Exchanging Ratings and Reviews - helpful or harmful?

Monetizing, Advertising & Marketing Marketing Methods
1

With downloads, reviews, ratings, etc all playing a part in Google Play ranking, it seems at first that for people like myself who unfortunately don’t have any marketing budget to start with, that this could be a really helpful way to get that extra little boost when trying to get an app/game started off. I’ve been thinking about it however, and I have a couple questions about that practice that maybe experienced publishers can offer input on.

  1. Is it actually helpful, statistically speaking? I ask because the number of uninstalls is also a part of the ranking algorithm, to my understanding. Most apps/games appear to get uninstalled once rated, so the uninstalls to total installs gets worse just as fast as reviews get added. Would that not defeat the purpose?

  2. My bigger concern with it is my gut telling me it’s only time before GP drops the hammer on this practice, and hard, because it genuinely renders the reviews as meaningless, possibly even misleading to unknowing users viewing the listing. Is this something I should maintain as a valid concern? Or am I just being paranoid? lol

I’m asking for this input from experienced publishers because I would really like to get Bumble Run into at least “low gear” and not “park”. I just released it about 5 days ago, and just can’t get activity. I realize how limited I am without having a marketing budget, but need to come up with something. I’ve submitted to a number of review sites but haven’t gotten anything yet. Maybe the game is just that bad? I didn’t think so, and the people I had take it for a test spin enjoyed it, or lied to me lol

Input is very much appreciated!

Bumble Run on Google Play!

2

  1. I believe it’s more helpful than harmful. Yes, all the users that installed your app for the only purpose to rate it will uninstall it right away. Let’s say that’s 100%. But 25% of users that find your app on Google Play also uninstall it right away and 50% uninstall it in the first week (in case you have a decent app). So getting 1 review at the cost of 1 uninstall is worth it.

  2. Google says you are forbidden to rate your own apps and they recommend asking your friends and family to rate it for you. Now, I don’t know if users from a forum can be called friends, but if Google thinks so then there is no problem. If you ask me, 2 developers exchanging reviews are 2 friends helping each other out.

I guess it also matters how many reviews you have compared to the number of installs. If you have 100 installs and 50 reviews that might raise a flag.

3

Thank you very much for your thoughts on this. That statement I quoted is a very good point as well, which I had not thought about. The installation versus review count could very well be an important metric!