Month: February 2016

How to Optimize your Ranking in App Stores

Are you developing the next big Hit? Great! In order to optimize your number of downloads, you need to optimize your app’s ranking. Indeed, smartphone users look for new apps through 2 main tools: the top charts on the store and the search bar.

Here’s some advice on how to get the best ranking on Apple and Google’s App Stores:

Keywords

    • It’s important to find the right keywords before you launch your app. Newly released apps seem to have a better chance of getting a higher ranking by the stores’ algorithms. You don’t want to miss that chance!
    • Choose the right keywords for your package name, title and description. Get inspiration from the store suggestions, and choose a short name for your title. Quality is more important than quantity when it comes to the description.
    • Once your app is live, you can use tools like AppAnnie to review your ranking, and remove keywords to which you rank low.

Downloads

    • The number of downloads and their growth rate have a high influence on the app’s ranking. It is even more important within the first few days after releasing your app, so share it with your friends, family and on relevant forums.
    • The most efficient way to get downloads is to buy traffic from ad networks. You can also increase your downloads by having your app featured on websites or apps like Giftiz, which showcase apps against a fee or return traffic.
    • Keep track of uninstalls as they bring your ranking down. An unusual uninstall rate can mean that there are issues within your app (bugs, loading time).

Retention

  • App store algorithms also take into account in-app metrics to determine your app’s ranking.
  • Work on having the highest percentage of active users: make sure users can start using your app within minutes (Is the sign-up easy? Is the tutorial too long?) and don’t experience any bugs. Keep your users active: send them notifications and give frequent rewards (e.g., first levels of a game need to be easy to reach).
  • Make sure you update the app frequently, fix bugs and provide support.

Reviews

    • Both ratings and the number of reviews count towards your app’s ranking.
    • Ask your happy users to review your app! Good reviews improve your app’s ranking, but you also need constructive feedback to improve your app. It’s a good idea to include a contact form in your app, so that unhappy users don’t feel the need to get your attention through a bad review.

Good luck!

How to make a great video ad for your game?

At AdBuddiz, we have watched MANY videos from our awesome advertisers.

We’d like to share with you the a few tips to ensure the maximum conversion rate for videos:

The Basics

  • Make different lengths from 15 to 30 seconds. From our experience, 15-second videos are the best performers!
  • Make sure to have specific versions for Android and iOS. First, it does improve the conversion rate (because the user can better relate to it). Second, Apple will ban apps that display ads with a Google Playstore logo.
  • Less is more: Don’t add too much texts and details. Keep in mind that a smartphone screen is very small and the user needs to understand easily what the game is about.
  • End your video. This is the key to get a good conversion rate: show the name of the app, and where it is available (which OS, device).

Attract Attention Within The First Few Seconds

Most advertising solutions offer the possibility for the user to exit the video before the end. As a result, we don’t recommend to display the publisher logo at video launch. It is likely that the user will simply click on the exit button to come back to his game!

See the video as a good trailer: show immediately a great scene, then give some information on the app and where the user can find it.

Show The Gameplay

Show what it will be like to use your app so the user knows what to expect. It should look easy and fun, and use your best graphics in high definition!

Looking for an example? Let’s check out King’s latest video for Jelly Saga.

We can divide the King video into 3 parts:

  1. Catchy video launch: the game’s goal is clearly stated. It lasts less than 2 seconds.
  2. Cool Gameplay description: it’s colourful, you get to the next level in no time, and winning is rewarding.
  3. Closing: OS logos and “free to play” mention. (As this video was posted on Youtube, it makes sense to have the store logos all-together. However, make sure to have one version only with the Appstore logo if you want to promote your game within iOS apps)