To help optimize your store listing on Google Play, you can run experiments to find the most effective graphics and localized text for your app. You can run experiments for your main and custom store listing pages.
For published apps, you can test variants against your current version to see which one performs best based on install data. Before setting up a test, review the best practices for running effective experiments.
Note: Global experiments have been renamed to default graphics experiments. They maintain the same functionality that they had prior to being renamed.
Experiment types
For each app, you can run one default graphics experiment or up to five localized experiments at the same time.
Default graphicsUsing a default graphics experiment, you can experiment with graphics in your app's default store listing language. You can include variants of your app's icon, feature graphic, screenshots, and promo video.
- If your app's store listing is only available in one language: Default graphics experiments will be shown to all users.
- If you've added any localized graphic assets in a specific language: Users viewing your app in that language are excluded from your app's default graphics experiments. For example, if your app's default language is English and it has a localized feature graphic in French, users viewing your app in French will be excluded from the experiment (even if you're testing your icon).
Using a localized experiment, you can experiment with your app's icon, feature graphic, screenshots, promo video, and/or your app's descriptions in up to five languages. Experiment variants will only be shown to users viewing your app's store listing in the languages you choose.
If your app's store listing is only available in one language, localized experiments will only be shown to users viewing your app in its default language.
Step 1: Create an experiment
You can create an experiment using your Play Console. When you're ready to review and apply results, you can use your Play Console or the Play Console app.
Default graphics- Sign in to your Play Console.
- Select an app.
- On the left menu, click Store presence > Store listing experiments.
- Click New experiment.
- Under "Default graphics," click Create.
- Proceed to the instructions under "Step 2: Set up your experiment."
- Sign in to your Play Console.
- Select an app.
- On the left menu, click Store presence > Store listing experiments.
- Click New experiment.
- Under "Localized," choose a language.
- Click Create.
- Proceed to the instructions under "Step 2: Set up your experiment."
Once you've made a localized experiment live in one language, you can add up to four other languages. To add more experiments:
- Go to back to your Store listing experiments page.
- Select New experiment.
- If you can't select New experiment, make sure you don't have an experiment saved in draft. Any draft experiments need to be live before you add new languages.
Step 2: Set up your experiment
After you've created an experiment, you can select the store listing, variants, and attributes that you want to test.
To set up your experiment:
- Follow the on-screen instructions to select a store listing and add your targeting information, attributes, and variants.
- For more information and tips, review the table below.
- To begin your experiment, go to the top of the page and click Run experiment. To finish setting up your experiment later, click Save.
Field | Description | Examples & tips |
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Name |
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Store listing name |
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Audience |
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Attributes |
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Variants |
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Step 3: Review & apply results
After you’ve set up experiments, you'll see the following details on your Store listing experiments page. To get more details, select an experiment.
Live experiments
- Experiment: Name of your experiment
- Status: Number of variants being served to a percentage of users
- Start date: When your experiment started
-
Results: Experiment results or data status
Completed experiments
- Experiment: Name of your experiment
- Type: Default graphics or localized
- Start date: When your experiment started
- End date: When your experiment ended
- Results: Applied or not applied
- Sign in to your Play Console.
- Select an app.
- On the left menu, click Store presence > Store listing experiments.
- Select the experiment you want to review.
- Next to “Metric,” select a metric.
- View your results.
- To apply a variant that outperformed your app's current version, select Apply winner. You can review the changes to your store listing before the changes go live.
- To keep your current version, select Keep. This will update your store listing to use your current version and end the experiment.
- If your experiment results in a tie, select Stop experiment.
- Note: Depending on the metric you select, the performance results of individual variants may differ. For best results, review all available metrics before deciding on which variant to use.
- Open the Play Console app
.
- Select an app.
- Scroll down to the "Experiments" card. For more information on your app's experiments, tap View details. From the detailed view, tap on a variant to see the audience, current, and scaled installs for that experiment.
- To apply a variant that outperformed your app's current version, select Apply winner. You can review the changes to your store listing before the changes go live.
- To keep your current version, select Keep current. This will update your store listing to use your current version and end the experiment.
- Note: Performance results are based on first time installers. To view results based on additional metrics, visit the Play Console website.
After you select an experiment, you can view user and install metrics that summarize how each variant performed.
User metrics
Metric | Definition |
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First-time installers |
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Retained installers (1-day) - only available on the Play Store website |
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Results
You can view metrics that show the results of your experiment in two different ways:
- Current: Number of unique users
- Scaled: Number of unique users divided by audience share
If you want to review absolute data on installers, use current data. If you want to review data that’s been scaled to account for different audience shares (example: If 90% of your audience saw one version and 10% of your audience saw another), use scaled data.
Metric | Definition & examples |
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Installers |
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Retained installers |
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Performance |
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Installs (scaled) - deprecated |
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Installs (current) - deprecated |
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Install metrics (deprecated)
The following metrics were used for experiments started prior to January 24, 2019. Experiments that started prior to this date still include these statistics, but new experiments only use first-time installers and retained installers (1-day) user metrics.
Metric | Definition & examples |
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Installs on active devices |
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Installs by user |
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Uninstalls by user |
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Sign up for experiment notifications
To receive notifications on the Play Console and by email when your experiments are complete, you can set up your notification preferences.
To learn more about email notifications, go to manage your developer account information.