App store optimization services, bought on evidence

Agencies with a verified published price

How to scope an ASO engagement

1. Separate discovery from conversion. Impressions from store search are a visibility problem; the ratio of page views to installs is a creative and positioning problem. Ask which of the two the agency is proposing to move first and what evidence from your own store console supports that choice.
2. Insist the work runs as tests. Icon, screenshots, title and description changes should be tested where the store's own experiment tooling allows it, and rolled out on the result rather than on taste. Ask how many variants per cycle, how long each runs and what the stopping rule is.
3. Confirm who holds console access and rights. Store console access, the developer account and the source files for every creative asset should stay with you. Agree that any asset the agency produces is delivered in editable form, so a change of provider does not mean recommissioning the whole product page.
4. Connect installs to retention and revenue. Install volume is easy to move with the wrong audience. Require reporting that follows installs into activation, retention and revenue so a visibility gain that brings the wrong users is visible rather than celebrated.

What the work actually consists of

On the discovery side: choosing the terms the product page targets, writing the title, subtitle and description around them in the form each store expects, and managing localisation for the markets you sell in. The two stores index metadata differently, so an agency should be able to explain what it does differently for each rather than treating them as one surface.

On the conversion side: the icon, the screenshot sequence and its captions, the preview video, and the first lines a user reads before tapping more. Ratings and reviews sit across both, since they influence whether a browsing user trusts the listing. Underneath everything sits the app itself; a product page cannot outrun a crash rate or a broken onboarding flow, and a credible agency will say so early.

Reviews, incentives and the rules around them

Ratings prompts and review campaigns are part of most ASO programmes and they are advertising claims as well as product signals. The Federal Trade Commission's endorsement guidance requires endorsements to reflect the endorser's honest opinion and actual experience, requires material connections such as payment or free products to be revealed clearly and conspicuously, and treats buying reviews from people who never used the product as deceptive, with enforcement reaching buyers as well as sellers.

Selectively soliciting only users you expect to be positive, or suppressing negative feedback, falls on the wrong side of the same guidance. The FTC also says the advertiser is ultimately responsible for endorsements made on its behalf, including by an agency, so an ASO vendor's review tactics are your exposure. Get the method in writing before the campaign starts, and check the store's own developer policies alongside it.

Judging the results

Ask for store impressions, product page views, the conversion rate between them, install volume by source, and then activation and retention. Ask for the test log too: what was changed, when, which variant won and by how much. Without the log, a seasonal spike and a successful test look identical in a monthly chart.

Treat category-rank screenshots with the same caution as keyword-rank screenshots in web search. They move with the whole market, and a rising tide across a category tells you little about the work. No agency can promise a store ranking or a featured placement, and one that does is describing an outcome it does not control.

Questions people actually ask

What do app store optimization services include?

Store search visibility work on metadata and localisation, conversion work on icon, screenshots, video and description, ratings and review strategy, and a test programme with a log. Reporting should reach activation and retention, not stop at installs.

Is ASO the same as paid user acquisition?

No. ASO improves organic discovery and product-page conversion. Paid acquisition buys traffic. They interact, since better page conversion lowers the cost of every paid install, but they are separate budgets with separate reporting.

Can an agency guarantee a top store ranking?

No credible one will. Store rankings depend on competitors, seasonality and the app's own quality signals. Ask for a test plan and expected ranges instead, and judge on the tests that were run and what they showed.

Can we offer users a reward for a five-star review?

Incentivised reviews create a material connection that must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously under FTC endorsement guidance, and soliciting only users you expect to be positive is treated as deceptive. Store developer policies add their own restrictions, so check both.

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