AuthorJohannes Borchardt

App Store Optimization (ASO) (4/5): Ratings & Installs or: The Google Play Store Search Algorithm

Another part on App Store Optimization. Finally. By the way, if you are from Germany: There is an article on App Store Optimization in the current Android 360. Go and get it (if you want)!

If you are new to this series, I recommend starting from the first article on App Store Optimization. If you don’t want to read that much, this article can still give you valuable information on its own.

Parts of this series on App Store Optimization are:
1. Keywords
2. Description

3. Icons
4. Graphics
5. Videos

6. Ratings
7. Installs
8. Users

While the last articles covered Icons, Videos and Graphics, we will go more into the search algorithm of the Play Store (I still need to get used to this name), an area that probably fits most developers better. Because this article will cover big parts of how the the Play Store search algorithm (most likely) works, there will be a summarizing Play Store algorithm-part at the end.

6. Ratings

When it comes to two equal apps, the app with a better rating will receive a better ranking. When your app does not have any ratings yet, it will internally get a composite score representing the quality of the apps you published before. This means: Ratings are important. But how to get lots of positive ratings? Well, there are several methods, one of them is to buy them via certain dubious websites (I ‘ve never tried that), another way is to simply ask your users for ratings. This step is actually pretty simple but it can and most likely will improve your ratings a lot, provided that you are making it right:

  1. Ask your users using an AlertDialog. While a beautiful little button in your main menu may be nice, users have the tendency to ignore things that want something from them (like they do with banner ads) and keep them from doing what they actually want to do (explore your app). This is why a one- or n-time alert dialog will catch much more attention than a button that is just always there. Personally I prefer the one-time to the n-time version.
  2. Don’t ask them the first time they use your app. That’s pretty obvious. How should a user know how to rate your app when he didn’t even use it? Instead, wait until he used it five or six times or played through the third level or so. When a user uses an app a couple of times, this is a good indicator that he actually will give you a better ranking.
  3. Give them a chance to opt out. You shouldn’t force your users to rate your product but give them a chance to say ‘later’ or ‘don’t ask me again’. When a user decides not to rate a product but gets annoyed by repeated dialogs, there will come a time when he ranks it with very little stars.

 7. Installs

Installs are important. They are important for you, because many users equals many dollars. But they also are important for the Android Market Search Algorithm. To be more precise: The ratio of active installs to total installs, respectively the refund rate. This will have special weight when your app is published the first time and there are not enough comments to give your app a ranking and no other apps to give your app a composite score.

Since gaining installs and keeping active installs is very important, it’s important to have a well designed and tested app. Boosting user numbers by force can be a very expensive task, that’s why it’s even more important not to lose existing users. To increase the number of downloads of an app, the well known classic methods like writing blogs, creating viral content, paying for ad space or ASO can be applied.

The the Google Play Store Search Algorithm

The search algorithm of Google’s website is known to be a black box of which nobody except Google knows how it works exactly. Guess what: With the Play Store search algorithm, it’s exactly the same. Still, by try and error and a lot of observation, patterns can be recognized. Here’s what the Play Store search algorithm roughly looks like:

temporary relevance * t + keyword frequency  in the title * u + keyword frequency in the description * v + ratings * w + composite score * x + active installs in per cent * y + black magic * z

Temporary relevance here means the acceptance of the users over a small time period, or in other words the download rates in the last days and weeks. As you can see there is a little ‘black magic’ involved, this is a synonym for uncertain influences like the +1-button, the percentage of solved known bugs with every new update, the relevance of keywords used in the recent changes-description and all the other small and uncertain things.

After various observations, the following rough order can be assumed:

w >= t >= y > u > v > x

z, representing the weight of various factors, is ignored.

Now, when optimizing your app for the Play Store, you can try to improve your app’s environment based on this order, meaning for example: “Let’s put our main effort into a solid UX, a non-annoying dialog with a high conversion rate asking users to rate us high and a good description.”

 

Conclusion

You maybe noticed that the Play Store search algorithm changed a lot in the last 18 months. ASO is very dynamic. New changes need to be observed and classified as soon as possible, so it always stays exciting.

 

I’m open to your suggestion, criticism and questions. Please leave them in the comments.

Android Income Report #10: February 12

February is over, time to sum things up.

If you are new to this series, let me explain it to you: Since Android is an open platform, I decided to be open about the income I’m making with my private Android apps too. In the last report I aimed to reach $4,000 for the last month. You will see if it worked out.

For all income reports, please click here.

Which Apps?

3D Invaders – about 212,000 installs (+20k), 16% active

AL Voice Recorder – about 652,000 installs (+60k), 21% active

AL Voice Recorder Ad Free – 961 installs (+51), 36% active

Droid-Blog.net Android App – 431 installs (+27), 14% active

SmsToSpeech full – 740 installs (+14), 32% active

80 thousand new downloads, with the voice recorder speeding up a little while 3D Invaders gained about 2k less downloads than in January, but we have to keep in mind that February had two days less.

What did I do?

Lots of work, especially for customers, no updates for my existing apps.

Advertising Stats

Here are some statistics from the two advertising networks I’m using, AdMob and Madvertise. Please read the second income report for an explanation of the following numbers.

