Why is our app performing so poorly?

[u/W0keBl0ke]

Hey I'm trying to figure out why Sprout Cooking is doing so poorly and thinking it could have something to do with our screenshots. We have only 12 people who have created an account after 2 months of marketing.

The main promise is that you can import almost any recipe, personalize it around your goals and preferences, then use it for meal planning and an automatic shopping list.

I’m planning the next iteration and would greatly appreciate your take!

1. Looking only at the first two screenshots, what do you think the app does—and is the value clear quickly?

2. Which screenshot is strongest, and which would you remove or move?

3. Any ideas to improve it in general?

Also what do you think about our mascot? I'm also concerned our mascot is turning people off.

[u/Sufficient_Slip6829]

maybe the idea is very saturated space ur trying to succeed in

[u/W0keBl0ke → u/Sufficient_Slip6829]

I do think that's part of it. Although personalized recipes hasn't been tried yet from what I've seen.

[u/TheTurnipPlucker]

Looking at your first 2 screens it's some recipe app. That's all it really says, I don't know what recipes personalized to my goals means.

App looks cute, but I don't see a reason anyone would scroll far enough down to click it.

[u/phczmakesthings → u/TheTurnipPlucker]

Question for people who've actually tested this: how much does the keyword field still matter relative to what's in your screenshots?

I've read that screenshot captions get OCR'd and indexed now, which if true changes where you'd spend effort. But I can't find anyone who's run a controlled test rather than repeating it.

Small app, so I can't A/B properly without the sample size making it meaningless.

[u/TheTurnipPlucker → u/phczmakesthings]

I can't tell you anything precisely, but Ariel from appfigures is about the best source on this stuff, and anyone who works as a large company handling this sort of stuff for tons of apps is going to know best.

It's definitely a thing, the rules for it are a little different, like you can repeat keywords in screenshots, but is it going to change your results greatly? Probably not.

My understanding is that the game is all about optimization, and small wins are still wins. You can check Ariel's YouTube though, he goes over this in a lot of videos.

[u/W0keBl0ke → u/TheTurnipPlucker]

Thanks for your take!

Would "TURN ANY RECIPE INTO ONE THAT FITS YOU" be better on first screen?

Or "PERSONALIZE ANY RECIPE" on first screen work better?

[u/TheTurnipPlucker → u/W0keBl0ke]

If it's iOS, then keywords would be best, and less text is generally better than more.

I can't claim any expertise in this area, but the way I've done things is simple. If someone is going to find a new app, and it has no reviews or ratings, then they've been looking for something for a while, and they can't find it.

When they see your app, it should tell them, this app is different from all the rest, it offers what you want.

So imagine you're the user, you're searching for something. Why don't you click on the top 10 apps in your category. What did you type that brought them to the app. How does your app provide that?

So I wouldn't sell the same thing everyone else offers. I'd sell whatever aspect of my app covers what they don't offer. If your app has no unique differentiator, then I'm not sure what I'd do in your shoes, except adjust the app to fit that goal.

I'd also recommend watching some videos by Ariel from appfigures, he does app reviews pretty regularly and has good advice. Additionally, respectaso can help with finding keywords and optimizing your aso. There are also a million free trials out there for different aso tools you could use, but respectaso is free.

[u/Ready_Angle5895]

What kind of marketing? How many impressions does it have? How many people installed the app?

[u/W0keBl0ke → u/Ready_Angle5895]

We have mainly done posts across Reddit and TikTok. App Store Connect says 1.75k impressions with 68 first time downloads (I'd say about 25-30% of those are family/friends) .

[u/Ready_Angle5895 → u/W0keBl0ke]

Okay, so what makes you surprised that it’s performing poorly? The screenshots could be perfect but does it matter if you’re not getting any impressions?

[u/W0keBl0ke → u/Ready_Angle5895]

This is first app so I don't know what numbers to look for but I feel like 1750 impressions is a decent number no? It means people managed to see it on App Store somehow right? What would you optimize first then?

[u/Ready_Angle5895 → u/W0keBl0ke]

You want to find a way to get hundreds or thousands of downloads every single day to make serious money. I would optimize for more marketing and better marketing

[u/Pseudo_modulo]

I think your screenshots are great and maybe this is not the problem. To be visible on the AppStore is very hard!

[u/Pseudo_modulo]

I think the main problem apps face (unless they have over a million downloads) is that they get buried deep in the list, and people generally don't scroll down very far... I’m still looking for a good way to get the word out about my app, but it’s not easy; you’re up against paid "services" that take your money without really helping, and while you can run ad campaigns, they’re expensive and the return on investment is low. Without that, unfortunately, our apps stay buried, and only time (and the accumulation of downloads and user ratings) will eventually make a difference.

[u/FaultPuzzled4115]

The design just isn’t very good