17 things you need to know to get 6 recommendations from Apple!
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The author of this article is Zhao Hang, the publishing VP of the mobile game company Soul World. Below is his experience sharing on how his mobile game products have been featured on Apple's recommendations many times. A friend in the industry once jokingly called us "Apple recommendation professionals." After I laughed at this, I did not deny that our products have indeed been recommended by Apple many times. The recently launched "Soda World" is already the 6th one. Therefore, friends and the media often ask various questions related to recommendations. Most of the questions are like "How did you get so many recommendations?", "XXXX also said they have recommendations, is it the same as you?", "How many orders can you get after the recommendation?", "How much money can you make this way?", etc. In fact, many problems reflect that the title of "Apple Recommended" is very powerful, but people don't actually understand many details. As "professional recommenders", we not only get a lot, but also persist in recording, evaluating and tracking the recommended games every week for a long time, so we do have more information sorted out and summarized related to the recommendations. Therefore, this article will sort out some relevant definitions, categories, rules, effects, etc. for reference by friends in the industry. 1. What is “Apple Recommended”? The meaning of "Apple Recommended" itself is very broad. A more precise definition is: "High-quality apps that the App Store editorial team actively recommends to users in various forms." In the actual usage context of the mobile game industry, it can be roughly divided into three levels: (1) In the narrowest sense: games displayed in the “Excellent New Games” column on the AppStore homepage (2) More common: games displayed in various columns on the AppStore homepage (3) In a broader sense: games that are actively displayed by editors on other pages of the AppStore, as well as games displayed on Apple’s official website, official social accounts, press conferences, exhibitions, physical stores, etc. (Another note: There are many programs on other pages of the AppStore that automatically calculate and generate the displayed content, so people often mistakenly think that this is also considered to be recommended by Apple. But in fact, it is not. See the definition above. It must be actively set by the editorial team to count.) 2. Why is the gaming industry so concerned about Apple’s recommendations? Simply put, it is a hit, and it brings both fame and fortune: (1) The iOS market accounts for half of the mobile game industry. Apple's recommendations directly bring a large number of high-quality users to download, which is equivalent to a large amount of advertising fees. (2) Apple's review standards are rarely interfered with by commercial interests. Obtaining recommendations indirectly constitutes brand endorsement for "high-quality games", which can gain a good reputation in the industry, more business cooperation opportunities, and a greater chance of success. 3. How long is the display cycle recommended by Apple? The AppStore homepage is updated regularly every Friday morning around 7:45-8:00 Beijing time (synchronized globally). The "Excellent New Games" column will be displayed for one week; if it is a recommendation in other categories, it can be repeated multiple times, as detailed below. 4. What are the requirements for a product to be recommended by Apple? There are no clear, quantifiable criteria for determining whether a game can be recommended. As the saying goes, there is no best literature. Whether a game is of high quality must have many subjective factors, and what ultimately matters is the overall experience. Based on our long-term research and experience on Apple's recommended games, we have summarized some aspects that we think the Apple editorial team prioritizes: (1) The art is very exquisite or has a unique style and artistic feel (2) Innovative and interesting gameplay mechanisms or theme packaging (3) Interactive feedback, animation effects and other details are smooth and comfortable (4) The developer’s values are “trustworthy” and there is no precedent for violating Apple’s terms and conditions. (5) Ability to better balance player experience and commercial revenue (6) Use more technologies provided by Apple (GameCenter, iCloud, ReplayKit, 3DTouch, etc.) (7) Exclusive to Apple platform or prioritized for a period of time (8) High-quality multilingual localization 5. What is “large screen banner recommendation”? There are two types of large screen banners: (1) The large carousel banner at the top of the AppStore homepage This is the most prominent and direct recommendation position after opening the AppStore, used to push Apple’s most important content. Generally, there will be 5-6 picture carousels every week, and there may be 2-3 related to games, including the launch, update, promotional activities and game specials of a single game. This position is the top resource recommended by Apple, and is usually only offered to key game releases from the world's top game companies. From the rise of mobile games in 2013 to now, Chinese teams have launched an astronomical number of games, but only a handful of them have received this