MARKET RESEARCH
App Market Glossary: 25 Terms with Live Examples
Plain definitions of 25 app market terms, from ASO, chart rank and keyword difficulty to ARPDAU, LTV, churn and P10–P90 bands, each with a live example.
App market research mixes store terms, advertising terms and finance terms, and the same word can mean different things in each. This glossary defines 25 of them in plain language and, where AppGazers has a public page that shows the idea, links it as a live example.
At a glance
| Group | Terms in this glossary |
|---|---|
| Stores and search | ASO, storefront, chart rank, top grossing chart, ratings count, keyword popularity, keyword difficulty, conversion rate |
| Store features and ads | Custom product pages, in-app events, Apple Ads, CPT, CPI |
| Monetization | IAP, IAA, subscription, gross in-app revenue vs MRR, ARPDAU, LTV, payback |
| Engagement | DAU and MAU, retention (D1, D7, D30), churn |
| Reading estimates | P10–P90 band, estimate period |
ASO (app store optimization)
App store optimization is the work of making an app easier to find in App Store and Google Play search and more convincing once found: its name, subtitle or short description, keywords, icon, screenshots, ratings and localized listings.
Storefront
A storefront is one country’s edition of the App Store or Google Play. Availability, prices, charts, search results and keyword rankings are all per storefront, so the same app can rank first in one country and nowhere in another.
Chart rank
Chart rank is an app’s position in a store chart, such as top free, top paid or top grossing, for one storefront and category at one moment. Ranks move daily, and a rank change shows that visibility changed, not why.
Top grossing chart
A top grossing chart orders apps in a storefront by recent consumer spending in the store rather than by downloads. Apple and Google do not publish the exact formula or the revenue behind a position, so the chart ranks apps without saying how much each one earns.
Ratings count
Ratings count is the number of star ratings a listing has collected. The App Store shows ratings per country storefront. Because ratings accumulate with use, the count and its growth are public signals of scale, though not a measure of downloads.
Keyword popularity
Keyword popularity is a relative measure of how often people search for a term in a store. Apple and Google do not publish search counts for most terms; AppGazers popularity is a 0–100 heuristic inferred from store autocomplete and result counts, not a number of searches.
Keyword difficulty
Keyword difficulty is a score for how hard it would be to rank an app for a search term, judged from the apps already ranking for it. AppGazers difficulty runs 0–100 and weighs the top apps’ rating volume, star ratings, installs, brand dominance and how many titles target the term.
Conversion rate
Conversion rate in app stores is the share of people who saw a listing, or opened its product page, and then installed the app. The app owner sees it in App Store Connect and Play Console; outsiders cannot measure a competitor’s conversion rate from public pages.
Custom product pages
Custom product pages are additional versions of an App Store product page, each with its own screenshots, app previews and promotional text and a unique URL. Apple allows up to 70 per app, and they can be assigned keywords to appear in search results for those terms.
In-app events
In-app events are timely happenings inside an app or game, such as a challenge, competition, live event, premiere or new season, that Apple shows as event cards on the product page, in search results and in editorial selections on the App Store.
Apple Ads (formerly Apple Search Ads)
Apple Ads is Apple’s advertising platform for the App Store. Ads can run in search results, on the Search tab, on the Today tab and on product pages; search results ads are priced per tap, with the advertiser setting the most they will pay for one.
CPT (cost per tap)
Cost per tap is the amount an advertiser pays each time someone taps an ad. It is the pricing model of Apple Ads search results campaigns; average CPT is total spend divided by taps over a period.
CPI (cost per install)
Cost per install is ad spend divided by the installs attributed to that spend. It depends on the attribution method, the period and the ad network, so two CPI figures are comparable only when those match.
IAP (in-app purchase)
An in-app purchase is digital content or a feature bought inside an app through the store’s own billing. Apple’s types are consumable, non-consumable, auto-renewable subscription and non-renewing subscription; Google Play distinguishes one-time products from subscriptions.
IAA (in-app advertising)
In-app advertising is revenue an app earns by showing ads, such as banners, interstitials or rewarded video, from ad networks. It is not paid through the store, so store-based revenue estimates, including AppGazers estimates, do not include it.
Subscription (auto-renewable)
An auto-renewable subscription charges a user at a set interval, such as weekly, monthly or yearly, until the user cancels, and is billed through the store. Free trials and introductory prices are configured per subscription in the store.
Gross in-app revenue vs MRR
Gross in-app revenue is what users pay through the store for purchases and subscriptions in a period, before the store’s commission, taxes and refunds. MRR, monthly recurring revenue, is the normalized monthly value of active subscriptions, computed from the owner’s own billing data.
ARPDAU (average revenue per daily active user)
ARPDAU is a day’s revenue divided by that day’s daily active users. It is common in games and ad-funded apps for tracking monetization independently of audience size, and it needs first-party revenue and usage data.
LTV (lifetime value)
Lifetime value is the revenue, or margin, a user or cohort is expected to generate over the whole time they use an app. It is a forecast built on retention and spending assumptions, so it should be stated with its horizon, for example 180-day LTV.
Payback period
The payback period is how long a cohort of acquired users takes to generate enough revenue to cover what was spent acquiring them. It connects acquisition cost, such as CPI, with realized revenue over time rather than forecast LTV.
DAU and MAU (daily and monthly active users)
Daily and monthly active users count the distinct people who used an app in a day or a month. Their ratio, DAU divided by MAU, is a common measure of how habitual an app is. Active users are not downloads: an install says nothing about later use.
Retention (D1, D7, D30)
Retention is the share of users who come back a given number of days after installing: D1 on the next day, D7 after a week, D30 after a month. It is measured per install cohort from first-party analytics and is not visible from public store data.
Churn
Churn is the share of subscribers or users who leave in a period: for subscriptions, those who cancel or fail to renew. Churn and retention describe the same loss from opposite sides, and both need the owner’s data.
P10–P90 band (80% range)
A P10–P90 band is the range between the 10th and 90th percentiles of a model’s estimate: the band the model expects the actual figure to fall inside about eight times out of ten. AppGazers shows revenue and download estimates as this band, not a single number.
Estimate period
The estimate period is the time window a modeled figure covers. Recent AppGazers model runs use a rolling 30-day window and older records may cover a completed calendar month; the period is shown beside every estimate and is separate from the date the model ran.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between IAP and IAA?
IAP is revenue from purchases and subscriptions billed through the store; IAA is revenue from showing ads in the app. Store revenue estimates such as AppGazers estimates cover IAP only.
Is keyword popularity the same as search volume?
No. Apple and Google do not publish search counts for most terms. Popularity scores, including the AppGazers 0–100 score, are relative heuristics, not counts of searches.
Can I see a competitor’s retention, ARPDAU or LTV?
Not from public store data. These metrics need the app owner’s analytics and billing data. Public signals such as chart rank, ratings and modeled estimates can only suggest scale.
What does an 80% (P10–P90) range mean?
The model expects the actual figure to fall inside the range about eight times out of ten. A wider range means the public signals for that app support less certainty.
Official sources reviewed
- Apple: Custom product pages — Up to 70 additional product pages, unique URLs and keyword assignment (checked October 31, 2026).
- Apple: In-app events — Event badges and where events appear on the App Store (checked October 31, 2026).
- Apple Ads: App Store — Ad placements and cost-per-tap pricing (checked October 31, 2026).
- Apple: In-app purchase types — Consumable, non-consumable and subscription types.
- Google Play: Get discovered on Google Play search — How store listing text and ratings relate to discovery.
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