App Promotion Strategy

Improving App Ratings and Replying to User Reviews

App scores and critiques are very important to your app’s success within the Google Play and App Store. Individuals use scores and critiques to determine whether or not they need to or mustn’t obtain an app. 

To be sure you’re on the proper path together with your app development, we’ve ready an intensive information to App Store and Google Play scores and critiques. Learn on to search out out how one can leverage your app critiques for accelerated app development.

 

Table of Content

Why App Scores and Critiques Matter

App Scores Have an effect on Individuals’s Determination to Obtain Apps

App scores and critiques matter rather a lot in the case of consumer acquisition. They play a large position in an individual’s resolution to obtain an app. Apptentive analysis exhibits that cell customers received’t even take into account downloading an app that’s rated decrease than 3-stars. Furthermore, 79% of individuals will learn no less than one evaluate earlier than they set up an app.

App Scores and Critiques Affect App Store Rank

You needn’t solely optimistic scores and critiques, however you additionally want a big quantity of them. Scores and critiques affect one other necessary consumer acquisition issue: the Google Play and App Store rating algorithm. That’s proper, your app score and critiques largely have an effect on your app Store rank. Why?

Nicely, think about that you’re Google or Apple. You need to curate one of the best merchandise on your clients. By highlighting a low-rated product or an occasionally rated one, you’re telling your clients that you simply don’t care concerning the high quality of the merchandise in your Store. The Google Play and Apple Store algorithms suppose on this manner. Getting a gradual stream of optimistic scores and critiques must be an enormous a part of your App Store Optimization technique. You’ll rank larger, improve app Store impressions, and persuade extra folks to obtain your app.

Moreover, your app has a greater probability of being featured in Google Play and App Store when it has good scores and critiques. The apps featured within the App Store editorial story, The way to Work Out at Residence” had a collective common of 83,000 scores at 4.7 stars.

App Scores and Critiques Contribute to Your App Branding

One more reason that app scores and critiques are so necessary is that they contribute considerably to your general app branding. When your app has optimistic consumer suggestions, new customers will be capable to belief your model extra shortly and with much less friction. Your present customers are offering social proof that displays nicely in your app.

As well as, the way you reply to your app critiques exhibits folks the kind of communication you like to make use of together with your customers. Is your tone pleasant? Do you employ particular phrases and even hashtags that match your app model? All of this contributes to growing model consciousness.

There’s not the proper or improper model on your app. Nevertheless, there’s a proper solution to go about discovering it. You have to be asking questions like:

  • Whatissues does my app remedy
  • What’s our mission assertion
  • Why do folks desireus over our rivals
  • What valuescan we stand for
  • Who’s our goalviewers

These questions will lead you into establishing an app model that has a recognizable tone and voice. You’ve the prospect to strengthen this voice every time you reply to a evaluate. Strive utilizing reply templates to maintain your responses constant and on-brand.

Moreover, Google noticed that builders who reply to their consumer critiques expertise a +0.7 enhance of their app score.

The way to Enhance Your App Store Scores?

Ask customers to charge your app

Your Google Play or App Store star score is made up of all of the previous scores that your app has gotten. Naturally, step one in enhancing your app Store scores is to get extra of them. The extra scores you’ve gotten, the much less unstable your common star score will probably be. As well as, apps with numerous scores rank larger in app shops.

The easiest way to get extra scores is simply to ask your customers. Ship them a push notification or pop-up whereas they’re partaking together with your app. Make certain to not interrupt any of their exercise or catch them on the improper second. Joyful customers are extra prone to depart optimistic scores.

Launch Frequent App updates

Your app scores ought to mirror the enhancements every time you launch updates. You understand that the modifications you’ve made and the issues you’ve fastened are working when your app scores improve or enhance after an replace.

