App Masters
Steve P. Young on mobile app marketing: App Store Optimization, launches and paid user acquisition. 257 App Masters episodes on product and growth, each as notes you can zoom: the bottom line, key takeaways and every chapter, linked to the moment in the video.
Ask all of them a question · The course
October 20263
App Masters · Oct 27The Influencer Marketing Math That Made Cal AI Profitable
Cal AI prices influencer and UGC deals by comparing what each thousand views earns (RPM) with what a thousand views costs (CPM), instead of chasing a benchmark CPM. The episode covers base rate plus capped view bonuses, why viral views lose value, and how to attribute downloads once millions of videos are live.
- Keep your CPM below your RPM instead of chasing a benchmark CPM
- Pay a base rate plus view bonuses, and cap the bonuses
- Stop paying view bonuses at roughly one million views
App Masters · Oct 20Before You Spend $1 on Meta Ads, Watch This
A seven-point checklist an app should pass before spending anything on Meta ads: funnel conversion targets, proof that strangers pay, LTV per install, event tracking, competitor ad research, concept testing and budget math. The payoff is avoiding wasted spend, since a $1,000 test budget at the stated rates yields only about 10 to 11 subscribers at roughly $95 each.
- Hit funnel conversion targets before spending on Meta ads
- Aim for at least $3 LTV per install before running Meta
- Validate your funnel with ASO or Apple Ads before scaling on Meta
App Masters · Oct 6This Breathing App Sold to Peloton for Millions
A niche breathing exercises app, Breathwrk, started narrow with one use case, ranked for specific keywords and used animated, interactive onboarding before a paywall. It was reportedly acquired by Peloton for $2.2 million after about $200,000 in seed funding, which shows a niche focus can lead to a real exit.
- Start in a narrow niche, then expand upward into broader categories
- Target the exact keywords of your niche instead of a bigger category
- Add subtle animations to onboarding to lift conversions and perceived value
September 20262
App Masters · Sep 29How to Increase Organic Downloads Without Changing Keywords
Screenshots and the app icon are a major ASO lever beyond keywords, and A/B testing them through Product Page Optimization can lift organic downloads. A case study moved installs 61% across two sequential screenshot tests, with other examples at 13.8%, 30% and 45%.
- Test your screenshots before touching keywords to lift organic downloads
- Run screenshot tests in sequence, one change at a time
- Highlight specific app features and show more of the app in screenshots
App Masters · Sep 8Do This Before Running ANY Paid Social Media Marketing
Before spending on paid social ads, research competitor creatives and test your own, because creative matters more than every other lever. The episode walks through hook and hold rate targets, a 3-day creative test setup, and how to study a winning Cal AI ad with SocialPeta.
- Treat creative as the main lever in paid social
- Aim for a 30 to 40% hook rate on video ads
- Test creatives for three days with four creatives per ad set
August 20264
App Masters · Aug 25The UGC Marketing Playbook Behind 300M+ Monthly Views
A founder lays out her UGC marketing system: how she pays creators, finds them, onboards them and warms up fresh accounts. The result is apps pulling 300-400 million monthly social views, with the founder owning the viral format rather than the creators.
- Pay UGC creators a base rate plus decreasing CPM bonuses
- Require a minimum view count before paying the base rate
- Hire newer creators at $10 when your content is easy to film
App Masters · Aug 18We’ve Tested 100s of Paywalls. Here’s What Actually Converts.
Seven paywall principles drawn from hundreds of tests: show the paywall in onboarding, consider a hard paywall, explain the trial, sell outcomes, add context, make value obvious and test offers and CTAs. Real tests include a 52% sales lift from putting the paywall before sign up and a 3x sales lift from moving the trial to a weekly plan.
- Show the paywall in onboarding and push paywall views toward 100%
- Show the paywall before the sign up screen
- Move the free trial to a short weekly plan
App Masters · Aug 11Are You Ignoring These RevenueCat Features? (Stop Losing Money)
A walkthrough of the RevenueCat charts and features used to judge subscription app health and decide when an app is ready for paid acquisition. It shows a roughly $37,000 MRR app with a 7-day trial converting over 60% of trial starts to paid, and a paywall test where a money back guarantee is winning.
- Check trial start rate and trial to paid rate against benchmarks
- Aim for a 5 to 10% trial start rate, above 10% is great
- Target 30 to 40% trial to paid conversion, and beat it
App Masters · Aug 4App Ideas That People Are Already Searching For (Steal This Strategy)
The Tentacle Strategy finds app ideas by studying big, high-revenue apps and building a focused app around one low-competition keyword they ignore. Steve says it produced an app earning $550,000 last year, a $2,000 to $3,000 a month app, and a client app at $12,000 to $15,000 a month, all organic.
- Start from a successful app's neglected feature, not your own idea
- Choose a high revenue per install category before choosing an idea
- Find big apps earning roughly 3x or more revenue per download
July 20263
App Masters · Jul 21How to Create App Store Screenshots That Get More Downloads
Screenshot design often converts App Store visitors better than keyword work, and this episode shows how a CBT therapy app gained 30% more downloads from a screenshot A/B test. It also walks through building, localizing and uploading screenshots as a product page optimization test using the sponsor tool AppScreens.
- Lead the first screenshot with your top-ranking keyword in big bold text
- Test screenshot copy and order before touching keywords or ads
- Focus your screenshot testing on the first three screenshots
App Masters · Jul 14The Web2App Playbook: Scale Your App Without App Store Limits
Explains why web-to-app funnels are one of the fastest-growing ways to acquire and monetize mobile app users, and walks through the quiz, paywall, checkout, ad optimization, upsell and tripwire tactics that make them work. The case: skipping the app store means avoiding the 15 to 30% fee, getting cash faster, and having far more freedom in how you price and sell.
- Send ad traffic to a web quiz funnel instead of the store
- Optimize Meta ads for registration or checkout events, not clicks
- Replace the free trial with a $3 to $10 tripwire offer
App Masters · Jul 7The Paywall Strategy That Increased Conversions by 56%
Paywall and onboarding experiments from a MAU Vegas talk: how to place the X on hard paywalls, what to show before the paywall, reverse trials, trial offers, and paywall copy tweaks. The reported results include a 56% lift in trial activations, free users converting at 4.5% instead of 0.4%, and a 38% lift from showing broken-down prices.
- Show three screens before the paywall to overcome objections
- Remove the paywall X for paid traffic and keep it for organic
- Use a hard paywall with a real price on bootstrapped paid traffic
June 20263
App Masters · Jun 30Profitable Apps Going Broke? Here's Why
Paid acquisition for subscription apps is often capped by cash flow, because Apple and Google pay out 45+ days after the sale, so a profitable campaign can stall when the budget runs dry. Steve walks through a $10,000 budget example where $9,000 of spend returned about $10,800 and shows how weekly payouts through Adapty Finance (a sponsor of the video) let you reinvest sooner.
- Plan paid spend around the 45 day Apple and Google payout delay
- Treat cash flow as a growth limit, not only creatives or ASO
- Model a staged ramp-up budget before you start paid acquisition
App Masters · Jun 24Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy
Explains the two Apple Ads search campaigns to start with, a max conversion discovery campaign and a single keyword ad group (SCAG) campaign, with the exact setup choices for budgets, bids and targeting. The setup is backed by account data showing about $85,000 a month of ROAS-positive spend for one client.
- Start Apple Ads with two campaigns: max conversion and SCAG
- Set your max conversion target cost per install near break-even, starting at $3 to $4
- Know your break-even cost per install before you spend
App Masters · Jun 16The AIGC Ad Creatives Crushing It vs. The Ones Flopping
Two growth operators show real AI-generated ad creatives and explain how they build, test and scale them, from UGC anchors with swapped backgrounds to fully prompted videos. The takeaway is that creative production is cheap, winners cannot be predicted, and the edge comes from concept, volume and distribution.
- Anchor ads on one real UGC creator, then vary everything around them
- Iterate on a winning creative to reach new pockets of audience
- Stop trying to predict winning ads; test volume and let the platform pick
May 20264
App Masters · May 267 Ad Monetization Hacks Top Apps Use Right Now
Ad monetization tactics for gaming and non-gaming apps, from app open ads and welcome bonuses to rewarded ads inside subscription apps. The core lesson is that top apps now blend ads, subscriptions and in-app purchases, since 80 to 90% of installs never pay.
- Add rewarded ads to monetize the 80 to 90% who won't pay
- Offer a rewarded ad after the paywall is dismissed
- Run a welcome bonus with an optional watch-to-double ad
App Masters · May 19This Fitness App Makes $200K a Month Using Only AI Video Ads
Steve P. Young shows how MadMuscles pairs Meta ads, AI-generated video creatives and a web-to-app checkout to scale a fitness app. The app shows roughly $200,000 a month in app store revenue alone, with web revenue likely on top.
- Send paid traffic to a web checkout, then push users into the app
- Test AI video ads against real ones on Meta
- Put specific dates in ad copy to fight creative fatigue
App Masters · May 12Why Most Apps Are Failing in 2026: 7 Mistakes Killing Your App Success
Seven early-stage mistakes that burn app budgets: building too much, coding by hand, paying for cloud too early, skipping startup credits, ignoring conversion design, cheap UI/UX and no marketing budget. AI-assisted development now ships a first version in about two months instead of six, which makes distribution and design the real bottlenecks.
- Launch with one core problem and add features after revenue
- Use AI coding agents instead of hand-writing the first version
- Plan with Claude Code and use Codex for detailed code work
App Masters · May 53 Critical Mistakes Killing Your App Engagement
Deep links that return users to the exact in-app spot, plus targeted trial re-engagement messages, fix onboarding and activation problems that look like low engagement. AppsFlyer data cited says deep linking for personalized onboarding lifts day 30 retention by 110% versus manual code entry.
- Use a deep link instead of a manual code for email verification
- Message trial starters to complete one key in-app action
- Lead re-engagement messages with your most popular content
April 20263
App Masters · Apr 28Live App Store Optimization Tutorial (ASO)
A live ASO and monetization audit of an indie symptom tracker shows how to pick keywords with low difficulty and some traffic, place them in the title, subtitle and a second localization, and then align screenshots and paywall to them. It also gives concrete paywall, pricing, and Apple Health tactics drawn from client apps.
- Cut 600 keyword ideas to 200, then pick low-difficulty, decent-traffic terms
- Choose a keyword by checking who already ranks for it in search
- Pick six to 10 focus keywords and put them in title and subtitle
App Masters · Apr 14How to Create High-Converting AI UGC Ads in Minutes (No Creators Needed)
Shows how to use AI avatars to produce many UGC-style video ads fast, so scripts, hooks and presenters can be tested before paying real creators. The host has not yet reported ad results from these creatives, but he found managing real creators slow and unreliable, and the workflow shows how to raise creative volume cheaply.
- Test ad messaging with AI avatars before hiring real creators
- Keep the script fixed and swap the avatar to find the best presenter
- Use reaction-style videos to find which script earns clicks and downloads
App Masters · Apr 7The Productivity App That Actually Stops Procrastination (Wisey App Review)
A teardown of the Wisey productivity app that shows how pairing utilities with bite-size lessons, a paid intro offer, a benefit-led pre-paywall flow and Apple API integrations can lift retention and revenue. The standout result is an App Masters client seeing over five figures a month in revenue from Apple Health referrals alone.
- Use Apple Health integration to unlock a referral revenue channel
- Replace a pricey weekly plan with a low-cost paid intro offer
- Add an app blocker using Apple's Screen Time API
March 20264
App Masters · Mar 31This Self-Improvement App Might Kill MasterClass: RiseGuide Review (2026)
A teardown of RiseGuide's onboarding, paywall, lesson design and retention loops, showing how a self-improvement app gets users to commit before it asks for payment. It pairs the walkthrough with results from App Masters client tests, such as a 52% sales lift from showing the paywall before sign-up.
- Show the paywall before asking users to create an account
- Use a long onboarding for education and fitness apps
- Frame annual price as a per-day cost against everyday spending
App Masters · Mar 24App Monetization Tactics No One Is Talking About
Five lesser-known subscription monetization tactics from top apps: three-screen paywalls, trial-to-discount offers, paid intro offers, reverse trials and pay-what-you-want pricing. Examples include a reverse trial that lifted free-to-paid conversion from 0.4% to 4.5% and a paid intro offer that raised conversion from 19% to 25%.
- Use a reverse trial to convert users who skip the paywall
- Offer a cheap paid first month alongside your free trial
- Show three paywall screens: intro, trial reminder, then the paywall
App Masters · Mar 10Web-to-App Strategy: How Brands Lose Millions Without Deep Linking (Fix Your App Conversions)
Moving shoppers from mobile web into the app lifts conversion, and the gains depend on a seamless web-to-app journey with proper deep linking. Teardowns of Nike and Sephora show which smart banner and deep link choices keep shoppers moving and which ones lose them.
- Deep link smart banner opens to the exact product the shopper viewed
- Let shoppers install the app directly from the smart banner
- Send mobile web shoppers into your app because it converts about three times higher
App Masters · Mar 3How to Sell Your App or SaaS Business: Exits, Acquisitions & App Marketing Secrets
Steve P. Young explains how to decide when to sell an app or business, how to prepare for a seven or eight figure exit, and which deal structures help close. He also shows how a podcast audience grew into a 30+ person global team and why he now focuses on acquiring businesses.
- Ask why five times before deciding to sell your business
- Use a seller note to lower the upfront cost of an acquisition
- Keep your books squeaky clean and separated before any sale
February 20263
App Masters · Feb 24App Marketing 101: How to Grow in a Crowded App Market
Distribution, not features, decides whether an app grows, so founders should find their channel market fit first using ASO, Apple Ads, Meta ads, viral content validation and a timed lifetime-free campaign. Case studies include an app taken to $90,000 in its first year with a two-day lifetime free burst, and a Meta-only funnel reaching $1M ARR.
