Learn/Getting installs
Getting people to install it, after the build is done.
The work that starts the day the app goes live, and the reason a good app can sit at nothing for a year. Almost all of it happens inside a search box you do not control, which makes the title, the keyword field and the first two screenshots the whole funnel.
Start hereHow do you get more people to download the app?Which channels are worth the time when the budget is zero, and which are not.17 guides, grouped by what you are trying to find out.
Nobody is installing it. Where do installs actually come from?
The uncomfortable answer is that most of them come from store search, so the work is unglamorous and happens on your own listing rather than anywhere exciting. Read these before you spend anything.
How does anyone find the app in store search?
Store search is the one acquisition channel both stores hand you for free, and it runs on fields you fill in yourself: the title, the subtitle, the keyword field, the category.
What makes someone tap Install once they are on the page?
Most people decide from the icon and the first two screenshots, before they read a word of the description. Both stores also want exact pixel sizes, which is a separate and more tedious problem.
Can you just pay for installs?
You can, and on the App Store it is the one ad product that puts you at the top of a search you cannot rank for yet. We have a single article on it, which is one more than we have on the Google side.
How do the people who already have it bring anyone else?
Referrals and ratings are the two levers that get cheaper as the app grows. Both are fenced in by store rules about what you may offer and how often you may ask.
Does the listing need to be in other languages?
Every language you add is another set of metadata and another set of screenshots, and each store has its own view of what must be translated before you may list in a country.
Who makes the screenshots, the videos and the outreach?
The assets are the part people stall on: one video, five screenshots, a hundred emails to people who have never heard of you. These cover the tools inside Newly that produce them, including what the video model will refuse to generate.