recommended position. After a review, there are only these: "Ski Safari" (Youdaoyi), "Shadow Blade" (NetEase), "Happy Match 3" (Happy Elements), "Thief" (British Zeptolab/Youdaoyi), "Implode" (Taiwanese Rayark/Longyuan), "Fantasy Westward Journey" (NetEase), "Kung Fu Panda Prologue" (NetEase), "Super Phantom Cat" (Veewo), "Revelation of God" (Happy Elements), and "Soda World" (Soul World). If there is any omission, please leave a message to let me know, thank you very much. Regarding the display effect of this large banner, I have seen a saying called "millions per day", but in fact Apple will not disclose the specific numbers in the background. Based on the data from our Soda World and other games, it is indeed possible to reach millions of clicks. If we follow the conventional CPC advertising price of a few cents per click, a week of large banner display is equivalent to advertising display worth millions of yuan. It can really be said that we were "born with a silver spoon in our mouth." (2) The large carousel banner at the top of the game category page Select "Category" - "All Games" from the AppStore homepage to enter the game recommendation page. At this time, the carousel at the top will be full of game recommendations. There will be 6-8 carousels every week, which will definitely include the content that has already been rotated on the homepage, and additional recommendations for new games or updates that are ranked relatively high. There are naturally more games that have received this recommendation position. Many games will say in their PR drafts that they have been recommended by Apple’s large-screen banner, and they often refer to this position. But in fact, the value of this banner is much lower than that of the homepage. According to the classic web page jump theory, the number of views will drop by an order of magnitude with each level of page depth, so the actual effect of this banner is also an order of magnitude lower than that of the homepage. 6. What is “Excellent New Game Recommendation”? Although large banners are eye-catching, they have a disadvantage that there are too few of them and the carousel display is also limited, so many users scroll down without looking closely. Therefore, the "Excellent New Games" column is actually the most concerned column for players who actively look for games, and naturally becomes the most important part of Apple's recommendations. Generally, there will be 16-20 excellent new games recommended every week, and the top-ranked games will have the opportunity to receive additional large-screen banner display. Since this column needs to be scrolled horizontally to browse, the number of views decreases from the front to the back. The top three titles that are directly visible on the first screen have the best effect. As long as the icon and name are good, they can also reach more than one million clicks per day. During the recommendation week, the download list can at least be maintained in the Top 30. If the subject matter is popular, the gameplay is contagious, and there are other promotional resources, it is easy to rise to the Top 10. Recommended positions between 4 and 10 are also good. Most players will actively browse to find topics or categories that interest them, and they can usually maintain a position in the top 50-100 on the download list. Since the positions after 10th place are relatively late, many players will not have the patience to see the end, and the average number of clicks will be significantly reduced. The specific position of the recommendation is automatically ranked based on Apple's rating system, so not only must it be recommended, but it must also be ranked as high as possible to achieve the best results. 7. What is “theme activity recommendation”? This concept is rather broad, referring to the thematic recommendation positions that Apple will launch from time to time. Some are fixed, and some are temporary. They usually get better positions and are very effective. The fixed "Weekly Free App" position must be a game that has been on the shelves for a while and has always been a paid download. Then this week it becomes a free download, similar to the "limited time free" concept, so the download volume is also very large. As far as I can remember, it seems that only Lemon Sauce's "Light Chasers" from the Chinese team has received this recommendation position. This may be because Chinese teams rarely develop paid download games... The series of horizontal banners alongside the weekly free position are usually additional supplementary positions for other recommended games of the week, for more display. The theme activities that are frequently promoted recently include "1 yuan newbie gift package" and "50% off or less for selected games", and both are given very high positions. The 1 yuan gift package is aimed at the regional markets of Alternative Tier A payment points (i.e. 1 yuan payment points). There are one-time high-value gift packages for novices in the game. The 50% off promotion is for paid games that are already on sale and is on limited-time promotion. There are some larger-scale events, such as the 2014 Apps for (RED) anti-AIDS theme event, the 2016 Monkey Year Spring Festival theme event, and the theme that supports iOS9's new feature 3D Touch. New events appear every once in a while. Usually the games that participate in such activities are the best of the best that have received various recommendations. 