ASO localization: the storefronts most iOS apps ignore, and why they are cheap

The usual localization plan is English, then the five biggest markets, then nothing. Meanwhile dozens of storefronts in between have people searching for exactly what you make, in a language your page does not speak, with almost nobody bidding against you.

Where to look

Pull your installs by storefront and look for countries where you get organic installs without having localized at all. Those are markets that found you despite the language barrier. Then look at Apple Search Ads suggested bids by country for your top terms; where the bids are low and your organic installs exist, there is cheap demand.

Localize intent, not words

A word-for-word translation of your subtitle is usually a phrase nobody in that market types. The job is to find what people there actually search for the same need, which can be a different concept entirely. Use the local App Store search bar autocomplete and, if you can, a native speaker who uses apps like yours.

The order of work

1. Metadata. Title, subtitle, keyword field, the first lines of the description. This is what ranks, and it costs an afternoon per language.
2. First screenshots. The headline on the first frame in the local language. The rest can wait.
3. Price. Set a storefront price that makes sense locally rather than a converted global one.
4. The app. Last, and only once the store page is proving demand. A localized store page in front of an English app still converts; the reverse does not.

What we do in our own apps

Our apps ship in English and Turkish from day one, because that is the team's reality, and Dreamify tells stories in several more. The store pages went to additional storefronts only after the installs-by-country data showed where the demand was. The data picked the markets, not a map.

The trap

Machine-translating metadata into twenty languages at once. It ranks for nothing, it reads wrong to native speakers, and it hides the few markets that would have been worth doing properly. Three storefronts done well beat twenty done badly.