Source
rawraw/how-to-3x-your-app-store-ratings.md
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TL;DR

The best time to ask for a rating is after the user has signaled value, not at first open. Steve’s case study moved the review prompt to immediately after trial activation, raising ratings from ~50-70/month to nearly 400/month and improving the average rating from 4.3 to 4.5. This source belongs to the app-masters-youtube batch.


Biggest lessons

  • First-open review prompts create one-star complaints because users have not experienced the app yet.
  • After trial activation, the user has shown intent; the prompt becomes better timed and less annoying.
  • The case study lifted ratings/download from ~1% to ~4.5%, a 3.3x improvement.
  • For brand-new apps, lifetime-free campaigns can supply the download volume needed to seed the first 100 ratings.

Why it matters