Steve Pang
Founder of App Masters
Where to hear and read about Steve Pang1 episode or test
Steve Pang founded App Masters and has worked in apps since 2010, using app store optimization (ASO) as a core growth channel for his own apps and clients. The lesson most worth taking is to win cheap organic downloads with well-placed keywords, then treat ASO as one slice of a wider marketing mix.
it needs to be a slice of the pie, not your entire pie.
App Store Optimization: The Proven ASO Framework for 2026
Steve Pang: the story and the lessons
1Where Steve Pang puts ASO in the marketing mix
Pang has used ASO as a growth lever since 2010. He has worked in apps since 2010 and calls ASO one of his best growth channels, a "tremendous lever for growth" since almost the birth of the App Store.
He says it still works for new apps and indie developers if they focus on the right things. Established apps with a paid channel have it easier.
Pang says ASO alone caps out low. For most apps, ASO alone tops out around $2 to $3,000 a month, and scaling needs paid ads.
Some clients earn six figures, up to half a million dollars, from organic search, but they also have branded search. "It needs to be a slice of the pie, not your entire pie."
He pairs ASO with a channel that already works. ASO pays most on top of Meta, TikTok or organic social, because download volume feeds rankings.
New apps face a more crowded store because vibe coding floods it with launches every day. ASO takes heavy keyword research and patience.
Pang starts paid acquisition with Apple Ads below $10,000 MRR. Apple Ads is a lot cheaper as a first paid step, and all you need to start is a list of keywords.
He also puts competitor brand terms here rather than in ASO.
2Steve Pang's keyword playbook for new apps
Pang ranks metadata and download volume above every other factor. Metadata is the title, subtitle and keywords field on iOS, and title, short description and description on Google Play. Download volume comes next, then ratings and reviews.
Updates, installs and backlinks matter least. He has seen apps with no update in years rank well for certain keywords.
He fits six to 10 relevant keywords with search score 30 into metadata. They go in the US and Spanish Mexico titles and subtitles. On a 2023 launch, two such keywords reached number one, brought about 150 downloads a day and made $1,600 in the first 22 days.
Pang says the result cost nothing in ads and is very rare and hard to repeat. The keywords worked because other people were ignoring them.
One title change turned a dead app into a earner. An app launched around 2022 sold almost nothing for years. A new title built on two keywords with traffic took it to number one for both, and it started making money.
Pang has since sold it.
His fallback is many search score 5 keywords. If the main approach fails or the category has little traffic, he targets keywords scoring about 5 to 20. One client ranks number one for 92 such keywords and earns roughly $2 to $3,000 a month.
Paraphrase earns about $3,000 a month from a few well-ranked keywords, with a little Apple Ads spend. "So, this is a quantity game."
Pang avoids competitor brand keywords in ASO. Searchers tap the brand that is already first, so competitor terms rarely convert organically.
Someone searching for Nike downloads Nike and does not scroll to Reebok. He aims for relevant higher-traffic keywords in the title and subtitle instead.
He uses the Spanish Mexico localization to hold extra English keywords. Apple's US store indexes nine localizations, so English titles, subtitles and keywords in Spanish Mexico help US rankings. He balances keywords between it and the US localization.
App Masters has done this on its own apps for years. Apple's list has since added Vietnamese, Russian and Portuguese.
3How Pang pushes rankings and reads the signals
Pang bursts downloads with a short free lifetime offer. After an ASO update he runs a lifetime free offer for about two days, promoted on Indie App Santa and relevant subreddits. It usually drives thousands of downloads.
The aim is velocity and volume signals for the new keywords. It is optional and some developers push back, but he says it still works.
He benchmarks keyword competition himself with an ASO tool. In a tool such as ASO Mobile he pulls search scores for each keyword and judges how complex the competition is. Low complexity makes the top five, then three, then one more likely.
Apple does not explain its scores. Paraphrase ranks about number four for a keyword scoring 20 and number six for one scoring 23.
