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Google Play Store Sends Editors’ Choice Notifications

February 9th, 2019

Google Play Store Sends Editors’ Choice Notifications
Anh Nguyen

by Anh Nguyen

COO & Co-Founder at Gummicube, Inc

Being named as an Editors’ Choice is great for an app – it places them in a distinct section on the front page of the Google Play Store to improve discoverability. The same is true for being placed on its quarterly Android Excellence list. Now, Google is even sending notifications to users on their devices to promote editorial content.

Notifications

Android users have reported receiving notifications from the Google Play Store promoting “Top 5 Photo Editing Apps.” Opening the notification leads them to a Play Store story about Editors’ Choice photo editing apps. Each app listed included information such as ratings, download count, graphics and a “why we love this” list.

Users can choose whether or not to receive these notifications when Google Play asks “Want to stay in the loop?’ We’ll let you know when new deals and updates are available.” If they opt in, they will continue to receive notifications for stories and content like the photo editing apps.

Google’s goal is to increase downloads for the apps on the store, thus increasing revenue for the developers and store alike. Users notice when their phones ping them with a notification, so it’s a good way to draw them to the store and directly to recommended apps.

Think of this as taking the Editors’ Choice section one step further. Instead of passively existing in the Play Store, it’s now actively alerting the users to its presence and notifications. Just like a call-to-action at the end of a description can give users the final push to convert, a phone notification can give them the motivation to view the Play Store and view the app.

Getting Featured

Being featured by Google Play is a great way to increase visibility and traffic. If it shows up in a user’s notifications, that can lead them directly to the app and skip past all the other potential distractions in the Play Store.

In order to be featured, an app must first be optimized. Increasing the app’s discoverability and catching users’ attention with compelling creatives is important for getting Google to notice your app, and the increased store traffic can make a strong case for the store to feature it. Getting featured in turn will improve the app’s visibility and traffic further.

The increase in visibility and downloads that comes from being featured can improve an app’s organic rankings and search visibility. The increased click-through-rate that results from the buzz around a featuring can help improve the app’s indexation within the stores. As around 70% of downloads coming directly from search, being featured can have a positive impact on the app that extends far beyond its time in the featured list.

Being featured or promoted has become more important than category rankings alone. Both Google Play and the Apple App Store have been promoting search and browse discoverability, rather than directing users to specific categories to find apps.

While Google’s notifications for Editors’ Choice apps is new, it is highly likely that it will help push downloads and views for the apps it features. The active advertising and interactions it offers may provide a large increase in downloads for the apps it advertises, so developers should ensure their App Store Optimization is up to date and ready to catch an editor’s eye.

Want more information regarding App Store Optimization? Contact Gummicube and we’ll help get your strategy started.

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