This new ASO trick could boost downloads after conversion rate drop

Readwise Summary: Apple’s new App Store algorithm has increased app impressions but lowered conversion rates. Developers can boost downloads by updating their app listings to better target the keywords their apps are ranking for. Checking the App Store dashboard for changes in impressions and conversion rates helps find opportunities to improve app performance.

You’ve already seen the massive changes happening to app store optimization and you’ve probably been wondering to yourself where to from here. But while developers have been sidetracked at their own rank keyword positions, a small change may have gone unnoticed, which unlocks a massive opportunity. Some of your apps may have even been impacted. And with a few tweaks to your app store listing, you could unlock more downloads and more revenue. And the secret is right there staring at you in

the App Store dashboard. Pay close attention to the changes in your App Store impressions verse the conversion rate. Maybe you’ve noticed this, too. And if so, Apple may have secretly handed you a golden opportunity. In this video, I’m going to show you how to spot if your app has been affected and what you can do about it. I get a bunch of DMs every day from indie app developers looking to boost their keyword rankings and optimize their app store listings. And there’s a funny trend I’ve noticed

happening in the past few weeks. On some apps, impressions are up, like way up in some cases on apps that haven’t been updated in months or even years. I’ve even checked my own apps and sure enough, some of them have had a boost in impressions. So, what’s going on here? I can confirm that the apps being impacted on my end have not been updated or touched in months with some of them not being updated for years. Clearly, this

is the new App Store optimization algorithm at play. You know, the new update that Apple have neither confirmed nor denied. Yeah, that one. It rolled out early June and we’re still feeling the impact of it even now and other developers are starting to notice. The most common question I’m currently getting is, “What happened with my conversion rates?” Because they’re kind of tanking. Check out this post from Flow writes code on X. His impressions are up 52% but conversion rate is down

26%. Weird, right? Well, probably not. It’s clear to me that what’s happening here is the app store algorithm is showing these apps in nonrelevant search results or at least search results which don’t convert very well and it kind of looks like you’ve done something wrong with your app store optimization. I mean the metric says conversion rates are down. But zoom out and pair that with impressions and it makes perfect sense that it’s being shown to more people but

they’re just not downloading your app. Launch Buddy is a tool specifically designed for Xcode and Swift UI developers. It lets you track your app feature requests and tasks in a canban style board. In the title and subtitle, Flow has the keywords devs, Canananban, Swift UI, and Launch. So, there’s a good chance the app is ranking for these keywords. Yep, they’re ranking. Devs, Swift UI, Canananban, and Launch are all ranking with these keywords having some

pretty good volume, too. I don’t know what the rankings look like before the App Store algorithm changed, but I would guess Launch Buddy has seen a boost. And it just so happens that there’s also a feature built straight into Astro that will give you keyword recommendations. You can use this to see if your app is ranking for any other hidden gems. Open your app listing, click the suggestions button. You can’t miss it. It’s that big glowing orange button at the top right. Then sort by popularity and filter by greater than 10. Select the top 100,

add, and wait for the results to trickle in. Check it out. There’s a bunch of interesting keywords which the app is ranking for. Developer tools, Apple developer, program, app store, app store connect, designing apps, launcher, my apps, SDK, and app manager, just to name a few. And I know what you’re saying. Most of these keywords are just not very relevant to the app. But let’s run the same treatment on one of my apps. This is subscriber count for YouTube, an app

I acquired last year. It had an increase of 10% in impressions and a decrease of 19% in conversion rate. Astro suggestions shows it’s ranking number three for subscriber count and it’s also ranking well for YouTube analytics and Tik Tok follower tracker. So this is where the opportunity actually is with this app. It ranks well for subscriber count, but a large percentage of people searching for subscriber count might not be looking for YouTube specifically.

They might be looking for Instagram subscribers and Tik Tok subscribers. So, if I added features that appealed to that audience and updated my app store listing, I would expect to see conversion rates starting to increase. It’s already showing in results. All I have to do is start targeting the keyword better. The same goes for the keyword YouTube analytics. I could add more analytics features to this app to capture that target market. And just imagine what would happen if I actually started to target those keywords. What

sort of a boost would I see in rankings? It’s already ranking well. It would just get even better. So check out your app in the App Store dashboard and have a look at the stats specifically for July and see if there’s a difference compared to the previous month. Specifically, look at the change in impressions and the change in conversion rate. What you’re looking for is those apps that are doing well with the impressions and doing poorly with the conversion rate with the new app store optimization. Then consider whether you can add

features or target those keywords specifically to get an instant boost in downloads and an instant revenue boost. You might be surprised what you find and may easily be able to boost your downloads and revenue.