- Pick your distribution channel before building more features
- Start keyword research first when doing ASO
- Launch a new app with ASO plus Apple Search Ads
App Masters · Feb 17App Store Optimization: The Proven ASO Framework for 2026
A practical ASO framework for 2026: rank metadata and download volume first, then win with many low-competition keywords across the US and Spanish Mexico localizations. Case studies show $1,600 in the first 22 days from two keywords and 92 number one rankings producing $2 to $3,000 a month.
- Put six to 10 relevant keywords with search score 30 in metadata
- Target many keywords with a search score of five to rank number one
- Use the Spanish Mexico localization to hold extra English keywords
App Masters · Feb 10This AI Photo Editing App Makes $500K a Month
A teardown of Photo Revive AI, an AI photo app that niched into photo restoration instead of competing as another generic AI image generator. It reportedly earns about $500K a month, and the flow shows how credit pricing, exit discounts, rewarded actions and watermarks work together.
- Start in a narrow niche, then add the broader features
- Pick a narrower starting niche than your category, like deep breathing for meditation
- Sell credits per day to cap AI costs on paid plans
January 20262
App Masters · Jan 27This Simple Note-Taking App Makes $20K / Month (and How You Can Build Your Own)
A 2013 Notepad app with dated design makes about $20,000 a month with no paid ads, because organic App Store rankings for generic keywords bring about 40,000 downloads a month. The episode shows how to copy its keyword mix, fix its weak monetization, and prototype a similar app with an AI builder.
- Prioritize distribution over design, onboarding and paywall polish
- Target generic category keywords and rank top three for them
- Blend two or three higher-traffic keywords with many low-competition ones
App Masters · Jan 20Watch This Before Building Your App (Build a Profitable MVP)
Steve P. Young argues that first-time app founders should build one premium feature, put a paywall in onboarding, and spend their effort on distribution instead of more features. He backs it with niche utility apps making $3K to $200K a month, such as Migraine Buddy and TV remote apps.
- Build one premium feature and do that one thing very well
- Put your paywall inside the onboarding flow, before users explore the app
- Spend effort on distribution channels, not on the next feature
December 20252
App Masters · Dec 23Copy Headway’s $100M+ Web2App Funnel Strategy (That Converts Like Crazy)
A step by step teardown of Headway's web to app funnel, covering the quiz psychology, paywall, downsell, upsells, deferred deep link and eight email winback sequence. Headway is said to earn hundreds of millions of dollars a year from this simple funnel, so it is a model to copy.
- Send checkout abandoners to the same paywall with a deeper discount
- Run an eight email winback sequence with escalating discounts for quiz leavers
- Keep winback emails to one button and one discount message
App Masters · Dec 16If You’re Running Paid App Ads, You NEED to Watch This
Paid ads such as Meta lift branded organic search and downloads, but last-touch attribution gives them no credit, so incrementality and cross-platform journey measurement are needed to judge channels fairly. An indie app spending $3,000 a month on Meta almost doubled its organic sales, which shows how much paid impact standard reports miss.
- Measure incrementality, not just last-touch installs, before judging a paid channel
- Expect Meta ads to lift your organic downloads and search sales
- Move budget toward networks with proven incremental lift, away from cheap but non-incremental ones
November 20254
App Masters · Nov 24The Most Important Element of App Store Optimization (ASO Keyword Research)
Keyword research is the most overlooked part of ASO, and a competitor's indexed keyword list in a tool like ASOMobile is the best place to find low-difficulty, relevant terms a new app can rank for. The walkthrough uses the calorie tracker category and Cal AI to show how to filter, compare and monitor competitors, and how to spot untapped keywords and countries.
- Start with low-difficulty keywords, then work up to high-traffic terms
- Mine a competitor's indexed keywords list for terms they are missing
- Study small apps that outrank giants instead of copying the category leader
App Masters · Nov 18This Simple App Makes $300K a Month (And You Can Do It Too)
A teardown of a universal TV remote app with one onboarding screen and a basic paywall that still earns over $300,000 a month. It shows that distribution through keyword rankings matters more than features, onboarding polish or paywall design.
- Prioritize distribution over features, onboarding and paywall polish
- Rank number one for hundreds of generic and localized keywords
- Do not skip low-popularity keywords that contain your main keyword
App Masters · Nov 11This App Makes $2M Using AI Ads (Learna App Review)
A teardown of the language learning app Learna, which makes about $2.4 million in 30 days using AI-generated multilingual video ads, plus its onboarding and paywall flow. It shows how one winning ad script can be cloned across languages and markets, and which onboarding choices lifted sales in the host's client data.
- Show the paywall before asking users to sign up
- Clone a winning ad script into other languages with AI
- Use "Continue with" instead of "Sign up with" on login buttons
App Masters · Nov 4Black Hat App Growth Strategies You Don’t Know (But Your Competitors Might Be Using)
A talk on grey-hat and black-hat App Store growth tactics (keyword installs, fake reviews, brandjacking, free lifetime offers, hard paywalls) and where Apple is now cracking down. It shows an app going from a few hundred dollars a month to $90,000 in its first year, plus paywall tests that tripled weekly sales.
- Run a two-day free lifetime offer to kickstart ASO and ratings
- Expect roughly 1% of downloads to leave a rating when prompted in onboarding
- Do not rely on free lifetime offers; Apple is now sending warnings
October 20253
App Masters · Oct 28The Shortcut to Scale: The Distribution First Mindset
Distribution should come before product: use keyword research, lifetime-deal promos, paid tests and content to find demand before building features. Case studies show an app going from a few hundred dollars to $90,000 in its first year at almost no cost, and a no-code paid test reaching a multi-million dollar business with no native app.
- Run keyword research before building and pivot the product to the keyword
- Target keywords with search traffic around 30 and aim to rank for two
- Promote a free lifetime offer on deal sites to jump-start an app
App Masters · Oct 14Bookmark This Tool To See How Are Ads & Apps Compare
Shows how to use the AppsFlyer Benchmarks tool to compare your app's CPI, retention, IPM and ad spend against your category, media type and country. The walkthrough on generative AI and graphic design apps shows how the data can point to cheaper categories, overlooked countries and what kind of app to build.
- Benchmark your CPI and retention against your category before launching paid campaigns
- Filter benchmarks by media type to match where you actually spend
- Use country spend and installs data to find markets you are missing
App Masters · Oct 7Copy This Meta Ads Strategy to Scale Your Web2App Campaigns (Part 2/2)
Explains how to run and scale Meta Ads for web2app funnels: start on a proxy event, move to purchase optimization, test creatives in bulk, then scale by duplicating campaigns. Gives concrete budgets, thresholds and pacing rules, such as $100 per creative and 20 to 25% budget raises every few days.
- Start on a proxy event, then switch to purchase optimization
- Run a proxy campaign for 7 to 10 days at $50 a day
- Use paywall view as the first campaign event if purchases are zero
September 20254
App Masters · Sep 30The Beginner's Guide to Meta Ads for Web2App Campaigns (Part 1/2)
A beginner's guide to the technical setup of Meta ads for web-to-app funnels: which events to optimize on, how to send them from pixel and server, and what funnel conversion rates to expect. The payoff is a clear benchmark chain (about 2% visitor to purchase) and a tracking setup that avoids double-counted events and weak optimization.
- Send purchase events from the web funnel, never from the mobile app
- Optimize campaigns on standard Meta events, mainly Purchase, not custom events
- Send every event from both the browser pixel and the server Conversion API
App Masters · Sep 16100K Downloads TWICE & $4K Revenue in 2 Months (Indie App Growth Case Study)
A case study of how an indie app used a free-promo distribution channel plus ASO work to jump from about 20 downloads a day to 163, hit 100,000 downloads twice, and reach about $4,000 in monthly sales within two months. It shows how to turn promo spikes into organic ranking, feedback and revenue.
- Use a free promo spike to kickstart organic App Store rankings
- Pair a promo with keyword optimization so the lift lasts
- Run repeated promos and iterate between them instead of a single launch
App Masters · Sep 9How to 3X Your App Store Ratings
Steve Young explains how to ask for app store ratings at the right moment, for new, established and in-between apps. One client moved from about 50 ratings a month at 4.3 to nearly 400 a month at 4.5 by prompting right after trial activation.
- Ask for the rating right after a user activates a trial
- Measure ratings against downloads to confirm the prompt change worked
- Never ask for a rating on first open or on every screen
App Masters · Sep 2How to Create AI UGC Ads That Convert in 15 Minutes
Steve P. Young walks through a research-first workflow for making AI UGC ads: find a competitor ad with a high click-through rate, remix its script, then generate the actor, B-roll and emotional scenes in one tool (Arcads.ai). It matters because it shows how to turn proven scripts into new creatives in under 15 minutes, a process App Masters says has produced strong numbers for clients.
- Base every UGC ad on research into competitor ads
- Use the TikTok Ad Library to find ads with high click-through rates
- Find the peak-interest moment in a winning ad's script
August 20254
App Masters · Aug 26How to 2X Your App Retention With This Overlooked Ingredient
Integrating licensed music directly into an app can lift retention, session time and conversion, and a single music partner can remove the licensing and streaming burden. Feed.fm reports a 1.7x lift in D90 retention for users who listen to integrated music, 2.5x for the fitness app Swirkit, and 2x purchase conversion at American Eagle.
- Integrate music in the app instead of linking out to Spotify
- Test music as a retention lever, aiming for the D90 lift
- Offer background music in e-commerce apps to lift purchase conversion
App Masters · Aug 19App Marketing On A Budget: My Proven $0 To $10k Strategy (2025)
Six low-budget app growth tactics: ASO keyword research, lifetime free offers, localization, Apple Ads, small Meta budgets, and simple profit math. Apps went from a few hundred dollars a month to $90,000 in a year, and one reached over $150,000 a month from organic search.
- Run keyword research before building to validate demand for an app idea
- Run a lifetime free offer to get fast downloads and ratings
- Finish ASO, onboarding and paywall work before launching a lifetime free offer
App Masters · Aug 125 Free ASO Keyword Research Tools That Help Apps Print Cash
A walkthrough of five free keyword research tools (Google Trends, AppFollow, Google Keyword Planner, Fox Data, VidIQ) and how to stack them to find niche, high-intent, low-competition App Store keywords. A niche AI app found this way went from about $100 to $80,000 in its first nine months, driven mostly by App Store search.
- Target niche, high-intent keywords instead of broad high-volume ones
- Spin a keyword-backed feature of a big app into its own app
- Build a niche AI app that solves a real problem, not another chatbot
App Masters · Aug 5This AI Learning App Made $1.8M in Its First Year (Coursiv App)
A teardown of how the Coursiv AI learning app runs a web-to-app funnel: ads to a landing page, a long quiz onboarding, and a personalized, time-limited paywall. The app reached about $1.8M in lifetime revenue in its first year, with roughly $250,000 a month at its peak.
- Send paid social traffic to a web quiz funnel, not the app store
- Add a personalized countdown offer using the user's name and current month
- Let the countdown expire and raise the price to trigger loss aversion
July 20254
App Masters · Jul 29Easy Trick to Keep Users Coming Back to Your App
Retention work can be split into onboarding, activation and habit forming, and adding games through a plug-and-play tool like Gamezop is offered as a quick way to build the habit and add ad revenue. The video is a sponsored walkthrough, so the claims about the tool come from the host and its partner, not from tested results.
- Email trial users your most popular workouts to lift activation
- Ask users their goals during onboarding to personalize the experience
- Show your single most important feature first to speed time to value
App Masters · Jul 22This Morning Routine App Makes Almost $1 Million a Year!
A teardown of Routinery, a morning routine app that ranks number one for "morning routine" and, per Sensor Tower, earns roughly $60,000 to $80,000 a month with no paid ads. It shows how onboarding, an ad-unlock paywall, a timed discount and well-placed share and rating prompts drive conversion and engagement.
- Send new users straight into setting up their first routine
- Let non-payers watch an ad to unlock premium features temporarily
- Show a 24-hour discount right after the ad-unlocked preview
App Masters · Jul 15The Anatomy of a High-Converting Paywall
Web-to-app paywalls work best as long, personalized, objection-handling pages with about 14 blocks, unlike short mobile paywalls. Average paywall-to-subscription conversion is 6% on web, roughly three times the ~2% install-to-paid rate on mobile.
- Build web paywalls with about 14 blocks, not mobile's five
- Make web paywalls long and split the last two screens into a pre-paywall
- Reflect quiz answers on the paywall to personalize the offer
App Masters · Jul 17 Counterintuitive App Growth Strategies That Actually Work | Steve P. Young at MAU 2025
A conference talk of paywall and pricing A/B tests from App Masters client apps, covering where to place the paywall, how many plans to show, which plan to promote, and how hard to gate content. Several tests moved sales sharply, such as 3x more sales from defaulting to a weekly plan and trial starts falling from 13% to 6% when a close button was added.
- Show a three-plan paywall with a cheap, a best-value and a decoy plan
- Put your paywall inside the onboarding flow, before users reach the app
- Test defaulting to a weekly plan with a short trial instead of yearly
June 20251
May 20252
App Masters · May 27Grow Your App With These Simple Referral Tricks
Word of mouth for apps comes from three channels, user sharing, influencers and niche partners, and each can be tracked with deep links and custom product pages. Examples from Calm, Crossy Road, Zero and Cal AI (over $20M a year via influencers) show how to copy the tactics.
- Make users look good so they share your app
- Send a weekly progress report with a prefilled share post
- Let users share a branded image of their achievement
App Masters · May 6This Simple App Makes $50K/Month — Here's How
Painkiller apps that solve a need-to-have problem convert far better than nice-to-have vitamin apps, so a niche tracker can earn big money from modest ASO-driven traffic. Migraine Buddy makes over $50,000 a month from about 500 downloads a day, around 15,000 downloads a month, with no trial on its paywall.