Rigorously observe your app scoresIn the event that they have been to worsen or lower in quantity following an replace, it’s good to react quick. Learn by your latest critiques to see what customers didn’t like concerning the newest replace and work shortly to amend the problems. It’s by no means too late to rescue your app Store scores.

Reply to critiques

Google noticed that builders who reply to their consumer critiques expertise a +0.7 enhance of their app score. Additionally, customers who get a developer response to their evaluate are likely to change their initially adverse score right into a optimistic one. 

Dangerous critiques and scores will be disheartening for anybody who has put quite a lot of work into growing and publishing an app. That’s a method to take a look at crucial suggestions. Nevertheless, that outlook shouldn’t be particularly useful once you’re attempting your finest to enhance and develop your app.

Notice down what your customers need to be improved and make these precedence fixes on your subsequent app replace. When you’ve launched the brand new options and bug fixes, return to your app critiques and let your customers know that you simply’ve solved the issues they have been going through. They’re prone to admire your attentiveness and revise their report.

The way to Leverage App Store Critiques?

Get function concepts from customers and discover bugs quicker

Getting consumer suggestions on your app generally is a difficult activity. Individuals both don’t reply to your emails asking for suggestions or are simply sick and bored with suggestions surveys. They’re most likely additionally not randomly stumbling on or purposefully heading to the suggestions submission tab within the app. There are different methods to assemble consumer suggestions, one among which is app Store critiques. 

In your app critiques, you’ll see that customers, whether or not they’re pleased or sad together with your app, will point out options that they like and ones that they don’t. Moreover, they’ll additionally ask you to implement new functionalities. These function needs are valuable to your app improvement roadmap. It guides your improvement within the path that serves your viewers.

By analyzing your critiques and scanning for function needs, you stop your crew from losing time growing a functionality that customers will find yourself hating or not use.

Discover how Icy Ropes was doing fairly nicely final yr. The customers have been having fun with the app. Extra just lately, its gamers have been leaving extraordinarily adverse critiques, complaining about too many advertisements. Icy Ropes hasn’t replied to any of the suggestions. You immediately see that they moved from making a sport their gamers liked to caring solely about driving income.

By not listening to their gamers, Icy Ropes has begun to lose its long-earned consumer base.

Listening to your customers is the easiest way to provide an app they’ll love. 

Improve consumer engagement and achieve new customers

Your app critiques are the right place to have a 2-way dialog together with your customers. Begin treating the house as equivalent to you’ll improve consumer engagement and achieve new customers.

Individuals love figuring out that they’re being listened to and that their opinions matter. If you reply to their consumer evaluate, you inform them that you’re paying consideration. You additionally reassure them that they’re a necessary a part of your app and that their suggestions is immediately being utilized to the event course of.

The extra your customers really feel like they’re part of your app improvement journey, the extra loyal they’ll change into.

Get featured within the app shops

Google and Apple function apps that make them look good. Afterall their model names are on the app shops. So the apps that they curate must mirror nicely on their manufacturers on the finish of the day.

Each Google and Apple like to advertise apps that haven’t solely numerous scores and critiques however ones which can be optimistic. On this manner, they curate solely one of the best of one of the best apps to their Store guests. Nobody needs to place a foul product on the shelf.

However there’s excellent news for you. All of this implies you need to use your app Store critiques to enhance your possibilities of getting featured and, consequently, an exponential improve in app Store impressions.

The aim is to improve the variety of scores and critiques whereas protecting consumer sentiment optimistic.

Discover new app key phrases and rank larger within the app shops

Imagine it or not, app consumer critiques are a goldmine for key phrase concepts. The purpose of key phrase optimization in ASO is to make use of search phrases that individuals are utilizing to seek for your app. An efficient key phrase technique doesn’t relaxation purely on search quantity and issue values; you even have to grasp how your target market behaves once they search within the app shops.

Your present customers will use particular phrases and phrases to explain your app within the critiques. Study critiques that come from customers who’re return customers. These are individuals who say they arrive again to your app time and time once more, they love your app, or they’ve really helpful your app to their family and friends. Suggestions alongside these traces alerts that these customers are solely in your target market.

