Day 10: 11 downloads, 2,000 TikTok views, and the mistake that killed my US conversions

Day 10 Building in Public — The Honest Numbers

App: LifePilot - AI Planner (iOS)
Date: May 19, 2026

10 days since I launched LifePilot on the App Store. Time for the full picture — no rounding up, no hiding.

The Numbers

App Store (as of May 17)

• Impressions: 182
• Product page views: 70
• Downloads: 11
• Conversion rate: 9%
• MRR: $0

TikTok (8 videos, May 14–18)

• Total views: ~2,000
• Avg per video: ~250
• Likes: 12
• Comments: 0

That's it. Raw, unfiltered.

What These Numbers Actually Tell Me

The 9% conversion rate is the one bright spot. It means: when someone lands on my App Store page, 1 in 11 downloads the app. That's a decent rate — the problem isn't the listing, it's that almost nobody is finding it.

182 impressions in 10 days is basically zero organic discovery. The App Store isn't going to hand me traffic for free — I need to earn every impression.

The TikTok numbers are consistent but flat. ~250 views per video, day after day. It means the content isn't bad (it's not dying at 50 views), but it's not breaking through either. I'm hitting a ceiling that organic reach alone won't fix at this stage.

The Biggest Mistake I Found

While auditing my App Store listing this week, I discovered that my entire description is in Italian on the US store.

The app's primary language in App Store Connect is set to Italian — so Apple uses that as the default for every market, including the US. Anyone who visited my page from an English-speaking country saw walls of Italian text and immediately left.

I've had the listing live for 10 days like this. I have no idea how many people bounced because of it. I'll fix it with the next build — the English description is already written and ready.

Lesson: always check your listing in every target market before launching, not after.

What I'm Doing About Distribution

I'm not going to sit and wait for organic growth that isn't coming.

1. Newsletter pitches — sent this week
I reached out to 5 newsletters in the productivity/AI/indie space:

• Ben's Bites
• Matt Wolfe (The Next Wave)
• Creativerly
• DeveloPassion Weekly
• Ness Labs

All pitched, all waiting for replies. One yes from any of these would mean more reach than everything I've done on TikTok combined.

2. Uneed launch — May 22 (3 days)
I submitted LifePilot to Uneed and it goes live Thursday. Uneed is a Product Hunt-style platform with an active indie audience. It won't be life-changing, but it's a real distribution event with a community that actually cares about indie products.

3. More TikTok content
I'm posting daily. The strategy right now is volume + testing hooks — I don't know yet which angle converts to downloads, so I'm running experiments. The "POV" format seems to get slightly more engagement than direct demos.

What's Not Working (Yet)

• Zero reviews. No social proof = brutal for a new app. I need to implement the in-app review prompt (SKStoreReviewController) at the right moment — after someone completes their first week of tasks, not on day 1.
• TikTok → App Store funnel is broken. I can see ~250 people watching each video, but I can't tell how many actually tap through to download. 9 total downloads across 10 days and 8 videos suggests the conversion from viewer to downloader is very low.
• No subtitle on my App Store listing. The subtitle is 30 characters that Apple fully indexes for search. Mine was blank until I realized the field existed. Fixing with the next build.

The Honest Assessment

10 days in, this is what an actual indie launch looks like before you get lucky or find distribution: tiny numbers, real mistakes, iterating in public.

I'm not discouraged. The product works — I use it myself every morning. The AI planner generates good task plans, the UX is clean, the onboarding is short. What I don't have yet is people.

The next 10 days are about one thing: getting LifePilot in front of people who would actually use it. Uneed. Newsletter replies. More content. Fix the Italian description.

If you're building something similar or have thoughts on early-stage distribution for iOS apps, I'd genuinely love to hear what's worked for you.

LifePilot on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lifepilot-ai-planner/id6760910669

Building in public — Day 10 of however long this takes.