- Build a painkiller app that solves a need, not a vitamin
- Target keywords with about 30 search traffic and rank two of them first
- Aim for a high revenue to download ratio in a niche
April 20252
App Masters · Apr 8How to A/B Test App Icons on iOS
A step-by-step walkthrough of setting up app icon A/B tests with Xcode and App Store Connect product page optimization, including what to test and how to run it. The useful result is that icons can be tested even while an app is in pre-order, so you can pick the launch icon with real data.
- Add every icon variant to the same Xcode assets file
- Tick 'include all icon assets' in your target settings
- Ship alternate icons inside a reviewed build before testing
App Masters · Apr 1App Store Optimization Guide That Will DOMINATE 2025!
A step-by-step beginner process for app store optimization: pick a small set of keywords with a search score near 30 and low competition, then build the title, subtitle and keyword field tightly around them. Steve says a keyword with a search score around 30 is enough traffic for a six-figure indie business.
- Target keywords with a search score between 25 and 39
- Pick six to 10 keywords and focus on two at a time
- Judge keyword competition by the ratings count of the top five results
February 20252
App Masters · Feb 25This Calorie Tracker App Makes $800,000 a Month (Cal AI)
A teardown of the Cal AI calorie tracker's onboarding flow and paywall, with specific changes to test and free tools for estimating how a competitor gets traffic. It matters because the app reportedly makes over $800K a month (per Sensor Tower) from about 300,000 downloads less than a year after launching in April 2024, driven by viral social videos.
- Let users scan once for free, then show a no-trial paywall
- Offer yearly with a 3-day trial and weekly with no trial
- Remove pricing from the pre-paywall trial screen and just say continue
App Masters · Feb 18The Best Alternative to Firebase Dynamic Links
Deep links send users from an ad, email, blog or influencer post straight to the right screen in an app, and Firebase Dynamic Links shut down on August 25th 2025, so teams need a replacement. The episode walks through setting up Airbridge deep links and migrating Firebase links with no code, with demos showing Airbridge opening the app in under 3 seconds versus 6 seconds for Firebase.
- Migrate Firebase Dynamic Links before the August 25th 2025 shutdown
- Use deep links that skip interstitial pages to open the app faster
- Deep link new installs straight to the product they clicked
January 20251
December 20241
November 20241
October 20241
September 20243
App Masters · Sep 25My Secret App Monetization Strategies
Five lesser-known app monetization tactics: let users pick their own discount, win back canceled trials, send discount emails, run cart abandonment reminders, and trigger timed discounts after high-intent moments. Examples include a 5% email conversion rate, a 13x conversion lift from a third cart reminder, and a 70% second-paywall offer that ranks among Headway's top five in-app purchases.
- Let users pick their own discount instead of showing a flat 50% off
- Limit pay-what-you-want choices to three and center your target plan
- Create separate yearly plans without a trial for discounted offers
App Masters · Sep 185 Features You MUST HAVE In Your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) 💡
Five features an app MVP needs to reach product market fit without overspending: analytics, re-engagement channels, onboarding, a paywall and live chat or contact us. Flipping the order of paywall and sign-up in one onboarding flow raised paywall views from 40% to 94% and trial activations by 190%.
- Show the paywall before asking users to sign up
- Track the one event that solves your users' core problem
- Add analytics before launch and track time on every screen
App Masters · Sep 16The 5 Biggest Mistakes First-Time App Founders Make
Two app veterans, one from marketing and one from development, walk through five mistakes first-time app founders make: perfecting the MVP, piling on features, chasing downloads, going too big too soon, and treating marketing and product as separate. A paywall and pricing change took one app from $1,000-$2,000 to $8,000-$10,000 a month with no new features or downloads.
- Change your pricing and paywall before building new features
- Optimize paywall and onboarding on the downloads you already have
- Solve one single problem well in your first version
August 20241
July 20242
App Masters · Jul 302 Secret Retention & Monetization Strategies (Stolen From 7-Figure Apps) #retentionstrategies
Apps keep users and earn more by building a network effect for retention and by running gaming-style LiveOps offers for monetization. The episode shows how to measure both, and why picking one strong move per growth stage can make an app attractive for a seven-figure exit.
- Build a network effect, the strongest retention driver for most apps
- Measure network effects by counting unique connections per user or per day
- Track Firebase cohort retention and focus on improving day one first
App Masters · Jul 10How to Transform ANY Business into a Profitable APP Business #appbusiness #appdevelopers
A creator-led app launched as a $5 pre-order to an existing book and podcast audience, then converted that paid base into a subscription business. The talk covers validation through a beta filter, paywall placement, plan and Android pricing choices, and the analytics, marketing and ratings mistakes made along the way.
- Launch a light paid pre-order to validate demand and fund the build
- Make the old paid version free when you add a subscription
- Filter beta testers with a hard ask like a video submission
May 20241
April 20243
App Masters · Apr 30(Part 2/3 - 6 Figure App Exit) Little Known App Growth Strategies for Indie Developers
Practical, low budget growth for indie apps: start paid acquisition with Google search ads one channel at a time, get free users through partnerships, and win back lapsed users with automated push, email and SMS. The guest says localization and Google ads with many creatives plus TikTok ads helped drive his last exit.
- Start paid acquisition with text-only Google search ads at $10 to $20 daily
- Run only one paid channel at a time until it works
- Optimize Google campaigns on in-app actions like trial start, not installs
App Masters · Apr 23(Part 1/3 - 6 Figure App Exit) How to Validate 6-Figure App Ideas
Shows how to validate an app idea by mining app marketplace listings, keyword volume and competitor revenue, then shipping a minimal version within about a week. Backs it with a toolset (live chat, session recordings) for learning from the first real users.
- Mine Flippa and Acquire listings to find apps that already earn money
- Check Google Keyword Planner for the listed app's main keyword
- Pick niches with huge search volume so you can squeeze in
App Masters · Apr 2The Anatomy of a High-Performing UGC Ad
Breaks a high-performing UGC app ad into four parts (hook, elements, psychological resonance, call to action) and walks through hook formats, an example ad, campaign structure, budgets and metrics. Gives concrete numbers to compare against, such as a 1 to 4% CTR, under $1 cost per tap and $500 to test.
- Test several hooks on the same development and call to action
- Judge every UGC ad on four parts: hook, elements, emotion, call to action
- Open ads with a question and solution hook
March 20241
February 20241
January 20243
App Masters · Jan 23The TikTok Ads Strategy for Beginners
A practical beginner playbook for TikTok app ads: test one variable at a time, scale by duplicating campaigns, and lean on creative over targeting. Jake Carp used it to reach 300k downloads in 12 months, with installs costing under a dollar.
- Test one variable at a time across three ads at $30 a day
- Scale by cloning identical campaigns instead of raising one budget
- Aim for CPM under $6, CTR above 1% and CVR above 25%
App Masters · Jan 16Advanced App Store Optimization Strategies for 2024
Advanced ASO tactics for 2024: target niche keywords big brands ignore, use keyword-rich in-app events, fill every US localization with English keywords, and capture Google web search traffic. Steve's motivational app went from no sales to over $1,000 a month from organic downloads alone just by changing keywords and title.
- Target niche keywords that big brands ignore instead of competing head on
- Find niche keywords with traffic first, then build the app around them
- Rework title and keywords on a struggling app before adding features
App Masters · Jan 2All Your ASO Questions Answered
Answers viewer questions on ASO: how to get genuine ratings, find niche keywords cheaply, use all nine US localizations, and when to use hard paywalls and ads. Backs it with a free-lifetime-offer launch that earned 150 ratings and 12,000 downloads, and a client whose review prompt went from about 50 to nearly 400 ratings a month.
- Show the review prompt after the paywall, whether or not users start the trial
- Give a lifetime offer for free to earn launch ratings
- Spread different keywords across all nine US App Store localizations
October 20232
App Masters · Oct 31The Simplest Facebook Ads Strategy for App Installs
Teaches how to run Facebook app install campaigns by walking down the funnel, going broad on targeting, and steering the algorithm with creative and feedback signals. The result worth hearing is an 80% audience match rate on a niche app and a trial-event trick that lifted user quality by almost a third.
- Start campaigns optimizing for installs, then walk down the funnel
- Send synthetic high-quality events back to Facebook and Google as optimization signals
- Delay the trial start event 12 hours and exclude early cancellers
App Masters · Oct 24Try These A/B Tests to Increase Your Subscriptions (APS SF 2023)
Seven A/B tests on onboarding, paywalls, pricing plans and calls to action show where subscription apps gain the most revenue. Examples include 2x sales from a paywall placed inside onboarding, a 52% sales lift from flipping paywall and sign up, and a 133% lift from rewriting a button.
- Put your paywall inside the onboarding flow, before users try the app
- Show the paywall before asking users to create an account
- Test a hard paywall with no close button when launching
September 20231
August 20232
App Masters · Aug 15Cracking the Code: App Store Optimization for Apps Struggling with Downloads
Shows how an app with no downloads or ratings can still rank by targeting smaller, high-intent keywords and using the app name well. Walks through a repeatable one-hour keyword gap process in AppFigures, plus how ratings and Apple Search Ads fit in.
- Start with low-competition keywords instead of the most popular ones
- Target keywords with a popularity score of at least 30
- Put the keyword in your app name when top apps leave it out
App Masters · Aug 1Mastering App Monetization: CRM & Discounting Strategies Revealed
Covers how to re-engage lapsed users with CRM, push and email, how to use discounts without training users to wait for them, and how to set up paywalls and freemium experiences that convert. The standout result is a study where monetization projects had 4x the growth impact of acquisition projects.
- Show a discounted second paywall when users dismiss the first
- Offer a discount instead of lowering your base price
- Send a discount push when someone cancels their trial
July 20231
June 20233
App Masters · Jun 21Boost Your App Subscription Revenue: Proven Strategies and Optimization Tips
Subscription app revenue can be lifted a lot by changing the paywall rather than buying more downloads: show it in onboarding, make it long, test a hard paywall, and tune trials and plans. Case studies show gains of 52%, 65%, 234% and 420%, including one app going from $250 to $1,000 with only 15 downloads a day.
- Show your paywall during onboarding, before users enter the app
- Add benefit-focused onboarding screens before the paywall
- Make the paywall long, with many sections, and test it against a short one
App Masters · Jun 20How the Gaming Ecosystem is Approaching Growth in 2023
Three mobile gaming growth leaders explain how they handle SKAN, measurement across MMP, SKAN and MMM, Apple Search Ads, Google UA and organic channels after ATT. Their practical takeaways include treating SKAN as the source of truth, investing steadily in non-direct-response channels, and building ads around the classic hook, gameplay, call to action structure.
- Optimize your SKAN conversion schema to measure performance better
- Treat SKAN as your source of truth and cross-check with probabilistic matching
- Trust your single source of truth, not in-platform channel numbers
App Masters · Jun 13Copy This $6M App Monetization Strategy
A teardown of how the period tracker Flo (about $6 million a month) stacks paywalls, a discounted offer and a 99 cent second-open offer around a long onboarding. It argues that most subscription buyers convert in the first session, so you should show several well-timed offers before interest fades.
- Show a discounted paywall right after the user dismisses the first one
- Put your paywall in onboarding because most buyers convert in the first session
- Show the paywall before asking users to sign up
April 20232
App Masters · Apr 54 Features You Need Before Your App Launch
Four features to build into an app before launch: onboarding and paywall tracking, a paywall shown during onboarding, an App Store review prompt after the paywall, and a remotely configurable hard paywall. One client app went from $1,000 to $10,000 a month with the same downloads by optimizing the paywall, raising the price and using a hard paywall.
- Show your paywall during onboarding, before users try the app
- Test a hard paywall if you get about 20 downloads a day
- Track paywall views over installs and aim for close to 100 percent
App Masters · Apr 4Apple Search Ads 2023 Workshop
A workshop on running Apple Search Ads: how to structure campaigns, set bids with simple math, go after competitor keywords with custom product pages, and set up a live campaign. It also shows a review prompt placed after a paywall that lifted ratings from 32 reviews in November to 313 ratings in January while the average rose from 4.3 to 4.5.
- Split Apple Search Ads into brand, exact, and separate discovery campaigns
- Set max bids as ideal cost per acquisition times keyword conversion rate
- Use typical conversion rates by keyword type to set starting bids
March 20232
App Masters · Mar 23Proven App Monetization Strategies Backed by Data
Seven data-backed ways to raise subscription revenue without buying more downloads, mostly by changing when, how often and how the paywall is shown. The payoff is a set of client and own-app results, including a 12x revenue lift from a long paywall and a 2x lift from a hard paywall.
- Show the paywall during onboarding, before users reach the home screen
- Show the paywall before asking users to create an account
- Make the paywall long, with a floating checkout button
App Masters · Mar 21Early Stage Strategies to Drive App Subscriptions
Three early stage founders share the scrappy tactics they used to get revenue before they had big budgets: a two-step paywall, email offers outside the app, quizzes, partnerships, and influencer and community work. The standout results are a 16.4% download to trial or purchase rate, 942 activations from one partnership, and almost a million downloads with zero paid ads.
- Remove the close button on the first paywall, keep the second closable
- Send email offers with a Stripe checkout to users who never converted in-app
- Use a matching quiz to turn marketplace visitors into leads
February 20234
App Masters · Feb 21$250 to $1,000 a Month with Just 15 Downloads
An indie app went from a low of $270 a month to about $1,000 a month with only about 15 downloads a day by fixing what happens after install: event tracking, a longer paywall and simpler plans. The lesson is that fixing post-install conversion can beat chasing more downloads.
- Replace a short paywall with a long, proof-heavy premium page
- Track Firebase events to find where users drop before purchase
- Fix post-install conversion before buying more installs
App Masters · Feb 16How One iOS Developer 2X Sales by Optimizing His Paywall
A decade-old one-function iOS utility app doubled in-app purchase sales and grew ad revenue by about 4x after adding an onboarding sequence, a front-and-center paywall, tighter feature gating and longer ads. The pricing and paywall options did not change, so the gain came from showing the paywall to everyone and making the free path less comfortable.
