My App Makes $50K/Month: This Is My ASO Playbook — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Right now, thousands of Vibe Coders are
2. 0:02launching their mobile app, but [music]
3. 0:04most of them are making the exact same
4. 0:06mistake. They ship the app and just hope
5. 0:09that people will find it. But, the truth
6. 0:11is, if your app store listing isn't set
7. 0:13up right, then nobody will ever see it,
8. 0:15no matter how good your app is. To prove
9. 0:19this, I invited Sebastian, a $50,000 per
10. 0:22month iOS app builder, [music]
11. 0:24to break down the exact app store
12. 0:26optimization fundamentals that took his
13. 0:28app from invisible to top two in the app
14. 0:31store. In this video, I had Sebastian
15. 0:33walk through [music] the three
16. 0:34foundations when it comes to doing ASO
17. 0:36[snorts] right. Specifically, what
18. 0:38everyone gets wrong about keywords, a
19. 0:40simple AB test that you can run to up
20. 0:43your conversion rate, and [music] the
21. 0:44single most important thing you need to
22. 0:46do if you want to rank high in the iOS
23. 0:49app store. These are the highest impact
24. 0:51things you can do today, even this
25. 0:52afternoon, if [music] you want to get
26. 0:54thousands of downloads without doing any
27. 0:56marketing at all. If you've launched an
28. 0:58app, you're building one, or you're even
29. 1:00thinking about it, do not skip this
30. 1:02video. This is our ASO masterclass.
31. 1:05Let's dive in. Welcome to Starter Story
32. 1:07Build.
33. 1:09All right, Sebastian, welcome back to
34. 1:11Starter Story. We had you on recently.
35. 1:13You built this awesome app, and you have
36. 1:15some cool things to share today about
37. 1:17how you grew it. But, before we get into
38. 1:19all that, can you just give me an update
39. 1:21about how things are going and what you
40. 1:22built?
41. 1:23>> I'm Sebastian. I build four apps that
42. 1:25together make over $50,000 per month. My
43. 1:28main app is Habit Kit. It's a habit
44. 1:30tracking app for iOS and Android. I also
45. 1:33recently launched a new app called Focus
46. 1:35Kit, which has been great so far. My
47. 1:37apps crossed $500,000 in total revenue
48. 1:41in 2025, and I made over $100,000
49. 1:45in January alone. And today, I'm excited
50. 1:48to share more about my app store
51. 1:49optimization strategy and show you
52. 1:52everything I know. Wow, Sebastian, when
53. 1:54we had you on to the channel, I think it
54. 1:55was maybe eight months ago, you were
55. 1:57doing like $15,000 a month. Now your app
56. 1:59is making $100,000
57. 2:01a month. You did a lot of amazing stuff,
58. 2:03but a lot of this is just being in the
59. 2:04right place at the right time. And I
60. 2:06think the right place to be right now is
61. 2:07the iOS App Store. So, that's what we're
62. 2:09going to talk about today. How to rank
63. 2:11in the App Store. We have a bunch of
64. 2:12stuff to go over today, but can you let
65. 2:14us know like by the end of this video
66. 2:15and all the stuff you're going to share,
67. 2:16what are people going to get from our
68. 2:18conversation? Yeah, by the end of this
69. 2:20video, you will know exactly what I did
70. 2:22to get my app Habit Kit ranking in the
71. 2:25top three on the US App Store for the
72. 2:27keyword Habit Tracker, which is actually
73. 2:30one of the most competitive keywords out
74. 2:32there. Okay, cool. I'm excited about
75. 2:34this. Before we dive in, can you just
76. 2:35give us a high-level of what is ASO and
77. 2:38what does it mean for your business?
78. 2:39Absolutely. ASO stands for App Store
79. 2:41Optimization. Think of it as SEO, but
80. 2:44for mobile apps. When someone opens the
81. 2:47App Store and types, for example, Habit
82. 2:50Tracker or Fitness App, Meditation App,
83. 2:53ASO is actually what determines whether
84. 2:55your app shows up at the top of the
85. 2:57search results or deep down at position
86. 3:0034, where nobody will ever find it.
