Sunday, January 1, 2017
Learn top tips from Kongregate to achieve success with Store Listing Experiments
Learn top tips from Kongregate to achieve success with Store Listing Experiments
Posted by Lily Sheringham, Developer Marketing at Google Play
Editor’s note: This is another post in our series featuring tips from developers finding success on Google Play. We recently spoke to games developer Kongregate, to find out how they use Store Listing Experiments successfully. - Ed.
With Store Listing Experiments in the Google Play Developer Console, you can conduct A/B tests on the content of your store listing pages. Test versions of the text and graphics to see which ones perform best, based on install data.
Kongregate increases installs by 45 percent with Store Listing Experiments
Founded in 2006 by brother and sister Jim and Emily Greer, Kongregate is a leading mobile games publisher specializing in free to play games. Kongregate used Store Listing Experiments to test new content for the Global Assault listing page on Google Play. By testing with different audience sizes, they found a new icon that drove 92 percent more installs, while variant screenshots achieved an impressive 14 percent improvement. By picking the icons, screenshots, and text descriptions that were the most sticky with users, Kongregate saw installs increase by 45 percent on the improved page.
Kongregate’s Mike Gordon, VP of Publishing; Peter Eykemans, Senior Producer; and Tammy Levy, Director of Product for Mobile Games, talk about how to successfully optimise mobile game listings with Store Listing Experiments.
Kongregate’s tips for success with Store Listing Experiments
Jeff Gurian, Sr. Director of Marketing at Kongregate also shares his do’s and don’ts on how to use experiments to convert more of your visitors, thereby increasing installs. Check them out below:
| Do’s | Don’ts |
| Do start by testing your game’s icon. Icons can have the greatest impact (positive or negative) on installs — so test early! | Don’t test too many variables at once. It makes it harder to determine what drove results. The more variables you test, the more installs (and time) you’ll need to identify a winner. |
| Do have a question or objective in mind when designing an experiment. For example, does artwork visualizing gameplay drive more installs than artwork that doesn’t? | Don’t test artwork only. Also test screenshot ordering, videos, and text to find what combinations increase installs. |
| Do run experiments long enough to achieve statistical significance. How long it takes to get a result can vary due to changes in traffic sources, location of users, and other factors during testing. | Don’t target too small an audience with your experiment variants. The more users you expose to your variants, the more data you collect, the faster you get results! |
| Do pay attention to the banner, which tells you if your experiment is still “in progress.” When it has collected enough data, the banner will clearly tell you which variant won or if it was a tie. | Don’t interpret a test where the control attribute performs better than variants as a waste. You can still learn valuable lessons from what “didn’t work.” Iterate and try again! |
Learn more about how Kongregate optimized their Play Store listing with Store Listing Experiments. Learn more about Google Play products and best practices to help you grow your business globally.
Available link for download
Tuesday, November 29, 2016
Find success on Google Play What app developers can learn from games
Find success on Google Play What app developers can learn from games
Posted by Matteo Vallone, Business Development Manager at Google Play
(As a way to reach more app developers and help them grow successful businesses on Google Play, this post was first published on The Next Web – Ed.)
There is much common ground between freemium apps and games businesses when it comes to achieving success. Users are, however, more used to paying for games than apps, stemming from the history of traditional gaming consoles. Moreover, mobile games are also able to easily offer ‘virtual goods’ across a range of price points to suit every pocket. This means that game developers have had plenty of opportunity to learn about how to improve onboarding, conversion, and ultimately the user Lifetime Value (LTV). So what can app developers learn from game developers? Here are some best practice tips and insights from successful game developers that can be applied to many apps, today.
Drive app success the game developer way:
1. Optimize retention before investing in acquisition
Retention is king, and retention drives conversion. For games developers, retention is the key measure of game quality and whether it appeals to players.
Most game developers will “soft launch” to beta testing communities or test markets. During this phase, the game is tweaked to optimize retention by looking into specific areas, such as tutorial completion, level difficulty and conversion. Developers can then track retention using the Cohorts reports in Google Analytics. Once retention is satisfactory, the developer can go to full launch and start investing in user acquisition.
2. Retain users with step-by-step engagement
The first seven days after install are the most critical for retention: users install several apps to try them, and decide in the first few days which ones they want to keep using. If you can retain for that time span, your app is more likely to become part of the user’s daily routine.
There are some simple ways to progressively build user engagement. It’s important to present a strong story that explains why that app is relevant to the user, while introducing them to key features. Then place features that offer the user value early, so they can be found without much effort.
This is a not a one-size-fit-all. To find the right solution, a developer needs to first make assumptions on what user flows can improve retention and then run A/B tests to validate or correct them. For example, a developer could think that introducing sign-in later in the user flow might improve retention. Also, the developer needs to keep in mind what the key long term engagement metrics are for the individual app (such as photos uploaded or the number of articles read) and measure the impact of the different onboarding flows on those metrics as well.
In general, these principles are good places to start optimizing your onboarding:
- Look for ways to let the users experience the app straight away, rather than taking them through a long, complex setup.
- Present “activation moments” — such as registering an account, uploading a video, or finding friend — gradually
- Start by requiring minimal investment by the user, then ask them for more details as they are needed to use the apps features.
- Treat permissions as a service for the user. For example, if you want users to register, show them in advance that, by making their experience more personal, they’ll get more value from the app.
Finally, ensure the user can understand the value of your app before you start asking them to pay. Game developers are particularly good at letting their users try most or all product features for free in in a set number of days or sessions.
A great tool to help analyze how users are engaging (or not) with the app is through the Flow Report in Google Analytics. Using this report, a developer can see how users navigate through the app and where they leave to identify potential roadblocks.
3. Target the right offers at the right users
Understanding different groups of users in-app purchase behavior is the key to devising strategies to encourage them to spend.
Start by identifying groups of users by how they spend and much they are likely to spend. It may be by age group, the channel that brought the install, or in-app behaviour. Use the Segment builder in Google Analytics to identify and define these groups of users. Then, tailor in-app purchase offers to match the segments spending behavior. For example, for segments where multiple users tend to spend more in one go, but spend infrequently, offer them in-app features bundled together.
4. Offer in-app purchases when users are most likely to spend
Users are also more likely to spend, if the purchasing experience is frictionless, and even more so when they can see how the expenditure will add value. So:
- Present purchase opportunities to users when they’re most likely to need or want it — and explain to the user why it’s relevant.
- Make purchasing accessible easily from within the app with a minimum number of taps. For example, offer an upgrade button on the footer of relevant screens.
Like all good game developers, they focus on building good experiences that retain and engage users through constant testing and analytics. First impressions are important, so users need to be able to quickly understand the importance of the app and easily navigate through the onboarding experience. And to start generating revenue, it is important to be thoughtful about how to make in-app purchases actionable.
Watch Matteo’s Playtime 2015 session ‘The rules of games, for apps’ to hear more in-depth insights which app developers can learn from games with best practices and developer examples:
You can also watch the other sessions from Google Playtime 2015 to learn more about tools and best practices which can help you find success with business on Google Play.
Available link for download