Shamanth Rao and Sharath Kowligi do a deep dive where they discuss some of the specific factors at play that caused this app's revenue to drop 75%, and what they see as the ways forward to help them recover ground.
"See what your users see". Don't get stuck only looking at the dashboard, also look at what people see when they look for the app.
If 14 days after you've solved the issues the app is not recovering then restart paid traffic in a tier 1 market (including retargeting) so the algorithm notices the change.
It is very unlikely to succeed without paid acquisition but so you can scale: fix the product first then do and ramp up user acquisition.
Steps to fix "bad behavior" on Google:
1. Look at ANR & Crash rates (including trends)
2. Get closer to your customer support team
3. Look for an aggregator for customer comments (like seeing them in a word cloud)
On Android you're buying more traffic than you have organic traffic, then something is up. On iOS it is good to have a 1 to 1 ratio between paid and organic (for a crash-free, engaging and monetizing app).
"See what your users see". Don't get stuck only looking at the dashboard, also look at what people see when they look for the app.
If 14 days after you've solved the issues the app is not recovering then restart paid traffic in a tier 1 market (including retargeting) so the algorithm notices the change.
It is very unlikely to succeed without paid acquisition but so you can scale: fix the product first then do and ramp up user acquisition.
Steps to fix "bad behavior" on Google:
1. Look at ANR & Crash rates (including trends)
2. Get closer to your customer support team
3. Look for an aggregator for customer comments (like seeing them in a word cloud)
On Android you're buying more traffic than you have organic traffic, then something is up. On iOS it is good to have a 1 to 1 ratio between paid and organic (for a crash-free, engaging and monetizing app).
"See what your users see". Don't get stuck only looking at the dashboard, also look at what people see when they look for the app.
If 14 days after you've solved the issues the app is not recovering then restart paid traffic in a tier 1 market (including retargeting) so the algorithm notices the change.
It is very unlikely to succeed without paid acquisition but so you can scale: fix the product first then do and ramp up user acquisition.
Steps to fix "bad behavior" on Google:
1. Look at ANR & Crash rates (including trends)
2. Get closer to your customer support team
3. Look for an aggregator for customer comments (like seeing them in a word cloud)
On Android you're buying more traffic than you have organic traffic, then something is up. On iOS it is good to have a 1 to 1 ratio between paid and organic (for a crash-free, engaging and monetizing app).
Notes for this resource are currently being transferred and will be available soon.
The Android vitals help you understand where your app stands vs. other apps.
[💎@11:20] "See what your users see". Don't get stuck only looking at the dashboard, also look at what people see when they look for the app.
The downgrade in ratings, 19% refund rate and the retention is what hurt the organic downloads: the algorithm takes all of this into account.
Both platforms have made changes, making it hard to trick the algorithm. Some apps have now great success by playing by the platform's book (low crash rate, retention, etc.)
In this case, more paid acquisition is not the answer.
[💎@20:15] However if 14 days after you've solved the issues the app is not recovering then restart paid traffic in a tier 1 market (including retargeting) so the algorithm notices the change.
[💎@21:50] It is very unlikely to succeed without paid acquisition but so you can scale: fix the product first then go and ramp up user acquisition.
It is very unlikely that anyone is going to succeed hugely without paid acquisition but if the product itself hasn't cleared the basic metrics according to the platform providers [...] then it's much better to go back and fix the product.
[💎@24:20] Steps to fix "bad behavior" on Google:
Of course, look at revenue as well. If revenue drops off, something is broken somewhere.
[💎@27:14] On Android you're buying more traffic than you have organic traffic, then something is up. On iOS it is good to have a 1 to 1 ratio between paid and organic (for a crash-free, engaging and monetizing app).
if your app has bad reviews, crashes, high refund rate, etc. then there is definitely an impact on iOS as well.
Unfortunately iOS doesn't offer benchmarks and stats the way Google does.
The Android vitals help you understand where your app stands vs. other apps.
[💎@11:20] "See what your users see". Don't get stuck only looking at the dashboard, also look at what people see when they look for the app.
The downgrade in ratings, 19% refund rate and the retention is what hurt the organic downloads: the algorithm takes all of this into account.
Both platforms have made changes, making it hard to trick the algorithm. Some apps have now great success by playing by the platform's book (low crash rate, retention, etc.)
In this case, more paid acquisition is not the answer.
[💎@20:15] However if 14 days after you've solved the issues the app is not recovering then restart paid traffic in a tier 1 market (including retargeting) so the algorithm notices the change.
[💎@21:50] It is very unlikely to succeed without paid acquisition but so you can scale: fix the product first then go and ramp up user acquisition.
It is very unlikely that anyone is going to succeed hugely without paid acquisition but if the product itself hasn't cleared the basic metrics according to the platform providers [...] then it's much better to go back and fix the product.
[💎@24:20] Steps to fix "bad behavior" on Google:
Of course, look at revenue as well. If revenue drops off, something is broken somewhere.
[💎@27:14] On Android you're buying more traffic than you have organic traffic, then something is up. On iOS it is good to have a 1 to 1 ratio between paid and organic (for a crash-free, engaging and monetizing app).
if your app has bad reviews, crashes, high refund rate, etc. then there is definitely an impact on iOS as well.
Unfortunately iOS doesn't offer benchmarks and stats the way Google does.
The Android vitals help you understand where your app stands vs. other apps.
[💎@11:20] "See what your users see". Don't get stuck only looking at the dashboard, also look at what people see when they look for the app.
The downgrade in ratings, 19% refund rate and the retention is what hurt the organic downloads: the algorithm takes all of this into account.
Both platforms have made changes, making it hard to trick the algorithm. Some apps have now great success by playing by the platform's book (low crash rate, retention, etc.)
In this case, more paid acquisition is not the answer.
[💎@20:15] However if 14 days after you've solved the issues the app is not recovering then restart paid traffic in a tier 1 market (including retargeting) so the algorithm notices the change.
[💎@21:50] It is very unlikely to succeed without paid acquisition but so you can scale: fix the product first then go and ramp up user acquisition.
It is very unlikely that anyone is going to succeed hugely without paid acquisition but if the product itself hasn't cleared the basic metrics according to the platform providers [...] then it's much better to go back and fix the product.
[💎@24:20] Steps to fix "bad behavior" on Google:
Of course, look at revenue as well. If revenue drops off, something is broken somewhere.
[💎@27:14] On Android you're buying more traffic than you have organic traffic, then something is up. On iOS it is good to have a 1 to 1 ratio between paid and organic (for a crash-free, engaging and monetizing app).
if your app has bad reviews, crashes, high refund rate, etc. then there is definitely an impact on iOS as well.
Unfortunately iOS doesn't offer benchmarks and stats the way Google does.
