Organic installs are when users download an app after discovering it without any exposure to incentivized marketing sources. Typically, users get to know about an app organically through search results, app store browsing or keyword search, or word-of-mouth.
In more technical terms, organic installs refer to when a user journey that leads to an install is not attributed to any specific paid marketing efforts. If a user happened to have clicked on an ad but never installed the app within the attribution window of this interaction and instead, installs it much later, this also counts as an organic install.
Organic installs are one of the most valuable metrics that an app should consider when evaluating its success. Organic installs indicate that users were convinced to download an app without any external influence and instead, saw the app’s value first-hand. The fact that they voluntarily chose to use this app among the various other options can be attributed to the value an organic install holds. As a result, organic users are also less likely to churn than those who were directed from paid sources.
Although paid advertising and campaigning can bring short-term improvements to install counts and brand performance, the effects are temporary, and it requires a lot of money and resources to execute. On the other hand, organic traffic like word-of-mouth, search engine optimization (SEO), and app store optimization (ASO) require a long-term commitment to build and improve. Apps that are working to boost SEO may have to wait several months before seeing tangible results or even a hint of growth. As difficult as it is to achieve this growth, an increase in organic installs is considered much more worthwhile than paid installs. The effects of it are also long-lasting and extremely stable, which provides apps with a firmly established ranking and credibility.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making sure that your app is more visible on search engines like Google. The higher your website or app places on a search results page, the better your SEO is. SEO heavily relies on unpaid traffic to evaluate an app’s performance, meaning that the higher an app’s SEO is, the more organic installs it can lead to. Marketers are able to boost SEO in various ways, including:
App store optimization (ASO) is the process of increasing an app’s visibility within the app store. Similar to SEO, ASO is helpful for increasing an app’s app store rankings and exposure to users. ASO uses indicators called tags, which are different labels of categories that marketers can classify their apps into. Accurately tagging an app so that it covers the most relevant keywords is most important to improving ASO.
Word-of-mouth is when information about an app naturally spreads among users and convinces them to download the app. Having features like in-app sharing can help expand WOM and improve organic install rates.
