We all start somewhere.
In the app world, that “somewhere” is usually zero downloads, zilch users, zip revenue.
Whether you’re a bright-eyed start-up or a legacy brand elbowing your way into the market, at some point the thought hits:
What if the app isn’t just struggling… what if it’s actually bad?
But listen…
Imagine a restaurant with the best chefs in the world. It should be packed, aye?
- Except imagine it’s buried down a back street — no signage. (Hint: acquisition.)
- And if someone does stumble inside, there’s no warm welcome. (Hint: engagement.)
- No inviting décor, no thoughtful design. (Hint: UX.)
We wouldn’t doubt the talent of the chefs if the restaurant flopped.
This post was first published on consultmyapp.com.
It should be the same with apps. Yet the industry’s only 17 years old — essentially a teenager, still trying to drive home what older industries learnt long ago: the core product isn’t the whole picture.
Before blaming the app, nine times out of ten there’s something in the growth funnel holding you back.
So, instead of catastrophising in your Monday meetings, ask these questions instead:
Are we looking for our target audience in the wrong places?
Weak acquisition often gets mistaken as weak demand.
Giving a false impression of market interest and a skewed view of all your team’s hard work.
Acquisition channels need testing just as much as the product itself. And chances are, your budget isn’t limitless, investors, internal or otherwise, won’t wait forever to see traction.
That’s why it’s crucial to move fast, read the signals, and focus on the channels that bring decent volume.
💡 Top tip: If your store impressions aren’t growing (but your conversion rate is healthy), you don’t have an app problem, you have a channel problem.
App Store Optimization is usually the first port of call
The golden child of mobile marketing is App Store Optimization (ASO) — the process of improving how easily your app can be discovered and then how likely it is to be installed from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
That second element of ASO is essential for any healthy app, as driving a higher impression to install conversion rate doesn’t just increase organic installs (it also boosts the efficiency of any paid campaigns you’re running, even above-the-line).
In some industries — iGaming, for example — ASO can scale almost indefinitely.
That’s because iGaming audiences have App Store-native intent: people open the store already searching for game types like “roulette”, “slots”, or “blackjack”. And of course for sports-books there’s a never-ending stream of events, team names and so on.
People use the store itself in these cases as a search engine — typing in broad, generic terms to discover new games and events. Which equals opportunities for your app to be discovered.
So, ask yourself:
Do people search for apps like mine within the App Store?
You can check that easily using APPlyzer Chat, which measures App Store Optimization potential with something called “daily search impressions” (a strong indicator of the number of people searching each day in any of the 150+ countries and stores for search terms which would lead to your app).
It will show you which apps are ranking well for those terms and what metadata & creatives they’re using to achieve success, it will even suggest a strategy for your own app if you want to replicate that success.
Back to iGaming and looking at major casino terms, those scores sit consistently high, meaning discovery happens right where installs happen. Add to that the abundance of competitor brands you can target in your metadata to steal visibility, and ASO becomes a channel that can keep scaling.
But not every category works that way. Take a job-finding app, for instance.
Millions of people are searching for jobs daily, but that behaviour happens off-store — on Google, aggregator sites, and company career pages. A quick APPlyzer Chat search shows that across ten common job-related keywords, search scores average less than half of casino terms. Far fewer users open the App Store and type “jobs near me” or “job finder”.
ASO channel scale: iGaming vs job finding (US iOS)
Sometimes paid acquisition is the way to go
In that case, paid acquisition would make far more sense to supplement the work of App Store Optimization. If you were running Meta campaigns, for example, you could reach people by job role or interest, spark intent there, and then hand them over to a well-optimized store page to convert.
Ultimately, it all comes back to the same principle:
Make sure you’re looking for your users in the right place.
If you’re struggling and thinking, “no one is downloading our app,” it might be time to switch channels — not question the app’s potential. You’d be amazed how often teams double down on the wrong path. Don’t let that be you. You’ve heard it before:
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
That applies here too.
Are we telling the right story once people find us?
Okay, you’ve nailed your “hero” channels.
You’ve gone from Ant-Man to the Hulk in terms of app visibility.
You’re bigger, you’re bolder — but are people converting?
Let’s talk about optimizing your app store listings for conversion — arguably one of the most valuable elements of App Store Optimization. This is an absolutely critical moment: the point where awareness turns into decision.
Most developers spend months perfecting the product, and not nearly enough time on the page that sells it.
Your store page is your storefront. Not just technically — psychologically.
If we dissect what makes any app store page work, it really comes down to a few core pillars — design, pain points, features, and proof.
Everything you show (or say) ties back to one of those.
That’s where hypothesis-led testing comes in.
“Which of these pillars do I think is under-performing and how can I test it?”
• If design isn’t landing → test new visual hierarchy or tone
• If messaging isn’t resonating → test the pain point or promise
• If trust feels weak → test social proof elements (badges, ratings, testimonials)
Each test gives you data on which part of the story is connecting — or falling flat.
And when you run those tests consistently (through PPO, CPPs, or Play Store experiments), you’re not guessing anymore — you’re iterating your way to clarity.
