@apptentivewww.apptentive.com
@rgangulyRobi Ganguly
App Ratings & Reviews:How to Improve your App’s Ratings and Why It Matters
App Stores: Amazing for Distribution
>500,000 Developers
>500mm People
WELL, YOU RUINEDTHIS ONE!…fun factor is gone. So is this app and developer!
BUT: App Stores Are Horrible for Communication
APP stores are very NOISY
>75 Apps Per Person
Q2 2008
Q3 2008
Q4 2008
Q1 2009
Q2 2009
Q3 2009
Q4 2009
Q1 2010
Q2 2010
Q3 2010
Q4 2010
Q1 2011
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0
500,000
1,000,000
iOS apps Android apps
App retention is abysmal
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 120%
100%
38%
29%24%
20%16% 14% 11% 9% 7% 6% 5% 4%
Retention - Months after Acquisition
Credit: Flurry Analytics
The App Funnel Is Simple
So how do downloads happen?
Search /Referral(~20%)
Navigation Discovery(>75%)
Installations
The vast majority of downloads are the result of surfing activity, lacking explicit intent or authority-driven referrals.
App Store Page Views
How do app store page views convert?
FREE PAID
How do consumers decide?
15 seconds 5 seconds 2 seconds 5 seconds
10 seconds 5 seconds
What drives rankings?
Downloads
Ratings
Freshness
Absolute volume, Past 72 hours, Trends (increasing/decreasing)
Absolute volume, Average Rating, Trends
How often is the app updated? Is the app regularly maintained?
While the app stores are opaque about the inputs and weights, these 3 components are crucial.
What is the landscape for app ratings?
Category Average Rating
Book 3.36
Business 3.14
Catalogs 3.85
Newsstand 2.91
Photo & video 3.59
Productivity 3.29
Sports 3.22
Travel 3.36
Utilities 3.01
Games – Action 3.24
Games - Sports 3.12
The average bar is… average
For most categories, the average rating is between 3 and 4 stars.
Achieving an average rating of 4+ for the most recent version of an app should be the goal, in order to maximize opportunity.
So, how can ratings be influenced?
App Quality
Proactive Prompting
Intercept & Resolve
Invest in creating a great app, continue to test, update, learn and refine
Reach out to customers, in your app, in order to qualify sentiment and prompt ratings by enthusiastic customersIf an app customer isn’t happy, provide an outlet for their complaints that ISN’T the app store
Ratings & reviews are often left to chance. Being proactive is the exception, rather than the rule
In-App Prompt to Increase Ratings
Prompt & Qualify the people using your App
Only those who answer yes are taken to the app store to rate
Consumer Catharsis & Interception
Apptentive solicits feedback
Those who click “No” immediately give you feedback.
Are there app problems? Is the service you provide not working? All feedback goes directly to you, instead of being broadcast in the app store.
How many people love your app?
Our instrumentation provides insights into the results of your prompts. How many times is it seen? What happens?
Manage & Optimize Ratings Activity
Change Ratings Prompts On the Fly
Modify all ratings prompt activities on the server, ensuring that apps can be optimized in real-time
Our administrative capabilities make it easy to change ratings prompts WITHOUT updating the app.
Result: MORE RATINGS
“So how well does it work? I have seen an improvement in ratings, with about twice as many written reviews per day as there were a year ago.”
Increased review volume (50%+)
Result: BETTER RATINGS
Ratings improvements of 1 full star
"We saw a huge boost in the number of reviews, overall rating, and sales when we started to solicit users (went from 3.5 to 4.5 stars)."
Download gain from 1 star increase: ~30%
Result: INTERCEPT NEGATIVE FEEDBACK
Interception Rate: ~20%