How to Run A/B Testing with the Google Play Experiments Tool?
This is a guest post from the ShyftUp team, experts in ASO (App Store Optimization) and paid user acquisition.
Today, launching a mobile app involves not just designing the app itself, but also spreading the word out there about your app. If you want to ensure the success of your mobile app, you need to use the Google Play Experiments tool. It’s a recently added feature on Google Play and it aims to improve A/B testing and provide more insights into your app performance.
Why use Google Play Store Experiments Listing
Here are three reasons you should use store listing experiments:
- Increase conversion rate. Using experiments can help you run A/B tests for free. This helps you know which elements of your app store listing are doing a great job and those that don’t. As a result, you are able to be more effective in modifying your store listing, thereby increasing your app visibility, conversion, and installs. Focusing on your conversion rate is an essential part of any growth strategy. Hence, you shouldn’t ignore this.
- Localized experiments. You can perform experiments aimed at specific countries. You get to see how users are different around the world in terms of their behavior and preference. This allows you to change your mobile app marketing strategy accordingly. You can perform experiments aimed at specific countries. You get to see how users are different around the world in terms of their behavior and preference. This allows you to change your mobile app marketing strategy accordingly.
- Get detailed data. With experiments, you gather details and insightful metrics. This helps you to identify the weakness and strengths of your marketing strategy. Specifically, experiments can give you data about user acquisition and even the retention rates on a day for each store listing version you tested.
All in all, Google Play experiments are designed to help improve your app search optimization strategies.
How to get the most out of Google Play Store store listing experiments
To take advantage of the awesome benefits of experiments, you should try and keep in mind the following tips:
- Test every aspect of your store listing elements especially videos, icons, and screenshots.
- If you wish to get the clearest and most specific results, focus on testing one element at a time.
- Preferably, you need to run a test for at least a week. This should help you see data not just on weekdays, but also on weekends.
- Assets should be tested on a regular basis. You can schedule experiments to track changes in locations, users, and seasonality.
- Turn on the alerts for experiments to get notified as soon as your experiments give you a clear winning variant in your tests. Alerts are sent via email notifications.
Experiments are just one aspect of how you improve your app’s visibility.
Types of experiment
There are two experiment types that you should know. These are the default graphics and localized text and graphics.
Default graphics. You can only run one default graphic at a time. WIth default graphics, you can create variants of your feature graphic, app’s icon, screenshot, and promo video.
Localized text and graphics. your app is available in various languages, localized text and graphics should be used. You can experiment with your app’s elements in up to five languages.
Elements you can experiment with
As you may already know, there are different elements in your store listing. However, Google Play experiments are available for the following:
- Screenshots
- Icon
- App preview video
- Long description
- Short description
How to create experiments
Creating experiments is the same as running A/B tests. You set up experiments to identify which versions of your app listing give you the best results. Experiments are available for both custom and main store listing pages.
Step 1: Create app element variants
Use the Play Console to create an experiment. You can choose whether to create default graphics or localized text and graphics.
Once you’re done creating the experiment, you can now set it up. To do this, you need to select the variants, store listing, and attributes. Don’t worry, there are on-screen instructions that you can easily follow.
Once you’re done with the setup, you can then click “Run experiment” that you can find on top of the page. You can hit “Save” if you wish to continue setting up experiments later.
Step 2: Apply experiments
Before applying your experiments, you can review them first and see what needs to be done. Once you’re satisfied with the setup, you can now proceed with the application.
To review applied experiments, you can go to the Store listing experiments page. On this page, you can select Live experiments or Completed experiments. From there, you’ll learn more about your experiments, which include status, type, start and end date, and results.
Data collected from experiments
Data are powerful tools to help you make informed and better decisions when improving your store listing page. Some of the useful data include the following:
- Number of new installs
- The list of variants and versions you have tested
- The percentage of people who have seen each variant
- The number of users who installed your app using each variant
- The performance of the variant when compared to the existing version
- Test result confidence interval
Following these data should give you a better idea of which variants would give you better results. Comparing data and performance can help you predict future performance and how you can change your store listing to better acquire more users. If you wish to better understand data and execute marketing plans, you may be interested in ShyftUp’s user acquisition solutions.
Get more users in the quickest time
Google Experiments are tools used to improve the appearance of your store listing on the Google Play Store. It helps you what versions of your store listing would be more attractive.
Ultimately, experiments are there to help you gain more mobile app users. Of course, experiments are still limited. Experiments already have great features, but regrettably, it isn’t enough to run successful market research.
About ShyftUp. It’s a full-service mobile user acquisition agency. Based in San Francisco, ShyftUp serves hundreds of clients around the globe.
