Google Play App Store Optimization (ASO)

The Google Play app store uses various pictures (icons, photos) to detail an app offering. Some pictures may appear more attractive to users while others well tend to draw users away. But which are the right ones to use?

Google offers a feature to try various pictures and pick the best. You simply add different pictures and see what catches best with users. Google is using such optimization througout their business ever since their early days, check this CNET article for more info.

With such A/B-testing embedded in Google Play it is fairly straight forward to give different pictures a try. What can possibly be the impact of changing a few pictures, or is there an impact at all? I am not expecting much...

After a few days of testing the following impact is projected by Google Play: 

• Using picture #3 instead of the current picture #1 would give a 20% download advandage (228 vs. 190)
• Using picture #2 instead of the current picture #1 would give a 36% download advandage (260 vs. 190)

That's not too bad, improving downloads by >30% is a pretty clear result. Furthermore, an info is shown about more data being required:

Probably, the overall downloads of my app are not constant enough for Google to calculate a statistically robust result so Google show this info. However, during the few days of testing the percentage values appeared to be fairly stable. For now I'll finish the test nevertheless, want to look at another change to test.

Result: 30% increase in app downloads by using a better background image.