Is it useful to manipulate the rankings on APP?

In recent months, the trend of manipulating the rankings of apps has become increasingly serious. Why are so many companies and apps so keen on manipulating the rankings? There is even a saying in the industry that "the best channel is to manipulate the rankings." How should this sentence be understood? wwone, a reader of Apple Software Park who just resigned, revealed to us the things behind the ranking manipulation as a "veteran". On one side is the "fire pit", and on the other side is the current situation of "there are no cards at all, how can you play Texas Hold'em", how should developers choose?

I just resigned and my old employer happened to be caught in a bloody storm again. Let me put it this way, I was previously in charge of the marketing of the mobile game department of a well-known domestic company (to avoid suspicion of soft articles, this name is omitted). This company’s mobile games…are very profitable, but have poor reputation. In fact, to put it bluntly, it is about those things about APPs manipulating the rankings. I guess someone in the industry already knows which company it is. For this purpose, I specially registered a pseudonym to speak here, so I don’t have to use my regular ID, in case someone finds out.

In fact, what I want to say is that APP ranking manipulation is really useful, and the so-called ranking manipulation is not as simple as the rumors outside.

I don’t really want to work in the mobile game industry, it’s quite boring. The work is mechanized and very tiring. But if there are still people who want to jump into the fire pit, I will talk about a few tricks here. You can use it for yourself. Don’t thank me if it works, and don’t blame me if it doesn’t.

1. Mobile game promotion is all about brushing the charts

Don't believe in concepts, especially those related to products and designs. In the current mobile game market, those who invest in those areas are either big guys with plenty of money or money-losing ones. Stable small products, especially those that have been proven in the web game market, are still the main source of mobile game profits.

Don't believe that the iPhone can revive stand-alone devices. Do you believe that if you make a stand-alone game, even the channel distributors will not be willing to take it? A web-based online game that requires little operation and social interaction and focuses on numbers and consumption guidance. If you pay attention to promotion, basically everything will survive.

In terms of promotion, mobile games are all about brushing the charts. Word-of-mouth communication is all bullshit. Without data, everything is zero. Without the swiped data, there would be no spontaneous recharge data from consumers. So you have to swipe it, not for investors or face, but for real users.

The ranking manipulation here does not only refer to the App Store. Baidu Index is still a valid reference indicator. The bundled installation of various third-party tools, recommendations of other iOS applications, media publicity, various third-party rankings, and even ground promotion are all useful.

In fact, the people who pay us to make mobile games now are the same people who used to play web games, so they buy into this. If you don’t give consumers what they want, all the talk is nonsense.

2. Several key ranking channels and costs

The first one is definitely the App Store . I don’t need to say anything about this, it’s a must-check. It is also very convenient to brush. Apple recently adjusted its algorithm again, and the direct result is that the cost of swiping the charts has doubled recently. But the price will probably drop again in two months. Last week, the top ten in the overall ranking seemed to be 13,000, and the one-day maintenance was 15,000. My experience is that if you can get into the top ten and maintain it for three days, if the data for the game product is good, it won't drop too much in the next two days.

Time is also very important. It is recommended to brush on Thursday and make sure to be in the top ten on Friday. This is when a large number of new registered users enter the game. This should be maintained until Monday, after which there will be natural growth and loss. But as long as the product and payment are strong, the revenue will not be bad. If it is applied on Monday and the manual maintenance stops on Friday, it would be a waste of time. It is better to waste money than this.

The second is the number of games distributed on various gaming sites . It is the same principle as when we were developing PC games in the early years and started to build 173. It is very useful for mobile games to spread news and links on various game sites. But the mobile game website made by 173 itself did not perform very well. Because mobile games don’t pay much attention to guilds, the special area is not very useful, but news and links are still useful. There are more than 20 mobile game online media in China, and they must publish news to ensure exposure. However, since there is no dominant player, energy can be dispersed and the pursuit of quantity can be pursued. This is mainly based on face recognition. Daily media relations and business cooperation are a must. For some nodes, deployment is also a good choice.

The third is cooperation with third-party tool channels . Domestic jailbroken iPhone users are a very good user source for mobile online games and various installation tools. This is pretty much the same as Android. In fact, everyone in this industry understands this. I just want to remind you not to act noble and think that iOS is just like that. In fact, they are all the same.

The main method is to bundle the app with the tool and download it to the local PC. If users are willing to install the app on the PC, this gives them an extra option. Relatively speaking, the cost of this part is much cheaper than brushing the rankings, but it requires dedicated personnel to follow up and coordinate, which is more time-consuming. In addition, there are actually some small tricks. For example, there is a mobile phone installation tool in China called Kuaiyong Apple Assistant. Their rankings can also be brushed, and the effect is also good. I can use technical means to push the app to the top of the 24-hour hottest screen, and in three days it resulted in nearly 100,000 installations and registrations, which is quite useful. However, in terms of traffic, the old channels still have a larger volume overall, but they are diluted due to the large number of projects; for new channels like Kuaiyong, whoever comes first will benefit, and if other new channels emerge in the future, the cost of the original channels will also increase.

The fourth type is the limited-free recommended APPs , which are some of the more famous ones in China. They have the best fun effect, but the cost is also high. The other limited-free recommended applications are also brushing the rankings. Whoever ranks higher among them will have their users referred by them rise. The built-in recommendations of some tool apps are also very effective. For example, Kingsoft Battery Doctor, although the volume is not large, the ARPU value of users coming here is good.

The fifth is the navy . In the past, we mainly browsed Weibo, Tieba forums, etc. In fact, the conversion rate can be said to be extremely low, which leads to rapid user loss, and is a bad strategy for ranking manipulation. But since it is cheap, it can be used as a supplement overall. In our previous company, the role of the water army was mainly to make the director's report look better. Anyway, I'll do the whole job, so this doesn't matter.

3. Other things to note when cheating on the rankings

Currently, ranking manipulation is the only effective and controllable way to attract users to domestic mobile games. Of course, I am talking about ranking manipulation in a broad sense. This actually makes me very unhappy. No matter what market or marketing is, it all comes down to positioning. If you have a position, you have everything. Without a position, everything else is in vain. This is also why I feel bored and want to leave this industry.

Regarding the demand for positions, my experience is that in the end it still depends on face recognition, whether it is your own platform resources or external media, and ultimately it comes down to using the boss's old face or the young face of a business girl. Another way is to actively look for new channels. New channels often bring surprises, as I mentioned above. Sometimes when there are new channels, everyone supports each other, and when they become big, everything becomes easier to discuss.

The most annoying ones are those who say “if you are not big, please don’t bother me” and always say “we are a big company and this and that”. It’s all bullshit actually. Now, apart from those few who are played by godfathers, how many people in mobile online games are not losers? Those who make money are all the same, but those who don’t make money each have their own sorrows.

In addition, after finding users and importing them into the game, monitoring and adjusting operational data is also very important, so I won’t go into details. In fact, the approach is the same as that of web games. Look at the first-time login rate, the third-time login rate, and then the weekly retention rate. If the three logins are good but the weekly retention is not good, then quickly increase the volume and continue to brush. There is still hope for the product, and we can take small steps and make it quickly. However, if the data drops sharply within a day, it is better to withdraw the orders that are used to manipulate the rankings.

You don’t even have any cards, how can you play Texas Hold’em, right?

Finally, I wish you all a happy time on the list. Making money is a small matter, but taking care of your health is a big matter. I sincerely hope so.