Both Apple and Google feature an integrated A/B testing tool for store assets. The native tools are extremely useful for testing creatives on organic traffic without increasing spend. The benefit also lies in them being integrated in the stores, which makes deploying winning creatives easy. A/B testing should be a staple in your ASO toolkit and luckily there are tools accessible to all developers and publishers. As with everything in life, there is a flip side to the coin. Let’s list down some key metrics that you miss with native tools.
Marketability metrics
A prerequisite for testing both on Apple and Google is that the app or game needs to be live on the store. This means that it is purely an A/B testing tool for app store optimization and finding creatives that increase downloads. When you are in the early stages of development or looking for the market potential of a concept, your best solution is to rely on third-party A/B testing tools. With third-party tools, you can test different concepts against each other to get data on what your audience likes throughout development.
User segments
Is your audience usually exploring or decisive? Do they engage with the store page looking for more information or are they convinced at first glance? User behavior metrics indicate where to direct the focus. It’s a commonly known “fact”, that the first two screenshots get the most attention (“fact” because there can be exceptions to this). But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t utilize all screenshots for conveying the value of your app or game.
Engagement metrics
Conversion rate per screenshot or second on videos can help you detect some key messages that are working well, and vice versa. This data also helps you determine how much emphasis the latter screenshots have in terms of conversion. While the native tools only show the overall conversion rate, third-party tools go into more detail.
Conversion rate by traffic source
Native tools provide basic conversion data but lack granularity in terms of traffic source analysis. Understanding how different traffic sources (organic, paid, etc.) affect your conversion rate can help you optimize even further. With third-party tools you have control over the audience you test with.
Data to support building your next hypothesis
An estimated conversion rate as the result on the native tools does not answer the question “why?” there is a change in conversion rate. Without that, it is difficult to build the next hypothesis on previous learnings. We’ve said it a hundred times before, A/B testing is not a sprint but a marathon and to reach the goal you need to continuously learn from tests.
Conclusion
We’re not saying the native tools shouldn’t be used at all. Quite the contrary. They are good tools for app store optimization when you are trying to find the best-performing creatives for your app store page. Additionally, native tools are great for testing store-specific elements as one ASO strategy doesn’t work for both stores. In other cases, you might need additional data points and it is good to know that there are solutions for that available. We’re happy to help with that!
