App Store Description Read Rate

What is App Store Description Read Rate

Description read rate is the percentage of users that tap to read more of the description on a product page, past the text that shows at a first impression. It, unfortunately, remains at less than 2% in most cases, which is a very low exposure rate.

Why App Store Description Read Rate is Important

The fact that only around 2% of visitors to a product page read the extended version of an app / game description could be translated to mean a few things: users may not like to read, full stop. Or it may not be the preference for how the majority of them absorb information. They may not see the relevance of text when there’s often imagery that conveys more about the product. One thing’s for sure: visitors to a product page consume their information visually in order to make a decision whether or not to install or drop.

Keeping track of a description read rate is important if an app developer or marketer is to understand which elements of it need focus and where the biggest opportunity for conversion value lies. The explorative users who do make the effort to engage with the description are considered high-quality users. Their intent is higher, they take longer than decisive users to make a decision whether to install an app / game and therefore they are exposed to more content. With some encouragement from optimized assets, it’s possible this group of users are high converters.

App Store Description Read Rate and ASO

Anyone with ASO in mind would likely say that putting effort into perfecting an app’s full description for conversions is potentially resources being wasted on the negligible few who take the time to read it. It would be more worthwhile to dedicate time on the short first impression sentence which is always visible to maximize growth and use the description as a tool that serves another purpose: the algorithm can read it for keyword optimization. 

Of course, there are ways to contribute to maintaining the description read rate. It’s possible to add exciting, attention-grabbing, and intriguing text to the first sentence that most users are exposed to, which will encourage them to tap to read more. Outline what’s great about the app/game, why it stands out against its competitors (like any awards won), and explain why it’s an app not to be missed. Think of the first three lines (or 80 characters in Google Play) as the crux of the app that needs to be conveyed. But be careful to avoid keyword stuffing (overloading the metadata with keywords to unfairly increase ranking in search results), talk to third-party A/B testing platforms like Storemaven who can help.