How to Increase App Downloads: 5 Strategies

Making a good first impression is important, whether you’re meeting an investor for the first time or converting traffic in the Apple App or Google Play stores. Often what meets the eye is all a casual user needs to incite a click through or send them scrolling on their merry way.

Wondering how to increase app downloads?

It’s simple. With the right visuals. App store optimization ensures that through keyword selection, inclusion and repetition along with category selection, your app will be found. Conversion optimization is a completely different game. Winning at conversion optimization means when your app is found users like what they see, and they download it. Increase your app conversion rate with the right visuals. Here’s how.

1. A/B test your icon selection

This is where your first impressions starts. So don’t leave your icon selection up to intuition. Test it. Besides your title and category, the icon you choose to represent your app is one of the first ways users assign credibility. The cleaner, more unique and more impactful your icon is, the more visual credibility it conveys.

There are a variety of ways you can assess whether your icon choice is a good one. The most common is to leverage social, search or banner advertisements to see how potential users are reacting to the visual identity system and how effectively the icon you choose drives conversion action.

Create a few different visual styles to test and release them as paid social promotion via Twitter and Facebook. Also consider Google Ads. Target the same keywords you are planning for your app store listing and see what performs best.

Then use that intelligence to make your icon selection. You only have a few seconds to entice users to download your app. Make them count.

2. Be clean and consistent

The more polished and cohesive your icon the more likely users are to download your app. Consider omitting text to keep the focus on your icon. Add a border around the edge of your icon, so no matter what a user’s phone background is, your app will stand out. Most importantly, make sure your app icon matches the style of your website. That way if users click through, your brand is reinforced, not confused.

Icon size guide

3. Strategically choose visuals

Beyond the app icon, screenshots are the next best way to help users connect with your app visually. Better yet — it gives them more insight into the experience. The first two screenshots are the most important. These appear in search. Pro tip: Add additional information to your screenshots

But don’t stop with just a photo. This is your chance to communicate information to users in a small amount of time and using a small amount of real estate. Consider adding additional text or overlays to explain the functionality of your app.

Use these dimensions and specifications to present your screengrabs most effectively.

Apple

• 5 screenshot maximum
• 1 screenshot minimum
• 72 dpi, RGB, flattened, no transparency
• High-quality JPEG or PNG image file format
• Create your screenshots in any of the following sizes:
• 640 x 920 pixels for hi-res portrait (without status bar) minimum
• 640 x 960 pixels for hi-res portrait (full screen) maximum
• 960 x 600 pixels for hi-res landscape (without status bar) minimum
• 960 x 640 pixels for hi-res landscape (full screen) maximum

Google

• 8 screenshots allowed for each supported device
• 2 screenshots required at a minimum
• Minimum dimension: 320 pixels
• Maximum dimension: 3840 pixels

4. Plan what to show above the fold

Be strategic when sequencing visuals and text in your app store listing. Think about how much you want users to scroll and where it makes sense to have them click to reveal additional information. Pay off the question your app is answering for users immediately. Your keyword should be mentioned above the fold.

5. Add a video

Pairing your listing with media showing your app in action can be a very good thing, enticing potential users to convert and download. There’s no question a video shows an app’s capabilities better than five or eight screenshots ever could. Only include this if you have the dedicated creative and financial resources to create media that offers an informational or visual wow-factor.

The bottom line

How to increase app downloads starts with turning a strategic eye to the visuals that accompany your listing from the app icon to the screenshots used to showcase specific functionality and value.

What are you waiting for? Getting more downloads with better conversion starts with getting visual.

Photo courtesy of wild0wild.