Editor's Note
Most founders either avoid App Store ads completely or turn them on once, get confused by the numbers, and switch them off. Meanwhile, the apps that quietly win are buying visibility on their own brand, on competitor searches, and in their core category, without blowing up CPI or CAC.
This week’s issue is a founder-first App Store ads playbook you can treat as your internal guide: when to start, how to structure campaigns, how to use competitor name ads for cheap visibility, and what to do in a 60-minute weekly review so you’re not flying blind. How to consistently get more (and better) reviews for your app -without being spammy.
The Shopify App Store Ads Playbook (2026)
From "no idea where to start" to a predictable acquisition channel
Hello Founders,
If you’ve never run Shopify App Store ads before, or you did once and hated the results, this week’s playbook is for you.
I’ve broken down a complete, end-to-end system so you can decide if ads make sense for your app right now, and if they do, how to run them without guessing.
Inside the playbook:
Foundations before spend
A simple checklist to decide if your app is actually ready for ads: listing, reviews, Sidekick/BFS basics, and the minimum numbers you need (install → active → paid, CPI/CAC/payback).Campaign blueprint for founders
Exactly how to structure brand, problem/category, competitor-name, and category/homepage campaigns, what each is for, how much to budget, and how to think about keywords and match types.Competitor name campaigns (the underrated lever)
How to use competitor-name ads as a cheap, always-on visibility engine so your app shows up whenever merchants search rival apps, building recall over time, even on a tight budget.The 60-minute weekly optimisation ritual
A simple routine you (or your team) can run every week: what to look at, what to kill, what to scale, and how to tie App Store metrics back to actual installs, activations, and paying stores.
Coming Next Week (Issue 06):
We’ll shift from ads to broader growth systems:
“The Shopify App Growth Playbook: From First 50 Installs to 10,000+”
We’ll cover:
Growth milestones from 0–50, 50–500, 500–5K, and 5K–10K+ installs
Which acquisition channels make sense at each stage (and which don’t)
How to improve listing-to-install and trial-to-paid conversion
Real examples from apps that broke past 10K installs and what actually moved the needle
Are you solving meaningful problems for merchants?
The SaaS Hub is curating the top 10 apps in each category. If you’d like us to consider your app, you can submit it for our vetting and curation process here.
Coming Soon: Shopify App Founder’s Edition Podcast
We’re soon launching the Shopify App Founder’s Edition Podcast, and we’d love to have you on to chat about the ecosystem, challenges, lessons, and your app story.
This is a featured section and we have limited slots.
👉 You can apply here to get featured.
Till next time,