Fixing Your ASO to Compete Like the Biggest Apps

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Kicking Off the Live ASO Teardown

Ariel welcomes everyone to a brand new live ASO teardown, something that hasn't happened in about a month. It's been a busy time: Ariel keynoted at a conference, shipped a bunch of product work, and is now back on camera looking at your apps and figuring out how to make them better.

Even if your app wasn't picked, you can still learn from every app reviewed in this session—that’s the main goal.

Ariel keeps the usual live tradition: sharing what's in the cup and where everyone is tuning in from. Today it's Earl Grey tea in a brand new Appfigures mug with the new logo, broadcasting from a rainy, wintry New York City.

There are 10 apps lined up for review. Ariel isn’t sure all 10 will fit into this session but will try. There’s some live mic-adjusting and on-the-fly audio engineering as viewers report low volume, but once the microphone is fixed and everyone has reported their tea, coffee, and water, it's time to dive in.

Swag, Magnets, and How to Get One

Ariel shares a fun item from the recent conference: fridge magnets with the Appfigures logo. They were shown on X (Twitter), and people loved them and asked how to get one.

There are two versions:

• Orange on the outside
• White on the outside

To get a chance to receive a magnet by mail (no need to be an Appfigures member):

1. Subscribe to the YouTube channel
2. Like the video
3. Leave a comment (not a live chat message) with your favorite color: orange or white

Later in the video Ariel plans to reveal a personal favorite but doesn’t want to bias anyone up front. A handful of winners will be picked at random from the comments, depending on how many magnets are left from the conference.

The Big Apple Popularity Score Question

Before jumping into the apps, Ariel tackles a question from Philip about Apple’s popularity scores suddenly dropping to 5 for many keywords. No one seems sure whether it’s a bug or an intentional change.

Ariel explains the context:

• About a year ago, Apple made under-the-hood changes to how it reports popularity scores.
• There are two popularity scores:
  • One contextual
  • One generalized
• Apple flipped them about a year ago. Appfigures waited, confirmed the behavior was consistent, and then switched their internals accordingly.
• About 1–2 weeks ago, Apple appears to have flipped them back.

Ariel’s interpretation (clearly labeled as speculation):

• This may not be an intentional product change by Apple.
• It might have been triggered by clearing some internal cache, causing certain keywords to drop to popularity 5.
• Over the last few days, many (though not all) affected keywords have been returning to their prior popularity levels or something similar.
• Appfigures is counting how many keywords went to 5 and then returned, and that count keeps going up.
• Ariel suspects “something bad happened” at Apple and they’re in the process of undoing it.
• Popularity calculations likely run in the background and maybe not as frequently for less-popular keywords, which might explain why some are still stuck at 5.

Ariel’s guidance for now:

• Treat this as a temporary glitch rather than a permanent reality.
• If a keyword was clearly popular a week or two ago, it probably still is; the numbers should correct.
• Expect a clearer picture within a few more days to about a week.
• Appfigures will put out an announcement once they’re confident about what’s actually happening.

In short: hang tight and don’t overreact to the temporary 5s.

Who Ariel Is and What This Session Is About

For anyone new to the stream, Ariel introduces himself:

• Ariel runs Appfigures.
• Appfigures focuses on app intelligence and app store optimization (ASO).
• They track millions of apps across the stores.
• Ariel writes about apps, ASO, and Apple Search Ads (and various ways to get more users).

There’s also a teaser for the next live stream:

• Ariel will host an expert on Meta ads (Facebook/Instagram) to talk about doing them correctly—how not to just burn money.
• Viewers are encouraged to subscribe to catch that session.

For today, the goal is to:

• Look at apps submitted by the audience.
• Highlight what’s going well and what’s not.
• Show what can be improved.
• Call out both big mistakes and really good examples others can learn from.

Core ASO Concepts Ariel Will Use Repeatedly

Before diving into specific apps, Ariel lays out the foundational concepts that repeatedly show up in the teardowns:

1. The Algorithm Reads Left to Right

   • In left-to-right languages (like English) Apple’s algorithm gives more weight to words near the beginning of your title and subtitle.
   • In right-to-left languages, it effectively reads in the appropriate direction for that language.
   • This means the further right a keyword sits, the less value it tends to get.

