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... Christmas growth is basically a timing game: iOS spikes early, Android hangs around, and your churn curve does not care about your ‘big December push’. Tiny win: pick one seasonal intent, ship one iOS creative variant by Nov 10 next year, and pair it with a single behaviour-triggered message that gets new users to value before Day 1 ends.
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.
APPlyzer hits 100,000+ users: what it signals about app marketing data
A credited summary of Business of Apps’ piece on APPlyzer passing 100k users, and what the ‘free tier + auction stack visibility’ positioning suggests for teams choosing competitive intel tooling in 2026.
Latest
- APPlyzer hits 100,000+ users: what it signals about app marketing data
- Google’s upcoming Android developer verification: why it matters for distribution
- Google Ads is changing budget pacing for ad-scheduled campaigns (watch your monthly caps)
- Cross-platform subscriptions: how to share entitlements between iOS and Android (without lying to users)
- App Store Marketing Weekly – Week 09 (2026)
- Alternative iOS app stores are real now: what changes for discovery, trust, and measurement
News feed
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App Store Marketing Weekly – Week 09 (2026)
This week’s highest-signal App Store and Google Play moves, plus what to do next (ads, CPPs, policy, and measurement).
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Google’s upcoming Android developer verification: why it matters for distribution
A credited summary of AdGuard’s explainer on Google’s planned developer verification scheme, and what it could change for independent distribution, alternative stores, and friction in the Android install path.
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Google Ads is changing budget pacing for ad-scheduled campaigns (watch your monthly caps)
Google will try to reach the full 30.4x monthly cap within your scheduled window, which can spike spend for ‘weekends only’ or limited-hour campaigns.
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Cross-platform subscriptions: how to share entitlements between iOS and Android (without lying to users)
RevenueCat breaks down why ‘one user, two billing systems’ is so messy, and what a sane entitlement sync architecture looks like.
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Alternative iOS app stores are real now: what changes for discovery, trust, and measurement
A credited summary of TechCrunch’s roundup of alternative iOS app stores in the EU (DMA) and Japan (MSCA), plus the practical marketing implications: fragmented discovery, support/refunds, and new fee economics.
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Watch-only app? You might be marketing in the dark (until you ship an iOS companion)
A credited summary of Ravi Shankar’s discovery that watch-only apps can hide App Store Connect analytics, plus a practical checklist to avoid flying blind.
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Google Play’s 2025 safety numbers: 1.75M blocked apps, 80k banned dev accounts, and ‘policy-by-default’ tooling
A credited summary of Google Play ecosystem safety reporting: how pre-review checks, developer verification, AI-assisted review, and integrity signals are becoming part of shipping, not just compliance.
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Choosing an app marketing agency: 5 signals that they’ll actually help (not just run channels)
A credited summary of ConsultMyApp’s checklist for picking an agency, with a practical way to pressure-test ‘strategy’, full-funnel thinking, and retention competence.
More stories
- Adjust’s Mobile App Trends 2026: why integrated measurement is becoming the new baseline
- App Store Connect: app bundles no longer need matching platforms
- Google App Campaigns in 2026: what changed, what’s still a black box, and how to win anyway
- A practical 2026 tool stack: create, listen, automate, and report faster
- Apple Ads: the ‘stability’ playbook is relevance + control, not automation
See more
- APPlyzer 26 launches with expanded Apple Ads auction visibility
- App Store Marketing Weekly – Week 07 (2026)
- Apple Ads: additional search results ad placements roll out in March 2026
- Privacy Pulse: the US demand map for VPNs, password managers, authenticators & private browsers (iOS vs Android)
- iOS 26 adoption (Feb 2026): why your min-version calls should stay boring
- Apple updates App Review Guidelines for random/anonymous chat apps
- iOS changes in Japan: alternative marketplaces and payments are coming
On the grapevine
Small notes and community chatter worth keeping an eye on (curated and capped).
- Search results ad placements (March 2026 rollout details) Apple Ads Help Primary source for what’s actually changing: phased rollout, eligibility, and the “no position selection” constraint.
- Google Ads: budget pacing change for ad-scheduled campaigns (starts March 1) Search Engine Land If you use scheduling as a “soft brake”, this can spike monthly spend unless you adjust daily budgets.
- Update on plans for Privacy Sandbox technologies (retirements + attribution focus) Google Privacy Sandbox Primary source. A reminder that privacy and measurement plumbing keeps shifting under real-world attribution models.
- Cross-platform subscription state (sharing entitlements between Android and iOS) RevenueCat A genuinely useful breakdown of why “paid once, works everywhere” needs real backend identity + verification work.
- Halt fully rolled-out releases (Play Console and Publishing API) Google Play Console Help Primary source. Worth bookmarking for incident playbooks, because “we can’t stop it” is an avoidable kind of pain.
See more
- Policy insights in Android Studio (catch issues earlier) Android Developers Primary source. A small workflow change that can prevent big “why is review delayed?” surprises late in a release cycle.
- Upcoming SDK minimum requirements (App Store Connect uploads from April 28, 2026) Apple Developer News Primary source. Worth sanity-checking against your release train so store compliance doesn’t collide with a marketing launch.
- Keeping Google Play and Android app ecosystems safe in 2025 (enforcement + tooling highlights) Google Security Blog Primary source. Helpful lens on why “policy + integrity signals” are becoming part of shipping, not just compliance.