8. What is “Best Updated Game Recommendation”? The row of fixed recommendations near the middle of the homepage must be games that have just undergone a major version update. Most of them will be excellent new games of a certain week, and some may not have contacted Apple when they were first launched, but the game quality and market performance are very good. When they contact Apple again, since they can no longer recommend new games, they can consider updating the recommendations. However, judging from the performance on the list, the effect of this recommendation position is still slightly worse than the recommendation of new games. First, it is better for new games to be positioned higher, and second, there is always motivation to try new games. After all, updates are just optimizations and additional content, and there will be no essential changes to the original experience, so players will naturally pay less attention to it. 9. What is “Special Game Recommendation”? Apple has launched many game special topics, such as "Chinese Independent Game Masterpieces", "Lightweight Games to Play Anytime", "Race Against Time", "Foodie Games", "Cat Games", "Big-Name Games", etc., packaging and recommending games with certain commonalities. Usually an issue is released every two weeks, and there is often a large screen banner to inform you of the release, so the overall number of views is very high. Since the games in the theme have certain commonalities, once a player particularly likes this theme, he will download multiple or even all of them. Moreover, the AppStore has an entrance to browse previous topics, so players often look for their favorite games in these topics. Many games selected for special recommendations have never been recommended as new games. They may be actively searched for by the editorial team after determining the topic. Judging from the experience of some special topics that have been selected for Soul World games, special topic recommendations will have a stable certain amount of views every day and bring new downloads, which is a very effective way of long-term exposure. 10. What is “Popular Game Recommendation”? There is usually a recommendation column at the bottom, which recommends games that have been online for a while. The criteria for judging this recommendation position is difficult to summarize. It is definitely not based entirely on the number of downloads, as that would turn it into a download list; but it must also take downloads and user feedback into consideration, otherwise it cannot be called a "popular game." So I guess the editing team downloaded the better games from each category, and selected the games they liked and recommended before to expose them again. Due to its relatively low location, the number of views is average. Users who like the “hot” feature are more inclined to look at the rankings. 11. What is “game category recommendation”? Except for the recommendation positions that can be accessed directly from the AppStore homepage, other recommendation positions can be called category recommendations. For example, when you enter the "All Games" page, you will see "More Editors' Favorite Games" and "Previous Editors' Recommendations"; when you enter each specific game category, you will see "New Product Recommendations" and "Currently Popular" columns. In fact, when you enter the category page, the so-called recommended position is likely to be automatically recommended by the AppStore background algorithm. For example, the "paid" and "free" lists on the category page are arranged in reverse order of the time of online release. That is, if a game has just been launched, you will definitely see the corresponding icon listed on it in the corresponding category. And because these pages are too deep, the actual exposure effect they bring is almost negligible. So it’s ridiculous to see some manufacturers use screenshots like this to claim that they are recommended by Apple… 12. What are some websites where I can view recommended information? The best one is https://www.appannie.com/, highly recommended . It is free to view the update nodes and ranking performance of all apps. By comparing them with some public promotional information of the games, you can review and analyze a lot of information. In addition, you can also pay to see more accurate user data and revenue data for some games, which is also worthwhile if you want to conduct in-depth research on a certain category or a competitor. 