87. 3:03About 98% of my users find Habit Kit
88. 3:07directly through the App Store, Google
89. 3:08Play. I literally do no marketing at all
90. 3:12besides that. Not from Twitter, not from
91. 3:14Instagram ads. Just people opening the
92. 3:16store. Okay, cool. I mean, this is
93. 3:18amazing. There are hundreds of millions
94. 3:20of people that are browsing the App
95. 3:21Store looking for apps and you've kind
96. 3:23of capitalized on this, where you don't
97. 3:25have to spend money on paid ads, you
98. 3:26don't need to do Twitter marketing, you
99. 3:28don't need to go on TikTok. You just did
100. 3:29a few things and 98% of your customers
101. 3:32came from App Store search. You are the
102. 3:34example of someone who has nailed it
103. 3:36perfectly. So, I wanted to bring you on
104. 3:37to talk about what are the three highest
105. 3:39impact, lowest effort things that you
106. 3:41can do now that anybody who's building
107. 3:43apps could do right now to rank better
108. 3:45in ASO and get thousands of free
109. 3:47customers. The most important thing you
110. 3:49can do is optimizing your
111. 3:52ASO is basically the strategic placement
112. 3:55of keywords in your apps meet metadata.
113. 3:58This is what Apple and Google use to
114. 4:00understand your app and decide when to
115. 4:03show it in search results. The app name
116. 4:05and the subtitle are the most important
117. 4:07ASO factor. Nothing else comes close to
118. 4:10it. Okay, cool. So, what you're saying
119. 4:12is you may want to think about what the
120. 4:14keywords that people are searching for
121. 4:16when you come up with the name. The name
122. 4:18of your app is Habit Kit or it has Habit
123. 4:20in the name, which is kind of genius.
124. 4:21How can someone watching this do the
125. 4:23same? Yeah, so before you actually name
126. 4:25your app, you have to go one step back
127. 4:28and actually do some keyword research
128. 4:30before that. You need to understand the
129. 4:33keyword landscape you're moving in.
130. 4:35[music] What do people actually search
131. 4:37for on the App Store? LLMs like ChatGPT
132. 4:39or Claude can help you with that. It's a
133. 4:42great tool to brainstorm new keywords.
134. 4:44And then you have to validate whether
135. 4:46people actually search for those terms.
136. 4:48I use the tool called
137. 4:51because it's very affordable and it lets
138. 4:54you track unlimited keywords, which is
139. 4:56perfect when you're building a new app.
140. 4:59ASO Tool shows you a popularity score of
141. 5:01your keyword. That means how often do
142. 5:03people search for this keyword. And the
143. 5:06other is the difficulty. How hard is it
144. 5:08to actually rank for the keyword based
145. 5:11on competition. So, the sweet spot is a
146. 5:14high popularity and a manageable
147. 5:16difficulty. But honestly, my advice
148. 5:19would be for your primary keyword,
149. 5:21rather compete for a hard, high-value
150. 5:23keyword than dominate an easy,
151. 5:26low-volume one. After you got that done,
152. 5:28you can finally name your app. The most
153. 5:30important rule, put your primary keyword
154. 5:34in your app name. This is why Habit Kit
155. 5:36is actually called Habit Tracker {dash}
156. 5:39Habit Kit. My brand name is Habit Kit,
157. 5:41of course, but the keyword Habit Tracker
158. 5:44is much more valuable to me. Companies
159. 5:46like Duolingo can afford to put in
160. 5:48seconds because they are such a popular
161. 5:51app, but you as an indie developer can't
162. 5:53really afford it. The other thing, put
163. 5:55your keywords into the subtitle of your
164. 5:58app. Your subtitle gets another 30
165. 6:00characters on the App Store and you can
166. 6:02use these for secondary keywords. For
167. 6:05Habit Kids, my subtitle is streaks and
168. 6:08accountability. Another important rule
169. 6:10is to don't repeat keywords in the name
170. 6:13and the subtitle. Apple sees them as one
171. 6:16combined string for indexing. And the
172. 6:18last part is the keyword field. In App
173. 6:21Store Connect, there's a keyword field
174. 6:23with 100 characters. Users in the App
175. 6:26Store never see this, but Apple indexes
176. 6:29it for search. There's some rules that
177. 6:31you have to follow for this field. You
178. 6:33have to separate keywords with commas,
179. 6:35don't use spaces, don't repeat words
180. 6:38from your name or subtitle, don't use
181. 6:40plurals if you already use singular,
182. 6:43don't include competitor app names.
183. 6:45Apple might reject this. Try to utilize
184. 6:48all 100 characters. I love everything
185. 6:50that Sebastian is sharing right now
186. 6:52about how to actually rank in the App
187. 6:54Store. But, this is just one of many
188. 6:57ways to grow your app. As you guys know,
189. 6:59right here in this channel, I've talked
190. 7:00to dozens of successful mobile app
191. 7:03founders and they've shared a bunch of
192. 7:04different ways to grow your apps in 2026
193. 7:07and beyond. And from all these
194. 7:08conversations, I've decided to put
195. 7:10together the mobile app growth cheat
196. 7:12sheet. It's a free resource to help you
197. 7:14figure out the strategies that real
198. 7:16founders that are making real revenue
199. 7:18are using right now to actually grow
200. 7:20their apps. Inside this guide, you'll
201. 7:22find the seven different tactics broken
202. 7:24down into bite-size lessons to help you
203. 7:26[music] grow your app today. If you're
204. 7:28ready to stop building and start
205. 7:30growing, then head to the link in the
206. 7:31description to download the mobile app
207. 7:33growth cheat sheet for free right now.
