Marketing Your App

There’s a feature in the Apple mobile ecosystem that can dramatically enhance how you market your app. Custom product pages allow you to segment your digital products in ways that will increase conversions and revenue. You can tailor your landing pages and create custom search ad campaigns that match customer demographics. The App Store hosts over 2 million apps, and users have short attention spans. Employing custom product pages can ensure a uniform and uninterrupted journey for users throughout their acquisition experience—from Apple Search Ads to the App Store. With the right approach, custom product pages can be a game-changer for your app’s success. How can you get the most out of custom product pages with a new or existing app? If you aren‘t currently using custom product pages, now is a great time to implement them to gain an edge over your competition. Beyond user targeting, you can promote a seasonal event, showcase culturally relevant content, and more. What are Apple custom product pages (CPPs)? Every app on the App Store has a product page, also known as an app store listing. Beyond this main page, Apple‘s custom product pages enable you to customize the look and feel of your Apple product for specific audience segments, keywords, or promotions. With Apple’s custom product pages, you can design up to 35 different versions of your app’s store listing. You can use these variations to optimize search ad campaigns and promote unique listings through shareable URLs. Key Features Customization: You can change ‌three assets on the variations of your product page: screenshots, app previews, and promotional text. Discoverability: You can optimize each page using specific keywords for search and messaging that expands your reach. Localizability: You can use different languages, so custom pages reach audiences in multiple countries. Control: You can use the App Store Connect API to make changes across multiple custom pages simultaneously. Android vs. iOS Apple has always been known for its strict control over the user experience of iOS apps. Apple custom product pages enable greater control and creativity to market your app. While Google’s Play Store provides more flexibility through its custom store listings, Apple is catching up with custom product pages. Here, we’re focusing on Apple‘s feature set, but the benefits and best practices apply across platforms. Benefits of Custom Product Pages Improved App Marketing Metrics Custom product pages are crucial in conversion rate optimization (CRO) and app store optimization (ASO). Custom pages can help you to: Increase CRO: By tailoring your messaging and visual design to your target audience, you’ll increase the likelihood that users will download your app. Improve ASO: Multiple versions of your store listing can capture more promotional traffic and improve keyword and engagement metrics. With the right strategy, customer product pages can significantly boost user acquisition and marketing ROI. Targeted Search Ads Custom product pages in Apple’s App Store and Search Ads allow for different ad variations and strategic campaigns targeting different types of users. These features help potential customers better understand the app before downloading it. For instance, the app Mountain Climber can run separate ads targeting cyclists, hikers, and rock climbing enthusiasts. Based on the URL clicked, those ads drive potential users to three tailored custom product pages for the same app. You’re increasing the chances of app conversions by corresponding the custom App Store page with the ad creative that attracted the customer in the first place. Tailored Testing It’s important to note that custom product pages won’t appear in organic search results on the App Store. Of course, the organic experience is still important, and you can improve it using Apple features for testing tailored to your marketing goals. Split Testing Through Product Optimization Using Apple’s product page optimization feature, you can perform split tests on up to three distinct “treatments” of your default page. However, the elements you can adjust are limited to visuals—app icon, preview video, and screenshots. After determining the most successful treatment, you can apply it to your app’s default page, ensuring all users receive the most impactful organic search result. Variable Testing With Custom Pages While Apple‘s split testing tool for product page optimization has benefits, custom product pages may offer a more reliable approach to testing theories about your app page. By designing multiple custom pages with unique designs or copy, you can evaluate which version performs better in engagement metrics, conversion rates, and return on investment. You can then apply those learnings to improve your organic default page. Creating a Custom Apple Product Page Apple provides a detailed technical guide when you are ready to configure your product pages. Before taking that leap, consider the following insights to guide your efforts to success. Identify Your Target Audiences Designing effective pages that resonate with multiple target audiences requires a deep understanding of each audience’s specific needs and preferences. For example, a TikTok user’s preferences will vary based on specific demographics like age. You’ll want to learn those preferences in depth to get the most out of any customized versions of these landing pages. Before embarking on a custom