App Store Marketing
App Store Marketing covers the full app growth stack - ASO, Apple Search Ads, Google App Campaigns, paid social, DSPs, retention, CRM, creatives and app UX optimisation.
Daily thought from Tom, the ASM editor-in-chief... Google Play is turning into a multi-surface feed, and CPPs are the iOS version of the same trend: relevance beats ‘one listing for everyone’. Tiny win: pick one intent keyword, write the 5-second promise, then make screenshot #1 and the first in-app screen agree.
Start here: core guides
View all guides
Start here: What is App Store Marketing?
What it is, what’s changed, and the levers that still matter.
ASO Guide 2026
Positioning → metadata → creative → iteration cadence (a repeatable system).
Apple Search Ads Guide
Structure, bidding, creative, and incrementality - without hype.
ASO checklist
A simple weekly routine to keep listings compounding.
App marketing tools
A curated toolbox for research, creative, and measurement.
UK retail Apple Ads: the App Store search wars (whitepaper + key takeaways)
A quick, skimmable summary of ConsultMyApp’s UK retail Apple Ads whitepaper, with the charts, the ‘intent not category’ lesson, and a simple workflow you can steal.
Latest
- ConsultMyApp: UK retail App Store search wars (AliExpress owns the front door, Very shows up everywhere)
- UK retail Apple Ads: the App Store search wars (whitepaper + key takeaways)
- Apple says the App Store ecosystem hit $1.4T in 2025 (and claims 90%+ was commission-free)
- Apple is opening a Developer Center in Berlin: why this matters for European app teams
- Apple Developer: Texas App Store age assurance (Declared Age Range + PermissionKit Significant Change)
- Android Developers: Android 17 will enforce app memory limits, so treat memory like a launch blocker
News feed
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App Store Marketing Weekly – Week 23 (2026)
This week’s theme: surfaces multiply faster than your team can learn. From ‘always-on’ in-app banners to storefront conversion benchmarks, the win is choosing one surface per intent and measuring the downstream effect.
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ConsultMyApp: UK retail App Store search wars (AliExpress owns the front door, Very shows up everywhere)
A credited summary of ConsultMyApp’s UK retail Apple Ads analysis across generic, non-brand shopping intent. The big point: ‘retail app’ is basically irrelevant, intent clusters behave wildly differently, and the winners are the ones who understand where the auction is actually retail-relevant.
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Apple says the App Store ecosystem hit $1.4T in 2025 (and claims 90%+ was commission-free)
A credited summary of Apple’s App Store ecosystem press release and the linked Analysis Group study. The useful lens for marketers: Apple is framing the store as an AI-powered commerce engine, with most value in physical goods and services that do not pay Apple commission.
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Apple is opening a Developer Center in Berlin: why this matters for European app teams
Apple says it will open a new Apple Developer Center in Berlin later this year. For EU-based app teams, it is a practical signal: more in-person labs, clearer platform guidance, and fewer ‘guess-and-submit’ release cycles.
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Apple Developer: Texas App Store age assurance (Declared Age Range + PermissionKit Significant Change)
A credited summary of Apple’s June 2026 update: new Apple Accounts in Texas now fall under SB 2420 age assurance rules, which adds declared age ranges, parent/guardian consent for minors, and a ‘significant change’ consent flow apps need to implement.
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Android Developers: Android 17 will enforce app memory limits, so treat memory like a launch blocker
Android 17 will start enforcing per-app memory limits based on device RAM, and if you blow past them the system can kill your process without a stack trace. The practical play: shrink bytecode with R8, fix bitmap bloat, and add field signals so you can spot memory-limiter exits.
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Apple Developer: Apple Design Award winners 2026 are a high-signal swipe file for ‘proof moments’
The 2026 winners are a practical reminder: delight is usually a product decision (clarity, feedback, pacing), not a marketing slogan. Use these apps as references for onboarding and screenshot promises.
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Apple Developer: iOS 26.5.1 and macOS 26.5.1 are out (June 1, 2026)
A credited summary of Apple’s June 1, 2026 releases drop (iOS 26.5.1 and macOS 26.5.1). The practical takeaway for app teams: update your QA matrix, sanity-check critical flows, and avoid learning about regressions from your reviews.
More stories
- Apple Developer: WWDC26 is one week away (what app teams should sanity-check before the churn)
- Why youth-sensitive app environments are becoming a real compliance problem for advertisers
- RevenueCat: 20% of churned users come back, but only if you’re set up to catch them
- RevenueCat Sub Club: 68% trial conversion came from trust, not paywall tweaks (Natal App)
- Google Play: Developer Program Policy update (effective May 27, 2026)
See more
- Apple ships iOS 26.6 beta (and friends): why release engineering still breaks launches
- App Store Marketing Weekly – Week 22 (2026)
- RevenueCat AI Toolkit: putting subscriptions setup inside coding agents
- Apple: age ratings are changing in Australia and Vietnam (June 18, 2026)
- App Store conversion rate benchmarks (2026): what to compare, and what to fix first
- Android Studio I/O Edition: developer verification signals are moving into the editor
- Apple Newsroom: App Store fraud stats (2025) are a reminder that ‘trust’ is a growth lever
On the grapevine
Small notes and community chatter worth keeping an eye on (curated and capped).
- Texas age assurance update (Declared Age Range API + PermissionKit Significant Change API) Apple Developer News Primary source. Not a “read later” link: it implies real engineering and support work (consent flows, revocation states, server notifications).
- WWDC26 hub (sessions, labs, and the canonical “what changed” index for Apple platforms) Apple Developer (WWDC26) Primary source. Useful context for the next wave of App Store and OS changes, and a quick way to find the session that explains the fine print.
- Apple Design Award winners 2026 (a high-signal swipe file for onboarding and proof moments) Apple Developer (Design Awards) Primary source. Use it like a product marketing reference set: what “value is obvious fast” looks like in real apps. Steal interaction patterns and pacing, not aesthetics.
- How push notifications can betray your privacy (and what to do about it) EFF (Deeplinks) Public explainer. The app-team takeaway: treat the lock screen as a public surface, minimize sensitive content, and deep link to the real value moment.
- Developer Program Policy (child safety standards and the operational checklist that blocks releases) Google Play Console Help Primary source. If your app has any social surface, treat this like a product + policy checklist: published standards, in-app reporting, point of contact, and real enforcement.
See more
- I/O 2026: What’s new in Google Play (store surfaces, console tooling, and distribution mechanics) Android Developers Blog (Google Play) Primary-ish source. Useful when you need a single canonical roundup to sanity-check what changed in Play (before you blame creatives, bids, or ASO for a funnel shift).
- Android 17 memory limits: why “it just closes” can become your new support ticket Android Developers Blog Primary source. This is a growth issue: memory limiter kills can look like random quits, which show up as 1-star reviews and worse paid conversion. Worth sharing with engineering and QA.
- Search results ad placements (what can show where, and why you can’t pick position) Apple Ads Help Primary source. Useful when teams panic about “more ads”: you can’t choose placement, so intent matching and CPP alignment matter more than vibes.