What our webinar audience wanted to know about ASO in 2025

We recently ran two webinars with our friends at Yodel Mobile. The first one, ASO Foundations in 2025: What Still Works, What's Changing?, covered the basics for folks getting started. The second, Advanced ASO Strategies for 2026, went deeper into tactics for more mature apps.

Both sessions had solid Q&A sections at the end. People asked real questions about problems they were dealing with. Here's what came up and what we learned. I've also pulled in some context from the presentations themselves because a lot of the answers make more sense with that background.

Why any of this matters

Before getting into the questions, some context.

During the foundations webinar we shared a stat that stuck with me. 65% of app downloads come from organic search. That's six or seven out of every ten installs coming from people actively looking for something in the app store. High intent users who typed in a search term and found you.

We also talked about how users spend about 10 seconds on an app store page before deciding whether to download. Ten seconds. If your listing doesn't grab them immediately, they're gone.

CPI costs on Google, Meta, and TikTok have more than doubled over the last few years. Paid acquisition keeps getting more expensive. Meanwhile, app downloads overall are decreasing. People download fewer apps now, but they spend more time in the ones they keep. So getting the initial download matters more than ever.

This is the backdrop for all the questions people asked. Everyone's trying to figure out how to get more visibility and convert more of those ten-second visits into installs.

The questions everyone was asking

Here we go!

How do you pick an ASO tool and can you trust the data?

This came up early in the Q&A. The answer really depends on what you're trying to do. If you're an investor looking to buy or sell apps, you need market intelligence tools. If you're drowning in reviews and want to respond to users, that's a different platform entirely.

The honest answer is to figure out your goal first. Then look at what the tool specializes in. Not every ASO platform does everything well.

During the main presentation, we talked about the workflow we use. You set up a hypothesis, test it, implement changes, analyze results, then start again. For all of that you need somewhere to track keyword positions, popularity scores, historical data, and stuff like impressions and downloads. You can build this yourself in spreadsheets if you want. Or you can use a platform that already has it set up.

At AppFollow we have Search Visibility score. It counts how many of your keywords are ranking in the top 10 with a popularity score above five. It's one number that tells you if your keyword strategy is working or not. That kind of shortcut is what you're paying for with ASO tools.

My app is stuck at rank 11 or 12 in its category. Now what?

Someone had an app sitting in the same spot for ages and wanted to know what to do. The suggestion was to check if there are stale keywords in the metadata. A lot of apps have keywords that don't really do anything. Low volume, low intent, just taking up space.

Starting a regular update schedule with AB testing and in-app events helps too. Apple and Google notice when apps are actively maintained. That can give you a little algorithmic boost.

Category ranking also gets affected by things outside of ASO. Download velocity from paid campaigns, ratings, reviews. Sometimes getting featured is the move. We've seen apps get two to four million extra impressions in a two week feature window. If you're already close to top 10, extra visibility might push you over.

Getting featured is free traffic from one of the highest converting placements in the app store. The apps tab, search results, category pages. If Apple or Google puts you there, you're suddenly in front of users who weren't even looking for you.

How do you measure in-app events?

This question was about what metrics to track for in-app events. The answer is to keep it simple. In-app events only run for about 30 days. Run one in isolation without other changes, then look at your normal metrics. Keyword rankings, installs, proceeds, category ranking. Compare before and after.

You can also add tracking links to in-app events if you have an MMP (mobile measurement partner) set up. That way you can attribute revenue back to the event. Useful for retail apps pushing promotions. The console also shows first time downloads, app opens, and redownloads, so you can see if it's bringing new users or re-engaging old ones.

There was a case study in the foundations webinar that showed what's possible. We talked about DataCamp, which does online tech and AI training courses. They ran an in-app event around a new ChatGPT course. Over 30 days they saw 80% growth in redownloads, started ranking for 22 new AI related keywords, and had 25% growth in organic revenue.

That's what happens when in-app events work well. You get visibility for new search terms, you bring back users who forgot about you, and the revenue follows.

Apple also actively looks for apps running in-app events when deciding what to feature. So beyond the direct benefits, you're also putting yourself a few steps closer to that free featuring placement.

Does paid advertising help organic growth?

This question came up and the short answer is yes, but indirectly. Paid campaigns increase download velocity, which has a halo effect on visibility and keyword rankings.

The catch is your store listing needs to convert. If you're driving tons of impressions through ads but your listing doesn't match the ad creative, you'll hurt yourself. Custom product pages help here. They let you create landing pages that connect to specific campaigns so the user journey feels consistent.

Organic and paid work in parallel. You can't really separate them.

This came up in the advanced webinar too. One of the main topics was aligning paid and organic strategies. The idea is that ASO affects the whole journey from impression to activation. When someone clicks your ad, they land on your app store page. If that page doesn't match what they saw in the ad, they bounce. So your paid performance depends on your ASO whether you realize it or not.

If I use different keywords in different languages, will I rank globally for all of them?

