Review miningWe explain rankcusp's concrete return step by step
What is in this resource:
How to build your ASO strategy from end to end
Learn to pick target keywords, write metadata, follow rank and base every decision on data.
From data to action
Simplify the keyword data and stay in line with App Store rules.
Tools that lift rank
Carry the keywords drawn from competitor reviews into your metadata and take your app out of the cusp band into the top 10.
The claim in one sentence
ASO's return cannot be given as a single number, and anybody who gives one should not be trusted. The measurable part of the chain ends at visibility; the rest is visible only in your own account.
ASO's return is measured at the first link of the chain: did you become more visible in search results? The rest - visibility to install, install to revenue - is measured in your own data and cannot be seen from outside.
That sentence reads like a limitation and is actually a guarantee. A calculation that measures the measurable part and writes "not measurable" over the rest is more useful than one that invents all of it.
The counter-example is easy to see: "visibility doubled, our conversion is three per cent, so installs rose by this much." The three per cent in the middle of that sentence is invented - it cannot be measured from outside and it varies from phrase to phrase.
So the only honest measure of return this summary offers is the change in the bands of the phrases you track.
What we measured
Three numbers are used in the return calculation and all three are measurements.
Your count of phrases in the top 10. That is today's visibility. The first page is where almost all of a search ends, and the number of phrases you hold there corresponds directly to traffic.
Your count of phrases at 11-30. That is next month's visibility. For every phrase in that band Apple has already built the relevance; what is missing is a few places of rank.
Your count of phrases outside 200. That is ground with no relevance yet. When that number falls, your metadata has started matching new phrases.
The monthly change in those three gives direction without an absolute figure: the top 10 growing means you are winning, the band growing means you will win next month, the outside-200 count falling means relevance is forming.
Let the unmeasured be written down too: download count, revenue, conversion rate and absolute search volume. Apple publishes none of them.
| Figure | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Phrases in the top 10 | Today's visibility. |
| Phrases at 11-30 | Next month's visibility. |
| Phrases outside 200 | Ground with no relevance yet. |
| Hours spent this month | The other half; separated, the return inflates. |
| Downloads, revenue, conversion | Not measurable - Apple does not publish them. |
What to do this month
This summary has one action: pull the three band counts and write the hours spent beside them.
The band counts are read off the panel and take ten minutes. The hours have to be estimated if no note was kept; start keeping one for next month.
When the two sit on the same line the discussion becomes concrete. Apart, the return looks large and the cost invisible, and the decision gets made on the wrong ground.
A third line is needed as well: what we could not measure this month. Phrases whose popularity could not be read, ground where conversion is invisible. That line shows which ground the decision is not resting on.
Three lines, one page. That is the whole of a monthly return meeting.
The four mistakes this calculation invites
The return calculation is easy to get wrong, and when it is wrong it looks convincing.
Inventing a conversion rate. Filling the middle of the chain with a guess makes the result look larger than it is, and next month the same number gets asked for and cannot be produced.
Forgetting the control group. In a period when every phrase rose, your rising is not an achievement. The average of the phrases you did not touch has to be subtracted every time.
Measuring over too short a period. A metadata move takes a few days to reach the index and a few weeks to settle. A calculation on two weeks of data is mostly measuring noise.
Counting only the wins. A move can win on one phrase while losing on another - a word removed from the subtitle weakens the phrases it was holding up.
All four err in the same direction: they inflate the return. That makes carrying on easier and makes wrong moves repeat.
- Cut the chain at visibility; measure conversion in your own data.
- Subtract the control group's average in every calculation.
- Wait at least a month; two weeks is noise.
- Include the phrases the same move weakened.
The cost of time
The other half of a return calculation is cost, and in ASO cost is almost entirely time.
A systematic loop is about twelve hours a month: two and a half a week plus two and a half a month. That number matters because the comparison is made from it.
There is an unmeasured cost too: attention. Changing metadata in a release widens that release's test surface and adds an item to the product team's agenda. In small teams that can weigh more than the hours.
