Mobile apps and app stores
A store listing is a landing page with its own rules, and installs have to be traced to the post that earned them. Add the second platform early and put an attribution partner in before paid installs.
7 steps, about 22 hours of work · 1 plays · 3 checked claims
The concept, explained in full: Growth marketing.
Do it
The steps from the launch plan that belong to this topic, in plan order.
Win the store listing
- Take the listing terms from the store ad platform, not from a guess2h
The ad tools expose what people actually type into the store — the closest thing to a keyword planner the app stores have.
- Make the first three screenshots carry the whole pitch4h
Almost nobody scrolls the gallery or reads the description. Three frames have to say what it is, who it is for and why it is better.
- Localise the listing long before you localise the company3h
The listing is a few hundred words and the store ranks each language separately. A market nobody else bothered to translate for is the cheapest ranking you will ever get.
- Ask for the rating at the moment the app just worked1h
Rating is both ranking input and conversion rate on the same screen. Ask after a success, never on launch, and never twice.
- Publish the Play listing before you decide iOS is the market8h
Journable, an AI calorie counter, reported $125,000 in 28 days with about 80% of its revenue from Android, in a 2026 Starter Story interview (self-reported). A store the founder crowd treats as an afterthought, and a second listing costs a day.
Know where signups actually come from
- Tag every store link so an install can be traced to the post that earned it30m
App Store links take a campaign token (pt and ct) and Google Play reads UTM source and campaign on store links; both report in the store’s own analytics. Apple lists a campaign only after 24 hours and shows a figure only once it reaches five.
Turn on paid, with a payback rule
- Put an attribution partner in before the first paid install4h
Each ad network counts its own installs, and on iOS they arrive late and coarse. A mobile measurement partner is the one ledger that de-duplicates them across networks — without it the payback rule is reading the vendors’ own scorecards. Free plans exclude paid campaigns, so budget it with the ads.
Plays
Reusable patterns that explain how: backed by read sources first, then practitioner advice, then our own ideas.
- One App Store product page per traffic source, each matching its messageBacked · 1 source
Make an App Store custom product page for each source that sends you installs, with screenshots and promotional text that repeat what that source promised, and link each source to its own page. A visitor lands on the message they clicked, and App Store Connect reports conversion per page, so you learn which promise works.
What the evidence says
Sources
Related topics
Where it sits in the plan
- 3.9Win the store listingin Authority baseline
- 4.1.8Tag every store link so an install can be traced to the post that earned itin Find the one channel that works
- 6.3.10Put an attribution partner in before the first paid installin Scale to $1M ARR
- 3.9.5Publish the Play listing before you decide iOS is the marketin Authority baseline