product page project, researching your target audiences is an obvious first step. You can effectively focus your efforts where they’ll have the most impact through user surveys, testing, and analysis. Surveys User surveys can help you gather feedback and insights from your target audience on their needs, preferences, and pain points. You can use online survey tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to create and distribute surveys to your target audience. Testing User testing involves observing users as they interact with your app to identify areas of improvement and gather feedback. You can use remote user testing tools like UserTesting or Userlytics to conduct user testing sessions with your target audience. Analysis App Store analytics can provide valuable insights into your target audience’s behavior and preferences. By analyzing App Store data such as user reviews, ratings, and search queries, you can better understand your audience‘s needs and preferences. Impact Creating multiple versions of your app page can be time-consuming and may require additional resources. Consider focusing your efforts on your most valuable audience segments, where you can maximize the impact of your custom product pages while minimizing the resources required to create them. Choose Strategic App Previews & Screenshots The key benefit of custom product pages is the ability to segment what each user sees when they preview your app. Here are some tips to choose assets that will attract and convert your target user. Emphasize features: Use your media to highlight your app’s key features and benefits. Targeted images and videos can catch the attention of different user segments. Keep it concise: Use short video clips and images. Quickly and effectively communicate your app’s target value proposition to each of your audiences. For instance, let’s consider a “Fitness Tracker” app targeting two user types: gym enthusiasts and busy professionals. For the gym enthusiast audience, you can use app previews to show users how to set up and customize their workout plans, track their progress, and view their stats and achievements. For the busy professional audience, you can use screenshots to showcase the app’s meal planning and nutrition features. For either audience, users can see firsthand how the app can help them achieve their fitness goals at first glance. Provide Relevant Content & Keywords in Promotional Text Content about your app and relevant keywords in the promotional text help you attract the right users and increase conversions. For example, if you’re developing three custom product pages for a healthcare app—one for patients, one for doctors and clinicians, and one for health organizations—here is how the promotional text and keywords might vary per page. Custom Page for Patients Promotional Text: Take control of your health with our intuitive healthcare app Access personalized health information and track your progress Connect with healthcare professionals and schedule appointments easily Keywords: Healthcare app, personalized health information, track health progress, connect with healthcare professionals, schedule appointments Custom Page for Doctors & Clinicians Promotional Text: Streamline your practice with our advanced healthcare app Efficiently manage patient records and appointments Access medical resources and collaborate with colleagues Keywords: Advanced healthcare app, practice management, patient records, appointments management, medical resources, collaboration tools for doctors Custom Page for Health Organizations Promotional Text: Transform your healthcare organization with our comprehensive app Improve patient outcomes and streamline operations Gain insights through data analytics and reporting tools Keywords: Comprehensive healthcare app, patient outcomes, streamline operations, data analytics, reporting tools, health organization management Measure & Optimize After your customized product pages go live, you can gauge their effectiveness using App Analytics in App Store Connect. You can track product page impressions, downloads, re-downloads, and conversion rates to assess how well each page motivates app downloads. You can also measure retention and the average proceeds per paying user for each custom product page. Another way to gain insights is to compare your custom product pages to your default. Doing so lets you determine whether users who downloaded your app through a custom product page tend to stay engaged longer or spend more on in-app purchases. This information can help you make informed decisions on how to optimize your app‘s marketing strategy. Promoting Your Custom Product Page Reach Broader Audiences With Distributed Campaigns After developing a custom product page, you can share it through your promotional communications and marketing efforts with its distinct URL. Your app‘s marketing channels might include email marketing, social media, digital advertising, influencer programs, and promotions—the possibilities are endless. For instance, an app that caters to sports enthusiasts might showcase the latest Superbowl champions in an email promotion and connect to the tailor-made product page that spotlights that team. The exclusive URL incorporates a new product page ID parameter into the standard product page URL. Increase Impressions With Apple Search Ads Apple Search Ads enable you to produce ad variations for App Store Today tabs and search results for eligible