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The App Store Survival Guide

Emanuele Bolognesi
October 07, 2015
76

The App Store Survival Guide

Presented at the workshop organised by AESVI (Association of Italian Video Games Publishers) - October 2015.
It's both a presentation about the promotion of apps in the stores, but also about UX and data-driven design

Emanuele Bolognesi

October 07, 2015
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Transcript

  1. The App Stores Survival Guide The truth about the app

    stores • 15 cents average revenue per download * • 1% of the developers are making “real” money ($400k / year avg) • 2.5% of developers around $50k/year • The rest (96%) lose money * data from Vision Mobile, Gartner, TomiAhonen - total numbers 2013
  2. The App Stores Survival Guide Games and Apps SMARTPHONE CONSUMER

    APPS BY TYPE 2013 Item Non-gaming apps Gaming apps ---------------------------------------------------------------- Developer revenue 900 mln dollars . . . 8.2 billion dollars Live apps smartphones 404,000 . . . . . . . 135,000 Smartph app downl . . 34.5 billion . . . . 26.5 billion Downloads per live app 51,900 . . . . . . . 119,800 Downloads per smartph 16.2 . . . . . . . . 12.4 Revenue per live app 2,300 dollars . . . . 60,900 Revenue per download 3 cents . . . . . . . 31 cents https://medium.com/@emabolo/making-money-with-apps-is-tough-149727e19073
  3. The App Stores Survival Guide The right approach Design Develop

    Publish Design Develop Publish Analyze And iterate
  4. The App Stores Survival Guide Publishing Two choices: 1. Do

    it yourself 2. Contact a professional publisher
  5. The App Stores Survival Guide It’s not just “app stores”

    • Things to do in the publishing portals • Things to do in your app • Things to do outside your app
  6. The App Stores Survival Guide 1. Naming • Unique, memorable,

    friends must be able to mention it in conversations • Keywords rich • What happens if you search for it? • Did you find a free domain?
  7. The App Stores Survival Guide 2. Category • Choose the

    right one • It will be your “arena” • And your main source of discovery, at least at the beginning
  8. The App Stores Survival Guide 3. Icon • Eye catching

    • Different styles for different categories • A/B Test is fundamental
  9. The App Stores Survival Guide Of the top 10 most

    downloaded Strategy games: • 9 icons show a face • 8 of them have an helmet, hat or other head protections • 6 of them have facial hair • 5 of them have an open mouth
  10. The App Stores Survival Guide 4. Screenshots • Convincing •

    Informative • The second most important asset after the icon
  11. The App Stores Survival Guide Don’t forget a video •

    Uploaded with the screenshots • But they are always displayed first
  12. The App Stores Survival Guide 4. The Title • Title

    >= Name • Must contain keywords • Check your competitors
  13. The App Stores Survival Guide 5. Description • Not as

    important as before, since the last update of the stores • But still a key element for ASO • First paragraph is the most important • Most descriptions start with reviews
  14. The App Stores Survival Guide 5. Reviews • N. of

    stars is a fundamental driver to increase downloads and to be featured by the stores • Don’t pay for fake reviews, but invite happy users to leave them • If you are accumulating bad reviews, consider removing the app from the stores • You can answer reviews on Google Play • Users can change their reviews and the #of stars
  15. The App Stores Survival Guide 6. Landing/website • You need

    a link to be shared on facebook, twitter, blogs, etc • Not really useful for SEO • But useful to split traffic • Short URL, responsive page • Don’t forget tracking parameters
  16. The App Stores Survival Guide Let’s review the strategy 1.

    Research and brain storming 2. Build a MVP 3. Publish and test step by step (first internally, then closed beta, open beta, staged rollout) 4. Collect feedbacks 5. Analyse Data 6. And restart
  17. The App Stores Survival Guide Let’s review the strategy At

    each iterations you must be ready to: Drop the idea Now you have time & resources to start something new Improve be data driven! Test again and restart
  18. The App Stores Survival Guide Sketches and prototypes • Use

    sketches to visualize ideas • Use prototypes to validate UX • Use tools like invisio and flinto to test prototypes
  19. The App Stores Survival Guide Real Case: KidzInMind Step by

    Step UX improvement to increase usage
  20. The App Stores Survival Guide First Results Less than 50%

    of new users “really” use the app
  21. The App Stores Survival Guide 28% drop because of the

    baby profile 30% drop because of Intro, registration etc Where is the problem? 19% didn’t like the main page
  22. The App Stores Survival Guide 30% drop because of wizard,

    registration etc First problem 19% didn’t like the main page
  23. The App Stores Survival Guide From 69% to 81% account

    creation conversion First Problem Results after the changes
  24. The App Stores Survival Guide 30% drop because of wizard,

    registration etc 28% drop because of the baby profile Second problem 19% didn’t like the main page
  25. The App Stores Survival Guide In the second half of

    October the 1st usage ratio raised from 48% to 63% Overall % after changes
  26. The App Stores Survival Guide 30% drop because of wizard,

    registration etc Third problem 19% didn’t like the main page
  27. The App Stores Survival Guide Action 4 Baby profile was

    not really useful to provide a better experience to the users. We decided to remove it
  28. The App Stores Survival Guide Action 5 Even if this

    doesn’t have impact on the onboarding flow, the playgroud was redesigned
  29. The App Stores Survival Guide Action 6 Intro didn’t have

    a high drop rate, but it didn’t seem useful to increase usage either. It was replaced by coachmarks
  30. The App Stores Survival Guide New onboarding conversion After several

    months of iterations and improvements, we raised the overall % from less than 50% to 87.4%
  31. The App Stores Survival Guide A/B Tests on UI Choosing

    the best UI element for the Video section
  32. The App Stores Survival Guide The key of the success

    • You can’t rely on paid campaigns only • The community effect is important • Design for engagement • Being social doesn’t mean adding a “share” button to your app • Be always data-driven • Be sure your app is ready when you contact Google, Apple, Microsoft
  33. The App Stores Survival Guide • Free tools: – Official

    Publishing Portals – Google Analytics • Paid Tools: – AppsFlyer – Mixpanel – DeltaDNA – And many others Tracking and Analytics tools You need data to take decisions
  34. The App Stores Survival Guide Checking the performance of your

    store page on the Google Developer Console (1/2)
  35. The App Stores Survival Guide Checking the performance of your

    store page on the Google Developer Console (2/2) An optimization of your Store Page with the best icon, screenshots and video can raise the %
  36. The App Stores Survival Guide 48% Checking the performance of

    your store page on iTunes Connect App Analytics (1/2)
  37. The App Stores Survival Guide 2. A/B tests How to

    run A/B tests: • Conduct tests based on hypothesis • Test one thing at a time • Iterate • Run experiment long enough
  38. The App Stores Survival Guide 3.Beta testing, staged rollout •

    Apple TestFlight • Google Beta Testing • Staged Rollout • Cloud Test Lab
  39. The App Stores Survival Guide Conclusions Publishing and bringing your

    app or game to success is just a patient, data driven, iterative process, not magic. Good luck!