Get Your App Featured Apple & Google Play
How To Get Your App Featured on the front page of the App Store and Google Play
You can do all the marketing in the world to drive downloads for your app. Get a feature story on TechCrunch, buy banner ads, run a contest, throw a party at SXSW, etc. All of which are great and can be influential tactics.
But, nothing will help you get more downloads than being featured on the front of the App Store or Google Play.
I mean, we’re talking 5 – 10 – 20X the number of downloads you normally see!! Umm, yes please!
So what’s the secret? How do you get your app noticed among thousands of others?
First and foremost, Google and Apple like good, quality, unique apps. Ok, we got it…
But – not surprisingly – they also LOVE apps that show off their latest and greatest device or platform features.
Take Flipboard for instance. Good, quality, unique app – yes.
But Flipboard’s timing was what got it so much love from Apple. It was the right app at the right time. Flipboard stepped in with a great idea showing off the slick new “flip” feature of the iPad. And presto, it was the app Apple used to showcase the iPad “cool” factor.
The iPhone accelerometer is another great example. This was huge and something Apple touted heavily around the launch of the first iPhone. I worked with a gaming company at the time that created one of the first games using it. We got featured all over the stores and TV commercials, which spiked downloads through the roof.
So what are the opportunities now? Here’s our list…
1. Build Your App for Tablets
Yes – I recognize it requires extra time, money, resources, etc. But it is almost essential to make sure your app is designed for all screen sizes of phones and tablets. Google and Apple are both very high on this – right now, they look exclusively for apps that have well-designed tablet versions.
2. Highlight the Latest and Greatest
This is probably the single most important thing for differentiating your app. Read up and stay close on the latest developer tools and APIs announced via Apple and Google’s developer websites or conferences like WWDC and Google I/O.
Find opportunities to improve your design and/or build in new features as quickly as possible after they are announced. These are the apps that get PR and featuring attention in the months following big announcements.
Find a feature (even if it’s a small one) to integrate in your app. Last year, we did a few small tweaks to our widgets and notifications and added beaming functionality to a couple of our apps and – boom – we were invited to be part of Google’s booth at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
It’s frustrating sometimes, because often these things don’t really matter to end users, but they are a BIG DEAL to Google and Apple and will help you get noticed by them in a sea of other apps.
3. Create a Distinct UI
There is nothing Apple hates more than to know an app was initially built for Android and ported over in a half-ass way to iOS. And vice versa.
Take the time to think through the UI and design for each platform separately. It’s the little things that can really add up fast here. Apple and Google both offer resources for design review, which I would recommend taking advantage of. It’s a good way to get in front of their team and get useful ideas and feedback from their UI experts.
4. Support International Merchandising
Google has specifically made a big push on this lately as the Play Store is seeing a spike in traffic from countries outside the US – particularly India.
Offering translated versions of the app itself is ideal. But at a minimum you must update the merchandising information (including screenshots and feature images) with translated versions specific to other major countries.
Google will automatically translate your description, but you will need to manually change out the screenshots and feature images.
5. Exclusivity
If your app is built exclusively for Android or iOS, don’t forget to note that. This is another great selling point to Google or Apple.
6. Timing of release
Google and Apple differ a bit with this. Most of the time, we’ve found that Google likes to wait a bit and see how apps perform in the store before they feature them. Launch an app, get some good reviews, then pitch it to Google.
Apple prefers to feature new apps. They recommend releasing your app on Thursday to increase your odds for featuring – this is when the App Store switches out the featured merchandising.
It’s also important to time your app featuring pitches with certain holidays and events if it makes sense. For instance, if you have a celebrity gossip app look for opportunities the week of the Oscars.
7. Create a Marketing Plan and Get Media Coverage
Google and Apple want to know that they are featuring an app that you are putting marketing effort (and money) behind.
With Apple, make sure to have a Marketing Plan outlining key activities (press release, ad buys, contests, etc.) that you will be doing in conjunction with the launch or update.
As Google likes to feature apps with some time in the market, make sure to tout any positive press coverage along with positive user reviews, ratings, etc.
All this may seem like a lot of work, but I’d argue it’s worth it.
So what do you think? Have you tried these things? Are there other tactics that have worked for you? Let us know in the comments.
