⊠#WWDC2018 updates
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June 4-AppTweak launches ASO Keyword shuffler
ASO Tool AppTweak launched a nifty feature which creates keyword combinations from several individual keywords.
New Tool for ASO Keyword Research: Keyword Shuffler – ASO Blog
Finding and tracking relevant long tail keywords is crucial in your ASO routine. However, we all know how timeâŠ
www.apptweak.com
June 5 â App Store updates after WWDC
While the iOS 12 Announcements during WWDC were mostly about Facetime and animated emojis đŻ there were also some unannounced changes important for ASO marketers.
The ASO community firstly noted that the search results in iOS 12 were different. As David Barnard flagged on Twitter, this might be just because itâs a beta version, but it might also hint at an algorithm change.
Interesting, search results in iOS 12 are different than in iOS 11. I donât think thatâs been different in years past, so maybe they are beta testing some changes to the search algorithm. So far, Iâm not impressed.
— David Barnard (@drbarnard) June 4, 2018
Visual improvements to the App Store Connect app were noticed earlier this month. Also, iTunes Connect and App Store Connect consoles have been completely separated. Developers are now able to manage their apps, view analytics and respond to user reviews also from App Store Connect iOS app.
App Store Connect app screenshots
The Mac App Store also gets a revamp which has released in Beta. Mac App Store optimization is one more potential field opening in front of the ASO community.
At WWDC, Apple also presented the App Store Connect API, designed to automate developersâ daily tasks that previously required manual accessing the console (i.e. downloading financial and Sales reports). The API will also help improve user and groups management, as well and sharing public links, managing beta and Test Flight testers via TestFlight.
App Store Review Guidelines also have undergone changes. All of them are reflected here. Among interesting ones was the update on Whatâs New field:
2.3.12 Apps must clearly describe new features and product changes in their âWhatâs Newâ text. Simple bug fixes, security updates, and performance improvements may rely on a generic description, but more significant changes must be listed in the notes.
ASO Slack community members have reported the Whatâs New being the reason for the app update rejection:
via Varadarajan AR, in ASO Slack group
June 6ââ42% of app installs are reinstallsâ (Tune)
Having analyzed 3.1 billion app installs in their research Tune were able to conclude that 42% of the installs were actually users reinstalling apps that they had previously deleted.
Source: Tune
According to the report data, re-installers are much more active in the app, at least in the first days after re-installation. The research also included some suggestions behind potential reasons behind the un- and re-installations, that can be a good base for the further research by marketing specialists.
StoreMaven tests on new Google Play design show a surprising impact on ASO
Google has been testing the new Play Store design for a while with no certainty if and when it will be applied. StoreMaven have analyzed how visitors interact with the updated Play Store design. Here is what they found:
We found that there is actually an 83% increase in visitor exploration with the new design
One more interesting find about the new design is review score visibility, thatâs increased when an app has at least one landscape screenshot.
According to StoreMaven, visibility of high store ratings can increase CVR by up to 12%.
Source: StoreMaven
June 11 â Apple Search Ads expanding geos
We already reported on some of these countries on May 29, but now Apple Search Ads account holders also received an official e-mail from Apple saying that they extend the Search Ads geos to France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea & Spain âlate summerâ. Search Ads Basic will follow.
E-mail from Apple
Here is the WWDC session mentioned in the e-mail.
13 June â iOS 11 featuring in AppFollow
Analyzing App Store traffic from Browse has been pretty challenging recently, since only info on iOS 10 featuring had been available in most tools. ASO Intelligence tool AppFollow has released the iOS 11 featuring for the Today tab, Apps and Games are to come later, which will be helpful to analyze the upticks in App Store browse traffic.
June 14 â Apple Search Ads attribution bug
Starting from the beginning of June, Apple Search Ads API stopped returning the attribution data on iOS 11.3. Therefore attribution tracking tools had troubles gathering the data.
AppsFlyer email reporting the bug
A lot of app publishers stopped the campaigns and redistributed the budgets until the issue is fixed. According to Thomasbcn, ASO Slack group member, the issue will only be fixed with the release of the next iOS and unfortunately attribution events will not be replayed to the Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) for the missing periods.
