More installs ≠
more money.

We pulled one month of organic data for a consumer app and put two columns side by side: share of installs and share of revenue, by country.

The result looked like a broken mirror:

One install in Market B was worth ~9× an install in Market A.
Five top-traffic markets together brought ~16% of installs and less than 6% of revenue.

If we had optimised for volume, we would have celebrated the wrong graph.

So we changed the question from "how do we get more traffic?" to "how do we convert the right traffic better?"

What that looks like in practice:

1. Measure clean channels. App Store Browse and Google Play Explore only: no paid, no brand search, no referrals. Otherwise you are measuring your marketing budget, not your store page.

2. Split CR. Apple's CR counts redownloads too. Returning users can push it up while new-user conversion falls. We track first-time downloads ÷ impressions as the main KPI.

3. Prioritise markets by value per install, not by install count. A +0.1 pt CR lift in a high-value market can beat +20% traffic in a low-value one.

4. Localise for intent, not just language. Screenshots that convert in one market can attract the wrong users in another.

THE TAKEAWAY

Traffic is a vanity metric until you know what it is worth.
Conversion of the right users is where ASO pays for itself.

How do you weigh volume vs quality in your store work?