Make apps more awesome! - CocoaConf Atlanta '14
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What are some things to consider when building my app? How can I increase the number of downloads and happy users? Why are ratings so important? This talk at CocoaConf Atlanta '14 will discuss some techniques and tools I have used over the years to improve downloads, ratings and rank in the app stores.
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Make apps more awesome! - CocoaConf Atlanta '14
- 1. Make your apps awesome Ways to improve your app and its performance in the App Store bit.ly/CocoaCritterATL Chris Beauchamp Evangelist @Crittercism Developer @WhitewaterLabs @cjbeauchamp
- 2. About Me • Started as a PHP/HTML/JS dev • Moved to mobile with iPhone SDK • 6+ years iOS • ~10 apps published between iTunes/Gplay • Continue to develop independently • Dev evangelist at Crittercism
- 3. College Days
- 4. KeepSafe
- 6. Reasons to build 1. I want to make the next Instagram 2. My company wants an app 3. Development Shop Everyone wants the same thing…
- 7. Metrics of success Money!
- 8. Metrics of success Quality App Money!
- 9. Metrics of success Quality App Money! Downloads Happy users Retained users Positive reviews
- 10. My idea is the best idea ever ideated!
- 11. THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT
- 12. Go hug your designer Users should LOVE using your app
- 13. Design can be simple Function comes first, then make it pretty
- 14. Prioritize Functionality Bring the important stuff to the front
- 15. Simplify Flows When you can’t… fake it!
- 16. Anticipate User Pain You can’t make everyone happy…
- 18. Get feedback Provide a place to vent
- 19. Direct Message Set up a line of communication
- 20. Forum Give the users a voice!
- 24. Flurry retention
- 25. Flurry demographics / personas
- 28. Performance Monitoring • What happens if your deployed app… – Breaks on a user? – Runs slow? – Drops a connection? – Crashes? • Left in the dark unless the user tells you
- 29. App Store Feedback & Analysis
- 31. Sort and filter crashes
- 34. What about when a crash isn’t the issue?
- 35. App Store Feedback & Analysis
- 38. How can we use this to make more money!!??
- 39. Transaction Monitoring E-Commerce Checkout Travel Booking Stock Trade Account Signup Mobile Point of Sale In-App Purchase
- 42. No more bad reviews!
- 44. Tweak + SEO Leave no keyword unfilled
- 47. Ask for Ratings Appirater, Crittercism, etc
- 48. Be Explicit Ask for 5 stars! Make a connection
- 49. Guilt Trips Work We aren’t a faceless corp! No, I hate your app
- 50. Double-Check Ensure they’ll leave a good review No, I hate your app
- 51. Review Monitoring See reviews/rankings in aggregate
- 52. iTunes Connect+ See sales/download info
- 53. Track Ranking What causes spikes? Countries?
- 54. Localize Expand your reach!
- 55. Be careful… With great power comes great responsibility
- 56. Finishing Up What about you? bit.ly/CocoaCritterATL Chris Beauchamp Evangelist @Crittercism Developer @WhitewaterLabs @cjbeauchamp
Editor's Notes
- Android first, then iOS 2M downloads in ~8mo Raised $750k ------------------------------ Now >30M downloads 10 employees ~$4M funding
- Everybody loves money! No matter the intention for your app
- First things first, you’ll need a quality app. I’m going to let you all figure that one out… You could have the greatest app in the world, but if nobody’s using it, it’s worthless!
- As long as this machine is churning, you’re going to be moving up and to the right This machine is the underlying theme for the discussion… how do we get these things? When you’re getting started, you think it’ll come organically because…
- It’s the first touchpoint People should be drawn in, pleasantly surprised by interactions It’s not all about pushing together perfectly pretty pixels Think glows, fades, uicontrolstates The designer should think about these too!
- - This could be things that engage/retain users, monetize the app, etc
- Sometimes you need to gather info from a user Break it up into bite size pieces, keep them informed of their progress & make the transitions automatic, fluid and quick May not be a push to the nav controller
- I wish the app had _______ I’m having trouble with _______ When will you have ______ Notice the knowledge base
- Make it personal… RESPOND! That will actually get you people posting positive reviews… (you can ask too, once issue is resolved) Give them free service for their trouble
- - Let your users come together, upvote/downvote/etc ….Sometimes your users don’t even know what they want
- - Help you target ads, set up messaging
- What a user is doing is one piece of the optimization puzzle What is the device doing? Are we sure it’s working the way it should?
- And you don’t want that…
- - See a review, negative tweet, etc… how do you reach out? Gather all the device info, what were you doing, etc
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- Keepsafe on android – NIGHTMARE Things we couldn’t even imagine were coming up… this is how we prioritized our battles
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- I had a bug, targeted the app for ios 4 – but compiled against ios 5 sdk without proper testing. Used a 5 API the broke every single ios 4 user on launch Saw it was all one app version, all one system verison – hotfix out within the day
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- Social SDKs? Server endpoints? Tell your ops team! Are ad services running slow in certain locations?
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- So what is a transaction? Something that leads to a business outcome How to indicate it in code
- Issues may be happening with 100 users, costing you $100 There could be an issue affecting 10 users, costing you $5000
- Drill into each transaction that ever happens See granular analysis Connect it with a user (tie into support requests, etc) Offer API for this
- So we’re going for less of these – and more of this >>>
- - Now we have a solid stable app that we’re tracking – what can we do on the app store front?
- Keywords!
- What else plays into discoverability? RATINGS. YOU WANT GOOD RATINGS! Users trust and will try apps that have good ratings Don’t forget, this can drive editors choices, other press
- Can configure N days, session opens, messaging, etc
- - Notice the button configuration (bottom is actually the cancel by default)… but it’s the one people instinctively hit
- If they say they love it, ask for a rating Otherwise, point them to the uservoice form where they can vent How to see if this is working? You could go check the store every day or---
- Don’t have to go to each app store country, translate, etc Daily digests with all the relevant info
- Correlate with campaigns, ranking, events, etc See what works!
- Again with correlation… See which countries you’re trending/popular in! Localize?
- Our Moni app got huge in brazil, so we localized to portugese Downloads still solid, great ranking, people love it! But….
- Again with correlation… See which countries you’re trending/popular in! Localize?
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