2. Don’t Overload the Title and Subtitle

   • Stuffing the title and subtitle with too many distinct keywords confuses the algorithm.
   • Instead of channeling ranking power into a few key terms, Apple spreads it thin across many.

3. Ratings Are the Currency of ASO

   • The number of new ratings an app gets is a huge driver of how strongly it can rank.
   • Big apps that get thousands of new ratings per month can successfully target more (and more competitive) keywords.
   • Small apps must be more selective.

4. Target Realistic Keywords (Opportunities)

   • Focus on keywords where top apps aren’t directly optimizing (e.g., not using them in the visible title).
   • That’s where small apps can slip into the top 10 or top 5 with fewer ratings.

5. Use Keyword Inspector (Appfigures Tool)

   • Ariel repeatedly uses Keyword Inspector to:
     • Check keyword popularity
     • See who ranks for those keywords
     • Inspect competitors’ keywords
     • Find realistic “opportunity” keywords

6. Screenshots Now Matter for Indexing

   • Apple uses AI/OCR to read text in screenshots.
   • Repeated keywords in screenshots can strengthen your indexation.
   • Screenshots should reinforce your metadata, not extend it with totally new keyword concepts.

7. Descriptions on iOS Don’t Matter for ASO (So Far)

   • Ariel hasn’t seen evidence that Apple uses the long description for ranking, unlike Google.
   • There are rumors this is changing, but Ariel doesn’t trust them yet without data.

These principles guide every teardown that follows.

App 1: FLAC, MP3 Player, Offline Music

Title/Subtitles Example:

FLAC, MP3 player, offline music, song playlist, play audio files

Ariel’s first impression:

• The app appears to be an offline music player.
• Competes with what users can already do with Apple Music and Spotify, which is tough.
• The app name is stuffed with keywords: FLAC, MP3, player, offline, music, song, playlist, play, audio, files.

Problem: Too Many Keywords in the Title

Ariel explains why this is bad:

• The algorithm tries to figure out what your app is about from your title + subtitle.
• If you give it 10 competing concepts, it spreads ranking power across all of them:
  • song
  • playlist
  • play
  • music
  • offline
  • player
  • MP3
  • audio
  • files
  • FLAC
• The result: you rarely rank strongly for any one thing.

Ariel compares it to a competitor focusing on “offline music player” in a very clean title:

• That competitor:
  • Contains only offline, music, and player in the name.
  • Has a focused message.
  • Has many more ratings.
  • Ranks #1 for offline music.

Given Apple’s left-to-right weighting, this app’s title is especially weak because:

• The algorithm sees FLAC first, then MP3, then player…
• offline music appears much later in the string, so it’s diluted.

Ratings Situation

• This app has only 2 ratings.
• Competing apps have hundreds or thousands.
• With so few new ratings, even a perfect keyword setup won’t make the app outrank large competitors for highly competitive terms.

What To Do With Low Ratings

Ariel outlines two main strategies:

1. Get More Ratings

   • Use paid ads (Apple Search Ads, Meta, Google, etc.) to bring in users.
   • Ensure your ratings prompt is optimized:
     • Don’t show it in the first second.
     • Show it after a user successfully completes a meaningful action.
   • More users → more opportunities to prompt → more ratings.
   • More ratings = more organic visibility over time, so you can later reduce ad spend.

2. Target Easier Keywords (Opportunities)

   • Instead of going after offline music (very competitive), look for related phrases where top apps aren’t directly targeting the keyword.
   • Example Ariel finds using Keyword Inspector:
     • music offline player / music offline–type keywords
     • He discovers keywords around “music offline player” with lower popularity (e.g., 25) where:
       • Some top results have the phrase only indirectly in their names.
       • One app with just 1 new rating ranks top 5 because it has the keyword in its title.
   • That’s the kind of keyword this app should target.

Using Keyword Inspector

Ariel demonstrates a workflow:

• Take the top 3–5 competitors in a space (e.g., for offline music).
• Plug them into Keyword Inspector.
• View all the keywords those apps rank for.
• Sort/search through the list looking for:
  • Popularity that’s not too low and not insanely high.
  • Top apps that don’t have the target phrase in their visible name.
• Those are the opportunity keywords to aim at.

Screenshots and Apple’s OCR

Ariel reminds that Apple reads the text in screenshots:

• The app already has “offline music player” visible in one screenshot, which is good.
• However, repetition matters:
  • Ideally, offline music player appears in the first three screenshots.
  • That reinforces to Apple that the app is about offline music.