custom product pages. When you establish your ads campaign, you can customize your ad message and visuals for different audiences, product launches, or seasonal promotions. Tailored product pages can greatly enhance the effectiveness of Apple Search Ads and thereby increase the ROI of your paid campaigns. Giving users a more relevant and individualized experience boosts the conversion rate of keywords and reduces the cost per install. Ultimately, you‘ll obtain more downloads—while paying less for each. Promote Events for Maximum Exposure Certain seasons, holidays, and events present great opportunities for increasing downloads. To capitalize on these moments, you can create custom product pages that showcase them. These pages can be tailored to highlight relevant features, promotions, or content related to the specific occasion, making your app more appealing to visitors. There has been a lot of excitement around in-app events, as well. Adding to the iOS marketing arsenal are these timely in-app experiences, such as challenges, competitions, or special content launches, featured on your product page. In-app events have unique promotional capabilities and App Store discoverability. Notably, all visitors to the custom or default product page will see the same in-app events. Understanding the diverse needs and motivations of your target audience can help in tailoring your marketing approach accordingly. These are just a few examples of how in-app events and custom product pages can be used together strategically: Engage existing users: You can re-engage existing customers through a pairing that piques their interest and encourages further engagement. For example, a user-targeted custom product page alongside an in-app event challenge. Attract new users: You can target an untapped demographic by marketing specific promotions that expand reach. For example, a seasonal custom product page alongside a special in-app event featuring new holiday releases. Whether for seasonal promotions alone or combined with in-app events, the specific implementation of custom product pages is in your hands. It’s important to adapt to your unique business context, promotional timelines, creative assets, and advertising approach to ensure success. Final Thoughts Improving Conversion Rates With Custom Product Pages Custom product pages offer powerful freedom and flexibility, allowing you to segment your digital products in ways that boost conversions and increase revenue. You can use custom product pages to engage with users at any level and tailor your approach to your specific marketing goals. With the fast-paced and competitive app landscape, innovating and adapting are crucial. By embracing the power of custom product pages, you can stand out from the crowd, captivate your target audience, and achieve significant growth for your app. List of Additional Resources For implementation support, Apple’s developer site has a step-by-step technical breakdown to configure multiple product page versions. Learn more about the unique promotional opportunities and guidelines for Apple in-app events. InspiringApps’ Complete Guide to the App Store & Google Play is the ultimate technical playbook for setup and navigation of the digital marketplace. For more insights on identifying your target audience(s), download our free ebook InspiringApps: A Business Perspective on Building Mobile Apps.

Your App Store product page provides users with crucial information about your iOS digital product. You’ll need to provide Apple with details about your iOS app, so Apple can create your app product page and make your iOS app publicly available in the App Store. To help you efficiently navigate the process of creating and updating your App Store product page, we’ve separated product page specifications into two categories—app information and version information. App information is generally consistent across updates and rarely changes. Version information, on the other hand, can and likely will change each time you release a new version of your product. Read on for details about each category and the requirements for your App Store product page. App Information App Name Your app’s name appears at the top of your app product page and is limited to 30 characters. Your app name can be longer than the relatively limited text beneath your app’s icon on a user’s home screen.  Icon Many elements go into an app’s icon during the app design process to make sure it’s memorable. Work with your app development partner or review Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines to help you guide your icon’s design. Subtitle The subtitle appears beneath your app’s name throughout the App Store in a smaller font. Some clients use the subtitle space to insert a tagline. Subtitles must also be 30 characters or less. Content Rights Apple requires applicants to demonstrate their legal right to leverage third-party commercial content (such as art and music). Therefore, teams should be prepared to provide this documentation even though the App Store product page does not include it.  In-App Purchases If your product includes in-app purchases such as content or features, you’ll configure them in App Store Connect. You may need your development team’s input to complete this task because they may have to implement some app code and configuration changes.  