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7 Comments

App store downloads for an indie hacker?

How many app downloads can an indie hacker expect if they're JUST focused on app store distribution.

Specifically iOS + Android apps, desktop apps, chrome extensions, etc.

Just the app stores.

It's really hard to get some reasonable numbers to expect for an average/decent app.

It's difficult to predict this because many apps in the stores are either VERY old, or developed by BigCos...

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    My app has about 400 downloads in 9 months. No marketing.

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    Through proper ASO, if your app is converting well and retaining users for highly searched keywords you can get 100s of installs a day (thousands if you rank in top 20 for a particular category). If you rank badly for keywords then it could be as bad as a few a day. Apple is much easier to optimize for from my experience. They have dedicated keyword fields whereas google is about your description keywords (but you need to juice it through ads to gain traction).

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    It is because people out there doesn't know much about your app, moreover your app store listing is not optimised.
    If you want to get your app installed then you should have to tell people that our app is solving this problem and you'll be benefitted so and so manner.
    It's all about right marketing, initially organic reach can't help therefore choose for right paid marketing platforms.
    Aware, Engage and Convert your users - they'll stay long and keep using your app, even they'll bring their friends.

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    That's a really difficult question to answer, it really depends on the app. I had a MySQL database management app on the Google Play Store and it peaks at around 1000+ active users. I didn't advertise it anywhere, just the odd post on Twitter and hope people come across it on the play store.

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    One to one million...

    I built a wallpaper app that I built for fun and I never told anyone about it and it is at 5.5K downloads. I also had games where I put ads on them and they completely flopped...

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    Well it really depends on many factors, if you share more info maybe we can come up with average number of installs you can expect

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    There's no flat number. It's all based on the volume of the search term within the app store and how well you convert from listing to install.

    For better app installs from organic search traffic, you'll need to break down the parts to App Store Optimization for each of the App stores - figure out the target keywords, relevant title, description, images, and ask for reviews/ratings.
    There's also paid traffic with app store ads if you're targeting a competitive keyword.

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