Summary for This App

Key actions Ariel recommends:

• Greatly simplify the app’s title and subtitle.
• Focus on one primary concept (e.g., offline music player) and maybe 1–2 supporting ones.
• Use Keyword Inspector to find lower-popularity but realistic opportunities like music offline player.
• Work on getting more ratings via optimized prompts and possibly ads.
• Reinforce main keywords in the first screenshots.

App 2: Health Widget – Steps, O2, and More

Title:

Health widget – my fit widget, walking count, and blood oxygen

Ariel’s first read:

• It’s clearly a health-related widget app, likely making Apple Health data simpler or nicer to view.
• Widgets had a big moment a few years back; Apple still tends to favor apps that integrate tightly with the Apple ecosystem.

Checking Keyword Popularity

Ariel checks health widget:

• Popularity shows as 5.
• He believes that: it’s not a phrase most users type into the search bar.
• Most people with Apple Watches already get health functionality through Apple’s Health app.
• A third-party health widget might be appealing, but users probably search more by use-case (steps, pedometer, blood oxygen) rather than “health widget.”

He also checks health alone:

• Popularity is 60+.
• Highly competitive.
• Top apps have big ratings counts and broad health functionality, so targeting health generically is unrealistic for this app.

Understand the Real User Intent

Ariel looks at the screenshots and metadata and recognizes a focus on steps and activity (walking count, steps, blood oxygen with Apple Watch, etc.).

Instead of aiming for vague concepts like health widget, the app should target search intents like:

• step counter
• step tracker
• pedometer

Finding Opportunities: Step-Related Keywords

Ariel experiments in Keyword Inspector:

• step counter:
  • Popularity: 59.
  • Very competitive.
  • Apps ranking top have lots of ratings; not a good starting point.
• He then uses the “Top 10” feature in Keyword Inspector to pull in the top 5 apps for that keyword and inspect their keyword coverage.
• By scanning their keywords (searching for step variants), he finds terms like:
  • step tracker
  • step track

He zeroes in on step tracker:

• Popularity around 49.
• Top apps have many ratings but aren’t necessarily using the exact phrase step tracker in their titles.
• That makes step tracker a potential opportunity for this health widget app.

If the health widget app can:

• Put step tracker (or similar) prominently in the title.
• Use widget as a supporting concept (e.g., “Step Tracker Widget”).

…then it stands a better chance at ranking for a keyword that has real user demand.

Ratings and Reality Check

Ariel opens the Appfigures ratings chart:

• The app has about 509 reviews total, with about ~60 in March (worldwide).
• That’s decent, but not enough to compete on the highest-competition keywords.

So the realistic strategy remains:

• Find subtler variants of popular terms that aren’t directly targeted by giant apps.

Screenshots and Positioning Against Apple Health

The screenshots show:

• Steps information is highlighted, especially in the first screenshot.

Ariel’s suggestion:

• Emphasize why this app is better than Apple Health’s built-in interface:
  • Cleaner visuals
  • Easier access
  • Better widgets
• Don’t explicitly say “better than Apple Health,” but:
  • Show the differences visually.
  • Highlight unique advantages (fewer taps, nicer overview, combined metrics, etc.).

Also, just like before, make sure the keywords you want to rank for (e.g., step tracker, steps, widget) appear in the first few screenshots.

Audience Q&A: Difficulty, Indexing, and Ratings

Ariel pauses to take live questions from the chat. Here are the main topics and answers.

Q: What Difficulty Score Should an Indie Aim For?

Question from Sigar: In Appfigures’ difficulty score, what level should an indie dev (relying only on organic content and weekly app updates) aim to stay under?

Ariel’s answer:

• Don’t treat difficulty as a hard cutoff number.
• Difficulty is contextual to the keyword and the current top results.
• A keyword might look very competitive, but if most competitors aren’t optimizing their visible metadata for it, there can still be an opportunity.
• Always look at:
  • Difficulty and popularity
  • Whether top apps use the keyword in their title/subtitle
  • How many new ratings they get compared to you

Appfigures plans to introduce more metrics to make this simpler, but for now, it’s a contextual decision, not a fixed threshold.

Q: Do Metadata Changes Hurt Impressions Temporarily?

Question from Rishi: Do changes to metadata (title, subtitle, keyword list) trigger a re-index that reduces impressions for a few weeks?