Extract related key phrases from their critiques and embody them in your key phrase record the following time you make an ASO replace. Utilizing ASO Device, you may nonetheless analyze the search quantity and issue of those phrases to double-check the viability of them.

Take Benefit of Your Opponents’ Critiques

At first, studying by the consumer reviewers of competitor apps sounds mindless, like a waste of invaluable time. However, cease and suppose for one second. It’s not. What are you able to get from combing by competitor apps’ critiques? Quite a bit, let me inform you.

Customers will inevitably complain about one thing, regardless of how good an app is. If there isn’t a bug, then there’s a lacking function or one that may be improved. Now, that is the place you profit.

So these complaints are, naturally, present in your rivals’ app Store critiques. Good factor they’re public! You may freely learn by all of the consumer suggestions with out your rivals figuring out you’re doing so. Take all of the criticism or notes for enchancment that they obtained and apply them to your app.

You’ve now crammed a niche in your app area of interest whereas constructing a product that’s exactly what your target market needs. Watch the downloads roll in.

The way to Perceive Your Clients From App Scores and Critiques within the App Store?

Categorize critiques primarily based on optimistic and important

First, it’s important to get organized. To get began, categorize critiques by most optimistic and most significant.

Focus first on fixing the unhealthy, then work in the direction of enhancing the nice. Your customers will discover the work you’re placing in. Moreover, Google Play and App Store received’t rank your app if it’s not performing nicely. So app efficiency actually issues in the case of app success.

And don’t neglect, simply because a function is well-loved at this time doesn’t imply it received’t be outdated tomorrow. Go forward and bask within the flattering compliments, you deserve it. However getting caught there would be the finish of your app success. There’s at all times one thing to enhance as a result of know-how and societal developments are eternally advancing.

Ask for extra data when wanted

Generally customers received’t give sufficient data of their evaluate. They state a obscure declare, equivalent to, “there are such a lot of bugs.” That is your probability to bounce in and have an actual dialog together with your consumer. 

Allow them to know you’re sorry for the issues they’re experiencing after which ask them to ship you additional particulars in order that your crew can repair the difficulty. Give the consumer a assist electronic mail that they will contact you at. Point out every other attachments that may assist your crew remedy the issue, like screenshots. 

Peak did precisely that when responding to a consumer’s evaluate about how her expertise with their app had been lower than passable.

Transferring the dialog off of the app shops permits you and the consumer to talk extra freely and get into extra in-depth particulars about how one can proceed making your app higher. Additionally, by having a dialog together with your consumer by electronic mail, you may talk about consumer particulars that ought to stay non-public equivalent to username and different account data.

Translate critiques that aren’t in your native language

Apps obtainable worldwide get consumer critiques in many various languages. Take note of critiques that aren’t in your native language! They create various opinions that may finally show you how to construct a greater app.

Translate their evaluate, and when you’ve crafted a response, translate that again too. Strive posting the response in each languages. The consumer will undoubtedly admire the time you took to talk their language.

As well as, critiques left in international languages show you how to additional localize your app Store itemizing. As a consequence of variations in cultural preferences, screenshots that work nicely in a single localization could not work in any respect in one other. Your app consumer critiques are gold in the case of discovering out what customers in numerous nations reply nicely too.

Notice down options that customers like and people they dislike

Customers will blatantly inform you what different options they need to see. Be aware of this each time you see the request. Then you definately’ll see which perform is within the highest demand, making the creation of your app improvement roadmap 10x simpler.

Options which can be developed on this manner are higher obtained and regularly celebrated by customers. That’s as a result of earlier than you even step into constructing it, you already know {that a} majority of your present customers clamored for it.

