ASO Metrics Worth Checking Each Week
Check impressions, product page views, conversion, ratings, and the search terms you actually rank for. Leave the forty-metric dashboard alone.
Quick answer
Which ASO metrics should you check each week?
Check five things: impressions, product page views, conversion rate, ratings, and the search terms you actually rank for once Analytics has data. Apple defines conversion rate as total downloads and pre-orders divided by unique device impressions. A pre-order counts then, and not again when the app downloads. Skip a forty-metric dashboard. One shipped app needs a weekly note you can compare, not a new chart every Monday.
On this page
ASO metrics worth a weekly look are a short list. Impressions tell you the listing was seen. Product page views tell you someone went further. Conversion rate tells you how often that attention became a download or a pre-order. Ratings tell you what installers left behind. Search terms tell you which queries you actually show up for, once App Store Connect has data. Everything else can wait.
Apple publishes the definitions in App Store Connect metric definitions . How to read the acquisition screens is a separate walkthrough. So is conversion rate as a page-level topic. Play’s listing math is not the same fraction. Use Google Play listing conversion when you are in Play Console, not this Apple definition.
Impressions are a view that lasted long enough
Apple’s impressions metric is the number of times your app was viewed on the Today, Games, Apps, and Search tabs for more than one second. It includes product page views. Unique-device impressions are the companion count: unique devices that had that view. Conversion uses the unique-device figure in the denominator, not a casual glance you invent in a spreadsheet.
A week with more impressions and the same conversion is a distribution change. A week with fewer impressions after you renamed the app is a discovery change. Write one sentence about what you changed. Without that sentence, the number is a mood. Do not average impressions across a year and call it a weekly check.
Product page views are the middle step
Product page views are the number of times your App Store product page was viewed, including when another app loads your page with StoreKit. There is also a unique-device version. If impressions rise and product page views do not, people are seeing the row and not opening it. The icon, the name, the subtitle, and the first screenshots are the things in that row.
If they open the page and do not download, the page itself is the suspect: later screenshots, the description, ratings, or a price they did not expect. Those are different fixes. The weekly habit is to notice which step dropped, not to refresh ten charts until one of them looks dramatic.
Conversion rate, in Apple’s words
Use the Analytics number. Do not divide all-time downloads by last week’s impressions. Do not drop pre-orders because they feel unfinished. Apple’s definition already decided that a pre-order is a conversion and that the later download is not a second one. If you are not on pre-order, the numerator is still downloads, and the denominator is still unique device impressions.
A low rate with tiny impressions is noise. Do not rebuild the entire listing off a dozen views. A low rate with a steady impression count is a page problem. Change one thing, usually the first screenshots or the subtitle, and look again next week. Changing the icon, the price, and the screenshots in the same week makes the metric unreadable.
Ratings, and the terms you rank for
Check the rating and the new written reviews, not a composite you invented. You are looking for a bug, a broken promise, or a paywall surprise that the screenshots created. Respond if you can fix the issue. Do not buy ratings, trade reviews, or ask a group chat to flood the page. Those are not metrics. They are ways to lose the account.
Once Analytics has search data, write down the terms you actually appear for, not the terms you wish you had put in the keyword field. If a term you care about is missing, that is a keyword job for a later edit. If a term you rank for brings impressions and a poor conversion, the page does not match that query. Fix the match before you add more terms.
Worked example: one shipped indie app
You have one app, live for a few months, and an hour on Monday. Open Analytics for the last seven days and copy five lines into a note: impressions, product page views, conversion rate, the current rating with how many new ratings arrived, and up to five search terms that actually showed. Add one line for what you shipped last week, even if it was nothing.
Compare to the previous Monday, not to a template from a larger company. If conversion fell after a screenshot swap, the swap is the hypothesis. If impressions fell and you changed nothing, look at seasonality later, not at forty extra ratios. Play Console, if you are also on Android, gets its own five-line note. Do not average the stores together.
| Line | What you copy | What a change usually means |
|---|---|---|
| Impressions | Views over one second on Today, Apps, Games, Search | The row was seen more or less often |
| Product page views | Times the product page opened | People did or did not tap through |
| Conversion rate | Downloads and pre-orders ÷ unique device impressions | The page did or did not earn the install |
| Ratings | Score and the new reviews | The product matched or broke the promise |
| Search terms | Queries you rank for, once data exists | The keyword field is or is not working |
Each week, copy impressions, product page views, Apple’s conversion rate, ratings, and real search terms. Compare them to last week and to the one change you made.
What to leave off the weekly pass
Session length, a custom engagement score, forty keyword ranks from a third-party tool, and a blended “ASO health” number do not belong in this check. Some of them are useful monthly. None of them should bury the five lines. Vanity dashboards feel like work and delay the screenshot or subtitle edit that the conversion rate already asked for.
