The app marketing experts at Digital Turbine often talk about the burden of discoverability. The burden of discoverability represents perhaps one of the biggest challenges facing app developers today. Unless you are fortunate enough to possess an app that has become a viral hit or a household name, your potential users may never be lucky enough to stumble across your app in the Google Play Store. In fact, if you think about it — if this is your only app marketing strategy the odds are really against you.Let’s imagine the following scenario:A smartphone owner wants to download a new game to their device to help them kill some time while flying to a business meeting in Europe. They know what they like, real-time strategy (RTS) games, but they are not sure what game they will download and so go to the Google Play Store looking for recommendations.Click #1 — Want to Stay in the Loop?As soon as the gamer enters the Play Store they are distracted by a pop-up asking if they want to be kept up-to-date with the latest news and apps. This first distraction is your first opportunity to lose a potential download. Whether the user accepts the updates from Google or not, this creates an opportunity for the device owner to reconsider their options. Do they really want more push notifications sent to their device? What were they doing in the Play Store anyway? Nevermind, they’ll look later.Click #2 — The Endless Scroll The next step of the journey is the endless scroll through the various apps Google thinks the user might be interested in. In reality, these are the apps that have been optimized within an inch of their lives — meaning their developers have thrown a ton of money at them hoping the extra visibility this affords them will result in additional downloads. This stage of the process is a bit like looking for something good to watch on Netflix. There's a lot of choices to make and this makes it almost impossible to make a decision. After several minutes of endless scrolling, there's that question again. What were they doing in the Play Store anyway? Nevermind, they’ll look later.Click #3 — Showcasing the CompetitionEven if the user gets as far as clicking on a tile to select a potential game for download, the journey is far from over. Sitting right next to that optimized listing is a ton of content that is completely out of the app developers' control. First, there are the customer reviews — and it will take just a couple of negative comments to make someone change their mind. Then there are all the links to competitive apps — and to think all that money you spent optimizing your listing is also helping to promote your competitors.Click #4 — Waiting to DownloadAfter the user has selected to download an app – you’re still not out of the woods yet. A large and lengthy download gives users plenty of time to change their mind and hit the highly visible cancel button. Hopefully, the user has the patience and the storage space on their device to see them through to installation.Click #5 — ActivationNot every distraction on the road from discoverability through to activation is the fault of the Google Play Store. Before the game can commence (and the app developer can start generating revenue through advertising or in-app purchases, you've got to get all the legal terms and conditions out of the way, creating one last opportunity for the user to change their mind.The Google Play Store WinsThe fact is, every single click, pause and moment of indecision creates opportunities for the user to abandon their search for a new game, or any other app, on their device. In fact, the only sure-fire winner with a 100% Google Play Store app marketing strategy is, you guessed it — Google.A Different Route - SingleTap™ InstallsNow let's imagine a different scenario.The same game player is presented with games recommendations via banner adverts on their favorite games. Because they already trust the app developer to deliver games the user enjoys, there is very little friction preventing them from clicking on the banner.Click #1 – The Game is InstalledThat’s it — one click and the journey is over. All that is left is for the user to enjoy their game and the developer to build on their revenue-generating ideas.The App Developer WinsSome journeys are shorter than others. To reduce the number of clicks between your app promotion and activation, talk to one of our app marketing experts today about how SingleTap™ Installs from Digital Turbine could shorten your journey to success.
