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App Store榜单冻结不再是市场营销机遇

发布时间:2013-12-27 15:31:40 Tags:,,,,

iTunes App Store冻结(游戏邦注:即当应用排行在某段时期,通常是在圣诞节期间停止刷新时)长期以来都是应用市场上最让人兴奋也是最受关注的事件。但是今年,我们却可以确切地说它不仅不如往年那样重要,而且可以说是完全不相干的事件了。

回首过去

有好几年,2009年和2010年期间,App Store冻结可以说是应用市场最大的发展机遇。在冻结前,适时的广告闪电战甚至能将一款应用推向排行榜的最顶端。当排行不再变化时,市场营销者将减少广 告消费并免费地待在排行榜上方好几天,同时惊喜地看着下载量不断攀升。特别是当冻结与圣诞节撞到了一起时,许多拥有新手机的用户将涌向应用商店下载游戏和应用,所以这时候在排行榜最顶端的优势就比往常突出许多。

App Store freeze(from indiegamemag)

App Store freeze(from indiegamemag)

但是这种情境却并未持续下去。在2011年和2012年,冻结的时间变得越来越短——在去年甚至只有8个小时。如此“免费”待在排行榜顶端的优势就变得不再那么有价值了,所以到达那个位置的成本也就不再那么高了(游戏邦注:假期期间应用的市场营销总是会变得更加昂贵)。

消失的机遇

除了冻结持续时间的缩减外,App Store的运行也发生了很大的变化(并因此导致今年的冻结变成一个无效事件)。直到最近,App Store上的排名还是每隔15分钟更新一次。为了确保是否冻结,我们一直等待着,直至看到连续3次更新都没变化——一个窗口持续大约31分钟。

现在,作为苹果对于App Store行为做出的改变的一部分,排名变成每三个小时更新一次。这便意味着我们需要等待6个小时才能确认是否冻结。需要注意的是,去年的冻结时间总共才8小时!现在要是被你注意到冻结了,它也差不多结束了。

当然了,也没有任何证据能够说明今年的冻结也将是8小时:从去年看来每年似乎都在缩短冻结时间,但苹果也有可能突然扔给应用开发者一个幸运球。但在确认是否冻结前的6个小时延迟表明,任何额外的排行榜攀升努力都很难取得成功。

还有一件事

以防你还留着侥幸心理去尝试着计算时间,还有另外一个原因将说服你放弃。也就是后端的应用排行计算与App Store所呈现的结果其实是不同的。

从技术上来看,冻结只是前端的冻结:即用户浏览到的最高应用排行榜停止变化。但是在背后,计算着每个应用排行的算式仍然在更新着。

如此所造成的影响便在于,在冻结期间暂停应用市场营销活动将拉长你与竞争者之间的距离,应用后端算式将注意到你的应用获得较少的下载量。这时候,当前端再次恢复更新时,你的应用排行便会急剧下降——恰恰在你不想要它这么做的时候。

最后,不要将iTunes Connect停工与App Store冻结混淆。Connect关闭只会影响到开发者,而非用户,即在关闭期间开发者不能提交更新或改变应用描述,像今年的关闭持续时间是从12月21日到12月27日。这对于最高排行榜的排名没有影响。

你应该做些什么?

假期期间的应用市场营销具有较高的风险,并需要一些特别的计划。对于如何应对这种情况,你可以看看《Top Tips and Techniques for Holiday App Marketing》这本免费的电子书。此外你还必须记住在今年,你无需为此过多费心,因为App Store冻结已经不再是一种有效的市场营销机遇了。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Apple’s App Store freeze is finally irrelevant

by Fiksu

The iTunes App Store freeze — when app rankings stop moving for a period of time, traditionally right around Christmas — has long been a cause for both excitement and concern among app marketers. This year, we can confidently say that it’s not just less important than it used to be: It’s downright irrelevant.

Looking back

For a few years, in 2009 and 2010, the App Store freeze was a glorious opportunity for app marketers. A well-timed advertising blitz could push an app to the top of the charts just before the freeze. As soon as the ranks stopped changing, marketers would cut their ad spend and enjoy a free stay at the top of the charts for days — and watch with glee as downloads piled up. Since the freeze coincided with Christmas, loads of people with new phones would be heading to the app store to load up on games and apps, so those spots at the top of the charts were even more valuable than usual.

But this situation didn’t last. In 2011 and 2012, the freeze got shorter and shorter — down to about eight hours last year. That “free” stay at the top of the charts was suddenly much less valuable, so the increased costs of getting there — app marketing is always more expensive near the holidays — were harder to justify.

The vanishing opportunity

Beyond the shrinking duration of the freeze itself, there’s been another critical change in how the App Store works that’s made this year’s freeze into a non-event. Until fairly recently, rankings in the App Store updated every 15 minutes. To be sure of a freeze, we waited until we saw three updates in a row with no movement — a window of about 31 minutes.

Now, as a part of changes Apple’s been making to App Store behavior, rankings only update every three hours. That means it would take just over six hours to confirm a freeze. Remember, last year’s freeze was eight hours total! By the time you noticed a freeze, it’d be over.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that this year’s freeze will be eight hours: it’s gotten shorter every year for the last four years, but Apple does like to throw the occasional curveball at app developers. But with a six-hour delay before you can verify that a freeze is in place, it’s very unlikely that any kind of extraordinary chart-climbing effort will pay off.

And one more thing

Just in case you’re still thinking about trying to time it just right, there’s yet another reason not to gamble. This reason hinges on the difference between the app ranking calculations on the backend and what’s displayed in the App Store.

The freeze is technically only a front-end freeze: the Top Charts visible to users browsing the App Store stop moving. Behind the scenes, though, the algorithms that calculate exactly where each app ranks continue to update throughout the freeze.

The net impact is that pausing app marketing campaigns during the freeze will drop you further behind your competition as the algorithms notice fewer downloads of your app. When the front end is once again updated, your app could suddenly drop — at exactly the time you don’t want it to.

Finally, don’t confuse the iTunes Connect shutdown with the App Store freeze. The Connect shutdown only impacts developers, not users, as you won’t be able to submit updates or make changes to your app description and details during the shutdown, which runs from Dec. 21 to Dec. 27 this year. That makes no difference to how the Top Charts behave.

What should you do?

App marketing during the holidays is a high-stakes affair and demands some specialized planning. For detailed tips on how to approach it, check out the free e-book Top Tips and Techniques for Holiday App Marketing. But keep in mind that this year, there’s one less thing you have to worry about: The App Store freeze is no longer a marketing opportunity.(source:venturebeat)


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