In the Shopping category, Walmart is a great example. Over the past six months, it’s refreshed its App Store screenshots more than ten times — cycling through seasonal campaigns (Easter, Back-to-College, Halloween, Black Friday) while continuously reinforcing core features like Express Delivery, curbside pickup, and its “Sparky” AI assistant. It’s not reinventing the product — it’s systematically testing what story converts best.
Those changes aren’t aesthetic refreshes — they’re experiments in narrative and value proposition. Each one tests which emotional hook converts best at a given moment.
That’s the mindset to borrow — treat your store as a living experiment, not a static poster. This is where you control perception. It’s where you show what your app feels like, not just what it does.
Are users getting value fast enough?
This question alone could fill an entire whitepaper.
It’s a tasty skillset-cocktail of onboarding, UX, lifecycle strategy, and feature discovery, all heavy hitters that could take this article to 10,000 words.
But for now, keep it simple. Again, Ask yourself:
Are users getting value fast enough?
The quickest way to find out? Drop-off.
If you’re seeing a steep fall between install and activation, that’s your signal.
Though, remember, some industries are naturally high-churn (fintech for example), so always compare against category benchmarks before diagnosing a problem.
If your early retention curve looks like a cliff, it means users are slipping away before they hit their first “aha” moment” — that instant where they truly understand your app’s benefit.
You can measure this in Mixpanel, Amplitude, or Firebase by tracking time-to-value — the average time it takes new users to complete their first key action, whether that’s a workout, transaction, spin, or show watched.
Each test should aim to shorten that window.
That delay often comes from one of three sources:
- Onboarding friction — too many steps before reward
- Weak value communication — users don’t yet see the benefit
- Lack of guidance — users hit a dead-end before success
Once you’ve looked at the numbers, look at the language. Metrics show when people drop off, but reviews tell you why.
💡 Top tip: Run review sentiment analysis to surface the real blockers behind drop-off. Comments like ”too confusing”, ”didn’t know what to do”, or ”took too long to get started” usually point straight to friction in onboarding or feature discovery.
Every second you shave off that first “aha” moment — and every barrier you identify in your reviews — compounds into stronger engagement and healthier retention.
That’s how smart onboarding becomes sustainable growth.
Are we keeping momentum after the first session?
If the first session is the spark, the second is the fire. Most apps don’t lose users because the product’s bad — they lose them because nothing happens next.
That post-install silence is deadly. The user’s done their first workout, played their first hand, or ordered their first coffee — and then? No reminder, no reinforcement, no reason to return.
This is where engagement and MarTech really earn their keep. You need a lifecycle strategy that turns your app into a living rhythm, not a one-hit wonder. Push notifications, in-app messages, emails, badges — every touchpoint should nudge users from curiosity into habit.
The key KPIs to watch here:
- Day-2 and Day-7 retention: Does the spark catch?
- Return-session rate: How many users come back unprompted?
- Push influence rate: Are your messages driving real action?
When these numbers stall, look at your creative and CRM alignment. If UX, product, and lifecycle are telling three different stories, users feel it — and they’ll quietly drift away.
💡 Top tip: Audit your push and email triggers. If more than 50% of your messages are reactive (sent after inactivity), your lifecycle isn’t a loop — it’s a lifeline. Flip that ratio: proactive beats panic every time.
Are we learning fast enough?
When growth slows, most teams look inward — they blame the app, the market, or even the budget.
But more often than not, it’s not a product problem — it’s a learning problem.
App marketing isn’t a single playbook; it’s a constant experiment. Every store test, creative variation, and push campaign leaves behind a data trail — a story of what your audience responded to.
The question is: Are you listening to it?
Here, BI & Data Analytics meets Creative and Engagement. It’s not just about running experiments; it’s about building a culture that turns results into repeatable knowledge.
You’ll need a clear testing framework (hypothesis, metric, outcome), a way to store insights, and a rhythm for iteration. Otherwise, you’re just throwing darts in the dark and calling it innovation.
The KPIs that matter most:
- Experiment velocity: How many meaningful tests do you run per month?
- Iteration rate: How often do insights lead to an actual change?
- Learning adoption: Do teams use what they learn?
💡 Top tip: Keep a single shared “experiment ledger” — a living document where every hypothesis, test, and outcome is logged. Over time, it becomes your most valuable asset: proof that you’re not guessing anymore — you’re evolving.
It’s rarely the app itself: The real reasons apps struggle to grow
At some point, every team asks the question: “Is our app in trouble?”
But more often than not, it isn’t. The cracks usually live elsewhere — in how users find you, what they see when they arrive, how fast they feel value, how consistently you re-engage them, and how well you learn from it all.
Because apps don’t fail in a single moment. They fade — quietly — when one part of the growth engine slows and no one notices.
So before deciding your app’s “in trouble”, look wider. Fix the friction. Tighten the loops. Keep learning.
Chances are, the app itself isn’t broken. It’s just waiting for everything around it to catch up.