June 19 â Organic vs. Paid on Google Play
In their new research, SensorTower report on the Sources of installs on Google Play for apps and games. 88% of games downloads come organically, leaving 10% for third-party and 2% for Adwords. For non-games those percentages would be 69%/23%/13%.
Google Play installs by source by Sensor Tower
20 June â New Google Play subscriptions feature
According to recent reports, Google Play subscriptions continue to see huge growth, with subscribers growing over 80% year over year.
Google Play is enhancing both app usersâ and developersâ experience with the new update on subscriptions, making the purchase, renewal and cancelation processes clearer to them. They include:
- Clear subscription management in a new subscriptions centre
- The new subscriptions centre also has a âGet Startedâ link in the empty state that lets users discover subscription apps through curated and localized collections.
- Google also releases deep links to be used by developers to direct their users to manage their subscriptions from your app, over email or via the web.
Developers will also have a chance to get more out of users actions with the update:
- developers will be able to get additional insights from the cancelation survey asking for feedback, shown to the users who cancel their subscription. Currently you can see the data from the cancellation survey by querying our server side API.
- developers are now able to issue a partial refund from the Play Console
- refund specific subscription renewals, not just the latest one
Apple also released a new update to their in-app purchases. An important section in the new guidelines (updated after WWDC) is the paragraph referring to non-subscription apps. Apps may now offer a free time-based trial period before having the user make the full purchase. Non-subscription apps may offer a free time-based trial period before presenting a full unlock option by setting up a Non-Consumable IAP item at Price Tier 0 that follows the naming convention: â14-day Trial.â
June 25 â Google Play: HUGE Algorithm change for gamesâŠand apps
A sudden drop in downloads for their game has first been reported by AxPetre on the Unity forum and then followed by other developers worldwide. Our ASO Stack Slack members reported a similar change. A change in which apps show up in âSimilar appsâ has quickly been considered as main reason for the drops in the downloads.
Pablo Samper of Lab Cave Games has dug deeper into the problem and analyzed the cached similar games for 2 games. He found that more big players are left in similar apps and the indie ones disappeared after the update:
Similar apps cache by Pablo Samper
The bigger change has later on been announced by Google Play in a blog post, confirming the algorithm update, that will give more prominence to the high-quality apps and games:
This means that apps and games that have high retention rates, low crash rates, low uninstalls, and many other factors, are recommended more often.
The update is a next step in Googleâs strategy of enhancing overall apps quality on the store, that they announced at the I/O last year.
The changes seemed to affect games only, now they have also touched apps. The ASO world is anticipating the next earthquake!
Tools Updates:
- SearchAdsHQ Update: Automated CPA Bidder for Apple Search Ads
- Google Play Store Install Keywords Official Data Now on AppTweak! (for everyone)
- Announcing the Mobile Action Ad Intelligence Tool
Interesting posts:
- Ratings and reviews. by Ilia Kukharev of AppFollow:
2. Apple Search Ads Creative Testing by Incipia
3. Dealing with Revenue Discrepancy in Mobile Marketing by Roman Garbar
Thanks, thatâs it from us for June!
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Previous ASO Monthly editions:
- May 2018: App Store Creative Testing, Google I/O 2018 impactâŠ
- April 2018: ASO Monthly #24 April 2018: New Play Store design in detail, Web apps for iOSâŠ
- March 2018: New features â redesigned Play Store listings, App Video Trailers, Google Play InstantâŠ
- February 2018: New Play Store beta search interface, keyword dances happening.
- January 2018: Installs via Keywords on Google Play, new design of App Store web.
- December 2017: Search Ads Basic, Introductory pricing and pre-orders on App Store etc.
- November 2017: Black Friday in the Stores, APK size vs. Play Store conversion rate
- October 2017: New Search Ads countries, Play Store installs per search term coming (?)
- September 2017: The launch of the ASO book, the launch of iOS 11âŠ
