@apptentivewww.apptentive.com

@rgangulyRobi Ganguly

App Ratings & Reviews:How to Improve your App’s Ratings and Why It Matters

App Stores: Amazing for Distribution

>500,000 Developers

>500mm People

WELL, YOU RUINEDTHIS ONE!…fun factor is gone. So is this app and developer!

BUT: App Stores Are Horrible for Communication

APP stores are very NOISY

>75 Apps Per Person

Q2 2008

Q3 2008

Q4 2008

Q1 2009

Q2 2009

Q3 2009

Q4 2009

Q1 2010

Q2 2010

Q3 2010

Q4 2010

Q1 2011

Q2 2011

Q3 2011

Q4 2011

0

500,000

1,000,000

iOS apps Android apps

App retention is abysmal

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 120%

100%

38%

29%24%

20%16% 14% 11% 9% 7% 6% 5% 4%

Retention - Months after Acquisition

Credit: Flurry Analytics

The App Funnel Is Simple

So how do downloads happen?

Search /Referral(~20%)

Navigation Discovery(>75%)

Installations

The vast majority of downloads are the result of surfing activity, lacking explicit intent or authority-driven referrals.

App Store Page Views

How do app store page views convert?

FREE PAID

How do consumers decide?

15 seconds 5 seconds 2 seconds 5 seconds

10 seconds 5 seconds

What drives rankings?

Downloads

Ratings

Freshness

Absolute volume, Past 72 hours, Trends (increasing/decreasing)

Absolute volume, Average Rating, Trends

How often is the app updated? Is the app regularly maintained?

While the app stores are opaque about the inputs and weights, these 3 components are crucial.

What is the landscape for app ratings?

Category Average Rating

Book 3.36

Business 3.14

Catalogs 3.85

Newsstand 2.91

Photo & video 3.59

Productivity 3.29

Sports 3.22

Travel 3.36

Utilities 3.01

Games – Action 3.24

Games - Sports 3.12

The average bar is… average

For most categories, the average rating is between 3 and 4 stars.

Achieving an average rating of 4+ for the most recent version of an app should be the goal, in order to maximize opportunity.

So, how can ratings be influenced?

App Quality

Proactive Prompting

Intercept & Resolve

Invest in creating a great app, continue to test, update, learn and refine

Reach out to customers, in your app, in order to qualify sentiment and prompt ratings by enthusiastic customersIf an app customer isn’t happy, provide an outlet for their complaints that ISN’T the app store

Ratings & reviews are often left to chance. Being proactive is the exception, rather than the rule

In-App Prompt to Increase Ratings

Prompt & Qualify the people using your App

Only those who answer yes are taken to the app store to rate

Consumer Catharsis & Interception

Apptentive solicits feedback

Those who click “No” immediately give you feedback.

Are there app problems? Is the service you provide not working? All feedback goes directly to you, instead of being broadcast in the app store.

How many people love your app?

Our instrumentation provides insights into the results of your prompts. How many times is it seen? What happens?

Manage & Optimize Ratings Activity

Change Ratings Prompts On the Fly

Modify all ratings prompt activities on the server, ensuring that apps can be optimized in real-time

Our administrative capabilities make it easy to change ratings prompts WITHOUT updating the app.

Result: MORE RATINGS

“So how well does it work? I have seen an improvement in ratings, with about twice as many written reviews per day as there were a year ago.”

Increased review volume (50%+)

Result: BETTER RATINGS

Ratings improvements of 1 full star

"We saw a huge boost in the number of reviews, overall rating, and sales when we started to solicit users (went from 3.5 to 4.5 stars)."

Download gain from 1 star increase: ~30%

Result: INTERCEPT NEGATIVE FEEDBACK

Interception Rate: ~20%