Ariel’s answer:

• Every update does trigger re-indexing, but in practice:
  • The system builds on your past history rather than resetting it entirely.
  • Ariel often sees positive changes quickly (within hours) when metadata is improved.
• When a new keyword is introduced, Apple quickly tests it.
  • You might see jumps of 50–100 spots in rankings in a few hours for lower-ranked keywords.
• If impressions go down after a metadata change, it usually means:
  • The new metadata is worse or confusing for the algorithm.

Advice:

• Avoid constant, rapid-fire changes.
• When making changes, give them time to settle (about 2 weeks on iOS, 3–4 weeks on Google Play).
• If a change clearly hurts performance (and it’s obvious why), revert it.

Q: Downloads per Rating by Version?

Question: Is there a way in Appfigures to track downloads per rating by app version?

Ariel’s answer:

• Not by version directly.
• But you can:
  • Track downloads and ratings over time.
  • Overlay version release events on charts.
  • Infer patterns around each version’s release window.

Q: Best Ad Channel for Farming Ratings: Apple, Meta, or Google?

Question from Leonora: To farm ratings, is it better to run ads on Apple Search Ads, Meta, Google, or something else?

Ariel’s answer:

• It depends on user intent and your app type.

• Use Apple Search Ads when:

  • Users already know what they’re searching for (e.g., “offline music player,” “step tracker”).
  • They’re actively in the App Store looking for solutions.

• Use Meta/Google/etc. when:

  • Users might not know they need the app yet.
  • You’re creating demand, not fulfilling explicit search intent.

In all cases, ratings come from how you handle users inside the app:

• Onboarding
• Engagement
• Timing and placement of the ratings prompt

No ad channel guarantees ratings; the key is optimizing the in-app experience and prompts so that acquired users are likely to rate.

Q: Does Putting the App Name First Still Matter?

Someone mentions seeing a post on X (Twitter) claiming that putting the app’s brand name first in the title doesn’t matter anymore.

Ariel’s response:

• Ariel strongly disagrees.
• Based on Appfigures’ data and years of observing Apple’s ranking behavior, left-to-right keyword weighting still matters.
• Putting your brand name first does eat into the space where the algorithm gives the most weight.

Ariel also uses this as an occasion to rant a bit about X:

• There’s a lot of misleading or completely baseless info on X.
• People often post supposed revenue or download numbers that don’t match reality at all.
• Appfigures’ intelligence (trusted by banks, investors, and many developers) often shows numbers off by an order of magnitude from what people brag about online.

The takeaway:

• Don’t blindly trust claims on X.
• Don’t blindly trust anyone, including Ariel—test things.
• A great way to test: use secondary localizations (extra App Store languages available in the US index) to experiment without touching your main English metadata.

Q: Keyword Density in Google Play Descriptions

Question from Sigar: For Google Play, what keyword density should we target in the long description (2–3% for important ones)?

Ariel’s answer:

• Around 2–3% can be okay in general, but it depends on context.
• Too many keywords at 2–3% each can look like spam.
• Too few repetitions, and Google might ignore important terms.

Appfigures has a Keyword Density tool (free):

• Paste or load your Google Play long description.
• It analyses density per keyword.
• It flags keywords that appear too many or too few times.
• Use that instead of just aiming at a raw percentage.

Q: Ideal Time Between Metadata Changes

Rishi shares specifics of changing an app’s name and keywords on these dates:

• 28th
• 1st
• 7th

And then seeing impressions drop.

Ariel’s assessment:

• That’s too many changes, too quickly.
• Apple needs time to:
  • Index your changed metadata.
  • Test whether users respond to new keywords.
• Rapid changes can make it look like nothing is stabilizing.

Guidance:

• Give a metadata change at least 2 weeks on iOS to judge.
• For Google Play, allow 3–4 weeks.
• Expect short-term volatility as Apple “tests” new keywords.

App 3: Minglify – Video Dating / Video Chat

Visible name string:

Video dating, video chat, chat, cam surf, talk to girls

And the actual brand appears to be Minglify, though it’s not visible in the App Store name field in this capture.

Immediate Issues

1. No Clear App Name in the Title

   • The displayed title string has no clear brand.
   • Users can’t easily tell their friends “Hey, I’m using [app name]” because there’s no simple, prominent name.
   • This is bad both for word-of-mouth and brand recognition.

