In our final submit, we celebrated the newest Google Play Console updates that give builders extra visibility into how folks organically uncover their apps and uncover insights additional down the funnel.
Table of Content
- Google Play Console Organic Insights
- how to buy app downloads
- android keywords installs
- buying app reviews
At StoreMaven, we love analyzing this kind of information, particularly as we help cell publishers in measuring the return on investment (ROI) of their ASO efforts. Though the Play Console updates are a serious step ahead, it’s vital to pay attention to their limitations and the caveats to think about as you start to investigate your information.
This submit offers you a greater understanding of the info that’s out there and why the Play Console is a powerful monitoring instrument however not one on which you’ll absolutely base your analyses or methods. Seeing enhancements in your metrics is useful, however the important thing to creating long-term, important influence is knowing how to methodically replicate these enhancements. This, as you’ll quickly be taught, is just not info the up to date Google Play Console at present supplies.
First, let’s begin with a fast overview of the brand new information that is out there…
Abstract of the Google Play Console Replace
As we talked about in our earlier submit, the replace now permits builders to see a breakdown of “Search” and “Discover” below natural acquisition and in addition which key phrases drive probably the most visitors, installs, and worth to their app or sport. It is a important replace since natural visitors was beforehand grouped collectively in a single bundle, thus making builders and cell app entrepreneurs blind to the nuanced variations between natural visitors sources.
To assist information you thru the updates, we created the above desk to spotlight what’s new within the Consumer Acquisition dashboard. As you may see, for each Retained Installers and Consumers, you may isolate visitors, installs, retention, and consumers/repeat consumers by search and discover visitors sources.
One other replace to notice is that as of July thirtieth of this yr, guests who noticed previews of your Retailer Itemizing and/or put in straight from the Search Outcomes Web page will now be included within the complete variety of guests and installers listed in your Play Console dashboard. On one hand, it reveals the worth of optimizing property which are seen within the search interface since they contribute to your general efficiency. From an analytics perspective, nonetheless, you may’t isolate the variety of impressions or installs coming from the search preview. Which means that though you may see a rise within the complete numbers of visits and installs, you’re unable to attribute it to the Search Outcomes Web page or your full Retailer Itemizing.
Whereas there are advantages and insights to be drawn from the brand new information, there are a couple of drawbacks to remember.
Knowledge Limitations within the Google Play Console Replace
As we talked about earlier than, the Play Console is a good instrument for monitoring since you may establish if there’s an general optimistic or detrimental pattern. Nonetheless, Google make it difficult to totally perceive these tendencies and pull actionable insights from the info offered. Listed here are a few of the limitations:
Lack of Full Key phrase Visibility
Within the new key phrase search breakdown, Google pulls out your prime key phrases primarily based on search quantity, which supplies nice perception into which search phrases drive probably the most visitors and installs. Additionally they have a class referred to as “Different,” which incorporates all search queries on Google Play with a low quantity of Retailer Itemizing guests. It’s vital to notice that Google decide the search quantity cap, so the variety of key phrases displayed can fluctuate considerably by app.
The draw back to this new breakdown is that decrease performing key phrases that would presumably have nice potential are hidden within the “Different” class. Within the instance above, key phrases on this class drove about 8% of impressions and seven% of installs for the given time-frame, and an efficient ASO technique can enormously enhance these numbers.
Regardless that Google show key phrases with the very best search quantity, there are situations during which you may need to optimize for the decrease quantity key phrases. For instance, you is perhaps lacking out on figuring out key phrases that at present have low search quantity however have excessive conversion to consumers and repeat consumers. By optimizing for these key phrases, you could possibly increase your attain in a brand new market and obtain greater return in your app retailer advertising efforts.
It’s additionally essential to investigate key phrases within the context of how excessive you rank for them, and never simply by trying on the Play Console’s generic key phrase search information. As Gabe Kwayaki from Incipia so aptly places it in his submit, “with out additionally monitoring key phrase rank alongside your natural search key phrase information, the insights you derive could also be taken out of context and endanger your selections. As an example, seeing {that a} key phrase search may be very low in installer quantity could lead on an ASO to de-prioritize that key phrase; but if the key phrase is ranked one hundredth and drove a number of hundred downloads, this might really be an amazing key phrase to proceed optimizing for.”
