How to get more app ratings on app store?

[iccs]

Hey everyone, I've created a finance app (US stock market heat map app) on iOS around 1-2 months ago and the premium purchases were gaining some momentum until recently. I didn't know why it started to slow down, and was looking for a reason. So as far as I can tell, it might be related to my app ratings. I just saw that someone gave a 1 star to my app in the US and there is no other reviews/ratings in the US right now since the app is new. That's why it's showing up as 1 star app when you see it on app store in the US. On other countries, it's mostly either 5 or around 4. For example I started to have more users from Japan and I have 5 5-star ratings there.

Since my main audiance is the US people (it's a US stocks app after all), I think that 1-star rating is really affecting my app downloads and my premium conversion overall. I don't want to lose the other nice ratings too by reseting my whole app ratings. It kinda started to eat me inside So my question is to you that, do you think app rating has a direct effect on the in-app-purchase conversion and if so, how can I increase my app ratings in a legitimate way and increase this app ratings, either overall or US specific? (I would ask my friends to rate my app but I don't live in the US lol)

 

[llleopard]

@iccs Your app ratings definitely affect your ASO and thus your rankings and installs. Best way to increase your app ratings:

1. Show a rating pop-up after the aha moments of your app, to your customers. Usually at this stage, most users are likely to rate your app 5 stars.
2. Instead of redirecting users to app store, iOS allows you to take ratings without leaving the app. This increases the conversion rates significantly.

Hope this helps. All the best.

 

[iccs]

@llleopard Thanks for your comment! I do have a "Rate the app" button on the settings tab, that opens that pop-up. But I'm not showing this after any action. I think it's a great idea to add this after the aha moment. I have a "favorites" section in the app, probably I can add it after people adds some stocks to their favorites and return to the favorites main page.

Thanks again, I will implement this soon. Also, do you think if it's a good idea to reset the ratings, so at least it won't show up as 1 star? I'm still not feeling great about this because it's actually pretty good in other countries. I don't get why that person just gave a 1 start without writing any feedback about why :/

 

[llleopard]

@iccs Oh yes. I forgot to mention. You should definitely reset your ratings. That’s what I love about iOS. One can start over again.
Can you reset only for one country? I am not sure if that can be done. Think of it as a volume game. If the number of people who rated as of now are less and you think you can get more people to rate soon, you should definitely reset.
And that’s a big challenge and learning that 1 star people don’t often leave reviews. I feel you.

 

[iccs]

@llleopard I see, thanks for your feedback. I will try resetting it then after having a rating popup ready. I took a look and it looks like reset option resets everything unfortunately, but if I can get more ratings more quickly I can still reset it. Thanks!

 

[kitten22]

@iccs I'd:

Find out why someone would rate it 1 star

Make sure it's so good that nobody will do that again

Ask early adopters for honest reviews

 

[iccs]

@kitten22 Good idea. I feel like it might be because my server was down for a small while. If user had just downloaded the app and server was down, they could see nothing and that might be the reason they gave 1 star since the app wasn't functioning as expected.

That issue is fixed now and I'm trying to make sure it won't happen again. But I think I still need a backup plan if the user can't fetch the date for the first time.

I got some reviews from users that they are happy, but some small things could be improved and working on them as well. Also I've just added a "Give Feedback" button to the app that automatically opens an email sheet prefilled with some details. I hope that they will use that one in the future.

Thanks for the help!

 

[kitten22]

@iccs I'd seek people out and ask them personally, but good luck!

 

[gpk]

@iccs I really agree with r/hell9669

We created an automated pop-up after some positive events which you might call aha moments. Once enough of those events were triggered we encouraged users to leave us a review.

Now we 50K+ ratings.

 

[iccs]

@gpk Oh wow, that sounds awesome! I will do the same thing as well. I hope my app will get that many ratings in the future as well. Wishing your app the best. Thanks!