- Show the paywall to every user at the end of onboarding
- Build a short onboarding with taglines that lead into the paywall
- Lock most features and leave only one free
App Masters · Feb 7COPY THIS $5M APP FLOW TO SKYROCKET YOUR REVENUE
A teardown of Calm's onboarding, paywall and sign-up flow shows which patterns a meditation app earning over $5 million a month relies on. The key lesson is to show the paywall before asking for an account, then force sign-up after payment.
- Show the paywall first, then require account sign-up after payment
- Put the paywall inside the onboarding flow
- Put the word free in the trial call to action
App Masters · Feb 2What is Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM)
Marketing mix modeling (MMM) measures how each channel drives installs and revenue using only aggregated data, which makes it a workable replacement for user-level attribution lost to iOS 14.5 and ATT. It explains what inputs the model needs and what it adds over last touch attribution, including offline channels, carryover, saturation and forecasting.
- Use marketing mix modeling to regain visibility lost to ATT
- Feed the model daily spend per channel plus daily outcomes
- Stop relying on last touch attribution alone
January 20238
App Masters · Jan 31Uncovering the Secrets of Your Competitor's App Store Optimization Strategy!
Shows how to spy on competitors' App Store keywords with ASO Mobile's three competitor tools, then pick the keywords worth chasing. The takeaway is to start in low-competition niches the big apps ignore, backed by an app that ranked number one for a breathing keyword pair and drove 100+ downloads a day.
- Start ASO in niche long-tail keywords, not broad head terms
- Target single-word and two-word keyword pairs that both have traffic
- Add a diverse mix of competitors to find different keywords
App Masters · Jan 26Do This to Increase Your AdMob Show Rate
Explains the difference between AdMob match rate and show rate, what show rate to aim for, and a step-by-step process to diagnose and fix a low one. The benchmark bands (under 30, 30 to 50, above 50) tell you when it is worth the effort.
- Triage show rate by band: fix under 30, queue 30 to 50, skip above 50
- Separate match rate from show rate before optimizing either
- Break down the AdMob network report to find where show rate drops
App Masters · Jan 24This ChatGPT App Makes $200K a Month
A teardown of Genie, a ChatGPT-based iOS app estimated at over $200K a month, covering how to size the opportunity, its keyword traffic, weekly pricing with a three-day trial, and in-app growth tricks. The useful result is a concrete template: weekly subscriptions around $12.99 with a free trial, an early review prompt, a paywall on the second open, and cross-promotion.
- Lead with a weekly subscription and a three-day free trial
- Show the paywall again on the second app open
- Skip free trials on plans with high per-use costs
App Masters · Jan 17Early Stage Growth Strategies
A bootstrapped, non-technical founder explains how she grew Rootd through niche ASO, repeated PR, genuine social engagement and a one-feature MVP. The result is a mostly organic app (95% organic) that ranks number one for panic attacks in the App Store and earned multiple Apple features.
- Rank for a small niche keyword before chasing the big one
- Pair your press pitch with a real world event
- Start PR with local press, then widen to other journalists
App Masters · Jan 123X Your App Valuation With These Tiny Optimizations
App buyers value an app on new money, funnel health and testing habits, not on headline revenue. Tiny 10 to 20% gains at each funnel step can lift an app's valuation from half a million dollars to almost $1 million, and a single button text test produced a 20.9% lift.
- Judge subscription revenue by new money share, not total revenue
- Test button copy, because small wording changes can lift conversion by 20%
- Improve each funnel step by 10% to lift revenue by 33%
App Masters · Jan 10The TikTok Organic Strategy That Led to 320K App Downloads
Steven Cravotta explains how he grew the Puff Count quit-vaping app with organic TikTok alone, using market research on top videos, repeatable content formats and hashtags. The result is just under 300,000 downloads at $0 ad spend, with one video lifting the app to number one in Lifestyle and number 30 overall.
- Study the most liked videos for your keyword before creating
- Test five or six content formats in month one, then double down
- Optimize your app store listing because most TikTok viewers search instead of clicking your bio link
App Masters · Jan 5Mobile User Acquisition: How to Get Started and What You Need
Explains the measurement setup needed before paid mobile user acquisition: what an MMP does, how iOS privacy changes (ATT and SKAdNetwork) limit data, and how to pick partners and test creatives. The useful result is a concrete starting playbook: soft launch, 3 to 5 partners, ROI over CPI, and plain creatives.
- Judge channels and countries by ROI, not by cost per install
- Scale spend into countries where your app converts best, even at higher CPI
- Start with three to five ad partners, not the inbound long tail
App Masters · Jan 3How to Maximize App Store Optimization Seasonality
Explains how to use holidays, special events and viral moments to lift App Store conversion and retention through seasonal keywords, creatives, in-app events and custom product pages. Includes a live audit of a kids learning app with concrete fixes for keywords, screenshots and paywall copy.
- Match your in-app experience to your seasonal store creatives
- Bid on seasonal keywords in Apple Search Ads instead of rewriting metadata
- Start seasonal tests early so you have data when the season peaks
October 20221
September 20221
August 20222
App Masters · Aug 24Chatbot Marketing to Decrease Complaints & Improve Product
In-app support can be automated end to end with a help center, intent-based quick search, custom bots, human handoff and a feedback bot, so users self-serve and agents handle only the hard cases. Helpshift customers report up to 90 to 99 percent self-service, a 17 hour cut in average wait time and a 20 percent resolution improvement.
- Build a strong in-app FAQ knowledge base before any chatbot
- Use bots to collect user details before handing off to an agent
- Route premium users and complex issues to human agents after the bot
App Masters · Aug 17Product Market Fit: The Simple Way to Find It
Finding product market fit comes down to knowing which people you serve, which problem you solve, and asking users a few direct questions, both before and after launch. In-app feedback, early indicators like the DAU to MAU ratio, and retention tell you whether you have it.
- Ask users how they would feel if they could no longer use the product
- Ask users the main benefit and what to improve
- Pick a narrow beachhead audience that will give you an easy yes
July 20222
App Masters · Jul 28How to Use Custom Product Pages to Lower Apple Search Ads Costs
Custom product pages let you match the App Store page to the intent of the keywords you bid on, which lifts tap-through and conversion rates and lowers cost per install. The episode also covers how to structure Apple Search Ads campaigns and ad groups so the pages work, including the pause-and-restart mistake that hid the gains in one test.
- Build a custom product page for each keyword intent group
- Lower CPA by raising conversion rate on the same traffic
- Make new screenshots for each page, not just new captions
App Masters · Jul 20How Apple Search Ads Impacts App Store Optimization
Apple Search Ads and App Store Optimization feed each other: better tap-through and conversion rates lift organic rankings, and organic rankings make search ads cheaper and more visible. Case studies show a crypto finance app cutting CPAs with custom product pages and a client growing from 200 to 2,200 ranked keywords.
- Start Apple Search Ads with keywords you already rank 1 to 50 for
- Run custom product pages in Apple Search Ads to lift tap-through and conversion
- Optimize tap-through and conversion rates, not just keyword rankings and download velocity
June 20223
App Masters · Jun 29Mobile Game Ad Monetization
Mobile game monetization works best when you test everything in your ad stack, diversify formats and buyers, and match ad units to your game genre. Brand advertisers are moving into rewarded video, interstitials and banners, and banners are making a comeback.
- Test bidding against the waterfall and judge it by ARPDAU
- A/B test banner refresh rates by country, such as 10 versus 11 seconds
- Test how many ad network instances you put in the waterfall
App Masters · Jun 15How to Increase AdMob eCPM for Mature Apps (Part 3/3)
Mature apps with hundreds of thousands of monthly users can raise AdMob eCPM by segmenting performance by format, device and geography, then running bidding and waterfall together. It also covers testing ad network seasonality with control groups and tuning ad experience per country, which Sid says have produced massive eCPM spikes for developers.
- Segment historical ad performance by format, device and geography
- Run bidding and waterfall together instead of choosing one
- Group ad networks with similar eCPMs, then by geo, format and device
App Masters · Jun 8How to Increase AdMob eCPM for Growth Apps (Part 2/3)
For apps in the growth phase, three steps lift AdMob eCPM: reopen competitor ads, raise show rate above 60 percent, and move mediation to bidding instead of waterfall. Each one targets how advertisers value and win your inventory.
- Move mediation from waterfall to bidding during the growth phase
- Raise your ad show rate above 60 percent
- Test re-enabling competitor ads on about 10 percent of your audience
May 20223
App Masters · May 25How to Increase AdMob eCPM for New Apps (Part 1/3)
Teaches how to approach AdMob in an app's launch phase: focus on testing ad formats and placements, and skip mediation and multiple ad calls until the app has a real user base. The practical payoff is a simple launch checklist that protects retention and avoids invalid traffic flags while still finding what earns.
- Test each ad format with one placement at launch
- Skip mediation and multiple ad calls during the launch phase
- Prioritize retention over ad revenue in the launch phase
App Masters · May 13How User-Generated Content Ads Increase Installs by 30%
Shows how to make low-cost user-generated style video ads for TikTok, set up attribution first, and prepare before spending on a new channel. The case behind it is a Volkswagen car sharing app (WeShare) where user-generated ads lifted CTR 25%, impression-to-install conversion 282% and installs 30%.
- Film user-generated ads in-house on a smartphone instead of hiring an agency
- Build each ad around the top features and USPs for your target audience
- Make a separate version of each ad for every platform
App Masters · May 11How to Fix AdMob Invalid Traffic / Activity
Explains how AdMob detects invalid traffic and policy violations, and what to change in an app during the 30 day window after a suspension. Covers click patterns, content and age rules, and ad placement mistakes that get accounts banned.
- Use test ads for all internal testing, never live ads
- Limit ads shown per user to one or two with frequency capping
- Cut traffic sources and drop tier three and four countries during review
April 20221
March 20221
February 20223
App Masters · Feb 23How to Find Low Competition Keywords That Convert
A walkthrough of how to use competitor Apple Search Ads bidding data and an ASO tool to find low competition, high converting keywords for a crowded category like meditation. It also shows how to place those keywords in the keyword field and keep Google Play descriptions under 3% keyword density.
- Mine a big competitor's Apple Search Ads keywords for high converting terms
- Target keywords with a search score of about 20 to 40
- Require a minimum search ads score before targeting a keyword
App Masters · Feb 16Should You Make a Wordle Clone? (And How One Wordle App is Making $50K a Month)
Wordle clones flooded the app stores, and a market scan of the top apps ranking for the term shows which monetization choices worked. The standout is a paid $1.99 word game with different gameplay that makes about $50,000 in revenue from only 10,000 downloads.
- Switch to a paid app when a trend sends search traffic
- Run Apple Search Ads Advanced to scale a paid app
- Name your existing app after a trending search term
App Masters · Feb 9The Simplest Apple Search Ads Advanced Campaign to Manage and Scale
A simple Apple Search Ads advanced campaign mimics Basic but exposes the search term data Basic hides, so you can discover keywords you never considered. It suits beginners and apps whose main keyword has little search volume, and one example ran at about $1.70 per download.
- Use Advanced with Search Match on instead of Apple Search Ads Basic
- Mine the Search Terms report for new keywords and ASO ideas
- Use this campaign when your main keyword has low search volume
January 20222
App Masters · Jan 12App Store Optimization in 2022: Key Google Play Changes
Google Play is cutting app titles from 50 to 30 characters and banning emojis and promotional words, and the episode explains how to handle that and how to use YouTube video optimization for Google Play search. One client case saw a 100 percent jump in Google Play search downloads after optimizing and tagging a YouTube video.
- Wait as long as possible before cutting your Google Play title to 30 characters
- Put your most important keywords in the first 30 characters of the title
- Apply the 30 character limit to every localization, mindful of language length
App Masters · Jan 5App Store Optimization in 2022: Key iOS Changes
Covers the main iOS App Store changes for 2022: in-app events, native A/B testing and custom product pages, plus how to run clean A/B tests. Worth hearing for concrete testing rules, such as one hypothesis at a time and testing each store and locale separately.
- Test one hypothesis at a time in each App Store A/B test
- Make A/B test variants dramatically different from each other
- Test video versus no video in your store listing
September 20214
App Masters · Sep 22App Store Optimization for Million Dollar Apps (Part 4/4)
Even apps with strong paid user acquisition still gain from ASO: small conversion lifts at large scale add up to big install and cost savings. The episode covers how to pitch ASO to leadership, how to prepare for getting featured, and why promoted in-app purchases are an overlooked ranking and conversion lever.
- Optimize promoted in-app purchases to take over search results
- Pitch ASO to leadership as saved paid install spend
- Show the compounding value of small conversion gains at scale
App Masters · Sep 15App Store Optimization for Apps Ready to Scale (Part 3/4)
Explains how to run ASO once an app is ready to scale: expand into new localizations, work on ratings, reviews and graphic assets, and connect ASO with paid user acquisition. Gives concrete tactics such as well-timed review prompts, fighting fake reviews, and feeding Apple Search Ads and Facebook learnings back into metadata.
- Feed high-converting Apple Search Ads keywords back into your ASO metadata
- Test keyword categories on Facebook audiences when Apple Search Ads shows no impressions
- Rank ratings and reviews first after text optimization, then graphics, then store tests
App Masters · Sep 8Keyword Prioritization for App Store Optimization (Part 2/4)
Explains how to prioritize researched keywords for a new app's App Store and Google Play metadata, and whether to target competitors' branded keywords. The key lesson is to start with relevant, low and medium popularity keywords, and to treat branded keywords as a risky, low-install play.
