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With the 2018 Game Developers Conference approaching, developers and attendees are busy preparing their schedules for a busy week of exploring all the latest developments in games. However, that encompasses a wide range of subjects, and there is quite a lot to do and see. Here are the major things to expect at GDC and look forward to.
Game developers are gearing up for the Game Developers Conference 2018 in San Francisco. Many are excited to experience the expo, attend networking events and, of course, represent at the coveted Independent Gaming Festival and Game Developers Choice Awards. This year we’re sure to see new innovation within the Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality spaces, but there’s also going to be a plethora of great information and inspiration for every aspect of gaming! This is why Gummicube has decided to create a series of blog posts dedicated to gaming and GDC. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be publishing articles on marketing AR/VR, an in-depth look at three popular mobile gaming genres, a guide to what to expect at GDC and an update to our popular Gaming Cheat Sheet. This post will serve as your “one-stop shop” for content regarding the upcoming conference and provide you with links to each post once they are published. Check back over the next few weeks to make sure you have all the information you need to make GDC 2018 the best experience possible!
iOS app developers – big news for your App Store product pages. Apple quietly released an update on iTunes Connect allowing you to now upload up to ten screenshots. That’s right, the tech company drastically increased the number of screenshots that can be used to showcase your app’s UI and core features. Apple also updated their Product Page Optimization link to include the newly updated number. Despite the total number going up, the amount of screenshots displayed in user search will still be three portrait or one landscape, as is the case for users running iOS 11. Developers will still have to decide if portrait or landscape orientated screenshots are best for highlighting their app, but having more screenshots simply means that developers get more opportunities to highlight their app’s capabilities. With more screenshots, developers can showcase various features and truly let their app’s UI shine. However, developers need to understand that having more screenshots means that there are more opportunities to improve - or in some cases hurt - their conversion. Since screenshots are a key to the conversion funnel, developers will need to make sure that they’re not simply repeating screenshots that highlight core features but are instead showing multiple facets of the app. If developers are ever worried, they can take advantage of ASO best practices to ensure that their screenshots will convert the maximum number of users. Having more screenshots is truly a welcome surprise. Make sure to get started on those additional creatives right away so you can begin to show off more aspects of your app and improving your conversion rates!
Improving an app’s visibility doesn’t require a degree in artificial intelligence or machine learning. Although the algorithms that determine what an app is indexed for are very complex, the process by which any given app is ranked is fairly straightforward. Google looks at three key areas of an app’s metadata when it determines the relevancy for a keyword, and how well it ranks: The Short Description, Long Description, and the Title. Thanks to App Store Optimization (ASO), developers can get a leg up on their competition and improve their visibility by focusing their efforts on these three key areas.
Your app has been approved by the Apple App Store, and it’s ready to be launched in the territory of your choosing. Now that the hard work of developing your idea is done, you have to make sure that users can find it. With your App Store Description, This should be a simple task, right? Every app has specific fields to help it gain visibility for specific relevant keywords that users are most likely using in their search. This means that you’ll have to make sure that these fields are filled out accordingly, so your app is visible to users. Thankfully, you have the description to help you explain your app’s core features and help it become more discoverable in user search queries. Writing an App Store description can be more difficult than you think. Maybe you’re struggling to figure out how best to describe your app or what keywords you want to incorporate. Is the description too short? Too long? Does it make sense? Fortunately, there are tactics such as ASO best practices for writing the perfect Apple App Store description. Any app that follows these guidelines is sure to increase their app’s visibility for high-volume keywords.
You have the next best idea for a new app, and perhaps this is something you’ve been mulling over for a long time or maybe you just recently drafted the idea on a whim with friends in passing. Either way, this new app has the potential to be created. Luckily for you, you’ve taken the proactive first step into actualizing this idea by doing your research. If you’ve been paying attention to how the mobile space has changed in recent years, you’re already one step ahead of the game. Many developers don’t know how to optimize their app after it’s been launched. Paired with a preliminary road map, it’s recommended that developers implement an App Store Optimization (ASO) strategy to ensure that their app is visible in the app stores to reach its maximum audience. Creating an app, even if it’s just in the idea stages, still needs to have a step-by-step process to make sure that it’s created successfully. Every step in this process should be meticulously thought out to avoid pitfalls in the future. Read the following list below to start brainstorming a roadmap and act on your big idea.
