Get featured by the App Store
+ In-app events advice
Hey there, it’s Jacob at Retention.Blog 👋
I got tired of reading high-level strategy articles, so I started writing actionable advice I would want to read.
Every week I share practical learnings you can apply to your business.
How do you get featured by the App Store?
Who are these mythical people at Apple that make these decisions?
How do they decide?
How do I get my app featured!?
It used to be a big black box, and the kingmakers at Apple could decide to bless your app and change your life.
App Store features aren’t quite the same impact they used to be, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t attempt to get some new free traffic!
First, here is how you actually submit to be featured:
These instructions are pretty clear, so I won’t go into the actual steps.
And I forget exactly when this happened, but being able to submit yourself was actually a pretty big deal.
There didn’t used to be any formal process.
The positives are that now anyone can submit.
The negatives are that now anyone can submit…
(this means that you’re competing with a lot of people)
Okay, so how in the world do you actually get featured?
One thing to remember: App Store editors needed content!
There are hundreds to thousands of placements across all the different countries, and they constantly need to feature new apps and releases.
Make their job easy.
Two proven strategies:
Align with the calendar of seasonal events
Use new iOS technologies
Seasonal event calendar
You should build out a calendar of all the different events throughout the year that can align with your app:
International Women’s Day
Easter
Pride Month
Back to School
World Mental Health Day
etc.
Build out a calendar of these types of events, and figure out which ones most closely align with your brand. Also, see if you can easily create campaigns around these days that offer exclusive content in your app.
Then, you’ll want to figure out your pitch.
How do you craft a pitch?
A good piece of advice from Talha Mumtaz in the ASO Stack Slack:
Try to find a feature in the App Store today from a similar app. Read through how it’s written, and try to write a brief that’s a similar style.
Think of it like PR, and you’re pitching. If you can write the story for them, it makes their job easier.
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Above is a great example.
Give the App Store editors strong copy to use:
“library of nearly 700 exercises”
“AI-powered routines”
“SmartGym’s AI-powered Smart Trainer (found on the app’s More tab)” ← give the editors direction on where thing are in your app
Highlighting the founder can also be a nice touch. Apple likes to highlight their developers and founders of apps to tell the story around them.
Give some personality to the founder and share the motivation of why they needed to build this product.
So now you have ideas, when should you submit?
In this same thread, Michal Mroz, Head of ASO at ZEN.com, shared some great advice:
6-8 weeks ahead normally
But for big events, 10-12 weeks ahead
This aligns with what I’ve seen as well.
He has another good piece of advice: don’t only align to seasonal events, make sure to share updates, releases, and new features.
There are many different types of features, some seasonal and event based, some just to highlight new apps or features.
If we’re trying to get featured every 6-8 weeks, that’s every 2 months, so aim to have 6-8 “feature worthy” things throughout the year.
Again, think of this like a PR pitch.
This is an exclusive that you’re sharing with the editorial team. Make it sound exciting!
Bonus content! 😮
Applica just shared a phenomenal blog post on the Botsi blog breaking down the specific tactics of how to personalize your paywall to drive incremental revenue
Now back to the show…
Nastia Radek had a great post a while back giving some advice on pitching and the different types of pitches to think about:
How do In-app Events factor in here?
I’m glad you asked!
One of the best ways to get noticed is to be consistently launching in-app events.
Egor Kunovsky, had a LI post recently talking about the importance of in-app events:
“In-app events are not the tool to increase conversions. They are a tool to list your app for more search terms.”
And he is 100% right. In-app events drive extra visibility in the app store, so you more people can discover your app.
But they also give you additional visibility to the App Store Editorial team!
But don’t think you can just throw anything out there and get featured. I’ve heard the advice from Apple:
“They need to be rooted in actual new content or features. They can't be fluffy.”
So there are two ways to think about this:
Every in-app event I release needs to be new content or features
Or
Every in-app event I highlight to Apple needs to be new content or features
Because if you look at any big app today, they essentially always have an in-app live. This is easier for them because they have large teams and are constantly releasing new features and content.
I’d aim for somewhere in the middle between those two options.
100% submit to Apple when you have a big, noteworthy release or update, create the in-app event, and then also share the link and ID to that in-app event in your submission.
At a past company I worked at, most of the time the actual value of the in-app event is pretty low ( a few hundred installs), but every few events we would get featured for something
When they were tied to limited time or seasonal events, this would seem to increase the likelihood of a feature.
I also believe that in-app events are a great re-engagement opportunity for users who no longer have your app installed.
When I was looking in the App Store, I saw about 5-8 in-app events from apps that I used to have installed, but don’t anymore.
These were all shown to me first because I saw any IAEs from new apps I hadn’t used before.
The main message: Try to constantly be releasing new in-app events, and for the big ones, call them out to the editors.
Want some more guidance on getting featured? Go get Nastia’s full presentation here:
Apptweak has another good post here: https://www.apptweak.com/en/aso-blog/how-to-get-your-app-featured-on-the-app-store
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Great newsletter dear Jacob. I should try and do that more often as well. My biggest issue is, that developing new great features usually doesn't take me 8 weeks, so it feels super weird to talk about a feature that doesn't exist already or when I know how it works, that I now have to wait for 8 weeks to release it.