Long-form guide
ASO reporting for founders: what to track without drowning in dashboards
A practical iOS ASO reporting workflow for founders: a small set of metrics that actually move the business, with verified RespectASO export workflows and templates you can use weekly.
The reporting trap most founders fall into
It's easy to over-report on ASO. There are dozens of metrics you could track, dashboards you could build, and weekly emails you could send to investors. Most of them are noise. Founder-level ASO reporting needs to answer one question: did our keyword strategy translate into measurable results, and what should we change? Anything that doesn't help answer that is overhead.
This guide covers the small, defensible reporting workflow we'd run for an iOS founder. It uses the free edition of RespectASO and Pro where it materially saves time. It avoids vanity metrics and assumes you're going to report on a weekly cadence to yourself, your team, or your board.
The four metrics that matter
| Metric | What it tells you | Reporting cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Tracked keyword rank (per storefront) | Whether your ASO investment is producing organic discovery | Weekly average and 7/14-day trend |
| App Store impressions and product page views (App Store Connect) | Whether you're being seen in search and browse | Weekly |
| Conversion rate (impressions → installs) | Whether the listing is converting the discovery you earn | Weekly |
| Ratings velocity (new ratings per week) | Whether the ratings input to ranking is healthy | Weekly |
Everything else — download counts, revenue, churn — matters for the business but is not specifically ASO reporting. Don't conflate them.
Where each metric comes from
Tracked keyword rank
RespectASO tracks rank per keyword per storefront in the local SQLite database. The Apps tab shows current rank and history alongside competitor data. You can sort, filter, and drill into specific keyword movement directly in the app.
Impressions, product page views, and conversion
These come from App Store Connect's App Analytics, not from RespectASO. App Store Connect is the source of truth for actual downloads and impressions. RespectASO complements it by explaining which keywords are likely driving the impressions, which App Store Connect alone can't fully attribute.
Ratings velocity
App Store Connect shows ratings count over time. RespectASO surfaces ratings counts on competitors' Top 10 entries so you can compare your velocity to the apps you're competing with on a keyword.
The weekly founder report (template)
One page. Five sections. Sent to yourself or your team every Monday.
## Week of [date] — ASO report
[Your iOS app] · storefront(s) covered
### 1. Tracked keyword rank
Top 5 keywords by impact: current rank vs. 7-day, 14-day, 30-day. Note any keyword that moved >5 positions either way.
### 2. Impressions and product page views (App Store Connect)
Week-over-week % change. Note any storefront that swung >15%.
### 3. Conversion (impressions → installs)
Conversion rate, week-over-week. Note any change >1 percentage point.
### 4. Ratings velocity
New ratings this week vs. 4-week trailing average. Average rating drift.
### 5. Decisions for next week
2–3 concrete actions: a metadata change to plan, a competitor to study, a storefront to investigate, an in-app prompt to refine.
Five sections. No vanity dashboard. The "Decisions for next week" section is the one that matters — if a week passes without it producing one concrete action, the report isn't earning its keep.
Where Pro saves real time
- AI Niche Researcher compresses the "I should look at adjacent keywords" task into a one-prompt workflow.
- AI Competitor Analyzer compresses the "study why this competitor moved" task into a guided breakdown.
- ASO Score Simulator evaluates a draft metadata bundle so the "Decisions for next week" section gets backed by a strength score, not just a hunch.
None of these are required — the founder report works on the free edition alone. They're worth the Pro license when AI compression is paying for itself in time saved on the post-peak / weekly debrief.
What NOT to put in the founder report
- Daily rank movement. Single-day rank changes are mostly noise. Use weekly averages and 7/14-day trends.
- Every tracked keyword. Pick 5–10 that actually drive installs. The rest is appendix material.
- Competitor spying screenshots. Note what competitors changed; don't paste their entire listing into the report.
- Algorithm-change speculation. If you don't have evidence of a specific Apple change, don't write one into the report.
- Vanity rank counts. "We rank for 200 keywords" is a vanity metric unless those 200 keywords drive impressions.
Where to go next
- Keyword research hub for the research half of the workflow.
- ASO for seasonal apps if your reporting cadence has to handle peak windows.
- Diagnose: app not ranking when the weekly report flags an unexpected drop.
- BYOK ASO for how Pro AI cost is structured if you're considering Pro for the reporting compression.
Run a weekly ASO report that actually changes decisions
Track keyword rank in RespectASO, pull impressions and conversion from App Store Connect, and use Pro AI workflows for the parts of the report that benefit from compression.