AdMob:

Requests: 692,041 (-16k)

Impressions: 680,731 (-14k)

Fill Rate: 98.37% (+0.25%)

Clicks: 20,207 (+2.2k)

CTR: 2.97% (+0.38%)

eCPM: $1.29 (-$0.02)

House Ads: 2.496 (+1,559)

Adjusted Requests:  694,537 (-14k)

Adjusted Fill Rate: 98.01% (+0.03%)

Madvertise

Requests: 1,181,607 (-22k)

Impressions: 143,392 (-17k)

Fill Rate: 12.14% (-1.18%)

Clicks: 4736 (-1,775)

CTR: 3.30% (-0.76%)

eCPM: $5.24 (-$1.25)

While AdMob stayed at about the same level like in the last month, madvertise lost another percent in its fillrate again. To make things worse: Also the CTR suffered, reaching almost an AdMob level. To give a little preview: Many of you may know that madvertise’s developer fund ended with the beginning of this month. Since then, the average fillrate went down to 6% which is really painful. I hope this will change soon or I might have to change my ad networks once again.

How much?

Here are the numbers:

madvertise:

3D Invaders: ~$597.49

AL Voice Recorder: ~$153.72

madvertise Total: ~$751.21 (-$288.93)

 

AdMob:

3D Invaders: $269.61

AL Voice Recorder: $609.21

AdMob Total: $878.82 (-$28.27)

 

Market sales: ~$76.63 (-$58.19)

In-App purchases: ~$14.83 (+$2.65)

 

Total: ~$1,721.49 (-$372.74)

It is clearly visible that madvertise doesn’t perform as well as they did in the end of 2011. Since the developer fund ended and the fillrate dropped even more, I assume that the madvertise results in March will be way less than now, while AdMob will probably bring one or two more dollars than in this month.

What’s next?

I didn’t reach the goal I set in the last month, so it’s $4,000 for this month again. I think this almost is impossible since I will be travelling a lot this month and, as I mentioned, the madvertise developer fund has ended.

 

Please feel free to share your own experiences and hints in the comments. Please also don’t hesitate to tell me if there is anything else you’d like to get some information about.

Android Income Report #9: January 12

January is over, time to sum things up.

If you are new to this series, let me explain it to you: Since Android is an open platform, I decided to be open about the income I’m making with my private Android apps too. In the last report I aimed to reach $4,000 for the last month. You will see if it worked out.

For all income reports, please click here.

Which Apps?

3D Invaders – about 192,000 installs (+25k), 16% active

AL Voice Recorder – about 592,000 installs (+53k), 23% active

AL Voice Recorder Ad Free – 913 installs (+60), 41% active

Droid-Blog.net Android App – 404 installs (+34), 15% active

SmsToSpeech full – 726 installs (+4), 38% active

A solid 79 k new downloads, nothing to complain about.

What did I do?

As some of you noticed, madvertise had a weak start into the new year. This made me work on my apps – I pushed updates for 3D Invaders and the AL Voice Recorder and worked a lot on my next app in the evenings. Furthermore, I invested 140k of the unused requests at madvertise to promote the 3D Invaders facebook page.

Advertising Stats

Here are some statistics from the two advertising networks I’m using, AdMob and Madvertise. Please read the second income report for an explanation of the following numbers.

AdMob:

Requests: 708,043 (+15k)

Impressions: 694,680 (+14k)

Fill Rate: 98.11% (-0.06%)

Clicks: 17.993 (-11.4k)

CTR: 2.59% (-1.74%)

eCPM: $1.31 (-$1.21)

House Ads: 937 (-406)

Adjusted Requests:  708,980 (+14k)

Adjusted Fill Rate: 97.98% (+-0.0%)

Madvertise

Requests: 1,204,155 (-83k)

Impressions: 160,285 (-46k)

Fill Rate: 13.31% (-2.74%)

Clicks: 6,511 (-3,621)

CTR: 4.06% (-0.84%)

eCPM: $6.48 (-$3.84)

The lower AdMob CTR is obviously related to the 140 thousand house ad impressions at madvertise that overlayed the “real” ads of AdMob. madvertise on the other hand had a weak start into the year, resulting in lower eCPMs and in a lower fill rate. I hope this will change again soon, but I’m confident.

How much?

Here are the numbers:

madvertise:

3D Invaders: ~$870.95

AL Voice Recorder: ~$169.19

madvertise Total: ~$1,040.14 (-$1,096.15)

 

AdMob:

3D Invaders: $289.63

AL Voice Recorder: $617.46

AdMob Total: $907.09 (-$805.27)

 

Market sales: ~$134.82 (+$40.09)

In-App purchases: ~$12.18 (+$2.82)

 

Total: ~$2,094.23 (-$1,858.51)

Compared to the last month, that’s a really bad result. However, January seems to be a harder month for ad networks than December, so it’s somewhat understandable that they both, but madvertise in particular, performed bad. When calculating the 140k house ads into money, that would be about $200, so AdMob should be close to a satisfying result again once I switch those off.

What’s next?

I didn’t reach the goal I set in the last month, so it’s $4,000 for this month again. I will put a lot of work into the app I’m currently working on, hoping I can start the beta phase early March. We will see.

 

Please feel free to share your own experiences and hints in the comments. Please also don’t hesitate to tell me if there is anything else you’d like to get some information about.

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