Ah, Valentine's Day – the hype is short-lived compared to other holidays, but apps across different categories can still take advantage of the Hallmark Holiday and update their metadata. Any app from mobile games to dating apps can benefit
“There’s an app for that.” With more than 2 million apps across both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store competing for their chance in the spotlight, developers need to have a solid App Store Optimization strategy to outshine the competition. Despite many apps having an ASO strategy, it seems like there’s a group of apps that are considered untouchable and don’t need an aggressive ASO strategy to thrive. The exception to the rules can drive downloads based on popularity and brand recognition alone. More often than not, these apps are not optimized and typically don’t rank for keywords relevant to its functionality. Instead, they convert users who are searching specifically for their brand. Popular apps come and go, but long-term success relies on developers ensuring that their app is updated and relevant to current user app store search trends and behavior. If big brand wants to truly drive downloads from a wider market and achieve long-term success, then they must implement an ASO strategy at the top of their user acquisition funnel.
Over the past few years, Google has worked hard to increase trust in the Play Store by constantly removing bad apps and improving their technology to make sure similar apps never appear in the first place. This hasn’t been easy for them since they rely on an automated approval process rather than human interaction, but their algorithm has come a long way. In the fight against the bad seed developers, 2017 was a banner year, with over 700,000 apps either being taken down or denied, which was a 70% increase over 2016. Google claims that 99% of these apps were caught during the approval process and never reached the Play Store. Along with this, they have begun to deal with repeat offenders, with 100,000 developers being banned outright. While it’s not perfect, Google attributes their success to increased reliance on machine learning technology, which has successfully identified and blocked copycat apps, apps with inappropriate content, and Potentially Harmful Applications (PHA). When you’re ready to submit your app to the Google Play store, here are a few helpful tips to prevent it from being rejected: Make Sure You Own All Your Content The most common type of apps that Google looks for is copycat apps, which accounted for over 250,000 of the 700,000 caught last year. Google describes these as “attempting to deceive users by impersonating famous apps.” This can range from completely stealing an app’s code to copying the icon. However, not all apps turned down by Google as copycat apps are copies on purpose. Some apps simply don’t have a license for the assets they use. This reason is why it is important to either create original content or make sure you have all the rights to anything you use, both in your creatives and within the app itself.
As the seasons change and new apps hit the market, it’s fundamental that developers make captivating changes to their creatives to curate a unique app store experience. Users definitely do notice and appreciate when apps put the extra effort into making graphics relatable to the upcoming season or holiday. On top of highlighting an app’s features and functionality in current app store graphics, it’s recommended that developers apply seasonal changes to attract users. This can help set their app’s creative apart from other relevant apps in the space that don’t incorporate seasonality into their graphics. By utilizing App Store Optimization (ASO) best practices, developers can create stunning, one-of-a-kind creatives (icon, screenshots and preview video) that encourage users to download year-round.
Apps thrive off their users. Understanding the current user experience is a top priority. As a developer, you want to make sure that users are enjoying your app and saying positive things to help with the app’s overall rating. The easiest way to understand their experience is by monitoring user reviews. Monitoring and managing user reviews can help you understand their current experience and help boost retention and conversion rates. Since everyone wants to boost their numbers, it’s important to monitor and respond to these reviews to engage with a majority of the app’s audience. Establishing a constructive developer-user relationship that shows you want to give them the best possible experience. By adopting one of ASO’s many facets, Reputation Management, developers turn negative reviews in positive ones.
Imagine you’re a user browsing through either the App Store or Google Play Store and an app catches your attention. While some users instantly tap ‘Get’ without reading the description or even looking at the screenshots, you want to dive deeper into this app and understand what other users are saying about it. You start reading reviews only to realize that the app’s star rating is low and many users are upset because of various bugs or crashes. Thanks to these user reviews, you move onto the next best app you can find. Bad reviews tend to have a negative effect on the decision-making process of users. If they see an app that is riddled with negative reviews, they are less likely to convert. User reviews can be a major deciding factor, so what can developers do to make sure their reviews don’t negatively affect their conversion rate? Developers can focus on monitoring and responding to user reviews, which is an important facet of ASO best practices. Before we get into responding to users, let’s first break down why reviews are important.