2. Keyword Stuffing Again

   • The title is overloaded: video dating, video chat, chat, cam, surf, talk to girls.
   • The algorithm gets confused and dilutes ranking power.

3. Super Competitive Space

   • Dating is an extremely competitive vertical.
   • Big players: Tinder and a portfolio of other large dating brands.
   • Even Tinder is not necessarily #1 for the head term dating, despite being one of the highest-earning apps globally.

Strategy Problem: Generic Dating vs. Niche

• The app appears to be a generic video-based dating platform (visual branding reminiscent of TikTok for dating).
• Generic, non-niche dating apps are incredibly hard to grow via ASO alone.
• Ariel recommends niching down:
  • Focus on a specific demographic, style, or use-case.
  • That opens the door to more niche keywords with less competition.

Checking Keywords

Ariel examines:

• video dating:

  • Popularity: 16.
  • Some competition, but not extreme.
  • Ariel thinks the app could rank higher here if it cleaned up metadata.

• video chat:

  • Popularity: 44.
  • Much more competitive.

Right now, the app is trying to be about:

• Video dating
• Video chat
• Flirting
• Talking to girls

…all in the same title. Ariel suggests:

• Pick one primary concept to focus on (e.g., video dating or video chat), not everything at once.
• Use the brand name and one strong keyword in the title, then expand in the subtitle.

Screenshots and Video

Positive notes:

• The app features a video preview, which Ariel believes likely helps conversion.
• Screenshots contain meaningful text that repeats important keywords, which helps indexing.

But the core problem remains:

• The niche is too broad.
• The metadata is too stuffed.

Ariel’s advice:

• Give the app a clear brand name in the visible title.
• Focus on one main keyword in the title.
• Niche the product itself to stand a real chance in the dating category.

App 4: PDF Converter / Scanner

Title snippet:

Convert to PDF photos, snap scan, JPEG converter, scan documents

Ariel’s reaction:

• This looks like a PDF scanner and converter app.
• The title once again reads like a raw keyword list, not a human-friendly name.

Title Issues

• It mixes multiple intents:
  • Converting photos to PDF
  • Scanning documents to PDF
  • JPEG conversion
• It doesn’t clearly communicate what the user should care about most.

Icon and Positioning

• The icon looks very generic, easily lost among dozens of similar PDF scanner icons.
• Ariel suggests better positioning:
  • Decide if the core focus is document scanning or photo-to-PDF.
  • Build the title and icon around that main value.

Keyword Research: PDF Scanner vs. Scan to PDF

Ariel checks:

• PDF scanner:

  • Popularity: 63.
  • Extremely competitive.
  • Many apps with nearly identical icons.

• scan to PDF:

  • Popularity: 57.
  • High, but top results show a slight opening:
    • Many apps target scanner more explicitly.

Ariel notes:

• There’s an app with only 9 ratings ranking in a strong position for a 57-popularity keyword.
• That reveals a true opportunity: a high-popularity keyword where top apps haven’t perfectly optimized their metadata.

Strategy for This App

• Don’t try to dominate PDF scanner immediately.
• Instead:
  • Aim for scan to PDF or similar variants.
  • Put that exact phrase prominently in the title.

Screenshots: Good for ASO, Weak for Conversion

The screenshots do:

• Repeat the main concepts such as:
  • convert to PDF
  • PDF converter and scanner
  • image converter
  • photos to PDF converter
• That’s good for indexing.

But from a user perspective:

• It reads like another keyword list.
• There’s little explanation of why someone should choose this app:
  • Is it faster?
  • Has better image quality?
  • Easy sharing?
  • Batch scanning?

Ariel recommends:

• Keep the keyword reinforcement, but also:
  • Explain the benefits clearly.
  • Show real usage scenarios.
  • Show why converting to PDF with this app is useful and effortless.

App 5: Cat Allergy Buddy – AI Tracker

Title snippet:

Cat allergy, go away – cat allergy buddy AI tracker

Ariel identifies two big issues here.

1. Claiming “#1” Without Proof

The first screenshot claims something like:

#1 cat allergy management app

Ariel’s reaction:

• With 1 rating at 5 stars, this is not credible.
• Users have a visceral aversion to obviously false “#1” claims.
• It feels like the New York storefront problem where everything is “Best in NYC” regardless of reality.

