Most indie iOS developers have no idea whether their ASO results are good or bad.
They know their downloads went up. Or they know their keyword rank improved. But without a reference point, those numbers exist in a vacuum. Was the rank improvement fast? Is the conversion rate normal for this category? Are those 20 ratings enough, or is this app still invisible from a trust standpoint?
ASO benchmarks give you that reference point. They tell you what to expect from a well-run indie app, so you can separate genuine progress from noise.
This post covers the app store optimization benchmarks that actually matter for small-team iOS apps, what typical ranges look like, and how to track them without spending hours in spreadsheets.
The three ASO benchmarks that matter
Not all ASO metrics are equally actionable. There are dozens of numbers visible in App Store Connect, but most of them are descriptive, not diagnostic. Three benchmarks consistently tell you whether the work is paying off.
Keyword rank velocity. How fast does a new keyword move after a metadata update? Most developers target keywords, make a change, and then check rankings weeks later without knowing whether the pace is normal.
A well-placed keyword in a low-to-medium difficulty slot typically moves from unranked (position 200+) to the top 50 within one 21-day cycle after metadata submission. Getting from position 50 to the top 10 often takes one to three additional cycles, depending on category competition and the app’s existing conversion signals.
If a keyword sits at position 80 after two full cycles with no movement, the problem is usually one of three things: the difficulty is higher than it looked, the term is too broad for the app’s current authority, or the product page conversion is dragging down the signal. Velocity tells you which case you are in.
Tap-through rate and product page conversion. These two rates make up the conversion chain between an impression and a download. Both have benchmarks, and both fail differently.
Tap-through rate (impressions to product page views) typically runs between 8% and 20% for indie apps ranking for relevant keywords. A rate below 6% usually signals a mismatch between what users see in search results (icon, visible subtitle text, first screenshot in browse views) and what they searched for.
Product page conversion (page views to first-time downloads) typically runs between 20% and 40% for apps that are well-matched to their ranked keywords. Rates below 15% in this range suggest a product page problem, usually screenshots that lead with UI chrome instead of the outcome users came to find, or a rating count so low that users assign uncertainty before reading anything.
Ratings velocity. The psychological gap between 2 ratings and 20 ratings is larger than any other interval. An app with fewer than 15 ratings is still in a trust-friction zone that suppresses product page conversion regardless of how good the screenshots are.
For indie apps, reaching 20 to 50 ratings is the first credibility threshold worth targeting. Getting from 50 to 200 ratings is where conversion rates start to stabilize against competitor-level norms. Most indie apps can reach 20 ratings within the first 90 days of active users if review timing is implemented correctly.
What the numbers look like for real indie apps
Abstract ranges are a start. Real app data shows what they mean in practice.
Pi Digits, one of the apps in Marteso’s own tracking, shows this breakdown over a recent 30-day period:
- Impressions: 1,847
- Product page views: 312 (tap-through rate: 16.9%)
- First-time downloads: 89 (page conversion: 28.5%)
- End-to-end: 4.8% of impressions became installs
A 16.9% tap-through rate is solid. It means the icon, visible name text, and listing context are matching the query intent reasonably well. A 28.5% product page conversion means about 7 in 10 users who land on the page leave without downloading, which is normal but not the ceiling.
The end-to-end rate of 4.8% (impressions to downloads) gives you a single number that captures both conversion steps together. For a competitive category, anything between 3% and 7% is the indie developer benchmark range. Above 7% suggests either very low competition on ranked keywords, unusually strong creative, or both. Below 3% usually means there is a conversion problem at one or both steps.
Keywords in this same app cluster are sitting in the position 30 to 50 range after two cycles, moving from unranked. That is on pace for the typical aso benchmarks trajectory: slow movement in the first cycle while Apple builds conversion signal, then faster movement in the second and third cycles as conversion data confirms the keyword fit.
The benchmarks that mislead indie developers
Some numbers look like progress but do not tell you whether ASO is working.
Total impressions. Impressions go up when rankings improve, but they also go up when Apple gives your app a temporary boost in a new browse surface. Impressions without conversion data attached are uninterpretable.
Keyword rank alone. Moving from position 80 to position 40 for a term nobody types is not progress. Rank improvement only matters for keywords with real search volume. Always tie rank changes to impressions data to confirm that the movement is reaching real users.
Average rating score. A 4.9 average from 3 ratings converts worse than a 4.5 average from 200 ratings. The score matters less than the count at the low end of the volume range. For most indie apps, the ratings volume benchmark is more urgent than the score benchmark until you cross 50 ratings.
Daily active users. DAU is a product metric, not an ASO metric. It does not tell you whether your keywords are working. An app can have strong retention and terrible ASO simultaneously. Tracking DAU as a proxy for ASO performance is the most common mismeasurement in this space.
How Marteso surfaces benchmark data automatically
Most developers track these numbers by exporting App Store Connect data and building their own analysis. It works, but it takes time that could go into the actual work.
Marteso pulls keyword rank, conversion chain data, and review volume into a single view. When a keyword updates, the rank delta shows up within hours, not days. The conversion chain (impressions, tap-through, page conversion, downloads) is visible on the same screen as keyword ranking, so you can see whether a rank improvement is actually producing downloads or not.
The ASO benchmarks listed above are the framework built into how the dashboard reads data. A keyword at position 50 after two cycles with flat impressions is a different diagnosis from a keyword at position 50 with growing impressions and falling page conversion. Marteso separates those cases instead of collapsing them into a single rank number.
Ratings tracking shows total volume over time and flags the trust-friction threshold. When an app is sitting below the 20-rating credibility floor, that shows up as a gap in the conversion chain data, not a separate alert that requires a manual check.
Putting it together: what to check this week
If you have never run an explicit ASO benchmark audit, this is the 15-minute version:
- Pull your tap-through rate for the last 30 days. Below 8% means the search result presentation is the bottleneck. Fix the icon, visible subtitle text, or first screenshot before any keyword work.
- Pull your product page conversion rate. Below 15% with a tap-through above 10% means the page is losing users who were already interested. Screenshots and rating volume are the usual culprits.
- Check your ratings count. If you are below 20, that is the highest-leverage fix available. Implement review timing around genuine delight moments and milestone events.
- Check your in-progress keywords after two full cycles (42 days). No movement from unranked after two cycles means the difficulty is too high or conversion is pulling the rank down. Either find a lower-difficulty variant or fix the conversion bottleneck.
These aso benchmarks for indie developers are not industry-wide averages from a sample of hundreds of thousands of apps. They are ranges derived from apps operating in the same constraint set you are in: small team, no paid install budget, limited existing authority. That is the relevant comparison group.
The question is not whether your app is performing like a top-tier publisher. It is whether it is performing at the level an indie app can reach with correct execution.
Marteso tracks keyword rank velocity, conversion chain data, and ratings volume in one dashboard. See your app’s numbers against these benchmarks without building your own analysis. Start at app.marteso.com.