208. 7:35All right, let's get back to the
209. 7:36episode. Okay, so, what I love about
210. 7:38these is these are the things that get
211. 7:39right. They don't take a a of time. You
212. 7:40just do it right the first time or at
213. 7:42least if you're building an app now, you
214. 7:44can kind of make some of these quick
215. 7:45changes, and clearly it's working for
216. 7:47you because you're doing a ton of
217. 7:48revenue on the App Store. So, that's
218. 7:49super cool. What is the second
219. 7:50foundation, the second kind of lowest
220. 7:52effort, highest impact thing you can do
221. 7:54to rank high in the iOS App Store?
222. 7:56[music] Okay, now we're getting a little
223. 7:58bit more visual. The second most
224. 8:00important thing about your App Store
225. 8:03listing are screenshots. Screenshots
226. 8:05affect your conversion rate the most.
227. 8:07The brutal truth is, you only have about
228. 8:103 to 5 seconds to convince someone to
229. 8:13download on your App Store listing, and
230. 8:15users are scrolling through your
231. 8:16screenshots like crazy. There are some
232. 8:18strategies that I would follow. The
233. 8:20first one is always put your best and
234. 8:24most visually impressive feature on your
235. 8:27first screenshot. For Habit Kit, I put
236. 8:29grid-based habit view there. It's
237. 8:31unique, it's beautiful, it's colorful,
238. 8:34and it immediately differentiates us
239. 8:37from other habit trackers. Don't put
240. 8:39some generic welcome screen or
241. 8:41onboarding screen there. That wouldn't
242. 8:43make sense. Another rule that I would
243. 8:45follow is show real user interface.
244. 8:48People want to see what they're actually
245. 8:51getting. Don't put too many abstract
246. 8:53graphics or lifestyle photos. They might
247. 8:56look fancy in there, but ultimately,
248. 8:59they don't really help someone
249. 9:02understand your app. Make sure to AB
250. 9:04test different versions. Apple lets you
251. 9:06do this with their product page
252. 9:09optimization feature, and this lets you
253. 9:12test different versions of your app
254. 9:13page. For example, I recently had a
255. 9:16designer create beautiful new
256. 9:18screenshots for Habit Kit, way better
257. 9:20looking than my original self-made ones.
258. 9:22I was sure they would boost conversions
259. 9:25because they looked so much better, but
260. 9:27I did the AB test, and my old, less
261. 9:30polished screenshots actually had a
262. 9:32higher conversion rate. So, the lesson,
263. 9:34don't assume fancy is always better.
264. 9:37Always test and sometimes authentic
265. 9:39beats professional. Yeah, visually
266. 9:42showing the user what they're going to
267. 9:44get, keeping it authentic. I can see how
268. 9:46it's super important, especially if
269. 9:48someone is scrolling through the App
270. 9:49Store and you want to catch their eye.
271. 9:51And if you lose them, you may never get
272. 9:53that install. Thanks for sharing that.
273. 9:55What would be the number three
274. 9:57foundation when it comes to ASO? Last
275. 9:59but not least, we have reviews and
276. 10:01ratings in the App Store for your app.
277. 10:03Gathering those ratings and reviews is
278. 10:07super important. They actually give app
279. 10:10social proof. Ratings boost your search
280. 10:12rankings. Apple and Google heavily
281. 10:14factor ratings into their algorithms and
282. 10:17they also up your conversion rate. Even
283. 10:20if you rank well, poor reviews tank your
284. 10:23downloads. Habit Kids has over 7,400
285. 10:27ratings on iOS with a 4.8 star average
286. 10:31and over 10,000 ratings on Google Play
287. 10:33with 4.6. And this took years to build,
288. 10:37but this is a massive competitive
289. 10:39advantage against newer apps. Yeah, I
290. 10:41was just chatting with my buddy who
291. 10:43launched his first app and he kept
292. 10:45asking me what features do I build? Do I
293. 10:47add a paywall? The first thing I said to
294. 10:49him from a lot of the conversations
295. 10:50we've had on this channel is you need to
296. 10:52get a lot more reviews and you need to
297. 10:54up your star rating. That should be like
298. 10:55your number one thing to focus on right
299. 10:57now because, as you mentioned, more
300. 10:59reviews push your app up, get it more
301. 11:02downloads, which sends more data back to
302. 11:04Apple saying we like this app. So it's
303. 11:07this like virtuous cycle. This is maybe
304. 11:09the biggest thing, I think. How can
305. 11:11someone watching this implement this?