Advice:

• Don’t make bold claims that aren’t clearly justified.
• Instead of saying “#1,” consider:
  • Using a real user review as social proof.
  • Quoting an award or press mention if you have one.
  • Or simply focus on describing what the app does and how it helps.

2. Adding “AI” to Everything

The visible title includes “AI tracker”.

Ariel’s concern:

• Slapping “AI” into the name puts the app into irrelevant competition:
  • Eg. with AI calorie trackers and other random AI tracker apps.
• Apple starts associating AI + tracker with unrelated popular apps, like Calory (or similar), and that doesn’t help a cat allergy app.

He checks AI tracker and sees:

• Popularity around 5.
• Top results are calorie or fitness-related trackers.

So, the cat allergy app is:

• Competing in a space it doesn’t belong in.
• Not clearly conveying its primary function to the algorithm.

Real Problem: Targeting the Wrong Intent

Ariel tries cat allergy:

• Popularity: 5.
• The app is #1 for cat allergy with just 1 rating.
• If that’s popularity 5, it means almost nobody types this into search.

So effectively all of these words:

• cat allergy
• buddy
• AI
• tracker

…are either too niche, too generic, or misaligned with what users actually search for.

What Should This App Target?

Ariel doesn’t know the cat allergy niche deeply, so he turns it back to the developer:

• Why did you build the app?
• What problem does it solve?
• What specific pain point does it track or manage?

He suggests identifying:

• Whether the core value is:
  • Symptom tracking
  • Exposure logging
  • Food tracking
  • Vet/care logs
  • Something else
• Then deriving keywords from that main value, not from “AI tracker.”

Once that’s clear:

• Search for those real-world phrases in Keyword Inspector.
• Find ones with popularity > 5 or > 10.
• Look for opportunity keywords where top results aren’t explicitly targeting them.

More Q&A: Countries, Competition, and Repetition

Ariel returns to more chat questions.

Q: Should I Focus Ads on One Country to Get Ratings?

Leonardo asks whether it’s better to focus ads on a single country to get ratings, or spread across multiple countries.

Ariel’s answer:

• For Apple, ratings are per country.
• That’s why Keyword Inspector shows ratings per country.
• Downloads and revenues in these tools are also country-specific.

Practical takeaway:

• It’s better to focus on one country at a time for ASO and ratings growth.
• If you want to target multiple countries, treat each individually and strategize per country.

Q: High Difficulty but Competitors Aren’t Targeting the Keyword. Worth It?

Leonardo also asks: If the competitiveness score is high but competitors are not using the keyword in their visible metadata, is it still viable to target that keyword?

Ariel’s answer:

• Yes, absolutely.
• Visible metadata (especially the title) is the strongest signal.
• Even if competitors use the keyword in their hidden keyword list, you can gain an edge by using it in your title/subtitle.
• Just keep in mind:
  • If competitors have vastly more ratings, it can still be challenging.

Q: Can Repetition Hurt Rankings?

Question from “Blood”: Can repeating keywords hurt rankings? For example, if the title has car tracker, and the keyword field also has audio car tracker, does that hurt if the goal is to focus on a few keywords?

Ariel’s answer:

• Repetition in the keyword list and title/subtitle isn’t useful.
• You don’t get extra benefit from repeating the same word across visible and hidden fields.
• Over-repetition can look spammy and wastes space you could use for other words.

Where repetition does help:

• Screenshots: Repeating main keywords in screenshot text now matters because Apple reads them.
• There, repetition helps reinforce what your app is about.

App 6: Mommy – Postpartum Support for Moms

Title snippet:

Mommy postpartum – postpartum depression, mood and sleep tracker for moms

Ariel’s take:

• The title is somewhat long but more focused than some others.
• It clearly tries to address postpartum depression, mood tracking, and sleep tracking for moms.

Title Ordering

• Ariel recommends moving Mommy (the brand) to the end of the title.
• Users aren’t likely searching for Mommy as a keyword.
• The algorithm gives maximum weight to the first words, so it should start with the terms that matter most:
  • e.g., Postpartum depression & mood tracker for moms – Mommy.

Popularity Check

• postpartum depression shows popularity 5.
• Ariel suspects that’s either accurate (low search volume) or impacted by Apple’s current popularity bug.
• In any case, there aren’t many apps directly targeting it.

