Ready to set your app up for success? With over 2.6 million apps on Google Play and another 1.8 million on the App Store, you need to be highly strategic in your app growth if you want to stand out. We gathered top mobile industry experts to strategize how to get 1 million app users in our latest webinar.

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Get the answers to these top app launch questions:

• What foundational elements should be in place before an app launch?
• How do you build a tech stack that supports growth?
• What’s the right time to measure incrementality, and how?
• How to drive incremental growth post-launch?
• How to test and optimize your creative strategy?
• What role does ASO really play when scaling?

Our panel of experts included:

• Simon Thillay, Head of ASO Strategy & Market Insights, AppTweak
• Binod Kumar Bhagat, Sr. Business Development Manager, SocialPeta
• Tanmay Swarup, Growth Director, Moloco
• Vaibhav Deshpande, General Manager of Marketing, PharmEasy

Want 1 million app users? Start by establishing a strong launch strategy 

If you want 1 million app users, you need a solid user acquisition strategy in place from day 1. This means aligning your paid campaigns with a strong ASO  foundation and not treating them as separate workflows. 

Combine organic ASO efforts with paid UA 

Building a strong ASO foundation for your app page requires you to add and optimize the keywords and visuals in your metadata, so your app appears in relevant search queries.

Once your budget allows it, complementing this with targeted paid UA campaigns can help improve conversions and enhance overall performance.

Time to scale? Track incrementality

Reaching 50–100K users is a major milestone (congrats!), but scaling from there to 1 million app users requires precision. This is where incrementality comes in: it evaluates whether each new effort truly delivers net new users, or just shifts installs between channels.

“If you’re not measuring incrementality, you’re just moving users around,” says Vaibhav Deshpande from PharmEasy. “Growth only works when you’re actually expanding your reach.”

PharmEasy’s Vaibhav Deshpande recommends running A/B testing or controlled geographic experiments to ensure you’re actually maximizing your growth.

Build your tech stack wisely to reach 1 million app users

Your growth strategy to 1 million app users is only as powerful as the stack supporting it. Before kicking off large-scale UA efforts, curate the right tailored tech stack for your app.

First, consider your app business

• What’s your app’s category? (e.g., hyper-casual game, utility app)
• What’s your business model?  (e.g., freemium, subscription, ad-driven)
• What are your primary acquisition channels?  (e.g., search-based, social discovery)

For example, hyper-casual games typically require advanced mobile measurement platforms (MMPs) like Singular early on due to heavy reliance on ad network testing. Subscription-based apps will likely also require tools focusing on user retention and engagement.

Next, pick your tools

To reach 1 million app users, your toolset should match your growth needs. 

Store consoles provide general insights, but for deeper granularity (like organic user insights or detailed keyword analysis), specialized ASO intelligence platforms like AppTweak become valuable. 

The main tools your tech stack should include: 

• MMP: To track ad network performance and post-install events
• Product analytics: To understand user behavior across key funnels
• CRM: To manage user data and drive engagement campaigns
• Data warehouse/BI tools: To store and centralize your data
• Data visualization tools: To build dashboards and generate performance reports

A robust tech stack should not only track performance but also provide insights into user behavior and engagement.  

Define and track the metrics that matter

Focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect both creative performance and the long-term impact of acquired users.

Top KPIs to monitor:

• Reach and CTR: Evaluate creative effectiveness and audience targeting
• Conversion rate (click-to-install): Monitor your app store listing efficiency
• Registration and activation rates: Track user engagement post-install
• Retention rates and Lifetime Value (LTV): Measure long-term user value

Tanmay Swarup of Moloco notes that this data should provide direction:

“UA without measurement is just guessing,” says Tanmay Swarup of Moloco. “Growth means knowing exactly which lever is working and why.”

 A comprehensive set of KPIs won’t just tell you what worked — it tells you where to iterate next.

Optimize creatives for maximum impact

App creatives significantly influence install decisions, so they’re critical to get right on your path to 1 million app users. They should instantly communicate your app’s key value propositions, highlighting main features or gameplay for gaming apps, and UI.

SocialPeta’s Binod Kumar Bhagat says that users must immediately be able to surmise the purpose of your app from your creatives.

“Users should understand your app’s main strengths even before they install it,” says Binod Kumar Bhagat from SocialPeta.

Well-optimized creatives not only improve conversion rates, but also increase visibility across app stores by signaling relevance and quality.

Prioritize impactful creatives

Start with the assets users see first: your icon, the first 2-3 screenshots, and — if you have video — your feature graphic. These assets carry the most weight in influencing user decisions and should be optimized first. 

When testing creatives, prioritize bold and clear changes over minor tweaks, especially when your traffic volume is limited. Major creative changes lead to statistically significant insights faster, which will help identify the visuals that resonate best with your target audience.

Reaching the right audience

A successful acquisition strategy depends heavily on precision targeting. 

To reach the right users, you need to understand who they are, what they care about, and how they’re discovering apps like yours.

This is critical insight as you scale UA to acquire 1 million app users.

Analyze and target based on user intent

Start by identifying what your users value most and how your app solves that need. Then, map out their discovery behavior: Is it search-based (high intent) or browse-based (low intent, discovery-led)? 

This distinction will help you choose relevant UA channels:

• For intent-driven users: prioritize search-based platforms like Google Search or Apple Ads.
• For discovery-based audiences: lean into social platforms like Meta, TikTok, or display networks.

Don’t forget app store optimization on your journey to 1 million app users

Done right, ASO increases your install rate across all channels. It’s not optional; it’s foundational. It’s organic, but it boosts paid too.

Take a customized approach to ASO 

As Simon Thillay highlighted, doing ASO doesn’t mean doing what everyone else is doing. Depending on your goals, you might optimize for conversions, focus heavily on search traffic, or work on retaining existing users through tailored app store experiences.

Beyond keywords, an effective ASO strategy includes:

• Creative optimization: Custom product pages, compelling visuals
• Ratings and reviews: Actively managing and responding to user feedback
• Retention strategies: Leveraging promotional content and in-app events
• Localization and seasonal optimization: Adapting for regional and timely trends

Having a strong ASO strategy ensures continuous improvement, high visibility, and maintains your app’s relevancy over time.

“ASO doesn’t just improve organic growth—it lifts the ROI of every paid user you bring in,” says Simon Thillay from AppTweak.

Additionally, by aligning your app store presence with your user acquisition goals, you make every campaign more efficient and every new user more likely to convert.

Final takeaway: success is engineered

Success in the competitive app landscape isn’t accidental; it’s the result of a clear, deliberate strategy. By carefully orchestrating your launch plan, measuring true impact, optimizing your tech stack, refining creatives, and leveraging ASO, you will position your app to achieve sustained growth and ultimately reach (and then surpass, of course) 1 million app users.

There’s so much more insight in the full webinar … get access today to accelerate your growth.

This is a guest post from Oriane Ineza from AppTweak.