Grow · App Store + Google Play
Find the stage that's holding your app back
Discover, decide, activate, pay, retain and refer: one metric per stage, where to find it, and how to read them together.
In brief
App growth stalls at its weakest stage. Pick one metric each for discovery, conversion, activation, payment, retention and referral, define exactly how it's calculated, and fix the earliest stage that's falling short before buying more traffic.
Find the stage that's holding you back
App growth is a chain: people find the app, decide to install, reach the first useful moment, pay (if you charge), keep coming back, and tell others. Growth stalls at the weakest link. Before you change anything, find which stage that is.
| Stage | The question | Where to look | A common failure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discover | Do the right people see the app? | Impressions by source in App Analytics; store listing visitors in Play Console | Ranking for words your app doesn't serve |
| Decide | Do they install after looking? | Conversion rate; product page views | Screenshots that don't say what the app does |
| Activate | Do they reach the first useful moment? | Your product analytics | A long sign-up before any value |
| Pay | Do they pay, if you charge? | Trial starts, paid conversion, proceeds | Paywall before people understand the app |
| Retain | Do they come back? | Day-1, day-7, day-30 retention | The store page promised something the app doesn't do |
| Refer | Do they rate, review and share? | Ratings, reviews, referral installs | Asking for a rating at a bad moment |
Fix stages in order. Better screenshots won't help if half the people who install quit during sign-up; more installs make a leaky stage more expensive.
Measure each stage with one number
Pick one metric per stage and write down exactly how it's calculated, so it means the same thing every week.
The activation metric matters most and is the one you have to define yourself. Choose an action that predicts retention: compare people who stayed for 30 days with people who left, and look for what the stayers did in their first session.
Read the numbers together
Each number alone can mislead:
- Conversion up, retention down: the page now attracts people the app doesn't serve. Check what you changed.
- Installs up, activation flat: traffic quality changed (a new campaign, featuring, a new country). Segment by source.
- Trials up, paid conversion down: the trial or offer is attracting people who never planned to pay.
- Ratings down after a release: read the reviews from that week before anything else.
Keep a dated log of every store, product and marketing change. When a number moves, the log is the first thing to check.
Run a monthly review
Once a month, spend an hour on this:
- Write down the six numbers next to last month's.
- Pick the stage that dropped most or is furthest below where you need it.
- Read 20 recent reviews and 10 support emails about that stage.
- Decide one change and write how you'll know if it worked.
- Add the change to your log.
Do this today
- Write down your six stage metrics and how each one is calculated.
- Define activation for your app as one action in the first two days.
- Start a change log with today's date and your current store page.
Official sources
Checked 2026-10-16. Store rules change; confirm anything submission-critical on these pages.