A successful A/B testing strategy for the App Store should begin with a strong hypothesis based on user insights and data. Testing should provide clear rationale for making strategic creative changes; it’s not about randomly tinkering with your App Store assets. If you're contemplating changes, you should have a clear reason for doing so.
Before we get started here, you may be interested to know that the Redbox Apple Search Ads platform now has the ability to schedule and run creative testing, as sequential testing and also as classic A/B testing across different regions. Find out more here.
Understand Your Audience
One of the fundamental aspects of A/B testing is understanding your target audience. Tailoring your App Store creatives so they’re more relevant to the preferences of your target audience can significantly boost conversion rates. For instance, we conducted a test in the USA for a gaming app, in which we created a more traditional variation of the screenshots, to establish increased appeal to an older target audience. The results were impressive – the test achieved a 3.8% conversion rate improvement, which is a positive outcome for a major market, in which the client had previously struggled.
The client’s current testing efforts were not yielding the desired results, and in an instance such as that, it’s often appropriate to assess your target audience and make sure that your understanding of them is reflected across any new creative strategy you put in place.
Be Seasonally Relevant
To improve performance and audience relevance, it’s best practice to ensure your App Store screenshots reflect the current season and promote any seasonal features or offers for the time of year. To creative test during key seasons, you’ll need to be well prepared in advance because your timeframe to gather meaningful data could be short, but doing so will let you know whether your creative hypotheses answers the needs of your audience in a timely and relevant way.
Test Adjustments to Brand and Tone
As your brand evolves, it's essential to test any brand updates, big or small, that you intend to make to your App Store assets. If you are investing in other media channels that feature the changes to your brand, it’s vital that your App Store branding is consistent with those messages, or you’ll risk consumer confusion.
People visiting the App Store have high intent, they often know what they are looking for, so any alterations to your assets should align with user expectations and that might mean you need to test creatives to achieve the best performance and achieve your brand update.
Are Your Competitors Testing Creative?
Keeping a watchful eye on your competitors can provide valuable insights for your creative testing strategy. Monitor the tests they are running, check out their seasonal offers or new features, and assess their creative approaches and call-to-action techniques.
Additionally, observe their use of visual elements such as panoramic 3D images or vibrant colours – are they trying something new, that you’re not? By understanding your competitors' strategies, you can identify areas where you can implement tests that might help you to differentiate your app and potentially outperform them on the App Store.
In Conclusion
Mastering testing on the App Store requires a strategic approach with a well-defined proposition and the capture of meaningful data that informs your decision-making.
Some key points:
- Know your audience intimately, tailor and test your creatives to determine their preferences.
- Keep a close eye on your competitors’ creative tests to you can stay ahead of the curve and adjust your strategies accordingly
- Test your seasonal or event screenshots, to test your hypotheses about relevancy.
- Keep your App Store brand fresh, but do test any changes to ensure you don’t negatively impact performance for the sake of the brand.
The simple purpose of creative testing is to use data-led decision-making to continually improve your app’s performance through greater visibility, by remaining relevant to your audience and staying ahead of the competition.