The realities of being in the top of the App Store
I will try to convey one very simple idea from the pages of this blog – A position in the TOP is not a source of additional loads, but an indicator of the level of additional loads.Top may be a good goal, but it’s not an end in itself. Top is an indicator, and no more!
Frankly speaking, now there is one terrible “secret” after learning about which many decide that they can conquer the TOP and make money. The process of conquest sounds something like this in the reasoning:
- “The position in the TOP directly depends on the number of installations” – yes, this is so in the general case. (We will not delve into the degree of influence of the number of installations of yesterday on today’s top, we will just accept that this is so).
- “In order to get to the second position in the TOP, you need to generate more installations than the second, but less than the third.” Yes – it is with few reservations so.
- “All other things being equal, if my game / program is as convenient and attractive as the others, then by generating artificial sales, I will throw it into the TOP, where it will gain a foothold by already receiving natural traffic from the top and staying there due to this.”The first statement is yes. The last one is no and NO again and NO AGAIN! This is not a rule! It happens, but it SHOULDN‘t happen like that!
Frankly speaking, it’s scary to think how many people fell for this “revelation”. Let’s now sort out in order where the error lies in these arguments.
Let’s list the sources of additional uploads from applications that sit in this very top.
- Traffic of the top itself. Well, where without it.
- Social traffic (these are invites to friends, all sorts of Game Center and Facebook wall posts on behalf of the program – anything from this area)
- Appstore Features
- Search traffic of iTunes itself
- Exchange traffic (Starting from all sorts of appcircle, etc. traffic overflow systems, whatever they are called)
- External traffic (site reviews are collected here, any posting on forums, and so on)
- Purchase traffic (Banner advertising mostly or the same tapJoy if we do not change, namely, we buy through it)
And so, we describe a hypothetical program:
- Position in the Top 5
- Top Traffic: 600 daily
- Social Traffic: 150 daily
- There are no features – no luck
- Search traffic: 110 daily
- Exchange traffic: 180 daily
- External traffic: 30 daily
- Purchase traffic: 0 (well, does not buy).
Now, we are so smart to conquer the TOP 5
We buy 1200 dovnloads!
Hurray! We are in the TOP 5! Down with advertising! And the next day we fall into our 300th places. The marketer’s conclusion (if you have one) is “Just a program that’s not successful – the appstore didn’t accept it, I did everything I could, you created shit: (I threw it up – and it didn’t take off.”And the trick is simple:
When the competitor application was in 5th place, it did everything 600+150+110+180+30 installations per day – i.e. upstore fixed 1070! installations. And the fifth place is given for the fork where you got – more than 1070 installations, and the TOP 10 “returns” at best half, i.e. 600. And in the hot categories of TOP5, and does not pour back a quarter. And to stay there, you need to have gravy. And the higher – the more gravy is needed. And without it, it will throw you into the positions of the same “fuel-free” applications, where those who have not bothered with other methods of getting traffic at all are sitting and they have traffic from the TOP = the traf necessary to be in this TOP position.
Therefore, if you already want to be in the top – from the beginning, provide gravy from points 2-7, then stimulate the purchase traffic. Otherwise, a second “terrible secret” awaits you, which is also wrong – There is no money on the Appstore. They are there – you just need to be able to cook them :)
Z.Y. As rightly noted – I was talking only about Top Free. But in others, too, the source that led to the sale does not matter. Everything is counted in the heap.
