#31 - A Trick for Apps with In-App Purchase

I found something you can do to get the algorithm to boost your app without making any other changes. It's a trick in the pure sense of the word so I'm not sure how long it'll last, but let's have a look anyway.

Apple's and Google's search algorithms are black boxes and completely undocumented, but when you look at enough data, patterns start to emerge. I actively analyze search results to reverse engineer how the stores decide which apps to rank and how to rank them, and share what I find, including tips, tricks, and secrets, here for you to learn from.

Want to see what can only be described as a mess? Look no further than the search results for the keyword VPN.

Search results for "VPN" in the U.S App Store · Check with Inspector

It's been a few teardowns since we've seen so much duplication, which I can only imagine is the result of copying from each other. But inside this unnecessary mess, there's a valuable lesson for apps that have subscriptions in them, so let's dig in.

The first result has the most ratings and downloads and has the keyword as the first word in its name. Unfortunately, it shoots itself in the foot by repeating it in the subtitle, but everyone else does it, so it almost cancels itself out.

In second and third places, we have two results that have fewer new ratings than the #4 spot. They all use the keyword pretty much the same way, so why are they above #4? Because they've both selected a featured in-app purchase!

We've seen this before, and here it is again. Apps that feature an in-app purchase, and so far I've mostly seen this with a subscription, seem to get a little bit of boost from the algorithm.

it seems to only happen between spots 2-4, and requires performance that's somewhat reasonable. But that one seems to be very flexible. Needless to say, if you offer in-app purchases in any form, including subscriptions, go into App Store Connect to feature them. It's an easy win.

In 5th we have VPN 360 which just doesn't have the ratings to get in. Interestingly enough, it gets more than double the downloads of #4 but a 7th of the ratings, which means there's much room to improve by getting active users to rate the app. With that, it can easily climb up, and if it featured its in-app purchases, it can climb even higher.

Apple's algorithm seems to play favorites with apps that select an in-app purchase to feature. If you're seeling in-app purchases, make sure to set a featured one to take advantage of this trick.

App Store Optimization is part art and part science. I say it a lot, and I mean it. The art part is what I've been talking about in this Keyword Teardown and in my App Teardowns. The science part is where our simple and intuitive ASO tools come into play. See where your apps are ranked, track trends, snoop on competitors, get suggestions, here.