WhatILearnedStudyingtheAppStore

StuartHall@stuartkhall

Co-founder&ChiefBot

+manymore

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Secrets of the App Store

Market

CapturingTheMarket

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“Fortheaverageapp,searchactuallymakesupthevastmajorityofinstalls,”

“12percentofdailyactiveusers(DAU)searchforappsdaily,50percentofDAUsearchforappsweeklyandGoogleseessixmillionuniquephrasessearchedmonthly”

—AnkitJain,GooglePlay

Appstoresearch

Appstoresearch

• Averageappstorerating• Rating/reviewvolume• Downloadandinstallcounts• Uninstalls• Appusagestatistics• Growthtrendsweightedtowardrecency• Keyworddensityoftheapp'slandingpage

Ranking=fn(Rating,RatingCount,Installs,Trends)

https://moz.com/blog/app-store-rankings-formula-deconstructed-in-5-mad-science-experiments

SEO

• Stillimportant• Landingpages• “BestapptodoX”,“downloadappforY”

AppStoreFeatures

FeaturedAppAge

• 6daysto2382daysold• Median1.3years!• 21%launched<1monthago

AppStoreFeatures

• Storeswanttofeatureyou• Connections-EventslikeWWDC,GoogleIO• Remindthem-alot• Greatapp• Greatreviews• Newtech

PR

• Connectwithjournalists• Helpthem• Conferences&meetups• Don’tusetemplates• Createastory

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MailingLists

• Collecton:• Landingpages• Withinapps• Blog

• Everyemailhelps

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CrossPromote

• Multipleapps• Affiliateprogram

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Social

• Attherightmoment• Don’tforgetemail

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WordofMouth

• Successfulappsnailthis• Comesbacktomakinganappthat’ssoamazinguserswanttobecomethecoolonethattellstheirfriendfirst.

• Wowmoments

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Paiddownloads/Advertising

• Effectivewhen:1. Whenyouaretryingtogetearlyusersfor

feedback.2. Youhavereachedmassivescale(e.g.Candy

Crush,ClashofClans)andhaveaprovenmonetisationmodel.

3. YouareaplatformsellingaSaaSoffering.

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TopCharts

• Downloads• Ratings&reviews

TopCharts-FreeCategories

TopCharts-PaidCategories

TopCharts-GrossingCategories

TopCharts-FreeAge

TopCharts-PaidAge

TopCharts-GrossingAge

TopCharts-AppAge

Free Paid Grossing

MedianAge(days) 1013 887 658

MedianAge(years) 2.8 2.4 1.8

ConvertingAppStorePageVisitors

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AppIcon

• Firstthingauserseeswhentheyland• Greaticonspop• Memorable• Makesyouwanttotap

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AppIconsAnalysing

AppIconsFree Apps

Paid AppsAppIcons

Newest AppsAppIcons

Google PlayAppIcons

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AppIcons-WhatColour?

• Theconformist-redorblue• Iliketobedifferent-green• Therebel-pink(sorry,salmon)orpurple

AppStoreDescriptions

• Thefirstfewlinesarekey• Socialproof• Tellastory• Localize• Experiment

GreatAppStoreDescriptions

Clear

Airbnb

Localise:MostreviewsbycountryCountry MajorLanguage(s) %OfReviewsUSA English 21.64%China Chinese 17.38%Japan Japanese 6.00%UnitedKingdom English 5.30%Russia Russian 4.06%Germany German 3.90%Canada English&French(21%) 3.62%France French 3.32%Italy Italian 3.05%Brazil Portuguese 2.70%Australia English 2.56%Mexico Spanish 2.38%Korea,RepublicOf Korean 2.04%

MostreviewsbylanguageLanguages %ofReviews

English 33.33%

Chinese 19.64%

Japanese 6.00%

Spanish 5.03%

French 4.41%

German 4.36%

Russian 4.06%

Italian 3.10%

Portugese 2.70%

Korean 2.04%

Localising

• LanguagesYouMustDo• EnglishandChinese(SimplifiedandTraditional)-53%Coverage

• SecondRound• Japanese,Spanish,French,German,Russian,PortugueseandKorean,thiswillgetyoutoalmost85%

• TheLongTail• Thai,Turkish,Dutch,Swedish,Malay,Danish,Vietnameseetc

Screenshots

• Extremelyimportant• Pickyourbestscreens

Screenshots-Annotating

Annotating

DeviceFrames

DeviceFrames

Orientation

NumberofScreenshots

AppNames

• Flipboard:YourSocialNewsMagazine• Minecraft-PocketEdition• SoundCloud:music&audio-discoverandstreamsongs,artists,podcastsandnews

• TracknShare-Auniversallifemanagementdiarytrackertojournal,track,analyze,improve&sharechronichealthsymptoms,suchaspainandsleep,myworklife,food,weight,wellness&theQuantifiedSelf.

AppNamesTotalAppsSurveyed 8400

MaxWords 49

MedianWords 4

AverageWords 5.4

MaximumCharacters 255

MinimumCharacters 2

MedianCharacters 24

AverageCharacters 35.2

AppNames-Words

AppNames-Characters

AppNames

Apppreview

• Importanttogetfeatured• Lookatgreatexamples• It’snotashardasitseems

62http://www.slideshare.net/ASOBarcamp/asobarcamp-2-ratings-and-reviews-aso-impact-and-leverage-of-review-optimisation-thomas-petit-8fitcom

Appreviews

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ReviewsandratingsareaverystrongsignalforusonGooglePlay

–AnkitJain,GooglePlay

Appreviews-improvingthem

• GreatUI&UX.• Test,testandtestsomemore• Sendtobetatesters• Getnotifiedwhenyourappcrashes• Checkyourappbeforeyoureleaseit• Don’tgetslackwitha‘quick’update

Appreviews-listen

Appreviews-listen

Appreviews-listen

Reviewworkflows

Appreviews-replying

• Reachouttothosehavingissues

OneMarketorAll?

TopGrossingAppsCount %

AllCountries 8 4%

USA&China(ExcludingAll) 4 2%

USA&Australia(ExcludingAll) 103 52%

China&Australia(ExcludingAll) 6 3%

USAOnly 85 43%

ChinaOnly 182 91%

AustraliaOnly 83 42%

Onemarketorall?

• Youcanbesuccessfulinasinglemarket• Localize?• Testamarket

https://appbot.co/books

Secrets of the App Store

SecretsoftheAppStore-FreeeBook

@stuartkhall

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