Pang tests screenshots to lift product page view to download. He tracks product page view to download in App Store Connect and ignores impressions to downloads, because he does not know what impressions mean.
He says conversion matters but he would not rely on it alone.
He expects retention to matter more for iOS ranking. Google already weighs retention and engagement, and signs suggest Apple is starting to.
"I think it's going to be a big priority for iOS moving forward."
App 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.
Pang has used ASO as a growth lever since 2010. He has worked in apps since 2010 and calls ASO one of his best growth channels, a "tremendous lever for growth" since almost the birth of the App Store.
He says it still works for new apps and indie developers if they focus on the right things. Established apps with a paid channel have it easier.
Pang says ASO alone caps out low. For most apps, ASO alone tops out around $2 to $3,000 a month, and scaling needs paid ads.
Some clients earn six figures, up to half a million dollars, from organic search, but they also have branded search. "It needs to be a slice of the pie, not your entire pie."
He pairs ASO with a channel that already works. ASO pays most on top of Meta, TikTok or organic social, because download volume feeds rankings.
New apps face a more crowded store because vibe coding floods it with launches every day. ASO takes heavy keyword research and patience.
Pang starts paid acquisition with Apple Ads below $10,000 MRR. Apple Ads is a lot cheaper as a first paid step, and all you need to start is a list of keywords.
He also puts competitor brand terms here rather than in ASO.
Pang ranks metadata and download volume above every other factor. Metadata is the title, subtitle and keywords field on iOS, and title, short description and description on Google Play. Download volume comes next, then ratings and reviews.
Updates, installs and backlinks matter least. He has seen apps with no update in years rank well for certain keywords.
He fits six to 10 relevant keywords with search score 30 into metadata. They go in the US and Spanish Mexico titles and subtitles. On a 2023 launch, two such keywords reached number one, brought about 150 downloads a day and made $1,600 in the first 22 days.
Pang says the result cost nothing in ads and is very rare and hard to repeat. The keywords worked because other people were ignoring them.
One title change turned a dead app into a earner. An app launched around 2022 sold almost nothing for years. A new title built on two keywords with traffic took it to number one for both, and it started making money.
Pang has since sold it.
His fallback is many search score 5 keywords. If the main approach fails or the category has little traffic, he targets keywords scoring about 5 to 20. One client ranks number one for 92 such keywords and earns roughly $2 to $3,000 a month.
Paraphrase earns about $3,000 a month from a few well-ranked keywords, with a little Apple Ads spend. "So, this is a quantity game."
Pang avoids competitor brand keywords in ASO. Searchers tap the brand that is already first, so competitor terms rarely convert organically.
Someone searching for Nike downloads Nike and does not scroll to Reebok. He aims for relevant higher-traffic keywords in the title and subtitle instead.
He uses the Spanish Mexico localization to hold extra English keywords. Apple's US store indexes nine localizations, so English titles, subtitles and keywords in Spanish Mexico help US rankings. He balances keywords between it and the US localization.
App Masters has done this on its own apps for years. Apple's list has since added Vietnamese, Russian and Portuguese.
Pang bursts downloads with a short free lifetime offer. After an ASO update he runs a lifetime free offer for about two days, promoted on Indie App Santa and relevant subreddits. It usually drives thousands of downloads.
The aim is velocity and volume signals for the new keywords. It is optional and some developers push back, but he says it still works.
He benchmarks keyword competition himself with an ASO tool. In a tool such as ASO Mobile he pulls search scores for each keyword and judges how complex the competition is. Low complexity makes the top five, then three, then one more likely.
Apple does not explain its scores. Paraphrase ranks about number four for a keyword scoring 20 and number six for one scoring 23.
Pang tests screenshots to lift product page view to download. He tracks product page view to download in App Store Connect and ignores impressions to downloads, because he does not know what impressions mean.
He says conversion matters but he would not rely on it alone.
He expects retention to matter more for iOS ranking. Google already weighs retention and engagement, and signs suggest Apple is starting to.
"I think it's going to be a big priority for iOS moving forward."
App Masters