Google Play
Google's app store for Android, with its own listing rules and search ranking.
Google Play ranks apps on retention, crash rate and conversion as well as keywords. One client lost about 30% of downloads when the title limit fell from 50 to 30 characters, an icon change alone lifted another's downloads 50%, and localizing took one app from 5,000 to 25,000 downloads in 10 days. Test the store on its own rather than copying iOS results.
- 1Ship on AndroidLower risk, cheaper and faster
- 2Test with Google PlayMore testing functionality than App Store
- 3Release on iOSiOS follows after Android
From Melissa Cash on Pok Pok
What was said about Google Play
Pok Pok tests every new feature on Android first. Pok Pok ships everything on Android before iOS because it is lower risk, cheaper and faster. Google Play also offers more testing functionality than the App Store.
Melissa Cash described Android as "our like petri dish of testing ground". The takeaway for builders is to treat Google Play as a low-cost proving ground before releasing changes to the App Store.
App Store Optimization in 2022: Key Google Play Changes
Google Play is cutting titles from 50 to 30 characters and banning emojis and promo words like new, hot and free in the title, icon and developer name. Publishers there use video about three times more often than on the App Store, and search results show only the icon.
Pok Pok tests every new feature on Android first. Pok Pok ships everything on Android before iOS because it is lower risk, cheaper and faster. Google Play also offers more testing functionality than the App Store.
Melissa Cash described Android as "our like petri dish of testing ground". The takeaway for builders is to treat Google Play as a low-cost proving ground before releasing changes to the App Store.
The Anti-Addictive Playbook Behind Pok Pok's 9X Subscriber Growth | Melissa Cash
Offers testing features the App Store lacks, so Pok Pok ships every test on Android first because it is lower risk, cheaper and faster.
Black Hat App Growth Strategies You Don’t Know (But Your Competitors Might Be Using)
It does not let developers set a lifetime in-app purchase to zero, and it shows total downloads, which makes fake installs more worthwhile there than on Apple.
Advanced App Store Optimization Strategies for 2024
Promotional events give extra room in search results, and a client ranking well for its main keyword gained a second slot once an event ran. Only apps with over 1 million downloads can use them for now.
How to Fix AdMob Invalid Traffic / Activity
Its policies are closely related to AdMob's, but approval on Google Play does not protect an app from an AdMob ban. Google may ban the AdMob account and never remove the app from Play.
App Store Optimization in 2022: Key iOS Changes
Search shows only the icon, not screenshots, and one client saw no difference between portrait and landscape screenshots there. Google gave no estimate of how long a test would take, and iOS results do not carry over.
App Store Optimization for Million Dollar Apps (Part 4/4)
Google Play weighs conversion rate heavily in ranking, so the sharp conversion drop from a feature can hurt an app's position. Live ops events and a real update help the odds of being featured.
App Store Optimization for Apps Ready to Scale (Part 3/4)
Its custom store listings allow up to five pages with different metadata per campaign. Ads can send users to a page in their own language.
App Store Optimization in 2021 - Optimize These 7 Things (Part 6/6)
Its short description is the second most important field after the title, and adding 'over 800 phone numbers' lifted a client's downloads 11%. It weighs retention and monetization data heavily, and one developer saw about 3x organic downloads after improving the product.
Attribution for Mobile App Tracking for iOS and Google Play
Its acquisition report shows day 1, 7, 15 and 30 retention by channel, and the example app kept 50% at day 30. Organic search lists the exact keywords driving installs, and UTM campaign parameters track your own campaigns.
The Most Important App Store Optimization (ASO) Factors in 2020
Google weighs retention, uninstalls, crash rate, loading times and Android vitals on top of downloads and conversion, so its algorithm is harder to read. Keyword stuffing in descriptions worked until about two years ago and is now treated as spam, with 2 to 3% density recommended.
Licensing, ASO & Ad Monetization with David Cremades
Listings use all available languages for keywords. Its ranking counts retention and ratings, so misleading screenshots that bring wrong-fit users can hurt rank later.
App Store Optimization for Google Play: Top 10 Factors
Titles get 50 characters (30 on iOS), short descriptions 80 and long descriptions 4,000, and Google crawls that text to decide which keywords an app ranks for. Localizing took one app from 5,000 to 25,000 downloads in 10 days, and updating about twice a month helps category and keyword rankings.
App Store Optimization (ASO) in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Terms
It allows 80 characters in the short description against Apple's 30, so keywords can be repeated there. Its long description is indexed like blog content, and it says it is starting to count backlinks.
How to A/B Test Screenshots on iOS
It has built-in screenshot testing, which makes this easy on Android, while iOS needs the Search Ads workaround.
App Growth Hacking Strategies - Interview on The App Man Show
Name and short description matter most for search, and built-in live A/B tests let developers compare icons. Redesigning one client's icon alone lifted downloads by 50%.
The Biggest App Store Optimization Changes in iOS 11
Google moved the opposite way from Apple, raising its app name limit from 30 to 50 characters.
Can press releases help with Google Play ASO?
Google said at Google I/O that keyword links from other sites count as a ranking signal for listings. A keyword-linked press release lifted a client's rank in one test, but a natural app-name link did nothing.
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