- Rank keywords by relevance first when launching a new app
- Start a new app on low and medium frequency keywords
- Do not bet a new app's launch on the most popular keywords
App Masters · Sep 1How to Jumpstart Your App with App Store Optimization (Part 1/4)
Explains how a new app should start App Store Optimization: build a keyword pool, mine competitors, pick low competition keywords first, and add paid traffic early. The result worth hearing is that store search drives 65% of installs (70% during COVID), so keyword work comes first.
- Mine competitor keyword data as your main source of keywords
- Start a new app with low competition keywords
- Run paid traffic from launch to speed up ranking and indexing
August 20212
App Masters · Aug 10This Photo Scanner App Makes $300K a Month
A teardown of a scanner app launched in February 2020 that Sensor Tower estimates earns over $300,000, showing how to research a category, infer a competitor's acquisition channels, and read its paywall. The takeaway is a paid-ad-driven app that converts by locking core features behind a weekly trial paywall shown straight after onboarding.
- Lock your core features behind the paywall instead of giving them away
- Show a free-trial paywall right after a short onboarding
- Infer whether a competitor's downloads are paid or organic from its keyword ranks
App Masters · Aug 3Simple Formula to Decrease Cost-Per-Acquisition on Apple Search Ads (Part 3/3)
Teaches a simple formula for setting Apple Search Ads bids (max cost per tap equals target cost per acquisition times conversion rate) and five ways to scale the channel once you hit your goals. In one example, a keyword converting at 67% held a $1 cost per acquisition against a $2 goal, which left room to raise the bid.
- Set max cost per tap as target CPA times conversion rate
- Start with a $2 to $3 cost per acquisition goal if you have no data
- Review the last seven days and update bids per keyword
July 20212
App Masters · Jul 20The Best Way to Structure Your Apple Search Ads Campaign (Part 1/3)
A walkthrough of how to structure Apple Search Ads with four campaigns per country (exact, broad, search match and brand) and how to derive a starting cost per tap from your target cost per install. It gives concrete conversion rate averages and a live setup of the exact match campaign for a sleep sounds app.
- Set up four campaigns for every country you target
- Put your most relevant keywords in an exact match campaign
- Run broad match as a discovery campaign with exact keywords as negatives
App Masters · Jul 6Best App Store Optimization Tool to Do Competitor Analysis
Shows how to use a keyword tool to run competitor analysis for App Store optimization: mine competitor keywords, find gaps in your own metadata, and see which in-app purchases rank in search. The standout finding is a competitor's in-app purchase that ranks for 81 keywords, 23 of them in the top five.
- Get your in-app purchases indexed and ranking in App Store search
- Study which competitor in-app purchases rank, and for which keywords
- Use different title and subtitle keywords in the Mexico Spanish localization
June 20211
April 20213
App Masters · Apr 12App Ideas to Make Money - The Proven Method 2022
A free, two-tool process for finding app ideas that already make money and validating your own idea by studying top-grossing competitors and their reviews. Clients who copied proven ideas this way reached $10K to $200K a month in revenue.
- Find app ideas in the top-grossing chart of a sub-category
- Spot crowded niches by searching a keyword in the top 100
- Check competitor revenue in Sensor Tower before committing to an idea
App Masters · Apr 7How to Get Started with Facebook Automated App Ads
Explains how to launch a new app on Facebook Automated App Ads (AAA): how much to spend, how many creatives to use, which optimization events to pick, and what tracking must be in place first. The payoff is a cheap, fast way to find the geos and creatives that work before committing a larger budget.
- Start a new app's testing on Facebook Automated App Ads
- Budget a couple hundred dollars a day per campaign per platform
- Launch with 10 to 20 creatives and hold the rest back
App Masters · Apr 5This Meme Maker App Makes $60K a Month [How to Make Memes]
A teardown of Mematic, a meme maker app that earns over $60K a month, showing how a simple app can win through one high-traffic keyword and a generous free tier with a pro upgrade. It also lists specific screenshot, onboarding and paywall changes the app could test to earn even more.
- Rank number one for a single high-traffic keyword in the App Store
- Fight for the top three spots in search results
- Put social proof and your top keyword in the first screenshot
March 20213
App Masters · Mar 10Avoid These App Launch Mistakes (Part 4) - App Startup Series
A practical checklist of app launch mistakes to avoid: skipping closed betas, watching real users instead of explaining the app, hiding monetization, and spending big on launch before the numbers work. It argues for soft launching in a smaller market and optimizing retention and revenue per download over raw downloads.
- Soft launch in a smaller country before a worldwide launch
- Run a closed beta before launching to the public
- Watch new users figure out your app without guiding them
App Masters · Mar 3How to Build a Minimum Viable Product (Part 2) - App Startup Series
Explains how to define an app MVP and document it for a developer: keep features minimal, write a detailed spec with use cases, and mock up screens with wireframe and prototype tools. Following this lowers development cost, gives more accurate quotes and avoids feature bloat.
- Cut your app to the minimum features that solve one problem
- Do not copy every competitor feature into your first version
- Write a detailed spec document with step by step use cases
App Masters · Mar 1Do This Before Building Your App (Part 1) - App Startup Series
Four steps to take before building an app: research competitors, validate with qualified people, condense the idea into a document with mockups, and plan funding. The core lesson is to treat an app as a company with a funnel, marketing and support, not a one-off product you launch and forget.
- Plan the download-to-paying-customer funnel before you design any features
- Treat your app as a company, not a hobby project
- Read competitor reviews to find what users love and hate
February 20213
App Masters · Feb 15The Facebook Retargeting Ads That Drives App Revenues
Mike Durst explains how OOMPH runs Facebook ads for a subscription fitness app: heavy creative and audience testing, optimizing for trials, then retargeting lapsed trial users to drive purchases. His retargeting campaign produced sales and profit right away instead of waiting out the seven day trial.
- Retarget users who finished a trial without buying, and optimize for purchases
- Test 20 to 30 creatives against four or five audiences before scaling
- Optimize for cost per install first, then switch to cost per trial
App Masters · Feb 3Influencer Marketing for Mobile App Downloads as an Indie Dev
A niche marriage app launched through influencer and affiliate partnerships, with a custom deep link attribution setup that ties every install and upgrade back to its source. The founder also shows how an email list, a hiring pool and a podcast came out of that approach.
- Find influencers inside your niche's existing communities, not generic big accounts
- Treat influencer outreach as networking and find what they need first
- Make the product genuinely excellent before asking anyone to review it
App Masters · Feb 1App Store Optimization in 2021 - Optimize These 7 Things (Part 6/6)
Covers the ASO levers that raise app downloads without touching keywords: icon, screenshots, reviews, Google Play short description, backlinks, search ads, and retention and monetization. Client examples show a 50% download lift from an icon change and a 98% lift from new screenshots.
- Redesign your screenshots as benefit banners, not raw app screens
- Use the first three screenshots as keyword, social proof, differentiator
- Pick your differentiating feature by mining your and competitors' reviews
January 20214
App Masters · Jan 27App Store Optimization in 2021 - Keyword Optimization (Part 5/6)
A walkthrough of a keyword spreadsheet process for App Store listings: load researched keywords into two ASO tools, mark targets by traffic and difficulty, then place them across title, subtitle and keyword fields in both the US and Spanish Mexico localizations. The worked example is a sleep sounds app named Moonlight after a high-traffic, low-competition keyword, which now ranks number five for that term.
- Load all researched keywords into a spreadsheet with ASO tool scores
- Aim for 75% high-traffic, high-competition keywords and 25% lower-competition ones
- Cross-check keyword difficulty in two ASO tools before committing
App Masters · Jan 20App Store Optimization in 2021 - Keyword Research (Part 3/6)
A five-step keyword research process for App Store Optimization: seed keywords, Apple autofill, standout competitors, Apple Search Ads suggestions, and competitor keyword rankings. It builds a list of 100 to 200 candidate keywords, including hidden ones with real traffic that competitors already rank for.
- Mine a standout competitor's keywords through the Apple Search Ads suggestions in AppFollow
- Start keyword research with three to five seed keywords people would search
- Expand seed keywords with Apple's autofill suggestions in AppFollow
App Masters · Jan 18App Store Optimization in 2021 - ASO Factors (Part 2/6)
A walkthrough of the seven factors that drive app store keyword rankings and organic downloads: title, subtitle, keyword field or long description, screenshots, reviews, category and Google Play file size. It includes concrete formatting rules and one client who doubled downloads by changing only screenshots.
- Put your most important keywords in the app title
- Do not use the iOS subtitle for branding; fill it with keywords
- Remove spaces after commas in the iOS keyword field
App Masters · Jan 11Meet the Indie Developer with 7M Downloads & Apple Design Award
An indie developer explains what he changed after launch to grow a paid puzzle game to 7 million downloads without paid marketing: locking more content earlier, making the purchase clear, and putting his own voice and name on the app. The key result is that moving the purchase prompt earlier lifted revenue, and the game went far past his own hopes of 10,000 to 100,000 players.
- Move the purchase option much earlier in the game flow
- Lock more of the content so people see the value
- Do not make free and paid content look the same
December 20202
App Masters · Dec 21Do This If Your App Retention Sucks
Retention improves through disciplined experimentation: size experiments properly, test messaging high in the funnel, and keep acquisition promises aligned with the in-app experience. Listory used this approach, plus a public manifesto, to lift retention from under 10% to over 40%.
- Run A/A tests first to size how long and big experiments must be
- Plan for roughly 600 users per experiment before reading results
- Test messaging high in the funnel, such as store listings, to learn faster
App Masters · Dec 14How Among Us Became #1 Mobile Game
Among Us and Fall Guys took off in 2020 because they fit a market moment, and Fortnite followed a similar late breakout. The episode explains how to treat slow games, radical pivots and cancellation decisions so a game gets a real chance to find its market.
- Try a radical change to your game before you kill it
- Ship games that are plug and play with a strong social layer
- Watch the market mood and time your launch to it
November 20201
October 20202
App Masters · Oct 26How to Launch a Successful App as An Indie Developer
Indie launches work best when you find a true story and a niche audience that cares, and plan the marketing before building the app. Press and Apple features give a bump but did not make Weather Up succeed, while a differentiated distribution edge backed by a strong product built Carrot Weather's business.
- Pitch the press a true, timely story, never an invented one
- Pitch each audience a story that serves what they care about
- Target small niche sites and YouTube channels instead of big press
App Masters · Oct 12YouTube Influencer Marketing for App Promotion
YouTube influencer integrations can drive installs and retained users because creators have time to demo an app, and evergreen how-to videos keep delivering downloads for years. One unpaid pitch to a tech YouTuber with over 1 million followers produced about 80,000 downloads.
- Buy a one to three minute demo integration in the middle of a YouTube video
- Choose YouTube over Instagram stories when the app needs a demo
- Judge influencer campaigns on returning, paying users, not raw installs
September 20204
App Masters · Sep 28Avoid These App Development Mistakes
Common first-time app creator mistakes: too many features, no market research or goals, skipping soft launch, charging too late, expecting a hit on app one, and hiring the cheapest developer. Includes a case where a pricing and paywall change took an app from $1 a day to $17 a day with no extra downloads.
- Lock features and offer several purchase options instead of one
- Launch with one core feature that solves one problem
- Explain the app in ten seconds to test your focus
App Masters · Sep 21Auditing The Most Downloaded Game - Subway Surfers
An audit of Subway Surfers and its clones shows how missions, characters, rewarded ads, gift boxes and starter packs keep a simple endless runner earning over $1M a month on iOS years after launch. It also shows that cloning the gameplay is easy, but distribution is what decides whether a clone works.
- Offer a double-up reward after every level for watching an ad
- Add a save-me prompt that trades an ad view for a continue
- Pair free rewards with ads and paid options in one economy
App Masters · Sep 145 Ways to Increase Mobile Game Revenue
Five monetization fundamentals for mobile games: psychological triggers, offer cadence, double-up rewards, monetizing impatience and a strong first-time user experience, illustrated with Slotomania, Subway Surfers, Clash of Clans, Merge Dragons and King of Thieves. The standout case is King of Thieves, which more than doubled its numbers by moving the multiplayer mode its best players had stumbled on into the first-time user flow.
- Put the multiplayer or core hook your best players found into onboarding
- Find your magic moment and get players there as fast as possible
- Design the first 10 minutes as the main retention lever
App Masters · Sep 7Side Hustle App Marketing Strategies
Indie app makers share low-budget ways to validate an idea, get first downloads and earn early reviews, using Reddit, beta testing sites, Apple pre-orders, Search Ads and a Facebook giveaway. The common thread is that side hustlers usually land a winner only after several apps and a lot of iteration.
- Ask niche subreddit communities if they want your app before building it
- Collect emails in your Reddit validation post to seed launch downloads and reviews
- Pick a niche instead of copying a saturated app category
August 20202
App Masters · Aug 315 Deadly App Marketing Mistakes
Five app marketing mistakes drawn from helping over 3,326 apps: chasing downloads over conversion, delaying monetization, offering a single purchase option, over-relying on ASO, and over-investing in Apple features and PR. Fixing the product and funnel took a geometry app from $1 to over $17 a day with no extra downloads, and a call blocker app saw a 70% conversion lift.
- Fix your funnel once you have 30 downloads a day
- Change the pricing page to lift trial conversions and revenue per download
- Show the pricing page during onboarding
App Masters · Aug 10Try This If Your Users Are NOT Coming Back to Your App
Teaches how to ask users to enable push notifications with a pre-permission screen, then run a seven-step push drip campaign adapted from email nurture sequences. The sequence moves users from a quick win through objection handling to a time-limited sale that closes the purchase.
- Show a custom pre-permission screen before the system push prompt
- If users decline your pre-permission screen, move on and ask later
- Ask for notification permission twice: in onboarding and after a win
July 20202
App Masters · Jul 205 Beginner App Store Optimization Mistakes
Five beginner App Store Optimization mistakes and how to fix them: the Spanish Mexico localization, keyword difficulty, title and subtitle use, screenshot design, and review timing. A client's screenshot redesign alone lifted downloads 91%, and in a later pass doubled them without touching keywords.
