iOS 15 Features Explained: Product Page Optimization Challenges & Opportunities

For everyone in the mobile app industry, the new iOS 15 update is a huge deal. For app marketers and app developers (or anyone looking to seriously boost app conversion rates!), new Apple iOS 15 features present a huge opportunity—while the testing capabilities present some challenges.

The iOS15 features making the biggest headlines are Custom Product Pages (CPP) and Product Page Optimization (PPO). In this article, we’ll focus mostly on PPO.

The opportunity: having native iOS App Store A/B testing capabilities to maximize your ASO efforts

The challenge: creating, implementing and tracking 3 treatments to test and compare against your control product page to find the right winner requires a lot of hands-on work and attention.

Let’s dig deeper…

What is Product Page Optimization for iOS 15?

Product Page Optimization (PPO) is an all-new feature that allows for A/B testing of creative elements in your App Store product page. Creative is the operative word here—testing is for visual assets only, which includes the app icon, screenshots and app preview videos.

PPO will allow you to display up to three different treatments of your App Store product page plus your default (or control) page, along with tests in different languages.

How will Product Page Optimization A/B testing work?

When A/B testing, you can choose different visual assets and control the percentage of traffic you want allocated to each treatment. A test can run for up to 90 days and for specific geos (countries). While the test is live, it’s possible to look at key metrics in App Store Connect—like impressions and conversion rate—to evaluate the performance of each variant.

Within 90 days, the goal is to find your winner! You then set your best performer as the new App Store product page that all organic traffic will go to. But because it’s been tested and evaluated, it’s a much more informed and data-driven decision than it ever was before—greatly increasing your app’s conversion rate potential.

Plus, PPO A/B tests will also provide meaningful insights about your app’s most attractive features with feedback about which creative approach works better. It’s a great indicator of where to focus and base the rest of your app growth marketing strategies.

What’s the difference between Product Page Optimization & Custom Product Pages?

Product Page Optimization (PPO) is the new iOS 15 feature for organic traffic, hence to improve ASO. This is not to be confused with Custom Product Pages (or product page customization) that allow for different versions of your App Store product page to be shown to different audiences for paid user acquisition efforts. This is accomplished via unique URLs in the paid UA ad creatives that sync up to custom page messaging.

PPO allows for 3 variants of visual assets plus the control page and is all about supercharging your ASO strategy. With these App Store product page A/B testing capabilities and having the data to confirm how these variants perform, you have direct control over how to optimize conversion rates for all of your app’s organic traffic.

Meanwhile, custom product pages allow for up to 35 product pages at a time that can vary in the features shown, message delivered, copy, etc. For example, if you have a fitness app that features HIIT style workouts and yoga, you may want to segment these users and lead them to different product pages that focus on the workout type that interests them most. Custom product pages are all about making your paid user acquisition strategy a conversion rate powerhouse.

How should you conduct A/B tests for Product Page Optimization?

So, here’s the tricky part. You have up to 3 treatments to test and compare against your control App Store product page. You have 90 days. What’s the best way to run your A/B testing so that you’re sure to come up with the right winner?

The first step is to prepare, prepare, prepare!

At first, three treatments may not seem like a lot, but when you consider that your variants can come from small iterations in screenshots, icons and/or app preview videos, you’re talking about a lot of creative assets—not only to keep track of, but to create in the first place. Don’t underestimate how much time this creative production process takes.

Next, make sure that you have a solid A/B testing process in place.

1. Form a strong hypothesis

For example, “Changing the app icon to a different style will lead to a higher conversion rate.”

2. Prepare the assets

Assets will need to be approved by Apple, but it’s not necessary to submit a new app version in order to submit the assets. To test a variation of your app icon, you’ll need to include the icon assets in the binary of your app version that is currently live, so make sure to prepare your app releases accordingly.

Run experiments for icon, screenshots and videos separately so you can clearly identify which iteration of which element is making the most impact

What to do next?

The ability to A/B test different creative elements for your App Store product page opens lots of opportunities! But it will require a lot of preparation, organization and effort.

That’s why we’re offering a done-for-you service that includes us taking the wheel and developing, executing and tracking screenshot A/B testing, so the entire process is as easy as possible for you!

Contact us for more details!