Problem: Keywords Either Too Generic or Too Specific

Similar to the cat allergy app, this app may be targeting keywords that are:

• Too generic: mood, depression on their own are hyper-competitive.
• Too specific: sleep tracker for moms is so long and niche that few users type it exactly.

Ariel suggests:

• Identify the core job-to-be-done:
  • Is it mood tracking specifically for postpartum?
  • Is it sleep tracking for new mothers?
  • Is it mental health daily check-ins?
• Derive search terms that users might actually type, such as:
  • postpartum support
  • postpartum tracker
  • new mom sleep

Then:

• Use Keyword Inspector to see if there’s any popularity above 5 or 10.
• Look for variants where big mental health apps aren’t clearly targeting the postpartum angle.

Screenshots and “#1 App for Moms” Claim

Ariel notices a first screenshot claiming:

The number one app for moms

His reaction is similar to the cat allergy app:

• Without thousands of ratings or a clear citation, this claim feels unearned.
• Users see it and think, “Who decided that?”

A better approach:

• Remove the “#1” claim.
• Use actual social proof:
  • Real user quotes.
  • Star ratings + review counts.
  • A specific accolade if it exists.

The rest of the screenshots:

• Are keyword-rich and focused on:
  • Mood tracking
  • Sleep tracking
  • For moms

This is good for Apple’s OCR.

Main improvement areas:

• Better focus on real search terms moms might use.
• Stronger, more honest social proof.

App 7: AI Game Master – Dungeon RPG Text Adventure

Title snippet:

AI Game Master – dungeon RPG role playing text adventure

This is a game app with a decent number of ratings.

Ariel’s reaction:

• This is an interesting niche: AI-powered dungeon-crawler / text RPG.
• Ariel has actually looked for apps like this before—AI-driven D&D-style experiences seem like an obvious idea.

Keyword Check

Ariel looks at dungeon RPG:

• Popularity: 17.
• Not huge, but there is some demand.
• The app is not ranking #1 despite having a good number of ratings.

Ariel suspects:

• Keyword placement may be suboptimal (e.g., maybe dungeon RPG is not close to the beginning of the title).
• There could also be an App Store bug if the title uses exactly 30 characters with certain symbols; Ariel mentions a known issue where Apple drops the last character of those titles.

Ratings

He checks ratings in Appfigures:

• In the U.S., the app has about 250 ratings.
• That’s enough to compete in a niche like AI-driven RPGs, if metadata and screenshots are tuned.

Screenshots and Messaging

The app mentions being powered by GPT-4 in the screenshots.

Ariel’s view:

• GPT-4 is impressive but already feels dated as a marketing bullet.
• There are now models (like Claude) that can be better than GPT-4 or even GPT-5 at certain writing tasks.
• Users likely care more about experience quality than the model brand name.

He suggests focusing on:

• The value to players:
  • Infinite quests?
  • Personalized campaigns?
  • Co-op with friends?
  • Rich storytelling?
• Clear, benefit-driven text in the first screenshots.

Ariel notes this app would require more time to fully analyze. He invites the developer (and some others) to request a standalone video if they want a deeper dive:

• If you own this app (or some others he mentions), comment after the stream and Ariel can consider a dedicated teardown.

Closing Notes and Upcoming Content

As time runs out, Ariel wraps up:

• There are many more questions in the chat; Ariel will try to read and respond to some in the comments later, schedule permitting.
• Reminder about the magnet giveaway:
  • Subscribe to the channel.
  • Like the video.
  • Leave a comment with your preferred color: orange or white.
• Upcoming live streams:
  • A session with a Meta ads expert explaining how to run ads effectively and not waste budget.
  • Two more live streams focusing on app intelligence.

For ongoing questions or help:

• Find Ariel on X (Twitter) or LinkedIn.
• Many viewers also have Ariel’s email from the newsletter.
• Ariel encourages subscribing to the Appfigures newsletter for more ongoing insights.

Ariel signs off by reminding viewers:

• You now know the core ASO patterns:
  • Don’t stuff titles.
  • Respect left-to-right weighting.
  • Chase realistic opportunity keywords.
  • Get more ratings.
  • Use screenshots both to convert users and to reinforce your core keywords.
• If you need anything else, you know where to find him.

And with that, Ariel closes the live ASO teardown and promises to see everyone in the next one.

✨ This transcript was generated and enhanced by AI and may differ from the original video.