- Use the Spanish Mexico localization to double your US keywords
- Put key keywords in both the US and Spanish Mexico subtitles
- Pack the 100-character keyword field with no spaces or repeats
App Masters · Jul 15Crossy Road Creator Matthew Hall (Audio Masterclass)
Matthew Hall explains how Crossy Road was built in 12 weeks by combining the core feel of Flappy Bird with Frogger, and grew organically through Apple featuring and built-in sharing. The game passed 20 million iOS downloads with no paid advertising, and it earned more from opt-in video ads than from in-app purchases.
- Take the core feeling of a hit and build something new
- Design for retention and virality first, and monetize second
- Offer opt-in rewarded video ads instead of banners or interstitials
June 20202
App Masters · Jun 17Do This Before You Advertise Your Mobile App
Competitor ad research with the free Facebook Ad Library and the paid SocialPeta tool lets app marketers copy proven creatives, copy and audiences before spending on their own tests. The payoff is lower cost per install without paying ad networks to run blind A/B tests.
- Research competitor ads before launching any paid acquisition campaign
- Use the free Facebook Ad Library to study competitor ads
- Use competitor ad formats to plan your creative asset needs
App Masters · Jun 3This Intermittent Fasting App is Making $300K a Month (Fastic App Review)
A teardown of Fastic, an intermittent fasting app making over $300,000 a month on iOS, covering its store listing, onboarding, pricing page and gamification. It shows concrete elements of a high-converting subscription flow that other apps can copy.
- Build the pricing page around personalized numbers, benefits and a plan comparison
- Show a simple basic versus plus comparison so the paid tier looks far bigger
- Put success stories on the pricing page that cover your key demographics
May 20202
App Masters · May 20How to Increase Mobile Game Revenue Using Rewarded Surveys
Rewarded surveys give apps a way to earn from non-paying users without cutting into ads or in-app purchases. The founder explains where they fit, which currencies and game types suit them, and how an indie game with about 200 daily users added roughly $1,000 a month.
- Add rewarded surveys to monetize users who never pay
- Layer surveys on top of ads and purchases rather than replacing them
- Give users several ways to earn currency and let them choose
App Masters · May 4Attribution for Mobile App Tracking for iOS and Google Play
Shows how to use the free reporting in App Store Connect and Google Play Console to see where app downloads come from, and when to move to paid attribution tools. A free promotional campaign drove close to 6,000 downloads with no ad spend, and the built-in reports showed the traffic sources.
- Check App Store Connect's Sources report to see where iOS downloads originate
- Filter app units by App Store Search to measure your ASO results
- Start with the free store reports and the Facebook SDK before paying for attribution
April 20202
App Masters · Apr 27Video Ads Example for Facebook & Mobile Advertising
A five-point checklist for making TikTok-style video ads that also work on Facebook, Instagram and ad networks: character-driven, music and movement, portrayed emotion, exaggeration, and raw unpolished footage. It matters because one cheap, native-looking creative can be reused across platforms without heavy production or ad copy.
- Use a five-point checklist on every TikTok-style ad creative
- Tell a story with a character instead of showing gameplay
- Hire actors instead of influencers when you only need the creative
App Masters · Apr 20Keyword Research Tools for App Store Optimization
A walkthrough of a free-tool workflow for app store keyword research: build a list of 100+ keywords from competitors and Apple suggestions, then filter by popularity and difficulty scores. It gives concrete thresholds (popularity 20+, difficulty 30 or under) and reports tripling client downloads by finding low-difficulty misspellings.
- Pick keywords with popularity 20 or higher and difficulty 30 or under
- Build a list of 100+ keywords before scoring any of them
- Mine competitors' ranking keywords with App Annie and paste them into a spreadsheet
March 20205
App Masters · Mar 31The Most Important App Store Optimization (ASO) Factors in 2020
Panel of ASO tool makers explains what drives ranking on the App Store and Google Play, and why keywords alone no longer move downloads. They also give a concrete Google Play keyword density target of 2 to 3% and an example of a client moving from the top 15 to the top 10.
- Keep Google Play description keyword density between 2 and 3 percent
- Optimize conversion rate per keyword to raise iOS keyword rankings
- Drive download velocity to climb iOS category rankings
App Masters · Mar 31Hottest Monetization Trends for Mobile Games
Mobile game monetization trends from a game data provider: seasonal battle passes, social and co-op mechanics, and live events work across genres. It also covers which genres have room for new titles in the US, China and Japan.
- Add a seasonal battle pass with free and premium tracks
- Use battle pass seasons to create repeat purchases without auto-renew
- Pair task and milestone rewards with the pass to drive play
App Masters · Mar 30Chad Mureta's App Marketing Strategy (App Empire)
Chad Mureta explains how he now focuses on engagement, retention and lifetime value after the download, front-loads ratings before monetizing, and treats apps as real businesses. He says he is doing better in apps in 2020 than ever, and has sold eight companies for seven figures or more.
- Delay monetization until you have stacked up ratings first
- Decide when to monetize by download volume, not a fixed date
- Deliver the aha moment in the first minute, then ask
App Masters · Mar 18Apple's New App Store Categories
Apple is adding Developer Tools and Graphics & Design categories to iOS and pushing the Mac App Store with universal apps, and these categories are already live though unannounced. The episode shows how to check the thin top charts and move early before competition arrives.
- Move into the new iOS categories before Apple announces them
- Find unlisted categories by tapping the category on a known app
- Check how thin a category's charts are to judge your odds
App Masters · Mar 11ASO What's Working Today in 2020 - MGS Presentation
A 2020 talk on which ASO factors still move downloads (high traffic keywords, ratings, creative tests, backlinks) and how onboarding, pricing and urgency tactics lift retention and monetization. A client optimization took one app from about 80 to 300 downloads a day, and screenshot changes alone drove a 91% download increase.
- Target high traffic keywords in a short app title
- Put English keywords in the iOS Spanish Mexico localization
- Gate the rating prompt with a "do you love our app?" question
February 20202
App Masters · Feb 26Is App Store Optimization (ASO) Dead?
ASO has moved from keyword tweaks that gave instant growth to a mix of high traffic title keywords, creative testing, ratings, backlinks and paid search. Case studies show a 5x download jump from one title keyword, a 91% lift from screenshots alone and a 50% lift from an icon change.
- Put a high traffic keyword in your app title, whatever the competition
- Use the Spanish Mexico localization to double your US keyword coverage
- Change your icon and test it, since it can lift downloads 50%
App Masters · Feb 13Games with Entrepreneurs #1 - David Reichelt, Creator of Color Switch
A game creator explains how he got to a hit game by shipping dozens of quick, failed games, then deriving the core mechanic from two proven products. He also covers managing a team without technical skills and how he relaunched a quarter-billion-download game after losing it from the App Store.
- Ship many small games fast instead of polishing one for years
- Break proven hits down to their core mechanic, then amplify it
- Stay fluid: ask what a familiar thing could be instead
January 20202
App Masters · Jan 24Creative App Engagement Strategies with Zinio's Mirela Cialai
Zinio's mobile marketing lead explains how to earn iOS push permission with behavior-based pre-prompts, which email campaigns drive revenue, and how to ask the right users for ratings. Targeted prompts doubled or tripled push opt-in, and a segmented rating test lifted the app from 2.1 to 4.5 stars.
- Segment users by behavior before asking for a rating
- Show a custom pre-prompt before the native iOS push dialog
- Write push permission asks around each segment's obvious value
App Masters · Jan 17Exploding Kittens, Head of Analytics on Mobile Game Retention & Monetization
A mobile game analytics lead explains why retention comes before monetization, how to set up analytics early, and which retention and pricing tactics studios overlook. It is worth hearing for the concrete practices on push permission prompts, live operations, value framing, anchoring and starter packs.
- Bring analytics into game development from day one
- Make retention the priority and design monetization around it
- Plan monetization hooks from the start, not as an afterthought
December 20192
App Masters · Dec 175 Juicy App Marketing Strategies With No Budget
Five low-cost ways to grow app downloads without a marketing budget: influencer partnerships, provocative content, reporter exclusives, market research and persistence across many simple apps. The examples include a paid app that made over $10,000 in sales at launch via influencers and press hits on TechCrunch, Huffington Post and The Next Web.
- Give influencers a beta and free premium access before launch
- Offer reporters an exclusive on your app launch, one outlet at a time
- Write a provocative article calling out a big company's product
App Masters · Dec 93 App Store Optimization (ASO) Strategies You Should Be Testing for 2020
Three ASO experiments to test: optimize for conversion with social proof, build a keyword-related brand name, and use emojis and symbols to stand out in search results. Social proof tests gave a 15% lift on Google Play and a 91% download increase on iOS without changing any keywords.
- Add social proof to screenshots to lift downloads without touching keywords
- Write your Google Play short description like an ad with social proof
- Check keyword rankings after changing your Google Play short description
November 20194
App Masters · Nov 28How to Build a UA strategy for High-LTV Subscribers
Shows how to build user acquisition around high-LTV subscribers by testing ad messaging against the full funnel, aligning performance and product teams, and moving subscription apps to yearly plans. The payoff: at a previous company a yearly plan kept user to customer conversion flat at about 8% while bringing in much more upfront cash.
- Launch a yearly plan priced at half of twelve months
- Lean on yearly plans unless monthly engagement is truly excellent
- Use a hard paywall with a delayed close button
App Masters · Nov 25Analyzing a Keyboard App Making $300K a Month - Grammarly App Review
A teardown of the Grammarly keyboard app, a free subscription app making over $300K a month on iOS, covering its ads, keywords, onboarding paywall and email funnel. The takeaway is that a keyboard app people rarely reopen can still convert free users through an onboarding paywall and an email activation sequence.
- Show your pricing page during onboarding, front and center
- Push annual by showing its monthly breakdown next to the other plans
- Send an email activation sequence to convert free users
App Masters · Nov 20Driving Demand for a New Service in a Mature Market
BYHOURS built a new category, booking hotel rooms by the hour (3, 6 or 12 hours), and had to teach both hotels and travelers the idea at once. The episode covers how an industry insider won the first hotels, balanced supply with demand, and scaled to more than 3000 hotels across Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.
- Balance hotel supply with marketing spend in each new city
- Hire local media experts in each country for TV campaigns
- Use brand campaigns to attract supply as well as demand
App Masters · Nov 13Native App Preloads with Digital Turbine
Digital Turbine's Ignite platform sits in the Android system partition and powers carrier and OEM app preloads, and its Single Tap product starts an app install straight from an ad click without a trip through the app store. Advertisers report click-to-install rates of 10 to 15 percent against 1.5 to 2 percent at best with standard redirects.
- Use Single Tap to install straight from ad clicks
- Benchmark click-to-install against 1.5 to 2 percent as the normal ceiling
- Pair Single Tap with video and playable ads for the biggest lift
October 20193
App Masters · Oct 10How to Slide Into an Influencer's Direct Message (DM)
Covers how a polished, well-tested app earned an Apple feature, what to do in the first days after it lands, and how to write short, personal DMs to influencers. After the feature Reelshot's App Store impressions reached about a million, and the follow-up marketing, sale and localization were built to use that wave.
- Make social marketing materials the day you get featured
- Run a discount sale as soon as the feature goes live
- Watch where the feature appears and localize for that market
App Masters · Oct 9How to Validate App Idea With Simple One-Page Website
Leo J Barnett shares a simple validation process: build a mobile-friendly one-page site for an app idea, send it to the target audience on social media, and ask three feedback questions. He learned it after his first startup, a platform for independent musicians, failed because he barely spoke to real artists.
- Talk to real target users before building anything
- Validate an idea with a mobile-friendly one-page website
- Build the validation page with a drag-and-drop tool and napkin sketches
App Masters · Oct 4To Increase App Subscriptions You Need to Look At This Data with Lior Barak
Teaches which data to watch to grow app subscriptions: find when users convert, retarget inside that window, and limit daily KPIs to three that drive action. The payoff is a simple system of daily, weekly and monthly views that replaces blind spending and spreadsheet work.
- Find when your revenue event happens, then work backwards from it
- Investigate users who do not return twice in the first seven days
- Retarget to reopen the app first, and chase reinstalls later
September 20192
App Masters · Sep 10Licensing, ASO & Ad Monetization with David Cremades
Practical lessons from a sports manager game studio with over 60M downloads on licensing deals, ASO experiments, mid-size influencer campaigns and tuning rewarded video ads. A single icon change showing real players lifted downloads 30% in one day, and one roughly $2,000 YouTube video pushed the game to number one in Argentina.
- Show real licensed players in your app icon and test it
- Swap the featured players in your icon for each country
- Work with mid-size YouTube influencers and negotiate every offer
App Masters · Sep 5How to Optimize Growth Funnel (Case Study 2X Revenue Growth)
Shows how to find and fix the weakest step in an app's growth funnel by adding traffic, locating the leak, interviewing users and fixing it cheaply. For the TimeClock app, a one-week onboarding email series lifted fully onboarded users by 81% and put a $100K company on track to double.
- Track the full funnel from acquisition down to profit
- Add traffic to a healthy funnel to expose its hidden leaks
- Do not trust early funnel rates built on tiny volume
August 20192
App Masters · Aug 23How to Increase In-App Purchase Conversion Rates
A story app built its paywall and review prompt into the narrative itself, so neither feels like an interruption. That approach reached about 7.5 percent conversion in the US, a 4.7 rating and more than 4,000 reviews.
- Build the paywall into the story instead of interrupting it
- Show a high price first, then let the user drop it
- Make the price drop a small game the user plays
App Masters · Aug 15How to Calculate Mobile Lifetime Value (LTV) Without a Lifetime of Data
Shows how to estimate a day 365 lifetime value from only 7 to 30 days of cohorted revenue, using a spreadsheet and a power-curve trendline. The worked example turns an organic day 30 ARPU of 1.22 into a day 365 estimate of about 3.32, which gives concrete payback targets for paid acquisition.
