Getting Featured on the App Store and Google Play
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7 min read
According to ironSource research, the majority of users (37%) find new mobile apps through the App Store and Google Play recommendations.
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Users find new games and apps in a variety of ways, from recommendations from friends and family to clicking on ads.
What is Featuring?
Featuring is a process of placing your app in one or several editor’s selections on an app store. For example, the “Today” tab or thematic collections on the App Store. The “Today” tab is the most visited page on the App Store, and getting your app featured there is as if the link to your website appeared on the Google homepage.
Such collections are only created and formed manually. Apple and Google editors pick apps and group them into lists and selections on their own. Some of these selections, for instance, “Game of the Day” or “App of the Day,” are regular; others are seasonal.
Such collections are only created and formed manually. Apple and Google editors pick apps and group them into lists and selections on their own. Some of these selections, for instance, “Game of the Day” or “App of the Day,” are regular; others are seasonal.
Why Featuring is Important
The key purpose of any app is generating revenue. Revenue comes from users who see the app on the store and install it. Featuring can boost your app’s visibility to regular app store visitors. This is the same as placing the product on the main storefront where customer traffic passes by.
On average, for example, featuring a banner on Google Play doubles app downloads. The situation is pretty similar on the App Store. And it’s totally free. Who wouldn’t want to double their install count at once?
On average, for example, featuring a banner on Google Play doubles app downloads. The situation is pretty similar on the App Store. And it’s totally free. Who wouldn’t want to double their install count at once?
Featuring Pitfalls
Any developer or company would like to see thousands of new users by featuring their app in editor’s selections. But featuring comes with benefits and downsides.
For one, placing thematic selections in one or another will definitely expose your app to a larger audience. But your product might be irrelevant to such users. Imagine that your app, which only targets professional skydivers, appears in the “Today” tab. It must receive dozens of thousands of installs…but how many customers will it get at the end of the day? And what ratings will it see after such featuring?
Secondly, your app will come under the spotlight. Users will examine it carefully and scrupulously. You have no room for UX or code error. Nor do you have any other chance to make a first impression. Every error will cost you hundreds and thousands of lost users. To ensure proper featuring, you must be fully prepared and have polished all your processes and procedures.
Thirdly, users who install your app after featuring it will disrupt your analytics. Product analytics, user engagement analytics, and store analytics will experience a real shock from the peaks. Featuring-driven data will skew your understanding of the product.
For one, placing thematic selections in one or another will definitely expose your app to a larger audience. But your product might be irrelevant to such users. Imagine that your app, which only targets professional skydivers, appears in the “Today” tab. It must receive dozens of thousands of installs…but how many customers will it get at the end of the day? And what ratings will it see after such featuring?
Secondly, your app will come under the spotlight. Users will examine it carefully and scrupulously. You have no room for UX or code error. Nor do you have any other chance to make a first impression. Every error will cost you hundreds and thousands of lost users. To ensure proper featuring, you must be fully prepared and have polished all your processes and procedures.
Thirdly, users who install your app after featuring it will disrupt your analytics. Product analytics, user engagement analytics, and store analytics will experience a real shock from the peaks. Featuring-driven data will skew your understanding of the product.
How to Get an App Featured on the App Store
Apple and Google have, in their stores, special forms in which you can apply for featuring:
Think about your promos before you apply for featuring. If everything goes as planned, editors will ask you to provide banners and CTAs. You’d better have ready-to-use materials than design them quickly and dirty under time pressure. Create visually appealing creatives. To seek inspiration, look at the “Today” tab in the App Store and learn how featured apps in your category are promoted.
Think about your promos before you apply for featuring. If everything goes as planned, editors will ask you to provide banners and CTAs. You’d better have ready-to-use materials than design them quickly and dirty under time pressure. Create visually appealing creatives. To seek inspiration, look at the “Today” tab in the App Store and learn how featured apps in your category are promoted.
Additional Steps to Help You Become Popular on iOS and Android
1. Get in Touch with Apple and Google
For your iOS, it’s best to try to get in touch with Apple representatives in the ASO department, as Apple relies on a team of editors who handpick featured apps in all categories. Having a referral can work in your favor to get your app featured.
Compared to Apple, getting features on Google Play is a little competitive. You can get in touch with Google Play’s business developer managers. But you’d have to convince them why your app’s worth being featured and give them a report on relevant KPIs like retention rate, engagement, store listing CVR, revenue, etc.
You can also directly submit your app to Apple or Google App Store via contract forms:
- App Store: Contact form
- Google Play: Contact form
2. Carry Out Beta Testing
Before the official launch, you must conduct beta testing to gather user feedback. This helps identify bugs and areas for improvement while also generating early interest and word-of-mouth promotion. This will help you make your app error-free, thus increasing your chances for the featured app selection via Apple and Google stores.
3. Encourage Positive Ratings and Reviews
Request app users to leave ratings and reviews within the app. High ratings enhance credibility and visibility in app store searches, giving your app more chances to get to the featured tab of Apple or Google Store.
