{"id":240,"date":"2017-03-02T16:04:27","date_gmt":"2017-03-02T16:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/?p=240"},"modified":"2017-06-30T16:17:13","modified_gmt":"2017-06-30T16:17:13","slug":"google-play-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/google-play-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Play [Finally] Catches the App Engagement Wave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today I spoke with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/shanirosenfelder\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shani Rosenfelder<\/a>\u00a0over at AppsFlyer about <a href=\"https:\/\/android-developers.googleblog.com\/2017\/02\/welcome-to-google-developer-day-at-game.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google&#8217;s announcements<\/a> at GDC regarding new ranking algorithm factors. We discussed how the\u00a0Google Play Store algorithm is now factoring the \u201cstickiness\u201d of gaming apps \u2013 specifically strong engagement, retention metrics and also a high star rating \u2013 to determine their rankings on top of the number of installs. This change rewards quality in gaming, and is a significant step forward for the industry.<\/p>\n<p>Check out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.appsflyer.com\/blog\/google-play-finally-catches-app-engagement-wave\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the full post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Key Notes:<\/h2>\n<p>Engagement is becoming a more and more important factor in ASO, which means developers need to focus even more on the quality of their app, and how the obtain, and retain users.\u00a0It\u2019s not entirely clear whether the changes Google Play announced affect Search, Top Charts or both.\u00a0Google didn\u2019t explicitly mention Search when they announced these changes. So there can be the assumption that ratings\/reviews metrics were included in Search, but the Top Charts were definitely more focused on overall download numbers \u2013 until now with the addition of engagement, retention and ratings\/reviews factors.<\/p>\n<p>Google Play\u2019s announcement also spells trouble for rewarded advertising (aka incentivized advertising). When the motivation of an app install is driven by a reward to install a game, retention suffers as most do not continue using the app or uninstall it altogether. The bonus of running incentivized (aka burst campaigns) \u2013 up until now \u2013 was the ability to rapidly gain a volume of users, thereby jumping up the charts and ultimately driving organic installs. So volume continues to be a factor in the Google Play algorithm but it carries a smaller weight, allowing games developed by smaller studios who don\u2019t have the budget for massive UA campaigns the chance to shine.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line is that app retention is now more important than ever. It&#8217;s crucial for developers to focus on building quality apps, and crafting ways to re-engage and retain their existing users.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.appsflyer.com\/blog\/google-play-finally-catches-app-engagement-wave\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">full AppsFlyer article<\/a> for more insights and background!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today I spoke with Shani Rosenfelder\u00a0over at AppsFlyer about Google&#8217;s announcements at GDC regarding new ranking algorithm factors. We discussed how the\u00a0Google Play Store algorithm is now factoring the \u201cstickiness\u201d of gaming apps \u2013 specifically strong engagement, retention metrics and also a high star rating \u2013 to determine their rankings on top of the number [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,19],"tags":[44,59,15],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Google Play [Finally] Catches the App Engagement Wave | The ASO Project Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/google-play-engagement\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Todd Dunham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/google-play-engagement\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/google-play-engagement\/\",\"name\":\"Google Play [Finally] Catches the App Engagement Wave | The ASO Project Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-02T16:04:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-30T16:17:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/75d366aa1648621b1d149fb591acee20\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/google-play-engagement\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/google-play-engagement\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/google-play-engagement\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Google Play [Finally] Catches the App Engagement Wave\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The ASO Project Blog\",\"description\":\"App Store Optimization News, Tips and Best Practices\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/75d366aa1648621b1d149fb591acee20\",\"name\":\"Todd Dunham\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theasoproject.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/038a43945f2e855c4db09ca7be78fd9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/038a43945f2e855c4db09ca7be78fd9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Todd Dunham\"},\"description\":\"An expert in the technology field, Todd owned a development company prior to co-founding The ASO Project, launching websites and applications used by hundreds of thousands of users across the globe. 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