The most effective way to lower cost is to narrow the scope: one country, six phrases, one move a week. As scope widens, cost rises faster than linearly, because attention divides.
For a team that can spare one hour a month there is a minimum loop as well: audit the keyword field, fill the empty country fields, and check the defended band. Those three deliver a real share of the systematic loop's return.
When to stop
The most necessary line in a return summary is the one about when the work should stop.
Stop if you have hit the strength threshold. If the median rating count of the top 10 is far above yours across every phrase you target, there is no distance left to take with metadata; the work has moved to the product.
Stop if the band has run dry. If nothing is left waiting to be spent and the pool produces no new candidates, the loop is turning over nothing. A new country or a new source is needed.
Stop if there is a conversion problem. If your rank rises and your downloads do not, the problem is not ASO but the page or the product. One more keyword does not fix it.
If three months have produced no measurable effect, check the measurement setup before anything else. A missing control group, more than one field changed per release, or gaps in the record - those are setup problems, not tool problems.
Stopping is not failure. ASO is maintenance work; when there is nothing to maintain, what is being done is busywork.
Rewriting this summary with your own data
This summary is general. A general summary gets approved and forgotten; one written with your own numbers gets argued with, and arguments produce decisions.
Line one: your three band counts and their change against last month. "Top 10 from six to nine, band from twelve to fourteen, outside 200 from twenty-two to seventeen."
Line two: hours spent this month. Estimate it if no note was kept, and start keeping one.
Line three: how many moves were made this month and how many came out net positive - with the control group subtracted.
Line four: what we could not measure. The count of phrases whose popularity could not be read, the ground where conversion is invisible. This line is usually the most valuable, because it shows which ground the decision is not resting on.
Line five: one action and its owner. A summary with two actions ends with neither of them done.
Explaining the return to a team
Explaining it can be harder than measuring it, because the listener expects one number and the honest answer is not one number.
Start with the three band counts. "Last month we had six phrases in the top 10, this month nine. Fourteen are waiting in the band. Our outside-200 count fell from twenty-two to seventeen." Three sentences that give direction and none of them invented.
Put the cost beside them. "Eleven hours went in this month." When return and cost sit in the same sentence the discussion becomes concrete; apart, the return inflates.
Say what you could not measure. "We cannot measure from outside how much of our installs came from these phrases." That sentence earns trust - a source that says what it could not measure is believed about what it did.
Propose a decision. "Let us drop this country and move to this group of phrases." A presentation that proposes nothing stays an update, and updates are forgotten.
The one sentence to avoid: "ASO increased our downloads by this percentage." It cannot be built, because the middle of the chain is unmeasurable - and once built, the same figure will be asked for next month and cannot be produced.
- Start with the three band counts: top 10, 11-30, outside 200.
- Put the cost beside the return; separated, the return inflates.
- Say plainly what you could not measure - that is where trust comes from.
- Propose a decision; an update gets forgotten.
- Never build the sentence "ASO raised downloads by this much".
Frequently asked
- Can you give the return as a single number?
- No, and anybody who does should not be trusted. The measurable part of the chain ends at visibility; from there to installs and revenue it is visible only in your own data.
- Why are band counts better than an average rank?
- An average rank breaks on the phrases outside 200 - their rank is unknown, and an invented number shifts the average. Band counts are not affected by unknowns.
- How many hours a month should I spend?
- A systematic loop is about twelve. If you can only spare one, there is a minimum loop: audit the keyword field, fill empty country fields, check the defended band.
- Can I compare it with advertising?
- Two units that cannot be divided into one another: cost per install on one side, first-page phrases won per month on the other. Tracking both over time and seeing which accelerates is more honest than one ratio.
- Why no percentages?
- Writing an average effect as a percentage needs long measurement across many apps and that data has not accumulated. It will be published when it does.
Explore our resources
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Keyword research - the road map to the top ten
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A comparison: ASO and keyword tools
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