There’s no two ways about it: app store ratings matter. When there’s so much competition out there vying for a user’s attention, you have to be sure that your app stands out from the crowd with a higher rating than the rest. There’s the obvious reason that it simply looks better to a user when they are browsing the app store. But app stores also take ratings into account when ranking the order your app appears in the app store. Higher rated apps are more likely to have a higher priority in search results, and as a result get more downloads.
This blog will offer some tips on how to improve your app rating, and will take a look at some Swrve customers who have done just that.
Who Currently Rates Your App?
If you don’t have a strategy to improve your app rating, it’s not going to go well. More often than not people who leave reviews have an isolated negative experience they want to share. The majority of your happy users will be too busy enjoying your app to even think about leaving a positive review. Of course the occasional bad review is inevitable, especially if you have hundreds of millions of users. But a disproportionate amount of negative reviews is seriously damaging, and you have to implement a strategy to mitigate this.
Asking Users to Rate Your App (the Right Way)
There’s a simple way to improve your app rating: ask your users. And more than that, you want to make sure you are asking the right users to review your app. These users are the ones who regularly use core features of your app. For example, an airline app user who has booked 3 flights, used your app more than 10 times, and has downloaded a boarding pass. Swrve’s segmentation will decide who these users are, and will trigger an in-app survey asking what users think about your app.
There’s a simple way to improve your app rating: ask your users. And more than that, you want to make sure you are asking the right users to review your app.
If they are happy, only then should you trigger a message asking for a review. If they are unhappy with your app, instead trigger a survey which asks them why. Often the best insights come from people who are struggling with your app, and may offer constructive criticism which you can consider to implement in future iterations of your app.
It’s also crucial to trigger these surveys at the right time. You don’t want to interrupt a user who is in the middle of doing something in your app, like making a purchase or watching a film! Wait for them to finish what they opened your app to do, and then deliver the message. Users are far more likely to leave a review after they have completed a significant event.
Let’s take a look at three Swrve customers who used real-time relevance to perform these tactics to significantly increase their app store rating:
Cinedigm: Cinedigm, a leader in media and entertainment, sent in-app messages asking customers to rate their experience with their Dove Channel app. They targeted users based on the frequency and recency of their visits to the app, and saw some great results. In fact they had a 90% completion rate among Android users, and increased the rating for Dove Channel’s app in Google Play from a lackluster 2.5 to a highly respectable 4.1. Read more about it in our Case Study.
Buien Radar: Buienradar, the leading Dutch weather app, only ask users with the latest app version, who have used the app at least 10 times, and have looked at the 14 day forecast to leave a review. The success speaks for itself—they received over 800 App Store reviews averaging 4.5 stars in just their first few months of asking.
Wall Street English lifted their rating from 3.1 to 4.5 in a single campaign
Wall Street English: Global education platform Wall Street English used real-time relevance with Swrve to send hyper targeted requests for ratings in the App Store to its most engaged set of users. By dynamically targeting long-time users with thoughtful messaging inquiring about their experience and deep linking them to the App Store, Wall Street English lifted their rating from 3.1 to 4.5 in a single campaign.
These campaigns were all very simple to perform using enterprise-grade targeting and real-time triggering capabilities found in Swrve. See for yourself: schedule a demo with one of our experts to see how real-time relevance can lift app store ratings, drive retention, and keep valuable engagement high in your app.
