With Halloween creeping around the corner, it's a thrilling time for app marketers and developers to bewitch users with eerie icons and spooky specials. Utilizing holiday-themed creatives has often been heralded as a trick to treat your app's engagement and downloads. This season, we dared to venture into the unknown by conducting an A/B test solely on our iOS app icon to measure the impact of Halloween-themed icons on user engagement and app store performance.
Following the guidelines of Product Page Optimization from Apple, we meticulously crafted two versions of our app icon: one donned a haunting Halloween guise, while the other remained as our standard icon. The hypothesis was simple: a Halloween-themed icon could potentially brew higher click-through rates (CTR) and conversions amidst the festive season.
The experiment was conducted over two weeks, encompassing the heart of the spooktacular season. Every eerie element was kept consistent except the icon, to ensure the data conjured was solely the ghostly work of our Halloween icon. In our case the Halloween icon raised the conversion rate in our case by 15.5%
The cauldron of data bubbled with interesting insights. The Halloween-themed icon spooked its way to a higher click-through rate, showing a significant increase compared to our standard icon. Users seemed to be enchanted by the festive icon, which resonated well amidst the spooky season, leading to a higher engagement rate.
Moreover, the concoction of Halloween aura seemed to have cast a spell on our App Store page, with a noticeable uptick in the daily downloads. The experiment showed that even a small change, like a customized icon, could have a potent impact on app performance during festive seasons.
The A/B test was an eye-opener. It reiterated the importance of timely updates and creative engagement with users. The data harvested paved the path for embracing seasonal updates, not just for Halloween, but for other festive epochs as well.
Drawing the curtain on our experiment, it’s safe to say that a pinch of Halloween spirit, embodied by a spooky icon, can indeed concoct a spell of engagement and better app performance. It's a spooky strategy worth considering for any app striving to keep up with the whimsical rhythms of the seasons while optimizing their product page on the App Store.
Another recommendation: starting the test 2 weeks prior to the event, and stopping the day after the event is over.