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How App Store Screenshots & Preview Videos Increase Downloads

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App Masters10:58Open on YouTube
Chapters show their main points

The bottom line

Rev raised its app store impression-to-install rate by over 82% by making screenshots bolder, adding an autoplay video and putting social proof up front. Installs only matter if users then act, so each step from install to recording to order needs the same focus.

Key takeaways

  • A store page only pays off if visitors convert to installs. 1:00
    • Traffic that doesn't install is "a waste of money," so the page must convince anyone who lands on it.
    • Rev's impression-to-install rate rose over 82% after the changes.
  • Large, vibrant screenshots catch the eye while users scroll. 1:54
    • The old screenshots looked outdated and had small fonts that did not stand out in the preview.
    • The new ones use big text and vivid colors, so the value prop reads without opening the page.
  • An autoplay preview video beats static images at drawing attention. 2:45
    • In another Rev app, the video plays automatically in search results and lifted performance.
  • Social proof and rating counts win when apps look alike. 2:57
    • User tests showed people trust the app with name-brand customers and many ratings.
    • An in-app rating prompt took one app from hundreds of ratings to many more.
    • Steve Young's client doubled downloads by 91% with better screenshots and social proof alone, with no keyword changes.
  • Fewer choices and less friction turn installs into active users. 6:23
    • Rev's recorder showed five calls to action on its empty screen, which confused users. A single big record button fixed it.
    • An extra checkout priming screen with transcription info tanked conversion, so Rev removed it.

If you're walking down the street, would you rather go to a restaurant that looks empty or a restaurant that's jam-packed?

Connie Liu, product manager at Rev

Chapter summaries

0:00 Rebuilding the store page for conversion

A store page is judged by how many visitors it turns into installs, so Rev rebuilt each visible part of it.

  • Small page gains matter at Rev's scale. 0:26
    • Connie Liu manages all of Rev's mobile products.
    • Together they have over 100,000 monthly active users.
    • That usage brings in millions of dollars in revenue.
    • The summit looks for tactics that work across many companies, not one.
  • Screenshots have to work inside the scrolling preview. 1:47
    • Readers should get the value prop without opening the page.
    • The old screenshots made the app itself look dated.
    • She sent the before and after images after the call.
    • The autoplay video was added to a different Rev app, not this one.
  • Social proof now sits in the third screenshot panel. 2:57
    • It shows without any scrolling.
    • Rev openly shows its customers and how many it has.
    • The tests compared apps with similar features and similar review counts.
    • Connie says the count of ratings matters, not just the stars.
    • Steve notes websites always feature customers, but apps forget to.

4:50 Turning installs into customers

An install means nothing until the user acts, so Rev measures every step after it.

  • Rev tracks the funnel from install to recording to order. 4:56
    • Recording means making an audio recording, the action Rev wants first.
    • The end goal is a paying customer, not just an active user.
    • Rev's first rule for every step is to learn from users first.
    • Each step is treated as its own conversion rate to improve.

5:29 Finding what to test

Watching real users and reading support questions shows where people get confused, and confusion is the top reason they drop off.

  • Confusion is the main reason users leave, so watching them use the app shows what to test. 5:29
    • Rev runs user tests and watches people use the app. It asks where they get confused.
    • Intercom in every app surfaces the questions users keep asking.
    • Users who don't know what to do will leave.
    • Repeated questions like what is this transcription that you keep talking about? told Rev it lacked information on transcription.

6:23 One clear action in the recorder

A screen with one obvious action gets users recording, and recording is where they feel the app's value.

  • A single record button on the empty screen replaced a crowded set of choices. 6:23
    • The old screen offered a sample recording, trim, record, export, search and many settings.
    • Users didn't know where to focus, and many left before seeing the app's value.
    • The new screen adds a light bulb graphic and a big record button, and nothing else.
    • Once users start recording, they feel the value and Rev can lock them in.
  • The autoplay video in search results lifted performance over static images. 7:51
    • Side by side, the result with the video stood out from the one without.
    • A video that plays by itself catches the eye better while users scroll the store.

8:26 The checkout priming screen that failed

Extra friction before checkout can cost more than the information it adds.

  • A priming screen before checkout tanked conversion, so Rev removed it. 8:26
    • Rev earns money when users pay to transcribe. It tried to nudge them with more information about transcription.
    • The screen appeared right after users tapped the transcribe button.
    • Other experiments showed extra information sometimes beats the cost of friction.
    • Here a whole extra screen was too much. Info on the checkout page itself might have worked.