Categories You’ll need to choose primary and secondary categories for your app. Your selections will come from the following options: Books, Business, Developer Tools, Education, Entertainment, Finance, Food & Drink, Games, Graphics & Design, Health & Fitness, Kids, Lifestyle, Magazines & Newspapers, Medical, Music, Navigation, News, Photo & Video, Productivity, Reference, Shopping, Social Networking, Sports, Stickers, Travel, Utilities, and Weather. Note: If your app is specifically for kids ages 11 and under, select the “Made for Kids” checkbox to indicate a particular categorical case. Localization For apps that have different languages, you can localize various elements of your app product page details for each of the markets where your app is offered. These elements include your app description, keywords, app previews, and screenshots. Other localization features include translating your app’s name and targeting keywords to local audiences. Primary Language Your product’s primary language is used as the default for App Store metadata when you don’t provide localized information. Age Rating The age rating is the minimum age for which your app is deemed appropriate. You won’t provide an age rating directly. Instead, you’ll answer a series of questions about topics that are not suitable for all ages, such as violence and profanity. Apple will then assign an appropriate age rating based on your responses. License Agreement You may provide your own license agreement or adopt Apple’s policy by default. Pricing & Availability Your pricing and availability selections are part of your App Store properties. You can establish tiered pricing (e.g., free, $0.99, $1.99, etc.) and determine which countries should make your app available. When you set pricing, you also specify the effective date for your pricing to change. App Privacy One of the newer features of app product page requirements is what’s known as the security “nutrition label,” which helps users better understand your app’s privacy practices before they download it. Your app product page will include a label detailing some of the types of data your app collects and whether it’s linked to or will track the user. We cover the required privacy information to submit new apps and app updates in-depth here. App Store Product Page: Version Information App Previews  App previews are an optional way to visually communicate your app’s user experience. App previews are short videos that show your app in action, and you can include up to three of them. They must be between 15 to 30 seconds in length and no more than 500 MB in size.  The supported file formats are MOV, M4V,  and MP4. Apple automatically makes the 5-second mark your poster frame, which is the image that displays to customers on the App Store, but you can edit it when your app status is editable. For iOS apps, you can upload app preview videos in either landscape or portrait mode. When the user plays your video, the app preview will rotate to the native orientation. Required Dimension Supported Formats Screenshots for iPhone While app previews aren’t required, screenshots are. You’ll need to provide between 1 and 10 screenshots for your app. For iPhone apps, Apple requires teams to provide screenshots for 6.5 inch screens (iPhone 13 Pro Max, 12 Pro Max, 11 Pro Max, 11, XS Max, and XR) and 5.5 inch screens (iPhone 8 Plus, 7 Plus, and 6s Plus). The images you provide will scale down for smaller device sizes. Your screenshots must meet specific pixel dimensions to satisfy Apple’s requirements for iPhone devices. The required pixel dimensions for 6.5 inch screens are 1284 x 2778 pixels in portrait or 2778 x 1284 pixels in landscape and 1242 x 2688 pixels in portrait or 2688 x 1242 pixels in landscape. The required pixel dimensions for 5.5 inch screens are 1242 x 2208 pixels in portrait or 2207 x 1242 pixels in landscape). Apple gives teams the option to provide specific screenshots for 5.8 inch screens (iPhone 13 Pro, 13, 13 mini, 12 Pro, 12, 12 mini, 11 Pro, XS, and X) as well as 4.7 inch screens (iPhone SE 3rd and 2nd generation and iPhone 8, 7, 6s, and 6). If your team does not submit screenshots for smaller screens, then Apple will scale your 6.5 and 5.5 inch screenshots. Some teams can access specific devices that produce screenshots with the required size dimensions. These applicants can simply capture images and upload them to App Store Connect. However, some teams don’t have this capability. In this case, it may be easiest to take representative screenshots on whatever device you have and then lean on our team to capture the shots using an iOS Simulator, which allows us to meet the specifications of any iPhone model. Furthermore, most App Store screenshots show the edge-to-edge UI of your app. However, some clients prefer to reduce the image size, insert it into a phone frame, and possibly add some promotional or instructional text around the images. If you choose to further customize your screenshots in any of these ways, keep the following additional requirements in mind: The frame of the mobile device pictured must be an iPhone. Users must only see their own iPhone model’s frame. For example, when users see your app product page on their iPhone 13 Pro Max, you can’t present them with screenshots showing the frame of an iPhone 11. You’ll need to produce a set of images for all of the screen sizes (6.5, 5.8, 5.5, and 4.7 inches) with the appropriate model frame. One last thing to keep in mind: if there are any mobile devices pictured in your screenshots—for instance, a stock