Hands on with Apple's new Product Page Optimization

As of Tuesday 7th December, Apple has released their Product Page Optimization functionality to all developers, big news!

We previously got hands on with Custom Product Pages, and now we'll take a look at Product Page Optimization.

The first thing to point out is that the new experience will not appear in your dashboard by default. App Store developers must explicitly opt-in to the experience in order to receive it in their dashboard.

The good news is, you can do so here - and from our experience the approval time was almost immediate. Once approved, you'll get a message like so:

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Once you've done so, you can see the new functionalities in your ASC dashboard like so:

In-App Events (which have been around for a while), Custom Product Pages, and Product Page Optimization.

Let's visit the Product Page Optimization section

Clicking on Product Page Optimization, you're taken to a new section of the ASC dashboard where you can create a test: 

After pressing 'Create Test', you'll be shown the following modal:

From this modal you can select the following: 

• Set a name for the test
• Choose your number of treatments (1-3)
• Select a traffic proportion for the entire test (provided in 2% increments from 2% -> 66%)
• Select which localisations it applies to (with your existing localisations preselected)
• An 'estimate your test duration' section

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Once you've created your example test, you can then set up your treatments and set your test live:

Things to watch out for

Apple's documentation states that your app build must be in 'Ready for Sale' in order to run a Product Page, and if you submit a new app version while a test is running, the test will automatically stop!

Agata Jajszczyk noted some limitations of Product Page Optimization:

1. Only one test can be run at a given time
2. If you run a test in more than 1 localisation, you won't be able to differentiate between them in reporting. So if you have localised assets, you can run 1 test per 1 locale only (with correct localisations)

Ilia Kukharev pointed out on Twitter that you should avoid using the word test in your... ahem... tests! Maybe Apple's reviewers haven't been told yet about the changes, but if you include the word test in your Custom Product Page you risk rejection on the App Store

Results and analytics

With a running Product Page Test, you'll be able to view the results by pressing 'View Analytics' on the side of the test

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