13. How to get Apple’s global recommendation? Apple's recommendations in different countries around the world are not exactly the same. This should be because the editorial teams in each region have a certain degree of autonomy to choose games that are more suitable for the local area for recommendation. The English section is the most extensive and the selection is more consistent, but the Japanese section often has very unique selections. Therefore, if you want to get recommendations in more regions, the game theme, style, gameplay, UI, etc. must be as globally applicable as possible, and the game itself and store materials must support multiple language versions. Therefore, it is very difficult to obtain Apple's global recommendation, which is almost equivalent to a large-screen banner on the homepage. When we were preparing for the 2016 San Francisco GDC presentation, we sorted out the Chinese team games that have been recommended by Apple globally (more than 100 countries and regions) since 2015. There are only 8: "Block Adventure" (Lemon Sauce), "Flower Moon" (NetEase), "Let's Go Caroline" (Soul World), "Carp" (Teammate Game), "Block Cat" (Collider Factory/Soul World), "Time Travel" (Cool Hacker Technology/Soul World), "Rampage Brick" (Cool House/Soul World), and "Super Phantom Cat" (Veewo). If there is any omission, please leave a message to let me know :) With 1 self-developed game and 3 released games, Soul World accounts for half of the global recommendations from the Chinese team. This may be the biggest achievement of Soul World in the past year. Just like what we said during our GDC speech, Chinese teams are not only good at copying and cheating people out of money, they can also make excellent games that are innovative, sophisticated and fun. This year, Soul World will continue to bring excellent Chinese games to players around the world through self-research and development + agency distribution. 14. What is the time distribution of traffic recommended by Apple? I'll just post a picture. It shows the daily download volume of one of our games during the recommendation week. The specific numbers are hidden, but you can see the trend. After the recommended update on Friday, the download volume will surge to a very high level on that day, then reach the peak on Saturday and remain at the same level on Sunday. After Monday, the download volume will drop until the recommended update is released next week. Therefore, the effect of recommending a new game reaches its climax as soon as it goes online. At this time, the R&D team and the operation team need to work closely together, keep an eye on the game performance at all times, pay attention to player feedback, quickly solve problems when they are discovered, and lay a solid foundation for the game during the recommendation period. 15. How to achieve better market performance after being recommended by Apple? The first is to increase the direct conversion rate brought by recommendations. Optimize the name and icon to increase the click volume of the recommended position; optimize the preview video, preview screenshots, game introduction, and number of positive reviews to increase the download rate of players. The second is various indirect exposure methods. For example, if you provide game information to various media outlets to get coverage, many media outlets are more willing to report on games recommended by Apple. You can also use the copy recommended by Apple for advertising, which can effectively increase the click-through rate of ads. The third is to strive for various business cooperation in a timely manner. Such as cross-exchange with other games, or promoting the review and rating of other platforms. 16. Once you get an Apple recommendation, will it be easier to get one again? As mentioned earlier, when Apple decides whether to recommend a game, it will judge whether the developer’s values and past behavior are "trustworthy." So we speculate that when editors know that developers have been recommended and have a good credit record, they will indeed have more trust and may give priority to reviewing and recommending. I think this is understandable. It is not an unspoken rule or unfairness, and it will not lower the review standards. If the game is not good enough, it will still not have a chance. In other words, this function is to ensure an effective communication mechanism so that subsequent new games will not be missed in the review. After all, editors may have to face hundreds of new games every day. 17. Some people claim that you can buy Apple recommendations with money. Is this credible? Don't believe it, he must be a liar. Three reasons: can’t, dare not, and don’t have to. Apple has a very strict internal workflow, so no one person can decide which games to recommend. Apple's values and review system, once found to have accepted bribes, the penalty is very high - dare not Apple's stable high salary, benefits, and reputation allow employees to work long-term and earn income without having to And when they say you can buy it with money, they often say "you'll only pay if it works, and no money if it doesn't". This is actually the same as selling "secrets to having a boy". According to the probability, there will always be a chance of success, so you just sit back and collect the money. So don’t believe it. In short, Apple recommends that product experience should be the first priority rather than commercial priority. This is a very rare persistence, which has played a strong positive role in the healthy development of the game industry, and also brings more survival opportunities to small and medium-sized teams. So keep innovating, keep making high-quality games, and you will surely succeed! ASO optimization service click link: ASO optimization service introduction IOS accelerated review click link: //www.opp2.com/8854.html APP Top Promotion (www.opp2.com) is the top mobile APP promotion platform in China. Welcome to follow our official WeChat public account: appganhuo [Scan the top APP promotion WeChat QR code to get more dry goods and explosive materials] |
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