You’ve gone through all of the steps to make an awesome app that users will love and come back to time and again. Today is the day you release it to the Google Play Store. “Good luck little app,” you think as the developer hits publish. “Make me proud; you’ve only got about 1,400,000 other Android apps to compete with!”
Getting your app discovered through the store is a growing concern for developers as the number of Android applications grows by the hundreds of thousands every year. Data collected from over the past few years* has shown that users primarily discover new applications through searching the app stores. While there are several other ways for your application to be found (word of mouth was second), app store visibility should not be overlooked. A user must know an application exists before they can download it. So, wat do?
Google has just announced the launch of sponsored search results on Google Play. Soon developers will be able to pay to promote their application. I expect it will run similarly to Google Search Ads where bids are placed on keywords. When a user searches for a keyword you have bid on, your ad could be displayed in the top section of search results. It is only when a user actually clicks on the ad that you are charged. We will know more over the next few months as Google tests the program.
Not interested in paying for getting your app discovered? Google offers best practices for going au natural.
If you want to get discovered, you’ll need an app. Contact us to get started!
*data taken from Business Insider for 2012 and from TechCrunch for 2013 and 2014
