unity-aso-growth
Unity ASO & growth
A casual iOS game succeeds or fails on discovery and conversion as much as on gameplay. Most discovery comes through the App Store listing itself — icon, title, screenshots, and preview video — and through whatever paid user acquisition (UA) you run. This skill covers how to make a Unity casual game findable and installable: ASO, store-listing creatives, store-side A/B testing, UA basics, iOS attribution under ATT, ratings, localization, and featuring readiness.
Don't pour acquisition spend into a leaky funnel. Retention is set before acquisition. Validate D1/D7 retention and ARPDAU in a soft launch first (see
unity-analytics-liveops); only then scale UA. Buying installs for a game that doesn't retain just burns money faster.
Doctrine
- Retention before acquisition. A leaky funnel makes every install more expensive. Clear your retention/ARPDAU bar in soft launch before spending to scale. UA amplifies whatever the game already does — good or bad.
- Discovery is mostly the listing. Before any ad spend, the highest-leverage marketing asset is the store page. Icon + first screenshots + preview video decide whether a browsing user taps "Get."
- Readability at thumbnail scale is the bar. Players see the icon at a tiny size in search results and the first screenshots in a scrolling gallery. If it isn't legible and compelling at that scale, it doesn't work — polish at full size is irrelevant.
- Match the ad to the game. Misleading creatives buy installs that churn on day one and tank retention (and your store rating). Creatives should sell the actual experience.
- Test one variable at a time, to significance. Whether it's a store A/B test or an ad creative, change one thing and let it reach a real sample before you decide.
- Measure within iOS privacy reality. Post-ATT, install attribution runs through SKAdNetwork / AdAttributionKit, not IDFA. Set conversion values to capture early-funnel signal and hand measurement to your attribution SDK +
unity-analytics-liveops.
App Store listing (ASO)
The store product page is the conversion surface. Optimize each element for both discovery (keywords, ranking) and conversion (the tap-to-install decision).