- Extrapolate day 365 LTV from day 30 data using only a spreadsheet
- Fit a power series trendline to cumulative ARPU by day
- Plug the trendline equation into a table running to day 365
July 20193
App Masters · Jul 25How App Store Screenshots & Preview Videos Increase Downloads
Rev's mobile PM explains how redesigned App Store screenshots, social proof, a preview video and a simplified first screen lifted conversion at each step from impression to paying customer. She also shares a checkout priming screen that failed and tanked conversion.
- Redesign screenshots with large text and vibrant colors so they read while scrolling
- Move social proof into an early screenshot panel so it shows without scrolling
- Add an autoplaying App Store preview video to catch eyes in search results
App Masters · Jul 18Mobile Ad Fraud Bots & Inefficient Marketing Campaigns
Attribution data only pays off if you act on it quickly, judge campaigns by user value instead of installs, and watch for bot traffic that hides inside apps. Adjust's acquisition of Unbotify showed that bot abuse in apps is far larger than most teams assume.
- Act on inefficient campaigns as soon as the data shows them
- Review campaign performance continuously, not once a month
- Judge campaigns by user value, not number of installs
App Masters · Jul 11Storytelling with Facebook Ads
A founder story post on Facebook and Instagram, told by a real person instead of a brand, drove viral reach and a loyal audience for a paid parenting app. It led to over 30,000 paying customers, not just downloads.
- Tell your founder story as a personal post, not a brand ad
- Pick a story that matches a problem your target audience already has
- Create a brand ambassador page for a person to speak as
June 20192
App Masters · Jun 21Influencer Marketing: How to Decide Who is a Good or Bad Influencer
Teaches how to find and vet influencers for an app by hunting niche hashtag leaders, watching them for two weeks, then interviewing them before any deal. It stresses that engagement quality and reusable content matter more than follower counts or fixed metrics.
- Start with a general hashtag and drill down to niche hashtags
- Pick the influencers who dominate your niche hashtags as candidates
- Follow candidates for two weeks before approaching them
App Masters · Jun 12Best Free ASO Tool: App Radar Overview
A walkthrough of App Radar's free plan and how to use it for ASO: keyword research, rank tracking, competitor analysis, store metrics and metadata changes. The free plan covers 200 keywords, 5 competitors and 30 days of history for 2 apps, which most ASO tools charge for.
- Target keywords with high traffic and low difficulty first
- Go after keywords with high difficulty but few competing apps
- Expand from a base keyword into long-tail variations
May 20191
January 20191
October 20181
September 20181
August 20183
App Masters · Aug 28App Store Optimization (ASO) in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Terms
Maps each SEO concept (title, h1 tags, content, backlinks, cross links) to its app store optimization equivalent so SEO people can place keywords correctly on iOS and Google Play. The practical payoff is a clear keyword placement plan plus a push on ratings and cross promotion that wins when all other optimization is equal.
- Put target keywords to the left of your brand in the app name
- Target lower-competition keywords in the app name if your app is new
- Use the subtitle to repeat and expand on title keywords
App Masters · Aug 17How to A/B Test Screenshots on iOS
Shows how to A/B test the first three App Store screenshots on iOS by using Apple Search Ads creative sets on a single exact-match keyword. The payoff is a client who doubled downloads with flat impressions just by changing screenshots, and a repeatable way to find which three screenshots convert best.
- Use Search Ads creative sets to A/B test iOS screenshots
- Test your first three screenshots because they show in search results
- Change screenshots only, not keywords, to isolate the conversion effect
App Masters · Aug 7How to Increase Organic Downloads Without Changing Keywords
Three listing changes can lift organic downloads without touching keywords: the app icon, the first screenshots, and ratings from the iOS review prompt. Case studies show doubled downloads from an icon change alone and a 98% download increase from new screenshots.
- Redesign your app icon to double downloads without touching keywords
- Rework your screenshots to benefit-led messaging to nearly double downloads
- Lead your screenshots with a plain statement of what the app does
July 20181
June 20181
May 20182
App Masters · May 255 Reasons You Should Soft-Launch Your App
Explains five reasons to soft launch an app: get early users without building anything, test features, check usability, gauge reactions and find out if anyone wants it. The proof is Steve's own pre-launch blog post that brought 100+ emails and press coverage on The Next Web for a paid camera app.
- Build a clickable prototype instead of a full app first
- Publish a provocative pre-launch blog post and capture emails
- Watch people's reactions to your idea and lead with the wow feature
App Masters · May 2ASO Audit of Scribd an App for Unlimited Audiobooks, Books & Magazines
A live App Store optimization audit of Scribd's iOS listing, covering the app name, subtitle and screenshots. It shows how to choose keywords from competitor data and user reviews, and how to make screenshots answer a subscription buyer's questions.
- Drop generic words like subscription from your app name; lead with the benefit
- Put the keyword your users already praise in reviews into your app name
- Pull competitor keywords from ASO tools to decide what goes in name and subtitle
April 20183
App Masters · Apr 23Mobile App Engagement and Retention
Acquisition gets most of the attention, but retention decides how much of your addressable market you actually keep, so build analytics, segmentation and automated engagement around real user behavior. The talk sizes the effect with retention models and gives a checklist for personalization and churn prevention.
- Model retention against your addressable market before buying more users
- Put retention and engagement ahead of more acquisition spend
- Track user actions, not features
App Masters · Apr 18App Monetization: Video Ads Optimization for Mobile Games
Rewarded video ads work best when they are offered at several natural points in a game and tied to the in-game economy. Using Fun Run 3 as the example, the episode shows one player being prompted to watch 4 to 5 video ads per session without feeling forced.
- Offer rewarded video ads at several points in the game
- Let players double any reward by watching a video
- Gate a heavily used feature with a pay-or-watch choice
App Masters · Apr 13How to Hack Public Relations (PR) for Millions of Downloads
A practical talk on getting press for an app with no budget: how to reach reporters, write pitches they open, and pace coverage so it pays off. Jake drove about 1.5 million downloads for Drunk Mode, with almost 700,000 coming from press, while earning around $500 a month at a bootstrapped startup.
- Match each press target to the audience you want to reach
- Use LinkedIn second and third degree connections to reach journalists
- Write subject lines that are funny or unexpected, not headlines
March 20183
App Masters · Mar 30Do Keyword Misspellings Help Grow Downloads for ASO?
Targeting misspellings of popular keywords can raise app downloads when the misspelling has real search traffic and little competition. A client's downloads rose 128 percent after reaching number one for one such keyword.
- Target misspellings of popular keywords that have traffic and low competition
- Check that a misspelling has real search traffic before targeting it
- Mine Apple's keyword suggestions for a competitor app to surface misspellings
App Masters · Mar 28App Monetization: A Clever Way to Incorporate Mobile App Ads
Shows how to add ads to an app without making it ugly, using examples from Duolingo and Merge. The core idea is to offer ads at moments when users are happy to opt in, so users, you and advertisers all win.
- Offer opt-in video ads right after a win, not before
- Let players double their earned virtual currency by watching a video ad
- Use video ads over banner ads for higher ad revenue
App Masters · Mar 5App Growth Hacking Strategies - Interview on The App Man Show
Steve P. Young explains how to grow an app without paid downloads using app store optimization, Apple feature pitches, and idea validation before building. He cites a client who doubled organic downloads from about 50 to 100+ a day and a meditation app where an Apple feature brought about 50,000+ in revenue.
- Optimize app name, subtitle and keyword field together on iOS
- Pitch Apple through the App Store promote form six to eight weeks before launch
- Pursue an Apple feature over PR when you must choose
February 20184
App Masters · Feb 26Sensor Tower ASO Tool Review: Keyword Spy, Research & Apple Features
A walkthrough of how an ASO agency uses Sensor Tower's keyword rankings, keyword spy, translation and Apple featuring tools to pick keywords for the app name, subtitle and keyword field. It shows a repeatable workflow of bulk-loading 100 to 400 keywords, scoring them on traffic and difficulty, and mining competitors for gaps.
- Bulk-load your keyword list into keyword rankings to score traffic and difficulty
- Work around the 80-keyword tracking limit by deleting and re-adding the app
- Mine a main competitor's keywords with keyword spy to find gaps
App Masters · Feb 20App Annie ASO Tool Review: Keyword Research, App Store Features & Killer Screenshot Sales Copy
Shows how to use App Annie's free features to mine competitor keywords, track App Store features, and pull screenshot sales copy from user reviews. The workflow is the same one the agency runs for its clients' ASO and conversion work.
- Enter three to five competitors into App Annie to build a keyword list
- Mine your own app reviews for phrases to reuse in screenshot copy
- Use competitor ranking keywords only as a long list, then pull the data elsewhere
App Masters · Feb 19ASO Tool Review: How to Use Mobile Action to Increase Downloads
A walkthrough of how to use the Mobile Action ASO tool to pick keywords by traffic and chance of ranking, then place them in the app name and short description. Steve P. Young reports 55% and 10% download gains on Google Play for two clients, and 20% to 100% download gains with his data-driven keyword process.
- Rank keywords by chance score, not just search traffic
- Brainstorm 100+ keywords, run the data, then place by traffic and competition
- Put top keywords in the app name and short description
App Masters · Feb 9App Store Screenshots: How to Write Killer Sales Copy to Increase Downloads
Shows a quick method for writing App Store screenshot copy by mining real user reviews in App Annie, using Sleep Cycle as the worked example. The payoff is higher download conversion and a lower CPI on paid traffic, without starting from a blank page.
- Mine your positive reviews for phrases to use in screenshot copy
- Read competitor suggestion reviews and turn them into screenshot angles
- Set up App Annie reviews for fast screenshot research
January 20182
App Masters · Jan 15How Much Impact Will ASO Have?
Shows how to turn small ASO conversion lifts into dollar savings by pricing the extra organic downloads at what you would pay for them through paid installs. A 10% lift for a big brand or a 25% lift for a small app can repay an agency's fees within one to three months.
- Value ASO gains by the paid installs they replace
- Expect a 20% to 100% conversion lift from an ASO pass
- Optimize tiny apps first because their lift can multiply downloads
App Masters · Jan 8How to Name Your App for Growth (ASO)
App names should be chosen with keyword search volume and competition data rather than picked at random. Two examples show the method: renaming Sentence Master to Sentence Builder Master lifted iOS downloads 50%, and Midnight Owl was named from traffic data.
- Choose your app name from keyword traffic data, not gut feel
- Put a decent-volume, low-competition keyword into the app name
- Skip hard head terms when you cannot realistically rank for them
December 20172
App Masters · Dec 13ASO Strategies for Small Apps vs Large Apps
Small apps and large apps need different ASO keyword strategies, based on how much traffic they get from other channels. The episode gives concrete traffic and chance score thresholds for choosing keywords with Sensor Tower and Mobile Action.
- Target keywords with traffic scores of 10 to 50 for small apps
- Give small apps long tail keywords in the app name, not generic terms
- Put high-traffic generic keywords in the name of large apps
App Masters · Dec 4The App Store Optimization Process That Consistently Drives Downloads & Product Views
A step-by-step, data-driven ASO process: build a long keyword list, score it on traffic and competition, then place keywords in the app name, subtitle and description. It also covers what changed after iOS 11, including a 50% download lift from an icon test and a paid-to-free push after metadata updates.
- Build a long keyword list of 80 to 200 before choosing
- Mine competitor rankings and store auto-suggest for keyword ideas
- Target outside-the-box keywords like local sports teams and niche magazines
November 20173
App Masters · Nov 28Growth Channels for a Niche App
A coaching call for a niche Apple Watch app for water sports stuck at 50 downloads a day. It covers raising subscription prices, focusing ASO on higher-volume terms, running a longer-trial press campaign, testing search ads and community channels, and why many app makers need less marketing help than they think.
- Raise subscription prices because a niche app attracts hardcore users
- Run a longer free trial campaign and pitch it to press
- Reorganize app name and subtitle around the highest-volume search terms
App Masters · Nov 15How to Write A Killer App Description
App descriptions convert better when they borrow the exact words customers use in reviews of competing apps. The episode shows a free, repeatable review-mining process, using Calm in the health and fitness category as the example.
- Mine competitor reviews for the words customers use to praise apps
- Lead the first two lines of your description with social proof
- Replace a vague "number one app" claim with a concrete user count
App Masters · Nov 1How to Use Apple Search Ads for Keyword Research (ASO)
Shows how to use the keyword suggestion tool inside Apple Search Ads as a free ASO research source, including how to filter for traffic and competition and how to reuse the keywords in paid campaigns. Worth hearing for the claim that it surfaced low-competition keywords with decent traffic, such as misspellings, when standard research had stalled.
- Use the Apple Search Ads keyword tool as a free ASO research source
- Keep clicking add on suggested keywords to widen the suggestion list
- Install a Chrome extension to see numeric popularity scores in Search Ads
October 20172
App Masters · Oct 27Talk on Revenue at Founder Institute Sacramento
A talk on validating an idea and earning revenue, covering perceived-value pricing, charging early, and building connections that compound. A three-plan pricing test lifted conversion by 233%, and podcast relationships let Steve leave his job within seven months and grow the agency.
- Show a decoy plan beside your target plan to lift conversion
- Add a middle option so buyers can judge the value of your offer
- Test a split monthly and yearly pricing page against your current one
App Masters · Oct 5How to Market a Paid Niche App & 10X Revenues
A coaching call on marketing a paid niche iOS app with keyword-optimized naming, a review-building push, a paid-to-free campaign and Apple Search Ads, plus low-budget web marketing. The same plan took a friend's paid app from about $1,000 to $2,000 a month to five figures a month.
