Live App Teardowns: App Growth Optimization

App already had 'wallet' in its title. In the iOS keyword field, the word 'Apple' was moved from somewhere on the right to the very first position, to target the combined term 'Apple Wallet'. Steve's rule: keywords further left in the keyword field tend to rank better.

Created an Apple Ads max-conversion campaign targeting all countries except the US, with a few top-of-funnel keywords and a $2 target cost per install. Checked impression share by country and which countries produced paying users (India: impressions, no purchases; Netherlands, Canada, UK: impressions and sales). Cross-checked with Mo's Astro-based Claude skill listing keyword volume by country: Netherlands had the same popularity (~55) as the US but difficulty ~17 vs 60-something. Then stop the worldwide campaign and create a Netherlands-only campaign with more budget.

Max conversion campaign with three ad groups: (1) broad match with search match left ON, only 5-10 of the highest-traffic keywords in your niche, very high max cost-per-tap; (2) exact match with the same 5-10 keywords and the same very high CPT; (3) Apple's auto-created group that mines your metadata (cannot be removed). Set the target cost per install in campaign settings (e.g. $2); Apple tries to hit that CPI regardless of the high max CPT.

Paywall had $1.99/month and $10/year; 90% of buyers chose yearly, so the client removed the monthly option, leaving only the $10 yearly plan.

Calm's paywall showed only the yearly plan for a period, then re-added the monthly plan two to three weeks later.

After buying a long-free app in 2022, the new owners added a hard paywall shown to first-time downloads; users who deleted and reinstalled also hit it.

Use the 'How did you hear about us?' onboarding answer (or the Superwall + Appstack integration) to route users: answers like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok or other paid channels get a hard paywall with no X; 'searched the App Store' gets a soft paywall with a close X. Every source still sees a paywall. Aim: avoid 1-star reviews from organic users.

Across several of the host's utility apps, set plans to $5/week, $20/year and $30 lifetime, copying a prior guest's (Chris) finding that $29.99 is the best lifetime price. Results promised later.

Ran an Indie App Santa campaign for Sign Panda (signature maker) offering a lifetime free plan.

A/B testing icons for one of the host's newer apps, prompted by Sign Panda users citing the icon and a prior guest (Chris) stressing icons.

Onboarding asks male or female. The paywall shows a single, static testimonial (not a scrolling carousel) from someone of the same gender. The team also A/B tested testimonials vs ratings (rating count/average) in a case study.

Both apps grew using only Meta ads; the ~$1M MRR developer only later added Apple Ads (with App Masters). No creative or targeting detail given.

App was free for years; the developer slowly raised charges, giving existing users three months' heads-up before the change.

Used Collabstr to hire UGC creators; worked with micro-influencers, one of whom (based in Colombia) had a large impact.

Starting around 2013, a friend's apps went paid upfront -> free with in-app purchases -> free with subscriptions.

An unnamed app shows a different paywall and prices based on onboarding answers (similar to Canva and AI tools asking 'personal or professional?' and pricing accordingly).