Seasonal swings exist. Read them as a pattern across weeks, which is why seasonal ASO is a separate topic. Ratings and rank are also easy to over-explain. Whether ratings affect rank is the place for that argument. On Monday you only need to know if a new review describes a bug you can fix.
Run a weekly ASO check
One app, one note, five lines. Do not open a second tool until the note is written.
Set the range to seven days
In App Store Connect Analytics, use the last seven days and the same filter you used last week, usually your primary storefront. Changing the country and the dates in the same sitting makes the comparison useless. If you only have a few days of data, write that down and do not pretend it is a trend.
Copy impressions and product page views
Record impressions and product page views from Analytics, not from a screenshot of a third-party estimate. Note whether product page views moved with impressions. A gap means the row is not earning the tap. The icon, name, subtitle, and first screenshots are the suspects.
Copy conversion rate as Apple defines it
Record the conversion rate Analytics shows. Remember the definition: total downloads and pre-orders divided by unique device impressions. Do not recompute it from Sales reports. If you are pre-ordering, do not add the later download as a second conversion. If the rate moved, name the listing change that might explain it.
Add ratings and real search terms
Write the rating and skim new reviews for a broken promise. Then list search terms you rank for, if that report has data yet. If it does not, write “no search data yet” instead of filling the line with keywords you hope to rank for. Hoped-for terms are a plan. They are not a metric.
Choose one change or none
If the note says the page converts poorly and you have enough views to believe it, schedule one change: screenshots, subtitle, or icon, not all three. If the numbers are thin or flat, change nothing. Next week’s note is how you tell whether the change worked. A forty-row export will not make a small sample larger.
Key takeaways
- Weekly list: impressions, product page views, conversion rate, ratings, and real search terms.
- Impressions are views of more than one second on Today, Games, Apps, and Search, including product page views.
- Conversion rate is downloads and pre-orders divided by unique device impressions. A pre-order counts once.
- Do not invent a forty-metric score. Compare this week to last week and to one change.
- Search terms count only after Analytics has them. Wishes are not data.
Frequently asked questions
What is Apple’s conversion rate?
Apple defines conversion rate as total downloads and pre-orders divided by unique device impressions. When someone pre-orders, that pre-order counts toward conversion. The later download is not counted again. Use the number in App Analytics. Do not divide a Sales report by an impression export and expect the same fraction.
Do impressions include the product page?
Yes. Apple says impressions include product page views, and they count views of more than one second on the Today, Games, Apps, and Search tabs. Product page views are also reported on their own, including views opened through StoreKit. Watch both. A rise in impressions without a rise in page views means the row is not being opened.
How many metrics should an indie track?
Five, weekly, for one app: impressions, product page views, conversion rate, ratings, and the search terms you rank for once that data exists. More charts do not create more installs. Add a deeper cut when a specific question needs it, such as a single storefront after you localize. Do not start with a dashboard you will not read.
What if I do not have search term data yet?
Write that the report is empty. Do not substitute a keyword tool’s estimate and call it Apple’s data. Keep checking the other four lines. When search terms appear, record the ones you actually rank for and compare them to the keyword field. A missing term is an edit. A term that brings poor conversion is a message mismatch.
Should I mix App Store and Play numbers?
No. Apple’s conversion definition is not Play Console’s listing conversion. Keep two notes if you ship both. The habit can be the same: a few lines, once a week, tied to the change you made. Averaging the stores hides which page you should fix. Use the Play-specific guide when you are reading Play.
Need store-sized exports? Use the App Store screenshot generator or the Google Play screenshot generator.
Keep reading
How to Read App Store Connect Acquisition
Impressions, unique impressions, and product page views are not three names for one tap. A podcast app in search, then on the page, is two impressions and one page view.
App Store Conversion Rate, Defined by Apple
Apple’s rate is downloads and pre-orders divided by unique device impressions. A hand-built “product page conversion” uses a different denominator. No one honest publishes “good is 30%.”
Google Play Store Listing Conversion
Play defines store listing visitors and store listing acquisitions. The rate lives on the conversion analysis page. Experiments and custom listings are the levers, not a borrowed percentage.
Seasonal App Store Keywords and When to Swap Them
Research before the season, ship keywords with a version, change promotional text when the date arrives, and pull dead terms after. Screenshots move with the keywords.
Do Ratings Change App Store Search Rank?
Apple does not publish a star-weight for search. A 3.8 still changes who taps Get. How to read the distribution, and what not to do to move it.
Free tools that help here
Top App Store Apps
Track Apple App Store top charts across 30 countries. View top free and paid rankings for ASO research - updated from Apple's public RSS feed.
ASO Character Counter
Count characters for every App Store and Google Play metadata field against exact store limits. Live counts and over-limit warnings - nothing gets truncated at submission.
Fix the page the five numbers point at
When conversion is the weak line, change the screenshots and the first frame, then check the same five numbers next week.
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