How to get featured on the App Store
Everyone wants to be featured on the iOS App Store but not everyone knows how, that’s what this article is all about 🤔. Part conjecture, part experience but mostly fact.
Since Phil Schiller was put in charge of the store we’ve seen gradual improvements to both the store and to iTunes Connect. “Best New Apps” are updated every day, review times are down to one day, search algorithms are better and Bloomberg reports that there is a secret team of 100 people working on store improvements. Exciting times.
What does this have to do with being featured 😮? Well if Apple are concentrating on improving all aspects of the store one could assume that this means they want more people to use the store to find apps. If more people are using the store to find apps then the best way to boost your downloads is to be featured. Right?
Being featured in my eyes means being in the top “Featured” carousel on the first screen of the App Store, but can be also be “Top Charts”, “Explore”, or “Editorial Selections”.
Why bother getting featured? According to App Annie’s May Report a feature for a game can lead to a 140% increase in downloads and for non-games to a 25% increase.
In my experience getting listed in “Editorial Selections” can boost downloads much more than 25% but it is dependent on the list and the country. Being in an editorial selection in Indonesia doesn’t get much uplift but “Best New Apps” in the USA did.
For me, being featured is a goal to aim for. This goal can be broken down into a set of targets. Potential targets being: support for CloudKit, iOS 10 or streaming music with the Apple Music API. The main things I want to get from being featured are: 💯 from Apple, bragging rights over my mates, brand awareness, and a better relationship with Apple. Ideally the better relationship will lead to early access to new features, and invites to tech talks or labs.
How to get featured? The best source of information on this is Apple. They have an article on the types of features as well as one on making the most of the App Store. Session 4 and 12 from the iOS 7 talks are about App Store distribution and marketing, as is Session 11 from the TV talks.
“Featured apps all have one thing in common — they offer unique value to users. We look for high-quality apps across all categories, with a particular focus on new apps and apps with significant updates.”
If you consume all of that information you’ll learn that there aren’t set requirements for picking apps but there are consistent guidelines which say:
- Your app needs to be great, which is easier said then done.
- The user experience should be top notch and adhere to the iOS HIG.
- Implement high quality localisations.
- Build a universal app (with universal purchase if you have a tvOS app).
- Make it fantastic for first time users.
- Performance matters: they check for crashes, slow loading and freezes.
- Write a compelling product page: video, screenshots, a good name, and a quality description.
- Market your app.
- Use the correct business model: freemium, free or paid.
- Have good App Store Optimisation(ASO): app name, keywords, and category.
- They focus on new apps and apps with significant updates
- They like seasonal content: Halloween, Chinese New Year, Sausage Tossing…
“There is no paid placement or checklist of requirements — our editors base their decisions on a variety of factors, all of which amount to a great product that users will love.”
That’s what Apple is telling us but what are they not telling us? Apple sell hardware, that’s their primary business at the moment. They also have a sideline in software. It isn’t too large a leap from there to say that they are looking for apps that show off their hardware and show off new features of their operating systems.
If you help them do that then you’re increasing your likelihood of being picked. When they present new updates they have selected partner apps in their keynotes and guides. The store also has special categories to highlight apps for new features or hardware.
Once that’s all in place and you’ve built your amazing product the next step is to contact apple. They give two ways of doing this: by e-mail or by form. The e-mail addresses are AppStorePromotion@apple.com and AppoftheWeek@apple.com, the second address is to make paid apps available for free. The form can be found on their developer site. If you don’t fancy contacting them you can always cross your fingers and hope they pick up your release organically.
However if you do fancy contacting them they have a list of info they’d like:
- Your name.
- Your e-mail address.
- Your phone number.
- Type of submission: New app, update, App of the Week.
- App Name.
- App ID.
- Version Number.
- Binary Type: iPhone, iPad, Universal, tvOS.
- Primary category.
- Countries releasing to.
- Localisations.
- Description of your app.
Most of this is pretty clear. The description is a place where you can talk about the Apple tech you use, the hardware and anything that you think makes your app different from everyone else’s. If you plan on doing any marketing as part of your launch you should mention that as well and it might be good to include a roadmap.
Another thing said in a few places is to contact them 3 to 4 weeks before your launch date. Editorial picks are done on Thursdays, so aim to release on Wednesdays. Although I’m not sure if this is still applicable now that (some of) the editorial categories update daily.
What’s next? Well unless Apple plan on putting you in the “Featured” carousel they probably won’t contact you. Also iTunes Connect will give no indication of you being featured. So how do you know of your great achievement? You could log in to all the different stores every day and check or you can use 3rd party tools that check for you. App Annie and Sensor Tower are two I use to track store performance and check for features.
If Apple do think you’re worthy of being in the carousel expect a follow up e-mail from them asking for more details, your roadmap or potentially you might get an e-mail from iTunes Connect asking to upload artwork. Fill them all out, sit back and see what happens.
In theory that’s how it all works in practice it’s worked slightly differently for me. A style revamp got featured in Best New Apps in the USA. A feature in the Italian store was achieved as well as some editorial picks in different regions. On the back of a watchOS app came the watch labs. After messing around with tvOS came the dev TV followed by an invite to the tech talks. Contacts developed at the talks have led to further meetings which have led to a better relationship with Apple. 🤗. The quest continues…
Further reading on how to get featured:
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