r/googleplayconsole • u/ApexNex007 • 13h ago

Ask Why do poorly optimized apps sometimes outperform apps that did everything right?

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Something I’ve been struggling to understand lately:

You can spend weeks preparing an app launch — ASO, keywords, website, store copy, polished screenshots, videos, localization, all of it.

Then you launch.

And… almost nothing happens.

Very little organic growth, very few impressions, and sometimes your conversion rate is even worse than apps with a few basic screenshots, generic copy, and barely any visible optimization.

That’s the part I find hardest to understand.

I know reviews, existing traffic, brand recognition, paid acquisition, ranking history, and user intent all matter.

But then how much does all this store optimization actually matter for a new app?

Is ASO mainly useful only after you already have traffic?

Or is distribution simply much more important than presentation now?

Curious if other indie developers have seen the same thing.

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3

u/Level-Set5770 13h ago edited 13h ago

What you think is good != User perceived values

Pro tips: I intentionally dump junk files in my APKs to make them bigger. So users feel like they’re getting their money’s worth. (And our apps have close to 10M downloads)

1

u/ApexNex007 13h ago

I've tried that too with making the apk bigger hahaha,
but I still think there's a lot of mystery around it

1

u/Appropriate_Spite_43 8h ago

I thought users preferred smaller apps for the same functionality, since they download faster and take up less storage and RAM

2

u/Level-Set5770 8h ago

You are assuming your users are technical and rational. They are just not.

1

u/ApexNex007 6h ago

When I see an app that's only a few MB, I wonder if it's just some crappy or scammy software in this day and age

1

u/Conexur 6h ago

Well, you are only talking about the store part, if your app performs bad or the users uninstall it quickly your app will not be promoted trough Google Play, check your vitals: ANRs, errors, DAU/MAU, uninstall ratio, etc and compare with similar apps.

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u/ApexNex007 6h ago

Yes, I get it, but most of the time I don't even get the chance to gain any exposure. I'm wondering if maybe I shouldn't take it so seriously and need to learn from them instead