In the growth library

Connie Liu, Product Manager for mobile at Rev, interviewed by Steve P. Young of App Masters. Rev's mobile PM explains how redesigned App Store screenshots, social proof, a preview video and a simplified first screen lifted conversion at each step from impression to paying customer. She also shares a checkout priming screen that failed and tanked conversion.

More from App Masters · The whole library, and ask it anything

Transcript328 lines
0:00

What is up AppNation? It is Steve P. Young founder of appmasters.com the place you go when you want action packed content in the app business and welcome to another amazing AppMasters virtual summit where we talk to some amazing folks in the app space to really learn from them and also more importantly for me is when things start developing and you start noticing that hey these are the tactics that are working for a lot of people not just that one particular company company. And today I got a phenomenal guest her name is Connie Liu and she's a product manager of Rev. Past guest Barron was on the podcast as well so you guys should check out that episode but she manages all of Rev's mobile products which together have over 100,000 monthly active users resulting in millions of dollars in revenue. So without further ado Connie welcome to the summit.

0:50

Hey Steve thanks for having me. Really excited to chat mobile. So Connie I know a campaign that's really working well for you right now is optimizing the app stores. Talk to me a little bit about that. Yeah so um app store conversion rates are critical in terms of not just getting enough obviously you want a ton of traffic through your app page but if none of those convert to installs at the end of the day it's just a waste of money. So you want to make sure that anyone who lands on that app page who sees you finds you in the app store that they have a high likelihood of actually converting into installs.

1:21

So we've tried a number of things and have really worked out our app store impression to install conversion rate increased by over 82%. Which is incredible. I wish I could show images here but basically we've done a number of initial So if you want to share your screen you can if you wanted to do something like that. I can show you something like that. I actually don't have it readily available but I'll be happy to kind of shoot it over after the call also.

1:46

Okay. Yep so one thing we did was actually just changing up the screenshots themselves. So our app store page is before kind of had these uh outdated uh screenshots. Um the app itself didn't look very modern. The text was very small, the font was very small. So, if you were um literally scrolling through the preview, it would not catch your eye. Um we then switched to these screenshots that were a lot more modern. The colors were a lot more vibrant, and the fonts were a lot bigger. Um so, that made it so that when you were scrolling through the preview, you immediately were able to Oh.

2:23

Yep, here is one of them. Um yep, so as you can see, the text is large. Literally like anywhere uh even if you're even without uh clicking into the App Store page, even if you're just scrolling through um kind of the preview, you can read it immediately see the value prop of the apps and see a screenshot of it. The colors are vibrant, so eye-catching. Um also, uh not in this app, but in another app, we added an App Store video, um which autoplays in the App Store uh as you're scrolling through the uh preview. So, that uh helps a ton in terms of catching people's eyes. Um and as you can see here, uh we also moved up our social proof. So, so this third panel here, uh we did some user tests, and we found that social proof was the number one way to kind of help us stand out. When a user is comparing uh different apps on the App Store, and they all look pretty much the same in terms of features, um

3:13

have kind of similar number of reviews, etc., um at the end of the day, they're going to trust the one that has like name-brand users, that has social proof. So, you definitely want to highlight that. So, we are not shy about highlighting kind of the great customers we have, the amount of customers that we have. So, we moved it up so that without even scrolling, that social proof is front and center, and anyone can see it. So, that's uh that's critical. Um and if you go not here, but in the other App Store page, um we actually did an in-app trigger where we asked our uh users to rate the app.

3:47

Mhm. So, um we went from having only hundreds of uh ratings to uh many more than that. So, that's one thing that we found to be critical uh when we're doing user tests is the number of ratings you have, not just the stars, but the number of ratings um because that goes to show again, goes back to social proof, shows trust, um and you really want that. I love that you said that and I I shared this in the past, so this is the the themes I keep talking about developing.

4:14

For a client of ours, we did the same exact thing. We had the social proof and we doubled the downloads by 91% just by didn't change any keywords, didn't change anything, but just by adding the optimizing the screenshots and social proof is so important. But, I always say to you know, we always have this on our websites, right? Any website we put together we're like, "Hm, what are we feature on?" It's such a no-brainer for websites, but for apps we totally forget about it.

4:37

100%. I mean, just think about it. If you're walking down the street, would you rather go to a restaurant that looks empty or a restaurant that's jam-packed? So, it's like this is your way to show that your app is popular, it's trusted, um definitely don't be shy about highlighting that. Have you guys done anything from the in-app conversion perspective? Yes, um a ton. So, obviously again, goes back to you know, great to get installs, but uh means nothing if they don't actually turn into active users.

