Three different problems look the same from where you are standing: nobody is finding it, people find it and do not install it, or nobody wanted it in the first place. They need completely different fixes, so work out which one you have before you change anything.

This is the most common situation I see on consults. People come to me saying they are not getting downloads, with no idea that they never did any validation, because nobody ever told them what validation is.

First: can people find it at all?

If you are relying on the App Store for users, you are relying entirely on people who search, and on them using the words you used.

The store still runs on keywords, so whatever your people are actually typing has to appear close to the front of your listing. Not the words you would use. The words they use.

The way to find out is to watch someone do it. Get a person from your target group on a call, have them share their screen, explain very loosely what the app does, and ask them to find it. You will see every search they try, and you will see what comes up instead of you.

Two other things to check here:

• Is anyone searching for this at all? Some categories are flooded and quiet at the same time. It is fair to ask how many searches are really happening for what you built.
• Is the store even the right room? The more creative work is usually finding traffic that is not in the store: the communities, groups and places your people already gather.

Second: they find it and do not install it

If you have impressions and no installs, this is a conversion problem, and it is fixable without touching your product.

A store conversion rate somewhere around 2 to 3% tells you the people arriving are the wrong people, or the listing is not telling them what they need to know. Both are worth caring about, and the second one compounds: the better your conversion, the more the store thinks you are worth showing, and the more it surfaces you.

Getting rid of the wrong visitors is a real strategy, not a loss. You want the people who need this, not everyone.

Test the listing the same way you tested the search. Send someone to it, have them read it, and ask what they think this app does and who it is for. If their answer is not your answer, that is the fix. Then try a different set of screenshots, something more minimal, and let it run a couple of weeks before deciding.

Third: they install it and disappear, or nobody wanted it

This is the one people least want to hear, and the one I see most.

The founders I meet in this position are usually six months to a year in, often more, and exhausted from months of trying to get users without understanding why it is not working. What almost all of them skipped was finding out whether the problem was painful enough for anyone to change what they do.

Signs it is this one: people who download it use it once and never return, nobody asks you for anything, and the people who are polite about it are all people who know you.

The fix is not a better launch. It is to go back and do the research on the product you already have. Talk to people who have the problem, and start with their experience before you show them the app. People who have never used it can give you the best discovery, because they cannot lead their answers with your product.

What to do this week

1. Put analytics in, if there are none, so you can see where people stop. 2. Message the people who did try it and stopped. You can say exactly that: I noticed you stopped using it, which is completely fine, would you tell me why? That is good information, honestly asked. 3. Run the search test and the listing test with three people from your target group. 4. Write down which of the three problems you have, before you change anything.

And do not buy ads yet. Paying for traffic into a funnel that does not convert wastes the money and teaches you nothing that a free test would not have told you.

Keep reading

Build It and They Will Come Is a Lie: What Actually Works in 2026

Spent Months Building a SaaS Nobody Wanted? What to Do Differently

How to Find Your First Users for a New App, Without a Following

Learn this with me

From Passion to Product is my free six-week live course, and it works just as well on an app that already exists. The research, the interviews and the positioning are the same six weeks whether you have launched or not, and doing them after a quiet launch is how you find out which of the three went wrong.

Nothing about the course assumes you are starting from zero.

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