Keyword field optimization and localization showed a significant result; its search visibility increased by 225%. 

Search Visibility in AOS

Just as its condition in iOS, metadata in Hellobot’s AOS needed localization improvement. On top of this, we advised adding the keywords we selected through our market research to its title and descriptions, expecting Hellobot had enough potential to make more keywords rank in the top charts. More keywords indeed began to rank higher; thus, along with the localization improvement, the MKO application in Hellobot’s AOS resulted in skyrocketing uplift in search visibility: it increased by 1,046%. 

Optimizing Screenshots

Unlike Hellobot’s metadata needed major changes and improvements, its creatives were already befitting the Japanese market. As mentioned above, Hellobot provided adorable characters as its chatbots, and the use of cuteness is a language of the Japanese culture. Thus, we made some minor changes, mainly the screenshots’ texts, to contribute to our major changes in its metadata. 

Screenshot revisions:

1. We removed the characters’ names and title boxes.
2. We changed the first personal pronouns in the texts to either the second personal pronoun or a character name to avoid ambiguity.
3. We removed names of diseases and refined them to the word “concerns.”

Outro

ASO is like fuel for a rocket. Of course, there are many other parts and components necessary for a successful rocket launching, but without fuel, it would not lift not even an inch. The case with Hellobot can be good evidence that backs up this metaphor, as its case showed a dramatic change before and after ASO. Thus, it is fair to say ASO is an essential step to the growth of an app. 

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Mail