Sensor Tower

Use Sensor Tower estimates to confirm a painkiller niche earns real money. Steve Young used Sensor Tower to estimate that Migraine Buddy makes about $70K a month from 30K iOS downloads. That showed a narrow problem app can pay off even when the incumbent is weak.

The same app is described as making about $50,000 a month despite weak onboarding and a weak paywall. The idea is to look for incumbents with these gaps in painkiller niches, where users convert well enough to take a hard paywall.

App Masters▶ 9:59

Check Sensor Tower to see whether a keyword's top rivals buy traffic. When judging keyword competition, look at the top three results: their review counts and how many put the keyword in the title. Then check Sensor Tower or the Meta ad library to see whether they run paid.

If few apps target the keyword in the title and the number two or three app has only 100+ reviews, you can probably beat them. Steve outranked apps with far more ratings and revenue through better title and subtitle optimization. Quote: "I don't care what any ASO tool says about the difficulty."

App Masters▶ 10:36

Size a market by cutting Sensor Tower into categories and reading the top apps. Josh (Blue Throne) cuts Sensor Tower into logical categories and looks at the top 30 apps, which are usually the lion's share of the market. He uses this to narrow a category until you can credibly claim number one.

Flow narrowed health to women's health and became the first women's health unicorn, raising $200M+ from General Atlantic at a $1B+ valuation. Runna targeted Couch to 5K and was acquired by Strava. The category must stay believable, with real competitors and its own ecosystem. The revenue figures in that episode are Sensor Tower estimates.

App Masters▶ 9:54