Getting your app featured means getting new users for free and showcase your project to new types of audiences. Featuring means that your app appears on the first pages of Google Play or the App Store for free in one or several categories. It is an effective way to get free traffic and be showcased in new placements but some additional steps from your side have to be made in order to start getting featured.
How to Get Featured on the App Store
There are several requirements to be fulfilled by an app on the App Store to get your app featured.
First, check your app status to understand the potential you have compared to other apps in the market. Your app needs to stand out in terms of quality, user experience and usability as well as in creativity (app localization, marketing efforts). For this assessment, start answering the following questions:
- Reason why you want your app to get featured: Do you have a big update/ compelling story/ major marketing push? Prepare a compelling deck explaining your reasons to showcase it to the App Store.
- What will be your marketing support during the featuring? Are you planning to increase your paid user acquisition efforts? Are you creating posts on social media? Any App Store Optimization updates or IP integrations?
- What’s your current app rating? Do you have at least a 4.1 app rating in your target markets?
- App Quality and usability: Is your app stability well-enough? Do you have low crash rates? Is your app easy and intuitive to use?
- Do you have your app localized? Do you have the store listings in the targeted markets localized? Will you be running in-app events during the featuring period?
Answering these questions and meeting these standards will make your app eligible for featuring in the App Store but keep in mind that the real potential to get your app featured will depend on how you stand out from your competitors and what is your featuring value proposition, which means you need to give the App Store a compelling reason for the featuring request. In this sense, our App Store Optimization Services will always suggest preparing a marketing deck when requesting a featuring with some figures and actions in a story-telling mode so the App Store team can have an overview of how important the featuring will be for your project. The marketing deck should be included when submitting the featuring request form.
If you feel you’re meeting the above-mentioned requirements, you can request to get your app featured in the App Store by filling in the form – keep in mind that the request must be done with at least 3 weeks in advance.
Summarizing:
- Analyze your current app status prior to the featuring request (crashes, app ratings, featuring plan…)
- Plan ahead your featuring pitch with a compelling marketing deck including the reason why you want your app to get featured
- Submit the App Store featuring form with the deck
- Follow-up on the featuring request status and provide to the App Store with any additional asset they might require to get your app featured in specific store placements
Feel free to reach us out if you’re expecting some issues to get your app featured. Good luck!
How to Get Featured on Google Play
On Google Play like on the App Store we have similar requirements on how to get featured. The first step would be to analyze if your app meets some basic requirements to get featured on Google Play:
- Is your rating of your app in Google Play is 4.5 or above in your targeted markets
- Is your UI/UX user-friendly and intuitive? Are all buttons working correctly?
- App Quality and stability: Are your crashes and ANR rates below the bad-behavior threshold? Are android vitals overall looking good?
- Do you have your app localized? Do you have the store listings in the targeted markets localized? Will you be running Promotional Content (LiveOps) during the featuring period?
- What will be your marketing support? Are you planning to increase your paid user acquisition efforts? Are you creating posts on social media? Any App Store Optimization updates or IP integrations?
As on the App Store meeting these standards will make your app eligible for featuring on Google Play but to increase your featuring potential you’ll also need to stand out from your competitors.
How to get featured on Google Play slightly differs compared to the App Store as in this case it is more relevant to have further improvements implemented (android adaptive icon, latest SDKs, enhanced onboarding experience) than to submit a compelling marketing deck as in the case of the App Store.
If you feel you’re meeting the above-mentioned requirements for getting featured on Google Play, you can contact Google Play Support and fill in the featuring form – keep in mind that the request must be done with at least 4-6 weeks in advance.
Let us know if you are experiencing any issues when requesting a featuring or you want to get further details on how to get your app featured in any of the mobile stores – we’re happy to help.
