Grow your app – Ratings & Reviews

Jay Rambhia — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 09:34:00 +0000

It's a challenge to grow your app / business with limited resources. There are some tried & tested strategies that will help you kickstart your growth. One of them is getting more ratings & reviews for your app.

Social proof is a psychology technique that many products use successfully to get people to perform certain actions. For instance, we see messages such as "X people have bought this item today" on a lot of e-commerce websites & apps. This technique makes people adapt their behavior based on experiences of others.

We should also leverage this method. But there isn't a lot of scope for us to include it in the store listing. But the store already shows 3 pieces of social proof.

Total number of downloads
Average rating
Total number of reviews

It's not possible for us to have higher number of downloads at start. But we must try to have higher rating than other apps in the category. As a rule of thumb, your app must have more than 4.6/5 rating.

Getting reviews & ratings is not easy. People who liked your product may not leave a review. But when someone does not like your product, they will make sure that everyone knows about it. The rating system is biased towards poor ratings. The challenge is to get your happy customers to rate your app.

How to get more reviews

Get your friends & family to rate your app.
Prompt users to give feedback and rate on the play store. Make sure you are not spamming them or interrupting their flow. Don't ask for rating for first few days.
Use in-app review flows. These flows are more organic & seamless. Google Play In-App Review and iOS In-App Review
When you make a promotional post on social media, reply to every comment and ask them to support the app by leaving a review.
Whoever writes to you, ask them to leave a review. Add it in your email signature.
Make it easy for people to review. Put links everywhere.
When you provide a promo code to someone, ask them to leave a review. They will hands down give a good review.

Growth hack your ratings & reviews. Set up milestones to reach 100, 500, 1000 reviews and work towards it.

📈 Higher rating & number of reviews act as social proof. These also contribute heavily to your rank on Play Store.

DEV Community: Jay Rambhia

Grow your app – Ratings & Reviews

How to get more reviews