306. 11:13Yeah, getting new reviews is really
307. 11:16hard, but I can tell you what worked for
308. 11:18me. So, timing is everything. Show the
309. 11:21review prompt at a happy moment in the
310. 11:23life cycle of your app. Not during
311. 11:25onboarding, not when something breaks.
312. 11:27For Habit Kids as an example, I show it
313. 11:30right after someone completes their
314. 11:32first habit. They feel accomplished at
315. 11:34this moment and that's when you usually
316. 11:36have to ask for a review. Don't be
317. 11:38annoying. If someone dismisses the
318. 11:41prompt, don't show it again for a while.
319. 11:43Respect your user and his needs.
320. 11:45Definitely respond to every review. I do
321. 11:48this since I started building apps. I
322. 11:51reply to every review. I thank the good
323. 11:54ones. I try to help on the bad ones.
324. 11:57This builds massive trust and people
325. 11:59sometimes update their one-star reviews
326. 12:02to a five-star after you fix their
327. 12:04issue. And I have a email signature
328. 12:07trick. I get a lot of support emails for
329. 12:09Habit Kit and after each reply, I always
330. 12:13add, "Hey, if you're enjoying the app,
331. 12:15I'd be grateful for a review." And in
332. 12:18this moment, the user just got a quick
333. 12:20and kind help from an engaged indie
334. 12:22developer and a gentle ask for review at
335. 12:25this moment often works. And that
336. 12:27amounts to a lot of happy five-star
337. 12:30reviews, actually. My last tip, use
338. 12:32reviews as product insights. If 20
339. 12:35people mention wanting the same features
340. 12:38in your reviews, that's a strong signal.
341. 12:40I've prioritized entire features based
342. 12:43on review patterns. That's amazing. I
343. 12:45mean, that's one of those little things
344. 12:46that I see with a lot of founders who
345. 12:48come on to the channel is the care they
346. 12:50have for every single person that uses
347. 12:52their app, almost the feeling of
348. 12:54gratitude. Hey, you're using this thing
349. 12:55that I built and I hope it works for you
350. 12:57and I'll do whatever it takes to try to
351. 12:58fix your issues. This is usually what I
352. 13:00see in founders like you who are
353. 13:02crushing it. Thank you for coming on and
354. 13:03sharing these three foundations. This is
355. 13:06the real stuff here. Last question that
356. 13:07I ask every founder who comes on, if you
357. 13:09could go back in time to just starting
358. 13:11your app, hoping to one day be at this
359. 13:13place that you're at, what advice would
360. 13:15you have for app builders who want to
361. 13:17follow in your footsteps?
362. 13:18>> So, one piece of advice I would wish
363. 13:20someone had given me at the start of my
364. 13:23journey is give it time. ASO is not a
365. 13:26quick win. It's a long game. When I
366. 13:28launched Habit Kit in November 2022, I
367. 13:31was invisible on the App Store. I'd
368. 13:34search for Habit Tracker and scroll
369. 13:36through pages without finding my app. I
370. 13:39was doing all the right things. I did my
371. 13:41keyword research. I made cool-looking
372. 13:43screenshots. I was collecting reviews,
373. 13:46but I [music] wasn't ranking. But, I
374. 13:48kept going. I kept shipping updates. I
375. 13:51improved the app, and very slowly things
376. 13:54started to shift. After about 6 months,
377. 13:56I cracked the top 10 in some non-US
378. 13:59markets like the UK and Germany. That
379. 14:01was pretty encouraging and big for me.
380. 14:04After about a year, I started appearing
381. 14:06in the top 10 in the US occasionally,
382. 14:09not consistently, but I was there.
383. 14:10[music] And after nearly 3 years, I'm
384. 14:13now consistently in the top five. Yeah,
385. 14:15so ultimately, success in the App Store
386. 14:18is a marathon, not a sprint. Okay, cool.
387. 14:20So, one thing that I love about ASO is
388. 14:23that the actions that you take today,
389. 14:25you may not see the results for many,
390. 14:27many months. So, stick with it, focus on
391. 14:29the principles. Thanks for coming on and
392. 14:30sharing all this, Sebastian. Congrats
393. 14:32[music] on all your success. Thank you
394. 14:34very much for having me.