Managing and Marketing Your App - Introducing iOS 8 (2015)

Introducing iOS 8 (2015)

Chapter 12. Managing and Marketing Your App

In this chapter, you will learn how to track downloads, review sales figures, update your app, and improve your marketing strategy. These techniques will take your app to the next level.

Tracking Sales and Downloads

Your work isn’t over just because your app is on the App Store. Once an app is on the store, it should be managed and marketed appropriately. Monitoring downloads and sales is one of the most important metrics for your app. To monitor downloads and sales, you can use the Sales and Trends section inside iTunes Connect.

The Sales and Trends section is updated everyday around 8 A.M. PST with the prior day’s data. When you open the Sales and Trends section, a large graph will appear mapping the total number of units (downloads) for the specified time period. To view sales and revenue, click the Proceeds tab, and the graphs will update accordingly. You can also view your most popular territories and countries. This information can be especially helpful for translating and updating your app. The platform section of Sales and Trends will show you the device types used to download your app. You can export the data to CSV or XLS format using the small down arrow button in the upper-right corner. You can view daily, weekly, monthly, annual, and even lifetime reports containing your app statistics by clicking the drop-down menu in the upper-left corner and selecting Reports.

Payments and Financial Reports

iTunes Connect will also provide monthly reports containing total earnings and payments. These reports are more accurate than Sales and Trends, but are only calculated every month. You can view up to two years of payment history. Apple also provides detailed earnings reports; these can be helpful during end-of-the-year tax calculations. To view the earnings and payment reports, click the “Payments and Financial Reports” section from the iTunes Connect home screen.

The Summary tab will show a breakdown of reported earnings for the previous month. The breakdown will include the total app sales for each country. Also, the “Payments and Amounts Owed” section will display the last payment made and the calculated amount for the upcoming payment. You can use the Trends graph at the bottom of the screen to map and track your payments month by month.

The Earnings tab will provide a breakdown of each country’s revenue and downloads for each month. The country’s revenue will be listed in the country’s native currency. Click the Download button to download a financial report. The Owed tab will show the total revenue earned for each country and convert it into your local currency, i.e., US Dollars. The total amount owed for your next payment will be listed in the upper-right corner of the screen. This number is not final and will likely change before the payment date. Any products returned to Apple will be deducted from future payment. The payment amount shown already takes into consideration Apple’s 30% commission on all sales.

The Payments tab shows detailed revenue, tax, and exchange rates. Payments take place 30 days after the month has ended. For example, January’s earnings will be paid in the first week of March, February’s earnings in the first week of April, etc.

Crashes

Your application may have bugs or not behave as expected in some cases. iTunes Connect provides customers’ crash reports to the developer. These crash reports can be used to help locate and identify bugs inside your app. To view the crash report for a particular app, open the My Apps section of iTunes Connect. Next, click the desired app and then scroll to the bottom of the app listing. Under Additional Information, you will find Crash Reports. Click Download Report, and a .crash file will be provided. Double-click the .crash file to analyze the crash in Xcode.

Reviews

Nothing is more important than listening to your customers’ feedback. The App Store reviews are a place where users can provide one to five stars and a brief description of your app. To view the reviews for your app, open the My Apps section in iTunes Connect. Select the desired app and then click Reviews at the top of the listing. The reviews will be displayed for the current version and separated by country. Change the country by using the drop-down menu in the upper-right corner. Read each customer’s review and take into consideration what consumers like or dislike as a whole. Don’t let one positive or negative review dictate your app. However, customer reviews should be the primary factor in determining what updates should be made to the app.

Updating Your App

While your app is on the store, you will learn more about your app. Your app will need to evolve to keep users happy. Updating your app is free for anyone who downloaded or purchased a previous version. There are many reasons to update your apps. For example, you might have new features, bug fixes, interface updates, etc. Adding a new version to your app is very similar to submitting your app to the App Store. App updates still follow the same review process as the first version.

App Updates and MetaData Changes

To add a new version, open the My Apps section of iTunes Connect and click the desired app. Click the New Version button in the upper-right corner of the screen. The new version detail page will be displayed. Fill out the new version number, i.e., 1.1, 1.2, and click Create. Then fill out the app listing information as you normally would. Be sure to fill out the “What’s New in This Version” section. This message will be displayed in the Updates tab inside the App Store app.

Most app listing information can only be changed when an updated version is provided. Use this time to fix any errors in your app listing and make changes to your app’s keywords and title if necessary. Once you are done, click Save and then “Submit for Review.” Answer the legal and encryption questions, and you are ready to upload your updated version.

Promo Codes

Just because your app is listed on the App Store doesn’t mean people will organically find it. To help potential costumers find your app, Apple provides promo codes. Promo codes are used to provide free access to a paid application. This can be extremely helpful when asking a blogger to review your app. You can request up to 100 promo codes for each version of your app. To request promo codes, open the My Apps section inside iTunes Connect. Click the desired app and then scroll to the bottom and click Promo Codes. The promo code page will appear. Enter the total number of promo codes you would like to generate and click Continue. Review the agreement and check if you agree; then click Continue. Click the blue Download button and a .txt file with the promo codes will be provided.

Analytics

The “Sales and Trends” section of iTunes Connect only provides download and revenue information. It would be helpful to understand how consumers are actually using your application. What buttons are they pressing? How long is the app being used? Do the users come back after they use the app the first time? All of these questions have valuable answers that will help you understand how your app is performing. Additional analytics packages are available from a variety of third-party sites. These services will provide a small snippet of code to go in your app. Once the snippet is added to your app, the analytics company will start collecting information about how your users behave. None of the information collected by the analytics provider will identify the user. The data collected is more detailed than the statistics provided by Apple in Sales and Trends.

Check out these free analytics providers:

§ http://www.flurry.com

§ http://www.google.com/analytics/mobile/

§ http://www.mixpanel.com

Vanity URLs

You can create a link to your app in the App Store using Vanity URLs. Vanity URLs are used to create a memorable link to your app. They are extremely helpful in print advertising and for audio advertisements. To create a Vanity URL, take the company name or app name and append it to AppStore.com. For example, http://www.appstore.com/instagram will link directly to Instagram on the App Store. Be sure to remove all spaces from the name and replace ampersands with and.

One More Thing

Congratulations, you made it! I hope you had fun on this journey from idea to App Store. But the journey is not over, this is just the beginning. Keep pushing the limits of your knowledge; the best way to learn something is to study something you want to learn. For example, want to learn more about Core Bluetooth? Check the documentation and try some Sample Code.

Remember, there will be tough times and fun times, but it is all worth it in the end. You will get stuck on a bug or issue, and it might feel like it is impossible to fix. These days are numbered, so just keep pushing and trying new things. Never give up. Before you know it, you will be laughing about the whole thing. You won’t ever forget the solution to that issue again either.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish