Three Key App Store Optimization Metrics to Track

App store optimization (ASO) is the process of making your app more visible to boost installs on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. It brings your app into the limelight through optimizing your app's title, subtitle, and description, earning strong ratings and reviews, and targeting the right keywords and categories.

Whether you're a mobile app development agency building for clients or a maker bringing your own idea to life, understanding which metrics actually move the needle is essential. Here's the breakdown of the top three app store optimization metrics to track—and how to leverage them to boost your app's performance.

Number 1: Keyword Rankings & Impressions

This metric directly impacts app visibility. Keywords determine which searches your app shows up in, while impressions and movement reveal how rankings evolve over time. When you adjust keywords, tracking their performance shows whether more users are discovering your app. The relationship between keyword movement and impression volume tells the real story of your discoverability.

Impressions indicate how many users encounter your app listing. Rising impressions mean more users are finding you; declining impressions signal something is blocking discovery. Without tracking this metric, you risk losing visibility without realizing it until downloads crater.

How to improve impressions

Because keywords and impressions are tightly connected, metadata optimization is your primary lever. Targeting a broader range of relevant keywords allows your app to surface in more searches, increasing overall impressions from organic discovery.

Impressions also fluctuate based on paid campaigns and marketing efforts. Separating traffic by individual sources—organic search, paid ads, referral links—gives you clearer insight into what's actually driving performance versus what's just noise.

Adalo is a no-code app builder for database-driven web apps and native iOS and Android apps—one version across all three platforms, published to the Apple App Store and Google Play. For makers using Adalo, this AI-powered platform handles the technical complexity of publishing from a single codebase. This means you can focus your energy on ASO strategy rather than wrestling with separate deployment pipelines for each platform.

Ready to go live? See how Adalo handles app store publishing from a single project.

Number 2: Downloads and Conversions

This is the number most app builders love to track. Obviously, the goal is creating an app that users download, use, and benefit from. But while download counts and conversion rates give you a surface-level view of performance, they also reveal insights that can be leveraged to improve installs even further.

Both the App Store and Google Play Store factor click-through rates and conversions into their ranking algorithms. When installs increase, it signals relevance to the stores' algorithms, which boosts rankings, impressions, and downloads in a virtuous cycle.

By making small, measurable changes and tracking the resulting download shifts, you can identify which elements have the biggest impact on conversions. Change your screenshots and measure the effect. Update your description and watch what happens. This iterative approach reveals what actually moves users to install.

Here's a diagnostic insight: if keywords, impressions, and downloads all increase after changes, but conversion rate stays flat or drops, the problem likely isn't your store listing—it's your app onboarding. Users may be hitting friction in the UI or dropping off before experiencing your app's value.

How to improve conversions and installs

Once a user sees your app listing, what drives them to tap "Install"? The answer is almost always your creatives and graphics: the icon, logo, screenshots, and preview video. Users see these elements, scan the copy, and make a split-second decision.

Create strong associations between search terms and your app through screenshot text. If your app helps users discover restaurants nearby, mention "discovery" in the screenshot copy. Combined with compelling visuals, this engages users who land on your listing from relevant searches.

Users scroll through app stores quickly, so standing out matters. Examine what competitors are doing with their listings and assess how your app fits into the competitive landscape. What visual patterns dominate your category? Where can you differentiate?

A/B testing is crucial for conversion optimization. Knowing whether installs are increasing or decreasing is useful, but A/B tests reveal why they're moving that direction. Test different icons, screenshot sequences, and description copy to find what resonates with your target users.

If you don't track downloads and conversions alongside the specific elements you've altered, you'll miss the data that should inform your future strategies.

Number 3: Crash Rates, Uninstalls, and Reviews

When a user installs an app and it crashes, the result is predictable: negative reviews, bad feedback, and uninstalls. User retention takes a hit, and poor ratings can drive away potential new users before they even try your app.

The compounding problem is that repeated uninstalls may limit your app's visibility. Apps with high uninstall rates and poor reviews can drop in rankings, causing you to miss potential conversions from users who never see your listing.

As an app builder, going through user reviews and gathering feedback is essential. Reviews reveal what people like or dislike about your app, surface pain points you may not have anticipated, and highlight areas for improvement that can boost retention.

What impacts these metrics

Reviews and uninstalls are directly affected by the complete user experience. Record any technical changes you make, and measure reviews, ratings, and uninstalls when updates go live. Whether intended or not, every update to the user experience can affect crash rates, uninstalls, and reviews.

For builders using Adalo's AI-assisted platform, the X-Ray feature identifies performance issues before they affect users—catching potential crash-causing problems during development rather than after users encounter them. This proactive approach helps maintain the strong reviews and low uninstall rates that support healthy ASO.

Adalo's modular infrastructure, which scales to serve apps with over 1 million monthly active users, also contributes to stability. Unlike app wrappers that can hit performance constraints under load, Adalo's purpose-built architecture maintains speed as your user base grows—reducing the crash-related negative reviews that tank ASO performance.

Tracking Tools and Implementation

Effective ASO requires consistent measurement across all three metric categories. Both Apple and Google provide native analytics through App Store Connect and Google Play Console, offering baseline data on impressions, downloads, and user feedback.

For deeper keyword tracking and competitive analysis, third-party tools like App Annie, Sensor Tower, and Mobile Action provide more granular insights. These platforms let you monitor keyword rankings over time, track competitor movements, and identify opportunities in your category.

The key is establishing a regular review cadence. Weekly check-ins on core metrics help you spot trends early, while monthly deep-dives let you assess the impact of larger changes to your listing or app experience.

Key Takeaways

• Track keyword rankings and impressions to understand discoverability—optimize metadata to target more relevant search terms
• Monitor downloads and conversions together with the specific changes you make to identify what actually drives installs
• Watch crash rates, uninstalls, and reviews as leading indicators of user experience problems that will eventually hurt rankings
• Use A/B testing to move beyond knowing what is happening to understanding why

By understanding exactly what was modified and keeping careful track of keyword ranking, impressions, conversions, reviews, crashes, and uninstalls, you can continue to boost visibility, downloads, and user experience. Changes to your app store optimization based on these metrics drive long-term success.

For makers building with Adalo, the platform's single-codebase publishing to both app stores simplifies the deployment side of ASO—letting you focus on the optimization work that actually moves rankings rather than managing separate builds for iOS and Android.

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