CHALLENGE
Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees, also has a mobile browser known for its mission, loyal user base, and strong branded traffic. Despite its solid position as an alternative browser, it faced a challenge: almost all of its App Store visibility came from brand-related keywords.
To scale installs and reach new audiences, Ecosia partnered with REPLUG to build a sustainable ASO strategy across four markets (U.S., U.K., DE, and FR). This strategy would unlock growth beyond brand terms and improve rankings in highly competitive categories like private browsing and eco-friendly tech.
COMPETING IN A HIGHLY-SATURATED CATEGORY
LOW VISIBILITY OUTSIDE OF BRAND-RELATED SEARCH TERMS
LACK OF HIGH-RANKING INSTALL SHARE
SOLUTIONS
DEEP MARKET RESEARCH & COMPETITOR GAP ANALYSIS
We studied metadata and keyword strategies used by major players like DuckDuckGo and Brave. this helped us identify high-volume yet underleveraged terms in privacy, eco-browsing, and alternative search segments.
LONG-TAIL KEYWORD TARGETING & STRATEGIC METADATA RESTRUCTURING
We optimized for long-tail, high-intent queries that would increase the organic reach and appeal to a broader audience across the different markets (“private browsers” or ”private web browser”) on both iOS and android stores.
CROSS-LOCALIZATION STRATEGY THE IOS STORE
We didn’t rely only on US-localized metadata. By leveraging metadata fields from other English-speaking locales (e.g., MX), we increased visibility in the US storefront and added 64 new ranked keywords, resulting in improved installs and broader coverage.
Results
+ 6.1 K
Monthly install growth in the U.S.
IMPACTFUL CHANGES
FROM BRANDED-ONLY TO 40% NON-BRANDED INSTALLS IN THE U.S.
Thanks to a data-driven ASO strategy, we delivered +3,906 incremental installs/month from new keywords, with terms such as “search engine” delivering thousands of installs.
VISIBILITY SURGE WITH AN INSTALL UPLIFT IN THE U.K.
While focusing on the right keywords with the im of reaching a broader audience, we delivered a +30.66% visibility growth in just 1 week, adding an average of +419 new organic installs/month from long-tail generic terms.
PRECISION APP STORE OPTIMIZATION STRATEGY IN GERMANY
Our ASO team has less flexibility to optimize different metadata elements due to branding restrictions. Nevertheless, a careful ASO strategy focused on key search terms delivered +6.67K total organic installs with many terms reaching the top 20.
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