Lack of Nation Breakdown
Within the Play Console replace, there may be additionally a scarcity of nation breakdown for key phrases and discover/search information. Until it’s secure to imagine that 100% of your visitors comes from one nation (which isn’t the case for many builders), then the brand new information could be deceptive.
Most apps obtain visitors from all around the world, which makes localizing your Retailer Itemizing and understanding delicate regional variations and tendencies a vital part of your cell advertising technique. When you solely cater to a Tier 1 market or just one nation/language, you’re not taking full benefit of your app’s international distribution potential. Actually, we have now an whole submit devoted to the significance and conversion price advantages of localizing your app retailer web page.
Nonetheless, the brand new Play Console metrics don’t assist with localization because you’re unable to isolate the influence of geo-specific efforts (e.g., designing app retailer creatives primarily based on fashionable key phrases in a particular area). When you couple this with the hidden “Different” key phrases, you’re possible blind to localized key phrases that would’ve made a big influence in several geos. You possibly can even mistakenly attribute losses in your major market to sure key phrases just because a detrimental pattern in a single main geo probably moved the needle for your complete world metric.
Along with key phrases, there isn’t any nation breakdown for discover and search information; you may solely see general natural visitors metrics by nation. One of the vital questions firms ask in the present day is: “What’s the incremental worth of consumer acquisition (UA) campaigns on natural visitors?” As you start to handle and try to reply this query, you must perceive the connection between UA, search, and discover, as an alternative of simply taking a look at natural visitors as a single entity.
For many apps, UA can clearly contribute to greater rankings within the prime charts (i.e., discover). For search, unlocking the true k-factor is turning into a serious precedence because it permits you to change into simpler in your general technique. However with out geo-specific information for every natural visitors supply, you may’t decide what’s inflicting will increase or decreases in your general natural metrics. This compromises the accuracy of those metrics and makes it troublesome to duplicate success.
The natural visitors benchmarks listed on the Play Console can also be inaccurate or irrelevant to your analyses since they, too, aren’t damaged down by nation and mix search and discover. To take it even additional, the overall lack of transparency and the vagueness round how Google decide these benchmarks makes one query how helpful they honestly are.
For instance, with a worldwide journey model like Expedia, would it not be efficient for them to make use of benchmarks which will additionally embody smaller, indie apps or apps that selected to be below the journey class regardless of having very completely different companies (e.g., forex conversion apps)? If something, it appears extra counterproductive, and on the finish of the day, there isn’t any worth in retention benchmarks if you happen to’re evaluating your self to non-comparable apps.
Lack of Visibility into Discover Visitors
Whereas there’s extra visibility into search key phrases and which phrases drive probably the most installs, there’s nonetheless an absence of readability concerning the place discover visitors installs come from. This may very well be because of the truth that discover visitors is affected closely by Google’s algorithm, which creates a customized (and consistently altering) Play Retailer expertise and subsequently impacts the distinctive app suggestions they provide to every consumer. Thus, pinpointing a basic, overarching discover context is troublesome.
Nonetheless, whilst you can gauge how properly your discover visitors is performing general, the Play Console nonetheless doesn’t provide ample instruments to know why a rise occurred or how to strategically replicate success.
At present, you solely have a single quantity attributed to impressions and installs from discover, however there’s a critical lack of context. For instance, if you happen to discover a pointy enhance in discover installs, you don’t have details about the place you had been featured or on which prime chart you appeared. To take it even additional, if extra installs are pushed via rating greater within the prime charts, you’ll need to establish what’s inflicting the rise and whether or not you may “hack it.” With out understanding the precise context, it’s extraordinarily troublesome to develop an ASO technique and decide the influence of your app retailer advertising and UA efforts. And as we wish to say, “it’s not a technique until you may replicate it.”
However, on that very same word, it’s vital to do not forget that app shops are dynamic ecosystems—what works now won’t work subsequent month. To develop a technique, you will need to consistently check and replace your assumptions and hypotheses. As Apple and Google proceed to vary their algorithms, rating calculations, etcetera, your technique should change as properly.