This was a question about Play Store localization. The answer is no, it doesn't work that simply. You can't just stuff keywords in English, French, Spanish, and German and expect to rank for everything everywhere.

There are cross localization tactics that work on iOS though. The US market indexes keywords from about nine other locales. So if you're not actively optimizing for, say, Vietnam, you can use that listing to target US keywords instead. Yodel calls these "super geos" and they have blog content about it if you want the details.

On Play Store it's more complicated. The algorithm wants proof that your app is relevant to a search term. You need the right keywords in the right places, good descriptions, and download traffic. Google Play is pickier about this stuff.

We also discussed how Google Play has been moving toward natural language processing. The algorithm is getting better at understanding context and relevance rather than just matching exact keywords. This means you have to prove to the algorithm that your app belongs for certain search terms. Including the words isn't enough on its own.

Does the app description affect ASO?

This question came up a few times. On Android, yes. The long description is indexed by Google Play's algorithm. Less than 3% of people actually read it, but it sends signals about what your app does and which search terms it should appear for.

On iOS, the description doesn't get indexed for keywords. You focus on title, subtitle, and backend keywords instead. Though there's speculation Apple might start indexing descriptions soon. For now, promotional text on iOS is about conversion, not keywords.

The bucketing strategy for keywords matters here. You should have branded keywords, generic keywords, seasonal keywords, and competitor keywords. Each bucket needs attention. If you're only optimizing for your brand name, you're missing people who search for generic terms like "money transfer app" or competitor names like "wise" or "western union."

How important is the What's New section?

It matters, but maybe not for the reasons you'd expect. Updating what's new regularly signals to the algorithm that your app is actively maintained. If it hasn't been touched in two years, Apple and Google notice.

It also helps conversion. You can add casual notes about new features or updates. Even small improvements to conversion add up when you're getting hundreds of thousands of impressions.

Some things that came up in the presentations worth knowing

The foundations webinar had a poll asking what people's ASO priority was for 2026. Improving conversion rate came out on top. That lines up with what we see. Most apps have some keyword strategy in place, but the store listing itself doesn't convert well enough.

We showed Strava as an example of good creative. Strong branding with the orange on black that stands out in any mode. Demonstrates the product clearly. Shows the watch integration. Makes the app look easy to use. These things seem obvious but a lot of apps miss them.

There was also discussion about newer features. On iOS, organic custom product pages launched in September 2025. This means you can create different storefronts for different search intents without needing paid campaigns. If someone searches for "travel money transfer" versus "send money to family," they could theoretically land on different versions of your listing.

On Android, you can now have multiple YouTube videos on your store page like a carousel. And there's a cart abandonment reminder feature where Google Play can notify users who dropped out of a purchase mid-flow. The app store is becoming more of a lifecycle touchpoint, not just an acquisition channel.

AI powered review summaries on iOS are worth paying attention to too. Apple automatically generates a summary of what reviewers are saying about your app. If your overall sentiment is negative, that summary shows up front and center to anyone considering downloading. Another reason to care about review management.

Wrapping up

The Q&A sections are honestly my favorite part of these webinars. People bring real problems and we get to give answers instead of generic advice.

What stood out to me across both sessions is that ASO keeps getting more complicated. It used to be about stuffing keywords into your title. Now you're dealing with natural language algorithms, custom product pages, in-app events, cross localization strategies, and AI-generated review summaries. There's a lot to keep track of.

If you missed these sessions and want to catch up, the recordings are available - head back to the intro, the links are there. And if you have ASO questions of your own, reach out to us or the Yodel team. We like talking about this very, very much. Good luck on your endeavors, and may you rank #1, always.

FAQ

What does AppFollow do?

AppFollow is a platform that helps you manage and grow mobile apps. You can track keyword rankings, monitor app performance, reply to user reviews, and analyze competitors. It puts all your ASO data in one place so you're not jumping between the app stores and spreadsheets. We also have consulting services if you want hands on help with optimization.

Can AppFollow help with review management?

Yes. AppFollow lets you track and reply to user reviews across app stores. You can set up alerts for new reviews, filter by rating or sentiment, and respond directly from the platform. For apps with high review volume, this saves a lot of time compared to doing it manually in App Store Connect or Google Play Console. Given how much reviews affect both conversion and those new AI powered summaries on iOS, staying on top of this stuff matters more than it used to.

Does AppFollow track keyword rankings?

It does. You can monitor which keywords your app ranks for, see historical position data, and track popularity scores. The platform also has a search visibility score that shows how many of your keywords are in the top 10 with decent popularity. Useful for measuring whether your ASO efforts are working over time. You can also see what keywords your competitors rank for, which helps with research.

How does AppFollow compare to using App Store Connect and Google Play Console alone?

The consoles give you first party data like impressions, page views, and downloads. AppFollow adds competitive analysis, keyword tracking, and review management tools on top of that. It also creates dashboards that pull everything together so you can see trends without exporting data to spreadsheets. If you're doing ASO seriously, you probably need both. The consoles tell you what happened. AppFollow helps you figure out why and what to do about it.