- Run Apple Search Ads on a paid app and cap bids by margin
- Find keywords with App Store autosuggest, then check volume in an ASO tool
- Repeat your main keywords across app name and subtitle
September 20173
App Masters · Sep 21How Does iOS 11 Affect Apple Features and ASO
A first look at the iOS 11 App Store redesign and what it means for ASO and getting featured by Apple. It argues the new editorial layout creates more feature slots for indie developers and that the Spanish Mexico localization trick still ranks.
- Build in Apple's newest technologies, such as AR and Face ID, to win features
- Pitch Apple by naming the key app missing from its AR section
- Treat an Apple feature as two halves: get attention, then tell a story
App Masters · Sep 13ASO for Diner Dash Type Game
A live ASO audit of a cafe management game shows how to pick app name keywords by combining traffic and competition scores with the app's current rankings. The suggested changes target keywords where the app already ranks number two, and drop terms it has never ranked well for.
- Use different app names and subtitles in the US and Spanish Mexico localizations
- Treat a keyword as low competition when both Sensor Tower and Mobile Action agree
- Build a keyword list from App Store auto-suggest and your current rankings
App Masters · Sep 4How App Downloads Impact Keyword Rankings for ASO
Downloads feed the keyword ranking algorithm, so the keywords you target should match your current download volume, and a burst of downloads lifts rankings. A pay-to-free campaign that drove over 70,000 downloads moved several tracked keywords from positions like 17, 12 and 19 to 2, 7 and 5.
- Target low-competition keywords when you get under 100 organic downloads a day
- Use traffic and competition score thresholds to filter keyword candidates
- Go after high-competition keywords once you have paid acquisition or 100 to 1,000 organic downloads
August 20174
App Masters · Aug 30ASO Beginner's Guide
A beginner Q&A on app store optimization covering where keywords carry the most weight on iOS and Google Play, which tools to use for keyword research, and a few growth tactics for small budgets. The results quoted include 50 to 400% download lifts from app name changes, a 50% lift from an icon A/B test, and 33,000 downloads from a one day paid to free promotion.
- Put your most valuable keywords in the app name
- Add a Spanish Mexico localization stuffed with English keywords
- Repeat your target keyword across Google Play name, short and long description
App Masters · Aug 28The Easiest Way to Drive Downloads & Revenue for a Paid App
A paid-to-free campaign makes a paid app (or one in-app purchase) free for a short window and gets press coverage to drive downloads at no ad cost. A client's $12 iOS app got over 30,000 free downloads in one day, about 37,000 in total, and roughly $1,000 in revenue.
- Make your paid app free for just one day
- Pitch App Advice and BGR when you go free
- Raise a cheap app's price to about $5 before the campaign
App Masters · Aug 17App Audit on a New Game
A coaching call that audits a new casual game, Fly Bye Birdie, covering game feel, icon design, naming a game after movie titles and sports teams for search, and low-budget launch marketing. The standout result is a 19% download lift from changing only a game icon to a flat design.
- Replace a dated gradient icon with a flat, high-contrast one
- Name a casual game after a popular movie title to capture search traffic
- Prove a keyword-naming strategy by removing the keyword and watching downloads
App Masters · Aug 15Coaching Call About Outside the Box ASO Tips
A coaching call on improving a paid tips app for men through a benefit-led rename, out-of-the-box ASO keyword research, ad-based monetization and free-promotion tactics. The most useful takeaways are naming for who users want to become and targeting adjacent keywords like men's magazines to reach people who are not searching for relationship help.
- Name the app after who users want to become
- Target adjacent keywords like men's magazines, not only relationship terms
- Optimize for what your audience searches, so they stumble on your app
July 20172
App Masters · Jul 12Google Play App Store Optimization (ASO): The Best Tool (Part 1)
Compares Sensor Tower and Mobile Action keyword data for Google Play ASO using real client keyword rankings from before optimization. Mobile Action's chance score matched actual rankings better, so it is the tool recommended for Google Play.
- Use Mobile Action over Sensor Tower for Google Play keyword research
- Validate keyword tool scores against your app's current rankings
- Target Google Play keywords with mid to high traffic and low competition
App Masters · Jul 4The Biggest App Store Optimization Changes in iOS 11
Covers the iOS 11 App Store changes that affect app store optimization: a 30 character app name, a new indexed subtitle, indexed in-app purchases, cumulative ratings and the in-app review API. Shows which of these can be used now, before iOS 11 ships, to gain keyword coverage and conversion.
- Cut your app name to 30 characters before iOS 11
- Fill the new 30 character subtitle with target keywords now
- Rename in-app purchases to target keyword phrases
June 20176
App Masters · Jun 27App Marketing Strategies: The Most Effective Campaigns
App marketing channels are ranked into three tiers by control, cost and download potential, based on campaigns run for clients. Apple features, paid to free promotions and ASO are the cheapest wins, paid user acquisition scales to millions of downloads, and PR and Product Hunt rank lowest for pure downloads.
- Pitch Apple for a feature first, since it costs almost nothing
- Run a paid to free campaign by pitching AppAdvice and BGR
- Do not fear giving away the in-app purchase in a free promotion
App Masters · Jun 20How to Check an App's Apple App Store Feature History
Shows how to confirm whether an app landed an Apple feature, and where, using the App Store itself and a free feature-history tracker. Backed by an agency record of twelve Apple features for clients in 16 months, including three in May 2017 alone.
- Use a free feature-history tracker to see exactly where Apple featured your app
- Filter feature history to the home category to see the placements that matter
- Aim for the home page "apps we love" slot and a banner
App Masters · Jun 13Apple Feature Request Form
Walks through Apple's new feature request form from WWDC 2017 and how to fill each field to improve the odds of getting featured. Based on getting 12 clients featured by Apple in 16 months, including three in May 2017.
- Use Apple's new official feature form instead of the old email
- Describe your app using Apple-specific features, not how cool it is
- Lead your pitch story with social proof about your track record
App Masters · Jun 7How to Finance Your App’s Growth with Martin Macmillan
Martin Macmillan explains how app developers can fund paid user acquisition by borrowing against their App Store and ad network receipts instead of raising equity or giving up revenue share. He shows how to model lifetime value, find payback time and recycle revenue quickly, with a case study (War Robots, Pixonic) that grew into a roughly $30 million acquisition with no extra dilution.
- Only spend on paid UA once a dollar in returns more than a dollar
- Treat unpaid App Store and ad network earnings as an asset to borrow against
- Do not fund a short UA payback cycle with equity
App Masters · Jun 6Color Switch Creator on Game Design with David Reichelt
A game designer explains the creative process and mindset behind Color Switch, which he built for about $3,000 after 40 failed games. The game reached about 160 million downloads and spent a month at number one on the App Store, beating Facebook.
- Blend four or five inspirations into one hybrid idea instead of cloning
- Make many small games quickly instead of polishing one for months
- Use slice and dice to break a concept into attributes
App Masters · Jun 6The #1 Apple Feature Mistake
The episode argues that weak design, especially the app icon, is the top mistake when chasing an Apple feature, and shows how to fix it cheaply with free A/B polls and bought icon designs. Two client case studies, a word game and a kids Chinese learning app, both landed Apple features after icon changes picked by polling Facebook groups.
- Poll a Facebook group on 4 icon options before launch
- Make icon test variants dramatically different from each other
- Treat weak design, especially the icon, as the top Apple feature mistake
May 20176
App Masters · May 30Best App Store Optimization Tools 2017: Case Study Part 1
Compares the keyword difficulty data in Sensor Tower, AppTweak and Mobile Action against real iOS ASO results for three client apps (a game, a lifestyle app and a kids app). Mobile Action's low difficulty calls were right most often, and name and keyword changes alone lifted downloads 50%, 371% and 420%.
- Choose keywords by difficulty score, then confirm volume is high enough
- Cross-check keyword difficulty in two ASO tools before choosing keywords
- Put keywords with good traffic and low competition in the app name
App Masters · May 23Insights on the Future of App Marketing with John Koetsier
App marketing is getting harder: search is dominated by big brands, ratings no longer differentiate, and ad fraud is widespread. TUNE's data covers 25 billion clicks across 455 ad networks, finding 15% fraud on average, which makes it worth hearing before you spend on paid acquisition.
- Assume about 15% of your paid clicks are fraudulent
- Check installs for the four signatures of ad fraud
- Use automated fraud screening instead of only manual checks
App Masters · May 23Apple Feature Case Study That Led to 2 More Features
Steve P. Young shares how his agency approaches Apple App Store features, using client cases like Bumper Jump, Mindbliss and a Chinese learning app for kids. The standout result is 11 Apple features in 16 months, including an indie developer who earned two more features on his own after the first.
- Pitch Apple directly with a clear, templated email
- Treat an Apple feature as a bonus, never the whole plan
- Only pursue a feature when the app is genuinely feature-worthy
App Masters · May 164 Dirty Little Secrets of App Store Optimization (ASO)
Covers four little-discussed realities of App Store optimization: bought reviews, unreliable keyword tool data, keyword boost download campaigns and unproven ASO experts. It shows real client keyword data where three ASO tools disagree with Apple Search Ads, and gives a localization trick that doubles keyword coverage.
- Cross-check keyword data with two ASO tools and Apple Search Ads
- Trust search scores from tools that pull Apple's data directly
- Validate any keyword where tools disagree by checking Apple Search Ads
App Masters · May 97 Tools to Help You Get Featured by Apple
Seven tools and habits for pitching Apple to get an app featured in the App Store, from email tracking to LinkedIn research to game publishers. The agency has had 10 clients featured, with roughly 15 to 20 percent of the apps it pitches getting a feature.
- Track every pitch email to Apple with an open-tracking tool
- Resend an unopened pitch with a different subject line
- Find the right Apple App Store manager on LinkedIn
App Masters · May 3Apple Feature Timeline (and The Exact Email Pitch That Led to an Apple Feature)
A timeline for pitching Apple for a feature: get the app approved first, pitch three weeks before launch, and track and follow up on the email. Steve says the process helped 9 clients get featured and led to a featuring in China for one of his own apps worth $30,000.
- Get your app approved before you pitch Apple for a feature
- Send your Apple feature pitch three weeks before launch
- Include the right assets and facts in your Apple pitch
March 20171
February 20171
November 20162
App Masters · Nov 14The Greatest Content Marketing Hack
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) lets you post queries so your target market contributes content, which you wrap into articles and podcast interviews. Steve used it from 2013 to fill his podcast with guests, land bylines on big publications and win agency clients without hunting for them.
- Post a HARO query asking your target market for content
- Use HARO queries to fill your podcast with guests
- Write roundup articles from contributed answers instead of from scratch
App Masters · Nov 4Why Content Marketing Trumps Ugly Websites
A podcast built on interviewing admired people in the app space became the lead source for a marketing agency, with no paid marketing and no outbound client search. The lesson is that consistent content, backed by learning, executing and teaching, earns trust that brings customers to you even with a very ugly website.
- Interview people you admire to start content marketing with no audience
- Learn from guests, execute on it, then teach what you learned
- Keep publishing consistently, because consistency is what separates winners from dropouts
October 20162
App Masters · Oct 30Advanced App Store Optimization (ASO) Strategies to Double Your Downloads
Advanced ASO tactics: cross-check keyword difficulty in two ASO tools, use a second localization to double keyword slots, build review volume, and crowdsource keyword research in other languages. Steve says these moves have lifted client downloads from 20% up to 5x using ASO alone.
- Use two ASO platforms to judge keyword difficulty before choosing keywords
- Target keywords with traffic score above 3 and low competition on both tools
- Put English keywords into the Spanish-Mexico localization to double US keyword slots
App Masters · Oct 19September 2016 Report Card: Crushing ASO
A monthly report card from an app marketing agency covering ASO client results, PR wins, launch lessons and growing from a solo operator into a team of four. The headline result is a 5x download lift for ASO clients, with a typical increase of at least 20% and some clients doubling downloads.
- Optimize app name and keywords first to lift downloads
- Share iTunes Connect data and optimize in rounds over months
- Do not treat ASO as dead; dig deeper into it
September 20161
August 20164
App Masters · Aug 253 Growth Hacking Strategies to Revive a Dying App
Three ways to revive a stalled app: refresh the icon and screenshots, sell the app to a buyer, or run a paid to free campaign. A kids app went from zero downloads to the author's best performer after a color redesign, and an icon swap doubled another app's downloads.
- Test a new app icon before changing anything else
- Add color and life to a flat, dull app design
- Run a paid to free campaign to get downloads fast
App Masters · Aug 19Case Study: 14.5K Downloads with a Paid-to-Free Campaign
A paid-to-free campaign, where a paid app or an in-app purchase goes free for a couple of days and gets press coverage, can drive thousands of downloads at almost no cost. Paintball Rush got about 14.5K downloads in a week, lifted downloads for the publisher's other apps, and climbed to number two for the keyword 'paintball'.
- Run a paid-to-free campaign to drive thousands of downloads cheaply
- Make a free app's in-app purchase free to run the campaign
- Expect most of the downloads in the first two days
App Masters · Aug 15Success Report: July 2016 (Another Apple Feature)
A monthly wins and losses report from an app marketing agency that helped launch five apps in July 2016, with practical lessons on pitching Apple for a feature and landing press. One launch was featured by Apple in 12 countries, and two of the five got major press coverage.
- Email Apple's app store promotion address once TestFlight is ready
- Give a big site the exclusive to raise your press chances
- Find the right story angle, not just the announcement, when pitching press
App Masters · Aug 7App Store Optimization: How to Use Mobile Action (ASO)
A walkthrough of using Mobile Action for App Store keyword research, tracking and spotting which keywords drive downloads. It shows how pairing it with Sensor Tower and testing its estimates gives a workable keyword plan even when the data is imperfect.
- Use both Mobile Action and Sensor Tower before choosing a keyword
- Use keyword intelligence to see which keywords drive your downloads
- Improve rankings on keywords that already drive downloads but rank below the top
