Practitioner pattern · Ariel Michaeli (Co-founder and CEO of Appfigures, which sells the ASO tools (Keyword Inspector, Competitors Keywords) he recommends)
Count how many downloads competitors need per rating, then out-rate them
Guest says more ratings beat more downloads in App Store search
Workedaso
What they did
Ratings (positive or negative), not reviews or downloads, tell Apple people care. Compute each ranking competitor's downloads-per-rating (DPR): how many downloads it takes to produce one rating. Use it to estimate how many downloads you need to reach their rating count, promote the app to that point, and optimize to turn as many downloads as possible into ratings. Don't buy ratings.
What happened
Apps with more ratings outrank apps with more downloads, per guest's weekly teardowns.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · Maximizing Organic Growth with App Store Optimization — Ariel Michaeli, Appfigures“Most people don't believe me when I say, "If you have more ratings, you're going to beat apps that have more downloads." That's just the way it is on the App Store, and every week I have a guide that shows it in some capacity.”
“what's the ability of every competitor that I have to turn a download into a rating? And I call that number the DPR, the downloads-per-rating metric.”
Related topics
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More from this episode
- Put your most important keywords first in the app name and subtitleGuest says early positions get the most ranking weight; seen weekly in teardowns
- Never repeat a keyword between your app name, subtitle and keyword listGuest calls duplicates the worst ASO mistake: the word only counts at its weakest spot
- Keep your app name to 26-27 characters if it has an ampersand or special dashAvoids the last word being cut; one recipe app ranked only for a half-word
- Promote an in-app purchase with your keyword in its name to boost search rankImmediate rank boost; keyword-in-name part works about half the time
- Pick keywords where your rating count matches the top 5, using competitors' keywords and reviewsGuest says new apps can reach top 5 on big keywords when rivals optimize badly
- If you're new to a crowded keyword, name the app around just that keywordGuest says fewer name keywords concentrate ranking weight; broaden once ratings grow
- Fill the Spanish (Mexico) listing with extra keywords to rank in the US storeDoubles keyword space; guest sees the same ranking weight as the main listing
- Show your target search words on your App Store screenshotsGuest says matching the searcher's words cuts 'is this for me?' doubt; no numbers
- Mirror: Name your app exactly the popular search word, like 'Mirror'4,000-5,000 downloads a day; guest says the exact-match boost still works, but weaker
- BBC: Check which words competitors rank for and use the phrasings you missedSaw results right away, per the guest; no numbers
- Dropbox: Put 'photo backup' words before a famous brand name in the app titleUndone after a few weeks; guest thinks that was a mistake. No numbers
- Pick launch keywords carefully, then try 4-5 keyword versions before judgingGuest says most who quit ASO stopped after 1-2 tries; results come later