The App Wasn’t Showing Up Where Buyers Were Searching
Nobody installs a security app on impulse. People search for one, compare a few, and pick whichever reads as trustworthy, which makes growth here a question of trust, clarity, and intent alignment. The product was solid. The problem was
- The app wasn’t consistently surfacing across enough high-intent searches.
- When users reached the store listing, the page needed clearer conversion support.
Because this is a sensitive category, we kept the engagement conservative in execution and reporting: we focused on a sanitized methodology, measurable outcomes, and avoided exposing anything
The goal: more downloads. Apple Search Ads (ASA) and the store listing (ASO) had to work as one loop. The ads show which searches become installs. Those words go back into the listing. The screenshots had to be clearer, so the next month could beat
Paid Search Showed Us What the Listing Should Say
The Strataigize search-to-store flywheel
We ran ASA and ASO as one loop. Paid search shows you which words people actually type and which of those words turn into installs. Those words then go into the keyword set and the store listing, and next month’s paid results tell you whether the change worked. In a sensitive category, relevance and trust beat raw volume, which is why the loop suits it
1. Intent-first keyword research. We grouped the keywords by what the person wanted. Search volume came second. For a security app, the words of someone looking for a fix matter more than the words
2. ASO updates and screenshot refresh (Google Play). We updated the store text so the right searches could find the app, on both stores, in small steps so each change could be measured. We reordered the screenshots so the value was clear at the moment
3. ASA update (iOS) to support demand and validate intent. We ran a targeted ASA update to support download momentum and use paid signals to refine which search terms and which positioning the listing should emphasize. Paid search does two jobs here. It buys installs, and it tells you which promises the listing should
iOS Downloads Rose Almost Fivefold in 21 Days
Out of respect for the client’s position as a cybersecurity company, we’re not publishing revenue figures from this engagement. What we can share is the movement in download volume and keyword visibility across both platforms. The two halves worked on different clocks: ASA moved the short window, ASO compounded over the
Performance highlights:
- iOS: downloads increased +387.5% (about 4.9x) in comparable 21-day windows following the ASA update.
- Google Play (30 days): installs increased +75.8% (1.76x) after the ASO update window.
- Google Play (90 days): installs increased +165.8% (2.66x) in the longer comparison window.
- Compounding effect: the following 90-day period reached 10.9x versus the earlier 90-day baseline.
“Most apps don’t have a demand problem, they have a connection problem. ASA and ASO are treated separately, so insights never compound. Once we connected search intent with store conversion, performance became predictable. That’s when growth really started
to scale.” Teegan Johnson, Founder &
CGO, Strataigize
Where to Look If Your Growth Keeps Stalling
People searching for a security app already know what they want. Apple Search Ads finds those searches. ASO is what the store page does with them. Doing both again each month is what made the
Three questions. Which searches are you actually capturing? What does the store page do with the people it gets? How often does either