5:03

If they don't turn into active users or um ultimately what you really want is to have them turn into customers, right? So, we focus um on each step of those conversions. Um so, we look at install to actually uh recording. Recording is the action that we want users to take, um actually making an audio recording. And then from actually recording uh to actually placing an order. Um so, for us uh number one thing is always about learning from users first. So, um that's a great way to form hypotheses about kind of like what changes uh and things that you could potentially launch or AP test. Um so, that includes doing a number of user tests, just seeing how people use the app, like literally just like watch people use the app. Where are they confused about? Usually confusion is is the number one drop-off reason.

5:46

But, as long as those users don't know what they're doing, they're going to leave. So, just watching how people use it, seeing what sort of customer service questions comes through. So, we have Intercom in all of our apps, and that way we know when a user if a user constantly asks, for instance, what is this transcription that you keep talking about? Like, then we know, okay, looks like we don't have enough information on transcription. So, that's kind of how we form a hypothesis. In terms of kind of a few things that's really worked.

6:13

So, let's talk first about kind of like from Apple being to actually getting them to perform that action we want, which is recording. So, we recently redesigned our voice recorder app. Before, in the empty state, we presented them with like five different calls to actions. There was a sample recording that they could play around with. You can then trim that recording. You can like start your own recording. You can export that recording. You can search through.

6:38

There's like a ton of settings. Very, very many actions to take. We found that that was the worst thing ever. Confused users. They didn't know where the focus was. A lot of them didn't get to experience the true value of the app, and just left the app. So, instead, what we did was we simplified that empty state, so that it was we added this very nice graphic, kind of the light bulb call to action, that simply focuses on recording. We have a big record button, and that was it. The The screen is very, very empty, very clear. Yeah, exactly.

7:12

it, cuz that little record is whoever's talking it shows up. So, mine it just shows the real like the big record button right now. So. And very kind of clean screen, and kind of even that delightful image in the middle is centered around, you know, the mic is yours. Start recording. So, very clear kind of what action the user should be taking. And the moment they start recording, obviously, that's how they experience the value of the app, and that's when you can lock them in.

7:40

Um Sorry, Connie. I want to point out you something you said earlier. So, like the the screen right here, the search results, I obviously searched for Rev. And then one's the video, and then one is, you know, without video. So, you saw a lift with adding the App Store video? Correct. Um and um obviously it's not surprising because the video auto plays, and compared to static images, the video that is auto playing will definitely catch a user's eye much better as they're scrolling through the App Store.

8:08

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but Rev's Rev's revenue model is to getting people to transcribe. So, you guys give away the recording for free, everything's unlimited, which is amazing, but hey, if you want to transcribe, that's where we're going to make that money. So, you did kind of tell us about a campaign that didn't work when during that checkout process. Correct. Yes, so um we thought that by providing more information on kind of our transcription services um and educating our users that that was uh kind of a good way in nudging them to kind of try our services.

8:40

Um we made the mistake of kind of introducing a checkout priming screen. So, basically before they actually complete the checkout, um kind of right after they click that transcribe button, we presented them with kind of these additional information rather than directly to actual checkout. And that tanked our conversion rates. Um it was definitely a kind of a hypothesis that we thought was risky. Obviously, anytime you add friction, um it's possible that it will tank your conversion rates, but uh we've seen in some other experiments where kind of um the trade-off between friction and additional information that sometimes um the additional information would win out. But in this situation, I I guess just the entire like extra screen, cuz it was a priming screen as opposed to kind of just additional info on the checkout page, um was just too much. So, we added that, it conversion rates tanked, um we

9:29

decided to remove it. That's cool. All right, guys. That was just a snippet from the full interview, from the full 30-minute interview that we have in store for you. And this is just one of the 10 amazing speakers that we have in store for you for our next AppMasters Virtual Summit where we've rounded up 10 awesome experts to really reveal the hacks, the growth hacks that they've used to increase downloads, retention, and monetization, three pillars of a successful app business. The virtual summit is happening August 5th to the 16th, one speaker, one day, available to you for absolutely free.

10:12

Just go to appmasters.com/summit. And to all the future people who are watching this, if you go to that website, appmasters.com/summit, you'll be able to access all our archives, no matter how many virtual summits we've actually done, you'll be able to access all of that just by going to appmasters.com/summit. And I'll see you on the next video. Peace. Check out the videos on the side if you want to see more of our amazing content. And also, don't forget to hit that like button and hit subscribe. And leave a comment below with some of the content that you want to see. I want to make sure all your questions are answered either by me or one of my expert friends.