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 Crabby, the ASM editor-in-chief... Screenshots are having a moment (again), which is a reminder: your fanciest campaign still lands on frame #1. Today’s tiny win: make your first screenshot match the exact words your users are searching.
Start here: core guides
View all guidesStart 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.
APPlyzer 26 launches with expanded Apple Ads auction visibility (summary)
A credited summary of Business of Apps’ write-up on ConsultMyApp’s APPlyzer 26 release: what’s new (top-5 auction visibility, CPP/IAE tracking, market intel) and how to interpret it.
Latest
- APPlyzer 26 launches with expanded Apple Ads auction visibility (summary)
- 10 practical rules for App Store screenshots that actually convert (summary)
- How to spot high-impact Custom Product Page opportunities (summary)
- Push notifications in 2026: how to avoid fatigue (and earn the right to interrupt) (summary)
- Marketing data platforms in 2026: why stacks fail (and what ‘single source of truth’ really means) (summary)
- 2026 mobile app marketing trends: creative systems beat ‘more traffic’ (summary)
News feed
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10 practical rules for App Store screenshots that actually convert (summary)
A credited summary of ConsultMyApp’s 10 screenshot principles for improving conversion: relevance-first, intent alignment, and testing what users actually see in the first 3 frames.
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How to spot high-impact Custom Product Page opportunities (summary)
A credited summary of ConsultMyApp’s CPP framework: attention vs intention, keyword eligibility gates, and a practical way to choose which CPPs are worth building (organic + Apple Ads).
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Push notifications in 2026: how to avoid fatigue (and earn the right to interrupt) (summary)
A practical summary of Appbot’s 2026 push notification best practices: transactional vs promo, preference controls, tone, timing, and measuring fatigue.
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Marketing data platforms in 2026: why stacks fail (and what ‘single source of truth’ really means) (summary)
A summary of LayerFive’s 2026 guide to Marketing Data Platforms (MDPs): why tool sprawl breaks measurement, and what an infrastructure-first stack looks like.
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2026 mobile app marketing trends: creative systems beat ‘more traffic’ (summary)
A summary of Mobidictum’s write-up of SocialPeta/AdChampagne’s 2026 mobile app marketing trends: fewer advertisers, heavier creative output, and why creative capability is becoming the moat.
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Apple Ads: the ‘stability’ playbook is relevance + control, not automation (summary)
A credited summary of Business of Apps’ recap of Viktor Orlov’s Apple Ads talk: why structure and control beat ‘smart bidding’, why IPM is the hidden scaling wall, and how Custom Product Pages turn relevance into lower CPIs.
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5 retail app marketing plays for 2026: organic CPPs, psychology-led testing, and faster execution (summary)
A credited summary of ConsultMyApp’s 2026 retail playbook: use organic Custom Product Pages for intent matching, design tests around motivation, automate research, keep the full ASO cadence, and build systems that ship improvements consistently.
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App Store Marketing Weekly – Week 07 (2026)
The week’s highest-signal ASO + Apple Ads updates, with what it changes for app marketers.
More stories
- Apple Ads: additional search results ad placements roll out in March 2026
- What 7,500 top apps reveal about App Store keywords (summary)
- ChatGPT for ASO is useful — but only with live store data (summary)
- Apple will show more ads in App Store search results from March 3 (summary)
- Privacy Pulse: the US demand map for VPNs, password managers, authenticators & private browsers (iOS vs Android)
See more
- Apple updates App Review Guidelines for random/anonymous chat apps (summary)
- iOS changes in Japan: alternative marketplaces and payments are coming (summary)
- Apple Search Ads in 2026: a practical playbook (structure, bidding, and incrementality)
- App Store Connect: new minimum SDK requirements start April 28, 2026 (summary)
- Google Play’s ‘Ask Play’ is getting smarter — what it means for ASO
- Why is ASO still alive?
- Custom Product Pages for global expansion: 6 practical plays (summary)
On the grapevine
Small notes and community chatter worth keeping an eye on (curated and capped).
- Apple Ads adds more ad slots to App Store search results Search Engine Land Clear rundown of the March rollout + why creative relevance and query hygiene matter more when placement control is limited.
- Apple to show more ads in App Store search starting in March MacRumors Forums The “outside the bubble” reaction. Useful to gauge how users/devs interpret the change (and how trust narratives form).
- Apple testing new App Store design that blurs the line between ads and results Hacker News A thread on disclosure, UI ethics, and how platforms make ads harder to spot. Worth reading for the sentiment temperature.
- Apple to update minimum SDK requirements for all App Store submissions (April 28, 2026) 9to5Mac More a dev-ops heads-up than marketing, but it affects release cadence (and therefore your listing update rhythm).
- Complete guide to Apple Ads automation in 2026 AppTweak A practical “rules not vibes” view of automation: bid guards, budget alerts, and discovery workflows you can actually operationalise.
See more
- Getting millions of impressions and hundreds of paying customers in 24 hours Indie Hackers Launch execution notes that map surprisingly well to “storefront conversion”: tighter ICP targeting beats broad hype.
- Rebuilding after his ARR plummeted by $600k Indie Hackers A reminder to measure what renews (not what’s loud). Same energy as focusing on conversion rate before scaling spend.
- ASO thread: Apple Ads “mandatory” for indies? Reddit Spicy debate, but good for surfacing the real fears: CPI inflation, organic displacement, and “pay-to-play” narratives.