photo of a model holding a phone on your login page—then the mobile products shown must be Apple devices. If your iOS app includes an image of an Android phone, your app will likely be rejected in the review process. Screenshots for iPad If your app runs on iPad, must provide screenshots for a 12.9 inch device (iPad Pro 4th, 3rd, and 2nd generation). Images for other screen sizes are optional, including 11 inch devices (iPad Pro, Air 5th and 4th generation, and mini 6th generation), 10.5 inch devices (iPad Pro and Air, 9th 8th, and 7th generation), and 9.7 inch devices (iPad and mini). If you don’t want Apple to auto-scale the 12.9 inch versions, you can provide additional screenshots. We also recommend additional screenshots if you plan to insert app images into a device frame instead of taking screenshots natively. We’ve listed all of the dimensions below in portrait format—simply reverse them for landscape: 12.9” Screenshots (Required): 2048 x 2732 pixels and 2048 x 2732 pixels 11” Screenshots: 1488 x 2266 pixels, 1668 x 2388 pixels, and 1640 x 2360 pixels 10.5” Screenshots: 1668 x 2224 pixels  9.7” Screenshots: 1536 x 2008 pixels without status bar, 1536 x 2048 pixels with status bar, 768 x 1004 pixels without status bar, and 768 x 1024 pixels with status bar Other Types of Version Information Description Your app description of the features and benefits of your app can be up to 4,000 characters. Promotional Text Use promotional text for special occasions or to draw attention to something unique. This optional content appears above the description in the App Store. Promotional content is one of the few things that you can update without a new review. Apple limits promotional text to 170 characters or less. Keywords Keywords don’t appear in the listing but are used to improve search results in the App Store. You’ll provide a comma-separated list of words. Keep in mind that commas between words count toward your 100-character limit. What’s New This property is not available for the first version of the app but is required for all subsequent versions. Limited to 4,000 characters, it’s a description of the changes in this version of the app such as new features, UI improvements, or bug fixes.  Support URL Provide a support URL link to the page on your website where users can find customer help and resources for your app. Marketing URL Submit an optional marketing URL link to a page on your website where users can find product information about your app. App Review Contact Information Provide contact information including the name, phone number, and email address of the person Apple can reach if they have questions during the review process. In our more than 14 years of developing App Store listings, we’ve never been contacted using these methods. All of our review feedback has come through a dedicated channel within App Store Connect for review-related communication. App Review Notes If you need to give the reviewer special instructions for using features of the app, include them in your review notes. Only include details that are less obvious to someone picking up the app for the first time. Authentication Details Create authentication details (typically a username and password) for the reviewer if login is required for your app. If your app uses something other than a username and password, provide these details in the App Review notes. If an Apple team member can’t sign in, then your review will stop until the issue is resolved. Note: Be sure that you can authenticate these credentials in your production environment before submitting a new build for review. Attachment You can submit an attachment in a wide variety of formats to support your submission. While teams may submit attachments as images, PDFs, and other formats, our clients most frequently submit videos for their reviews. Videos are necessary for at least two of the following common circumstances: You can’t provide Apple with a live test account in your production environment. This is the case for some of our financial clients. Your app integrates with hardware that the reviewer can’t access. If this describes your situation, then it is important to record a video that shows your app running on a phone and communicating with its associated hardware at the same time. The reviewer needs to see, for instance, that when you tap a button in your app’s UI, the light on the hardware turns green. In both cases, it’s crucial to demonstrate the core functionality of your app. However, teams certainly don’t need to demonstrate every possible use case. We recommend you keep your video to 2 minutes or less. Remember the reviewer can pause and rewind as needed, so you can fly through your demo. You don’t need to narrate it either unless you think your app has a specific feature that requires an explanation. This situation is rare. Additional Resources On your app development journey, the product page landing is the place to really showcase your iOS app and market it to the masses. We know firsthand that finalizing the product page is both art and science, and we hope the information we’ve provided here helped make the process a little bit easier. You may also consider these resources on your journey: How to Create a Great App Store Landing Page Top Tips to Avoid App Store Rejection  Submit App Privacy Details to Apple Sign up for the InspiringApps Community newsletter for additional information. Or, get in touch—we’d love to hear from you.