Competitor analysis before launching a mobile app startup
Every month, more than 20, 000 apps are published to the AppStore. There are thousands of entertainment, education, and other types of apps there. What do you think? How many competitors would your app have? Let’s figure it out! In this article we are going to talk about competitor analysis before launching an app startup.
A few words about competitor analysis
Competitor analysis is an assessment of weaknesses and strengths of current and potential competitors. Analysis of your competitors before launching an app startup is a necessary. However, there is another step that must be taken before you launch your app. Answer these questions: Is your idea unique? What makes your app special? Maybe your app will have some unusual features or maybe you as a creator have enough experience to run your app startup better than others.
Criteria of competitor analysis
Now that you have a clear idea in your mind, you are ready to do competitive analysis to add to your business plan of app startup. What’s next? Create a list that will contain the following lines: Name of the app, Link to the store, Link to the website, and a Social network page.
The next step is to search for your competitors. Simply Google keywords that match your app and don’t forget to add the word “app” after each keyword. Also, visit the service XyO (it has became a digital tribune for now) where you’ll get a list of similar apps after you first choose an app (for example, your potential competitors). It is easier and faster than Googling, but some apps may not be registered there. I recommend doing the search in both services.
There are lots of criteria to choose from for competitor analysis research before launching an app, but let’s first examine the most important.
The Number of Downloads and the Price. How many people have downloaded your competitor’s app? You can check that through XyO. Apart from the number of downloads you can also see the prices for various applications.
Ranking of the App It is important to figure out the ranking of the app in the store’s top list because this position generates the traffic of users. This info can be found at App Annie.
The same information is found at Appfigures- but this service isn’t 100% free. A free account there is limited by time.
AppTrace is another website that shares the same information.
Competitor’s Income Information about a competitor’s income can definitely help you, but how do you find it out? No, you don’t need to hire a spy since it’s not that complicated. App Annie provides this service, but it isn’t free.
Web Presence How many articles and reviews were released to promote your competitor’s app? The answer can be given by Mention.
You need to consider this while building your own strategy. Maybe you’ll it will be enough to release more reviews or providing high quality articles about your app would be enough. You can use Google Alerts for this.
Alexa also shows the traffic information about your competitor’s website.
Keywords To figure out the best keywords for your app, you have to find out what keywords your competitors use. The best way to do so is by using SensorTower. It isn’t free, but it does have simple features that can be used without paying. Another service to find keywords is MobileDevHQ.
Marketing Campaign Information about marketing campaigns, time, and money spent can be provided by AdBeat. Unfortunately, this kind of information isn’t free. You’ll got to pay $249 per month to be a standard user and $399 per month to be an Advanced user.
Public Relations How about the sentiment analysis of your competitor’s app? AppTrace provides this information.
“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.” — Samuel Johnson
I’m happy to claim that there is a second kind of knowledge in this article. With its help you can achieve the first kind and use it for a successful launch of your app startup!
Inspired by AppInTop
Originally published at 111 Minutes Blog
