What are Pre/Post App Store Tests?
A pre/post App Store test is the practise of testing a creative asset on an App Store page and measuring its impact on mobile marketing and growth KPIs before placement and after, with the aim of improving a specific metric. Any metadata can be tested including screenshot, video, icon, title etc.
Why Pre/Post App Store Tests are Important?
It might sound like a simple process but it’s very complicated and it certainly has its challenges.
Let’s talk about the limitations this type of testing has. If we take measuring the impact on installs as an example, there are many various factors over time that could affect install rates in the store itself such as app ranking, user acquisition (UA) spend, featuring placement or even day of the week and seasonality. It’s imperative to take all those factors (and countless more) that might have changed, into consideration when analyzing the pre period and the post period. Comparisons can’t be made in a vacuum (all influences must be taken into account) which makes pre/post testing extremely challenging for conducting an efficient test that results in valid, usable conclusions.
There are ways to minimize the basing of a whole marketing strategy on a pre/post test that may have produced inaccurate findings. The most basic of which is that once the changed asset is uploaded to the real stores, its impact should be monitored over the course of at least two weeks following the change and compare it to the previous two weeks that had the old asset. In addition, keeping as much as possible on the page the same for consistency, especially any marketing and AU efforts, will produce more accurate findings.
Pre/Post App Store Tests and ASO
Devising a strategy and deciding which creative assets to put on an app’s product page all based on guesswork goes against the pillars of ASO. Which makes testing very important and using pre/post tests as the sole tool to collect learnings on user behavior isn’t the most effective (and is considered one of the hardest) in the industry.
It’s vital for ASO teams to address the limitations of this testing methodology so they can build on what it can do but use other forms of testing (such as A/B) to cover what it can’t do. Using pre/post App Store testing can validate that a change has resulted in better performance, but only if all other considerations and factors are taken into account.
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