1page.title=Dots increased installs by over 6% using Store Listing Experiments
2page.metaDescription=Game developer Playdots decided to use Store Listing Experiments to see if different game screenshots could impact installs for their game Two Dots. They found that game screenshots showing gameplay mechanics drove more installs from the store listing page than their existing non-gameplay screenshots.
3page.tags="developerstory", "games", "googleplay"
4page.image=images/cards/distribute/stories/dots.png
5page.timestamp=1456431511
6
7@jd:body
8
9
10<h3>Background</h3>
11
12<div class="figure" style="width:113px">
13  <img src="{@docRoot}images/distribute/stories/dots-icon.png" height="113" />
14</div>
15
16<p>
17  <a class="external-link"
18  href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nerdyoctopus.gamedots&hl=en">
19  Dots</a>, the successful puzzle strategy game from games developer Playdots
20  Inc., was produced by <a class="external-link"
21  href="https://betaworks.com/">Betaworks</a> in 2013.
22  It achieved over 20 million downloads in its first year, with over five
23  billion games having played on Android and iOS since launch. For the follow
24  up,
25  <a class="external-link"
26  href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.weplaydots.twodotsandroid&hl=en">
27  Two Dots</a>, Playdots decided to use
28  <a class="external-link"
29  href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6227309">
30  Store Listing Experiments</a> to see if
31  different game screenshots could impact installs. They found that game
32  screenshots showing gameplay mechanics drove more installs from the store
33  listing page than their existing non-gameplay screenshots.
34</p>
35
36<h3>What they did</h3>
37
38<p>
39  Dots used a localized store listing experiment in the Google Play Developer
40  Console to test Two Dots screenshots in the US. They targeted 50 percent of
41  users with non-gameplay screenshots (the “control”) and the other 50 percent
42  with gameplay screenshots, to see how graphically demonstrating gameplay would
43  impact installs.
44</p>
45
46<h3>Results</h3>
47
48<p>
49  The results revealed that screenshots showing gameplay mechanics drove 6
50  percent more installs than the control group using non-gameplay screenshots.
51</p>
52
53  <img
54   src="{@docRoot}images/distribute/stories/dots-screenshot.png"
55   srcset=
56  "{@docRoot}images/distribute/stories/dots-screenshot.png 1x
57  {@docRoot}images/distribute/stories/dots-screenshot_2x.png 2x">
58  <p class="img-caption">
59    Beautifully designed achievements badges encourage unlock
60  </p>
61
62<p>
63  In a follow up experiment they tested whether including text emphasizing
64  gameplay performed better than screenshots without text. The results showed
65  that screenshots with text highlighting gameplay had an 8 percent increase in
66  installs compared to those without.
67</p>
68
69<p>
70  Dots commented that “sometimes you have to step back and think about what your
71  objective is: illustrate gameplay. So that’s what we did — and the simplest
72  changes impacted our conversion by a huge percentage.”
73</p>
74
75<h3>Get started</h3>
76
77<p>
78  Learn how to run
79  <a class="external-link"
80  href="https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6227309">
81  Store Listing Experiments</a> and read our best practices for
82  <a href="https://developer.android.com/distribute/users/experiments.html">
83  running successful experiments</a>.
84</p>
85