Google Play Search


What is Google Play Search
Google Play Search is an organic traffic source that includes all users who find an app after searching for a query or keyword in the search bar in the Play Store. These are high-quality users due to their intent; they’re searching specifically for a brand or using a keyword that they know will lead them to the desired app listing. It’s this ‘purpose’ that makes this type of traffic worth so much to app developers/marketers- if anyone is likely to engage and invest with their app, it’s this traffic source group.
There are a few ways to search for an app listing. Using ‘Branded’ keywords means a user intends to engage with a brand they know and want to find, for example ‘Nike’ or ‘Candy Crush’. Or a user can search for a game / app via ‘genre keywords’ (the category that best describes an app) which relate to the type of app they’re looking for, for example a user looking for a game may search using the keywords ‘Educational games’ or ‘Driving games.’
In the search results page, Google Play users will see app icon and app name only, which is less than the App Store which shows app name / icon / subtitle and screenshots (or video if there is one.)
Why Google Play Search is Important
A leading target for marketing strategies is to increase traffic to a product page in order to generate organic downloads, which makes search traffic a crucial aspect to the process.
Google Play search traffic drives a large portion of app installs. These users are engaged and are of high quality, so not to tap into the source is a wasted opportunity. Users arrive at an app listing either via branded or genre keyword searches; they’ve come at no direct expense e.g via responding directly to an ad campaign nor have they found the app they’re intending to when browsing. To repeat, not to tap into that is a wasted opportunity; app devs / marketers should be looking to acquire as much of this traffic as possible. We know that the higher an app ranks for relevant keywords (and other factors such as reviews / ratings / install rates etc) the more visibility it has, so for an app that ranks highly, it will be more visible in the search results for specific keywords. All of this (and more) can be analyzed using Google Play Console which shows how an app is performing. Having a data-driven platform to inform app devs / marketers which traffic source a user comes from, can provide invaluable insights into the behavior of users in the Search traffic group.
Google Play Search and ASO
Search is a traffic source in Google Play that ASO teams are always looking to increase. Organic traffic coming to an app listing that’s optimized is a great way to see an increase in installs. This isn’t always an easy move seeing as the competition is fierce; more and more experts are optimizing as effectively as they can in order to direct as much Search traffic to their app listings.
Of course, Search traffic arrives at an app listing (having searched for it with meaning and intent) that doesn’t convert to an install; this is where ASO teams need to do their best work, strategizing a response to understand what on a product page failed to convert a user to download, and why.

App Icon do’s and don’ts plus six steps to testing
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- User Segmentation
- User Acquisition for Mobile Apps
- Paid App User Acquisition
- Organic User Acquisition
- Explorative Users
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- App Store Update
- Supply Side Platform
- Software Development Kit (SDK)
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- Apple Search Ads
- App Store Subtitle
- App Store Seasonality
- App Store Search
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- App Store Analytics: Standard Downloads
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- Google Play Third-party Referral
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- App Store Web Referral
- App Store Reviews
- App Store Review Engagement Rate
- App Store Redownloads
- App Store Ratings
- App Store Ranking
- App Store App Referral
- App Store Analytics: Region
- App Retention Rate
- Product Page Conversion Rate
- Proceeds Per Paying Users
- Preloaded Apps
- Pre/Post App Store Tests
- Post-Install Event
- Playable Mobile Ads
- Performance Marketing
- Pay Per Install
- Google Play Product Page
- Google Play Personalization
- Apple’s Product Page Optimization (PPO)
- App Store Product Page Views (Unique Devices)
- App Store Product Page Views
- App Store Product Page
- App Store Proceeds
- App Store Preview Videos
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- App Store Personalization
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- App Store Page Scroll Rate
- App Store Analytics: Purchasable Item
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- Monthly Active Users (MAU)
- Mobile Growth
- Mobile Game Monetization
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- Mobile App Retention
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- Mobile App Advertising
- Mobile Ad Viewability
- Mobile Ad Fraud
- Mobile App Growth
- Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU)
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- Attribution
- ARPU – Average Revenue Per User
- Apple Arcade
- Apple App Store Connect
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- Keyword Localization
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- Google Play Keywords
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- App Store Keywords
- App Store and Google Play Keywords Optimization
- Interstitial Ads
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- Installs Per Mille (IPM)
- In-App Events
- In-App Bidding
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- Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA)
- App Store In-App Purchases
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- App Store Impressions
- App Store Icon
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- App Install Rates
- App Influencer Marketing
- Growth Loop
- Google Play Points
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- Google Play Developer Console
- Google Advertising ID (GAID)
- Gametech (Game Technology)
- Game Bundles
- Google Play Short Description
- Google Play Long Description
- Deep Linking
- Daily Active Users (DAU)
- App Store Description Read Rate
- App Store App Description
- App Store Analytics: Device
- App Store Analytics: App Store Deletions
- App Store Analytics: App Download Date
- Google Play Creatives
- CTR (Click Through Rate)
- Cross Promotion
- Cost Per View (CPV)
- Cost Per Mille (CPM)
- Cost per Install
- Cost Per Engagement (CPE)
- Cost Per Completed View (CPCV)
- Cost Per Click (CPC)
- Cost Per Action (CPA)
- Churn Rate
- Casual Games
- Apple’s Custom Product Pages
- App Store Culturalization
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- App Conversion Rate
- App Clip Sessions
- App Clip Installations
- App Clip Crashes
- App Clip Card Views (Unique)
- App Clip Card Views
- App Clip Active Devices
Related Terms
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Google Play Explore
Google Play Explore is an organic traffic source that includes all visitors arriving at an app listing while exploring and navigating.
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Google Play Product Page
The Google Play product page is the landing page for a mobile app or game distributed and published on the Google Play store.
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Google Play Short Description
The Google Play short description is a sentence that’ll appear in the first impression of your Google Play product page below the screenshot.
Related Resources

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