What Should You Mention in Your Featured App
Let’s go through the details you need to specify in your featuring app. We will take the app for the App Store as a sample.
- Developer Information. You can do this with just details, including the name and email, or you can tell more about your team and its features. The more information you provide, the higher the chance of being featured successfully. Fit in 1,000 characters.
- Inclusion & Diversity. Here, you can provide information on the number of employees who are underrepresented in the industry.
- App Details. The first point you’ll need to make in this box is the reason why you think your app should be included in the selection. Again, you have 1,000 characters.
Higher chances have the apps that are published for the first time or prepared an important update that transforms the user experience.
Major changes can be unnecessary if you, for instance, are going to hold an event in your app. In addition, you will have to specify the key features of the app, including whether children may use it and on which platform it will operate.
- Links. Add links to presentations, promos, reviews on the media, you name it.
- Business Model. Select the app distribution and monetization models. Indicate whether your app is free or not; if not, specify its cost; mention if there are in-app purchases or a subscription.
- Marketing. Tell about your plans to promote the app. Optional, this field has no character limit.
- Your Story (A brief essay explaining why your app is important and handy). In this step, much depends on your story’s style. Tell editors what your team went through, why you believe in the app, how featuring can benefit you, and why as many people as possible should give your app a try. Also, mention whether the current version of the app is an update to the previous one.
This field is required and has no character limit.
Specifics of Getting Featured on the App Store and Google Play
Hundreds of new apps come to the App Store and Google Play every day. But only a few of them make it to collections. There are no go-to recommendations that work every time for any app. But we have some tips that may help:
The last, but not the easiest tip is that you want to stay unique. People want apps that can surprise them. Focus on what helps your app stand out from the crowd. Tell Apple or Google your story and win their loyalty.
- Classy, no mistakes. Make sure your app is free of bugs. It must be simple, good-looking, intuitive, and helpful. Store editors aren’t eager to promote an app that fails at launch. Before thinking about getting featured in a fancy collection, pull your socks up and fix all the errors in your product.
- Update your app regularly. Updates are an honest indicator of your care for users. Keep fixing bugs and introducing new features. Remember: Editors curate stores to offer visitors the best apps. They aren’t going to promote poor products that haven’t been updated for months.
- Promote new functions of platform owners. They like it when developers help promote their products. Check what majors are going to roll out, and be the first to introduce the new. For example, Apple presented an AR headset in 2022. Think about how you could use them in your app. Introducing functions inspired by innovations from Apple or Google is one of the safest ways to get featured.
- Design a quality app page for the store. You just have a few seconds to make a good first impression. Optimize the app page to boost downloads. Simply put, the more appealing the description, the better your chances of getting picked up by the App Store or Google Play. Pay attention to reviews and ratings. If not perfect, they should be good and show your product at its best. Otherwise, you aren’t going to be featured on the App Store or Google Play.
- Take part in Apple’s and Google’s contests and events. For example, Google holds an annual Indie Games Accelerator and Indie Games Festival for independent games, with winners getting featured on Google Play. During WWDC, Apple organized a design competition.
The last, but not the easiest tip is that you want to stay unique. People want apps that can surprise them. Focus on what helps your app stand out from the crowd. Tell Apple or Google your story and win their loyalty.
Why Do We Need Collections in the App Store and Google Play?
Collections in both the App and Google Play Store help enhance user experience and app discovery.
Google Play Collections
Google Play Collections
- Google Play's Collections feature automatically organizes apps into categories like Watch, Food, Game, and Shop so users can quickly find relevant content without having to search through multiple apps.
- Lets users add a widget to their home screen that displays grouped apps and related content. This widget allows for easy access to collections and helps users resume activities across different apps.
- Google Play provides personalized recommendations based on user behavior, adapting to individual preferences over time, thus enhancing discovery. It also encourages users to engage with their apps more frequently.
- Future updates will allow users to create their own collections, tailoring the experience to their specific interests, such as fitness or hobbies.
- The App Store features collections that highlight specific apps, making it easier for users to discover new and relevant apps. Being featured in a collection can increase an app's visibility, leading to higher download rates.
- Collections in the App Store are themed around seasons, events, or specific user needs, which helps promote apps that align with current trends or user interests.
Featuring is just the beginning
Yes, featuring is absolutely great. Getting to the picks is incredibly hard, but the effort is totally worth it. Once you get into a selection, it’s likely that you’ll appear there over and over again.
But, in order to squeeze all the benefits out of featuring, you need to be armed and ready, both in terms of your product and your growth strategy.
But, in order to squeeze all the benefits out of featuring, you need to be armed and ready, both in terms of your product and your growth strategy.
Don’t just rely on featuring
Anyways, featuring is volatile. You should offer users more ways to find your app. LoveMobile can help you promote your product. Stand above your competitors in the App Store and Google Play search by generating incentivized installs and implementing smart ASO.