How To Get Excellent Mobile App Ratings

You’ve created an excellent app, but the release ratings in Google Play and App Store are coming at a trickle, downloads are hard to come by and the review section is as lively as a nightclub at lunch.

Before further disturbances break out around you, let us give you eight pieces of advice to answer the frequently asked questions on what you can do to improve your app ratings, or at least how to get more user ratings.

Get Creative With Your App Rating Prompt

In the digital world, even when you have a great product, the prompt rating copy within the app can determine the success or failure of your product.

When writing copy for your app prompt, we recommend you to focus on the following questions:

• Who is reading this? Ask yourself in this matter how your app users like to be addressed and point out the added value that the app is bringing to them.
• What did the app users do before the prompt appears and what are they doing next? Provide some orientation as users want to navigate through the app smoothly. Think also of what you would like them to do next in relation to your goals.
• How do I want the users’ overall experience to feel? Generally said, the more natural your copy sounds, the better the results you’ll get.

Choose The Perfect Timing For The App Rating

The greatest prompt in the world won’t do any good if you use it at the wrong time. Find the right moment to ask, but accept that this moment will be different for each app.

A good time to ask for an app rating is when users have been using the app for a few weeks and become acquainted with the functions of the app. A pop up for a rating must appear at the latest when it seems that the app users have tried the majority of the app functions or navigated through most of the parts of the app.

For instance, look at Tinder. The dating app often asks for a rating right after you matched with a potential date which is the height of the experience curve for the app.

Encourage Unhappy App Users To Send Feedback Instead Of An App Rating

App users can be dissatisfied with any negative thing that is happening in your app. To ensure good average ratings, don’t encourage them to leave ratings for your app. Ask users if they are satisfied with your app and ask the dissatisfied users in the prompt app copy for a feedback via an email, chat or a survey.

Target Users Who Left A Poor Rating On The App Store

If you’ve added the feature users requested in the review section, or solved whatever bothered them with your app, you can ask them (only) in the Google Play Store to review or rate your app again.

Ask Users To Rate Your App Outside Of The App Stores

Maybe this seems obvious, but just as an important reminder: You can ask users to rate your app via social media or blog posts, either as a stand-alone blog post or just integrate it into a post on your blog.

Integrate Rating Requests Into Your App

Pop-ups can be annoying, but when used at the right time, you have a better chance of getting users to leave a review or rating for your app. That said, if you don’t want to use a pop-up, you can add a “rate the app” option in the menu of your app.

Building An App Users Love Is Important

To consistently get good ratings and reviews for your apps, you need to build your app to the point where poor ratings are an unfathomable event. Providing excellent support and considering user feedback matters too.

Additionally, putting your app with all its functions to the acid test before or after the next app release helps to detect bugs and avoid negative reviews. Have a look in this matter at our free ebook “The Essential Guide to Mobile App Testing,” where we explain to you the advantages of “functional testing”.

Get Started To Get Positive App Ratings

Try the tactics above and stick with what works for your app. But never stop testing. That’s how your app builds momentum. That’s how you get downloads. That’s how you get good ratings and reviews.

So to get started, think: - Which of the tips above does my app need most? - Which tip does it need right now? - When is the best time to improve your app ratings and reviews?