Acknowledge the language and key phrases they use to explain your app

App critiques are among the finest locations to search out new app key phrases. The phrases that your customers use to explain your app within the critiques are most likely additionally those folks use to go looking within the app Store. You’re getting insights into folks’s app Store search habits immediately out of your app Store itemizing.

These key phrases are extremely profitable as a result of they arrive not from you however your viewers. And that’s who your App Store Optimization technique is geared to. The aim is to determine what phrases folks use to seek for an app like yours and rank excessive for them to extend app Store visibility.

Apart from key phrases, you may make the most of app Store critiques to investigate how your customers communicate. Uncover colloquial and slang phrases they’re utilizing after which implement these in your app. If you speak like your viewers does, you join with them higher, and they’re extra prone to change into loyal customers.

Distinction between the Apple App Store and Google Play Store Evaluation Administration

Key phrases in Google Play Critiques rely for App Store Rank

Google Play, being born from Google, nonetheless features as a real search engine. Your app will be rating for key phrases that aren’t discovered in any respect in your App Identify, Quick Description, or Lengthy Description. How is that this doable?

One cause is your app’s Google Play consumer critiques. Working much like an internet search engine, Google indexes all descriptive phrases in your app Store itemizing, together with those discovered within the consumer critiques. And this could work tremendously to your benefit. When replying to Google Play critiques, sneak in your precedence key phrases in your responses. However cautious to not go too loopy or else you’ll find yourself with keyword-stuffed replies that sound ingenuine.

Now you’re questioning what concerning the Apple App Store. Can I take advantage of this key phrase hack for my iOS apps? Sadly, now we have unhealthy information for you. Apple, in contrast to Google, doesn’t index any key phrases discovered within the App Store critiques. Nevertheless, you might be given a further key phrase discipline when modifying your app Store itemizing. Use the realm to enter key phrases that aren’t already in your App Identify and App Subtitle.

The ASO Device means that you can simply edit your app Store itemizing and add key phrases to the iOS key phrase discipline. Indicators subsequent to every key phrase lets you understand whether or not the time period is a robust or weak selection. Whereas modifying, you’re capable of see key phrase rankings and recognition within the sidebar helper.

Billing and downloading points go to Apple for iOS apps

Apple enjoys centralizing their merchandise. It’s no totally different for iOS apps and the App Store. Each subscription and printed app first goes by the App Store crew. That additionally implies that Apple, not you, will probably be dealing with any billing or downloading points that customers are experiencing. What a weight off your shoulders, proper?

Be certain that you give the consumer clear directions on contact Apple regarding subscription refunds and associated points. You may create a reply template to handle widespread billing issues.

By making this course of frictionless for them, you’re getting the consumer that a lot nearer to growing their preliminary adverse app score.

Highlighted critiques for apple

Apple tends to spotlight about six critiques on the app itemizing web page. These critiques could possibly be from yesterday or perhaps a yr in the past. As an app developer or writer, your worst worry might be having adverse consumer critiques being featured right here. However, it isn’t detrimental so long as you’re on prime of the harm management.

They each present optimistic critiques, however one has a developer response, and the opposite doesn’t. Instantly individuals are drawn to the app with a developer response. A reply exhibits that updates are regularly being made, and an attentive crew is behind the app, making it a way more interesting selection.

The adverse evaluate is much less drastic when there’s a developer response. Curious App Store guests will probably be desirous about what the app builders must say in response to a consumer’s criticism. An excellent reply that explains why the issue occurred or ensures that the crew is working to repair it equals out the criticism.

Most optimistic and most crucial evaluate for Google

Google additionally highlights apps however differently. They present probably the most optimistic and probably the most crucial evaluate. There’s no solution to get out of a adverse consumer evaluate exhibiting in your Google Play web page. Individuals may also filter for crucial critiques. So it’s much more necessary that you simply’re replying to each Google Play evaluate. Individuals need to see that you simply care not solely about favorable opinions but additionally the cynical ones.

