There is a common misconception, that App Store Optimization is all about managing app store ratings and reviews. In reality, it is a bunch of actions that lead to your App Store ASO: keywords, description, screenshots, ratings and reviews, etc. Text optimization helps users find your app against thousands of competitors, while graphic optimization and higher conversion rates make sure that the user will install your app.

However, users won’t just buy pretty images — they require something more convincing: the assurance that other people like the app. Here we take a closer look at how app ratings and reviews affect the search visibility and conversion rate of your app.

What the conversion rate is

One of the ways to measure your ASO strategy effectiveness is to analyze the conversion rate. With regard to app stores, we are talking about the conversion of the following types:

• App Units / Impressions: The ratio of the number of first-time app downloads to the number of times your app was viewed (in the Featured, Categories, Top Charts, and Search sections of the App Store);
• App Units / Product Page Views: The ratio of the number of first-time app downloads to the number of times your app’s product page has been viewed;
• Product Page Views / Impressions: The ratio of the number of times your app’s product page has been viewed to the number of times your app was viewed (in the Featured, Categories, Top Charts, and Search sections of the App Store).

So far only App Store Connect has all these types. As for Google Play Console, it only has the second type of the conversion rate metric.

Average conversion rate by category

To analyze your app conversion rate, go to the iTunes Analytics page in your iTunes Connect developer account, or to the Traffic Sources page in Google Play.

There are two questions left:

What can I do to make it better? And should I change or improve anything?

To answer these questions, we at AppFollow created the Conversion rate benchmark — a chart with average conversion rates for App Store and Google Play.

How app rating affects the app install conversion rates

79% of users check an app’s rating before downloading. This number is even bigger when it comes to paid apps. In both stores, mobile app ratings are placed in search results and on app pages, so users will see them regardless of whether they came there from the Search, Browse, Ads, a website, or another app.

Positive app ratings and reviews work as proof that other people are satisfied with an app, rather than just a group of friends with preconceptions. Apptentive interviewed thousands of users about the minimum acceptable rating of apps. This is what they got in response:

An app with a 3-star rating loses around half the downloads, whereas apps rated 1–2 stars lose almost every download. Managing ratings and reviews in the App Store and Google play is tough. All your optimization efforts become useless if your app has less than 4 stars. What’s more, a rating of 3 to 1 stars is a real pain in the neck for your marketing and ASO teams.

The good news for iOS apps is that you can reset your app’s total iOS ratings but not reviews when you release a new app version. This option is located at the bottom of the app’s New Version page. But, if you do not investigate negative reviews causes, your app rating will remain the same. Usually, the worst comments give you a clue about what’s wrong with the app: a level in a game doesn’t work; the server is unreachable, or it’s just a critical crash on the old devices.

In Google Play you don’t have the opportunity to reset your app rating, so you should pay more attention to testing on all popular devices before releasing the update. If you get one negative review or star, you need at least 10 positive ones to offset its effect. Once you’ve fixed bugs, and app functions work as they are meant to, the app download numbers will increase as well as the conversion rate. The same research by Apptentive says that rating improvement from 1–2 to 4–5 stars will lead to six to seven times more downloads. This way you can reach an optimal product rating for profitable sales conversion.

In-app native rating requests

Satisfied users are less likely to rate an app than frustrated users are. It is pure human nature, and that’s why it is so important to choose the right time to ask for feedback. The best time is when a user has successfully completed a task, and won’t see any bugs or crashes.

Important: Remember not to interrupt a user when he or she interacts with your app. Show the rating request after a task is done, or on a waiting screen.

For iOS, we recommend in-app rating requests using StoreKit framework. It is available starting from iOS 10.3. This method allows users to rate your app without going to the App Store and logging in. Now it takes just 5 seconds to rate, which is why you get dramatically more ratings and reviews.

Here’s an example of how it works in practice: A Hotellook iOS embedded an in-app rating request in June 2017. During the following two months they got five times more ratings than during the whole of the previous year!

According to AppFollow, starting from the middle of June the number of ratings rose. The app got 74,200 ratings just for 4 months, while during the whole previous year it got only 14,200. Their Impression / App Unit conversion rate rose by 15%. That's how you get higher ratings and reviews in the App Store and Google Play.

Users tend to install those apps that have more positive reviews. They are more likely to choose them rather than their competitors with worse ratings or negative reviews. These directly affect your app store rating.

Don’t forget that by embedding in-app rating features you increase the total number of ratings, both positive and negative. That is why you should show the rating request at the very moment when the user is satisfied with the app: after several wins, a completed game level, or a successful money transaction. If the outcome was negative or the app has crashed, don’t show the request, and start counting successful actions again.

Before in-app rating requests, developers used custom rating requests like this one:

When a user chose smiling emojis (4–5 stars), an app would suggest to a user to rate it in the App Store. If a user chose sad emojis (1–3 stars), the app would suggest that the user give feedback rather than starring it in the store. Since Apple ran a new App Store rating system, intermediate dialog boxes have been prohibited by Apple guidelines. Users can switch the native rating request off, or developers exceeded the impressions limit — which means that even if a user chooses smiling emojis, he will see nothing. Customized rating requests should be used carefully: There’s still a possibility that an app can be rejected, especially when it comes to subscription models.

As for Android, there are no in-app native rating requests available. The only option here is to create a customized request, as we showed above. However, even here the Google team can warn you if you distract users from going to the app store. It is a tiny possibility, but more likely that moderators would ask you to hide the dialog if you are nominating for featuring.

Quick highlights:

1. 79% of users check reviews before downloading. Work with reviews on a regular basis is as important as work with keywords and graphics.
2. An app with a 1–3-star rating loses half of the possible downloads, which means that all your previous ASO work was in vain.
3. In-app rating requests drastically increase the number of ratings and reviews. If your app works as needed, your conversion rates and download numbers will rise.

If you have any suggestions on a better way of managing app store ratings and reviews, feel free to drop us a message at aso@appfollow.io. Don't forget to check out our awesome guide to mobile app reputation management to learn more.

In the next part of this article, we will give some insights on the importance of replying to reviews, reporting inappropriate reviews and how this work can increase your conversion rates and downloads.

Read Part 2