What's the difference between impressions and downloads in App Store Connect?
An impression is a user seeing your app's icon and name in a search result, browse list, or other App Store surface; a download is that impression converting into an install — the ratio between the two is your conversion rate.
Impressions tell you whether your app is being surfaced for a query at all, which is a keyword-and-relevance question. Conversion from impression to download tells you whether the icon, title, subtitle, screenshots, and rating are actually persuading the people who see it — a different problem from keyword selection entirely.
A keyword generating lots of impressions but few downloads usually points to a metadata-quality or relevance mismatch, not a keyword-choice mismatch — the term is bringing the right traffic, but the product page isn't converting it.
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More quick answers
- Does keyword order matter in the App Store keyword field?No. Apple's search algorithm treats the 100-character keyword field as an unordered set of terms separated by commas, not a ranked or read left-to-right list.Read the answer
- How many keywords should I target in one App Store update?Most apps fit 10-20 distinct keyword terms across title, subtitle, and the 100-character keyword field once you account for character limits — there's no fixed 'right number' beyond what those three fields can physically hold.Read the answer
- Does changing my App Store keywords reset my ranking?No. There's no ranking 'reset' penalty for updating keywords — your app simply stops ranking for terms it no longer targets and becomes eligible to rank for the new ones once Apple re-indexes the update.Read the answer
- Can I use a competitor's app name as a keyword?Apple generally allows a competitor's name in your keyword field (not your title or subtitle), though Apple can and does reject specific cases, and it carries real trademark risk you should weigh before doing it.Read the answer
- Should I include both plural and singular versions of the same keyword?Usually no — Apple's search matches singular and plural forms of common English words to each other, so including both in a 100-character field just wastes characters you could spend on a different term.Read the answer
- Does running Apple Search Ads improve my organic App Store ranking?Indirectly, yes — a 2026 academic study found paid installs produce a real positive spillover to organic installs, estimated around 2.2 organic installs per $100 of ad spend, operating through a ranking mechanism rather than direct favoritism.Read the answer
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