How does Google Play Star Ranking work?

Google i/O 2019 introduced a change in common score algorithm

At Google i/O in 2019, Google determined to alter the best way its algorithm calculates the general app score. Earlier than, each score your app ever obtained was included within the general app score, with equal weight. Then Google realized that this was an unfair and skewed measurement. It didn’t assist app builders who labored exhausting to enhance their app, which was not nice prior to now however doing significantly better now.

The replace is advantageous for all app manufacturers. Now the general app score offers extra weight to scores made on the present app model. So it higher displays the present state of the app.

Consequently, as an Android developer or writer, it’s best to take into consideration releasing updates extra regularly. As customers change into more and more glad with new updates, your app scores will shortly enhance.

In addition to, customers can solely charge an app as soon as. However they will change their present score. So be sure you let previous reviewers know that you simply’ve launched an replace and would really like their opinion on the modifications.

How does App Store Star Ranking work?

Reset common score with each replace solely within the Apple App Store

Your general or abstract app score within the App Store works equally. Each score that your app receives informs the abstract score. There’s, nonetheless, one main distinction. Apple means that you can reset your abstract app score. What does this imply?

When you consider that the score doesn’t precisely mirror the present state of your app, you may reset it. This feature is out there each time you push a brand new replace to the App Store Join. All scores for prior variations will not be thought-about when calculating the abstract score. However, previous consumer critiques will nonetheless be seen. Resetting doesn’t cover these.

Furthermore, the score you see within the App Store is particular for the territory. So you may reset scores in a single territory and depart one other be.

Google Play doesn’t reset your common score with new app updates. This function is simply obtainable for iOS apps within the Apple App Store.

Workflow for Managing Your App Scores and Critiques

Required Roles for App Store Join and Google Play Console

There are required roles that you simply’ll want to have the ability to reply to and handle your Google Play and App Store critiques.

In App Store Join, you’ll must have an Admin or Buyer Assist position to view, kind, and reply to critiques.

For Google Play, it’s good to have the proper to answer consumer critiques and report inappropriate critiques. With out this proper, you’ll nonetheless be capable to view your critiques, however you received’t be capable to reply.

Set a time to learn by critiques

Preserve observe of answered and unanswered critiques can get complicated. Set a time in your workday to take a seat down and sift by your critiques. That is additionally a great time to categorize them into most optimistic and most crucial to get probably the most out of consumer suggestions.

Reasonably than manually going by your whole critiques, you may filter for all, answered, and unanswered. Doing this ensures that you’re not overlooking any consumer suggestions. There’s invaluable data in each evaluate.

Reply utilizing templates to save lots of time and keep on-brand

App builders, publishers, and entrepreneurs usually see critiques that echo the identical praise or criticism. It’s cumbersome to retype the identical responses time and again. As an alternative of losing your time, you need to use reply templates. 

Your account comes with ready-made templates that cowl widespread matters seen in consumer critiques. Apart from these, you may create your personal and save previous replies as nicely. Observe our do’s and don’ts of replying to app Store critiques once you’re creating reply templates.

As well as, templates assist you to keep on-brand and construct a robust model voice in your app Store critiques. If you speak to your customers within the similar tone and wording fashion, they’ll begin to acknowledge the voice of your app model. This will increase model consciousness and will get folks to belief your app from the get-go.

Templates are nice, however we all know you additionally hate receiving responses that sound crafted by a bot. Individuals like to speak to folks. That’s a truth. So depart room in your templates so as to add in that further human facet. Whether or not or not it’s a smiley emoji, or thanks from “your title,” your customers will admire it.

Google Play Beta Suggestions program

Google Play has a particular open beta program that’s obtainable to its builders. You may launch options and variations to a selected group of beta-testers earlier than formally launching it in Google Play. Android customers can decide in to present your beta model suggestions. Their suggestions shouldn’t be public and never displayed in your app Store itemizing web page.