Todd was Branch’s Content Marketing Manager from 2016 to 2017. During this time, he was in charge of creating content for Branch’s blog, managing social media accounts, and running webinars.
Jan 20, 2017
This is a guest post from StoreMaven, the leading App Store Optimization platform. The information in this post is based on thousands of tests and over one billion data points collected by the StoreMaven platform.
With more marketing budgets poured into mobile than ever before, the cost of acquiring new installs is soaring. Today, the biggest barrier to success in the app universe is reducing these costs. Taking on the challenge, growth experts have learned to invest heavily in the “first user journey.” From carefully crafting the message in ads, to guiding users as you introduce them to the usability and value of your app.
The app stores are a crucial part of the first user journey. There’s so much money and effort put into getting people to install your app. The most irritating thing (as a developer) is when people get as far as viewing your app store page and then decide that it doesn’t meet their needs. The reality is that the majority of potential installers drop in the app store. Incoming visitors from paid media, viral channels, organic discovery and more, all begin their journey with your app in the store and are all impacted by the way the app is presented there.
As such, a better version of your app store page can double your conversion rates.
The key to finding a better version is to continuously test your app store page with creatives that best align with your audience expectations.
But where should you start? In this post we’re going to introduce 3 app store A/B tests every developer must run.
The process of designing the optimal app store page begins by answering the following question: “What might drive our potential users to install our app and use our product?” The methodology behind the process is called Design Thinking, a method focused on gaining user empathy across every step of the funnel. Only after you identify the decision process your users go through, can you create a user journey that will maximize install conversion.
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People that visit Google’s Play Store or Apple’s App Store, are segmented into 2 general groups:
The first impression given by your app store determines how many of your store page visitors will fall under each group. And a good app store page is one that has high install conversion rates for both decisive users and explorers.
Once visitors land on your app page, they take a quick glance (3-6 seconds) at the content that is visible in your first impression, and then make a decision of whether to install, drop, or consume more content.
When designing your next app store page, your job is to:
Research with top developers (cross-industry) shows that exploring installers present higher KPIs (second day retention 5-15% above instant installers), and are more likely to convert into paying users.
In both stores, the first impression is comprised of the creative that visitors see the moment they land on the app page. These marketing assets are the key drivers, not only for the install conversion rate, but also for the quality of your installs.
On iOS, the screenshot gallery is most dominant and is “above the fold,” while on Google Play the gallery is “below the fold,” making the top feature graphic and the short description key elements of the first impression.
1. Icon Testing: The icon plays a significant role in the App Store Marketing funnel. Some developers choose to have different icons on each store. Take a look at Uber as an example:
Optimizing your icon drives growth, improving:
2. Video vs. No Video: The visual richness of videos offers a great medium for delivering messages that often don’t come across as well through text and static images. With an App Preview or Play Store video, you have the potential of educating users to understand your value propositions and to present a more accurate simulation of your app’s experience. And most importantly, to get viewers excited about your product. Similarly to an optimized icon, our research shows that video can either increase or decrease your conversion rates by 25% and up.
Adding a video has several implications to it which must be taken into account:
To learn all about how to get your app store video right, and get to know some video benchmarks, make sure to read this post.
3. First two screenshots (iOS) / Feature Graphic (Google Play): The majority of your store visitors don’t swipe past your first two screenshots on iOS or scroll down the page on Google Play. That makes Apple’s first two screenshots and Google’s feature graphic the most important app store elements. Here are our inputs for designing variations that make a test significant.
Okay, so now that you have a testing agenda and guidelines for crafting impactful variations – what else do you need to get right for successful testing?
There are three principles to keep in order to have valuable results and to enjoy an actual CVR lift.
Interested in more info? Make sure to read our full App Store Marketing Guidebook that will walk you through all there is to know about ASO.
StoreMaven invented the only way to AB test App Store and Google Play marketing assets.
The world’s top mobile companies rely on StoreMaven to optimize their app stores and install conversion.
Todd was Branch’s Content Marketing Manager from 2016 to 2017. During this time, he was in charge of creating content for Branch’s blog, managing social media accounts, and running webinars.
Jan 20, 2017