My first indie app made its first $18 after 19 days - but I have no idea where the customer came from

On July 22, I launched my first indie app: Radiogram, an iOS and macOS app for discovering and listening to radio stations and podcasts from around the world.

After 19 days, I finally got my first paying customer.

They purchased the $24.99 Lifetime option. After Apple’s commission, App Store Connect shows $18 in proceeds.

It’s obviously not meaningful revenue yet, but the emotional impact was much bigger than the number. A complete stranger found something I built useful enough to pay for it.

Here are the numbers from the first 19 days:

• 84 first-time downloads
• 29 redownloads
• 13.6K App Store impressions
• 419 product page views
• 1.16% average conversion rate
• 1 paying customer
• $18 in proceeds

My only paid acquisition channel has been Apple Search Ads. I spent approximately $16-18, meaning the first sale has effectively covered all of my advertising costs so far.

I also tried several organic channels:

• Built an SEO-focused website with individual station pages
• Submitted the site to Google, Bing and Yandex
• Published one article on Hashnode
• Created an X account and published around five posts
• Shared the project on LinkedIn
• Launched on Product Hunt
• Created an Indie Hackers product page and shared my Hashnode article

None of these channels has produced much visible traffic yet.

But here is the strange part.

My Apple Search Ads campaigns were targeting only the US, UK, Canada and Australia.

The first purchase was attributed to the Mainland China storefront.

So I have no idea where the customer discovered Radiogram.

It could have been organic App Store discovery. It could have come from Product Hunt, Google, X, Hashnode or a link shared somewhere I cannot see.

At this scale, attribution seems to be mostly a guessing game.

Still, the first sale answered an important question:

Will a complete stranger actually pay for this product?

Apparently, yes.

Now I need to answer a harder question: how do I make customer #2 happen intentionally instead of waiting for another mystery buyer?

For founders who sell through the App Store:

How did you identify the channel behind your first organic customers? Did you eventually find a reliable attribution method, or did you simply keep experimenting until one channel clearly started working?

Product: Radiogram - Radio & Podcasts
https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6772640690?pt=128946018&ct=indiehackers&mt=8