I am a complete newbie when it comes to the google play store so I was hoping someone could give me some advice. About a week ago I released my first android application to the store and since then its gotten practically no downloads. I still can’t find it by searching for the name and it never appeared in the new and updated section (I thought this was where all new games appear but apparently not). I’m confused as to how I should go about advertising the game when it has zero visibility on the store? Does anyone have any advice or tips for a first time developer for android devices?
Here is the game in question:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.StringTheory.HalfSuitHero1
When you search for “half suit hero”, Google returns all the apps that use the word “half”, “suit” and “hero”, then sorts them by popularity of both the app and the word. Your app is being drowned in a sea of older more popular apps that use the word “hero” in some way. Google Play search is terrible for people searching for something they know the name of that isn’t already popular.
Advertising encourages people to download the app by linking them directly to the app’s page in the store because they’ll never find it by searching for it. If you can get enough people to download the app and give it a good rating in a short enough time then Google will reward your app by pushing it higher in the results for words like “hero”.
It’s very hard to get anywhere on Google Play these days, unless you are willing to put cash into advertising at launch, you have a large number of Facebook/Twitter friends, or you are lucky enough to already have an established app to boost your new app.
Google gives you a 30 day window after launch to promote the app. After the 30 days it gets much harder. If you do decide to advertise, then I’d suggest you delist the app and change its ID to something different like com.StringTheroy.HalfSuitHeroV2. If you then re-list it, Google will treat it like a new app and go easy on you for the next 30 days which will give your advertising more time to work.
You could try looking at some other markets besides Google Play. You won’t get as many potential downloads, but people might actually be able to find your app using the words in its name.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/android-app-stores/
Like he said… to actually find your app searching you have put it in quotes that it will look for that entire string “half suit hero”.
Getting on the top new apps list is a big plus to boosting your downloads right away. I was lucky enough to be up to top 2 in new paid games and top 5 new apps at one point with one of my games, couple years ago. My last game was in top 15 new paid games, but I was competing with Grand Theft Auto, Square Enix, EA etc, all around Christmas…