Track competitors

A competitor is a listing asobeast tracks alongside yours so you can compare metadata and see where it ranks on the keywords you care about.

​

Add a competitor

Four paths, the first three on the competitors tab of an app. The second path is usually better, because it names the apps the store already puts in front of your users rather than the ones you assume are competitors. One listing in one storefront is either an app you track or a competitor of one app, never both and never two at once. Adding a listing you already track as an app, importing one you already watch as a competitor, or attaching a competitor that already belongs to another app all answer 409 and change nothing. Remove the listing from where it is first. Adding a competitor this app already tracks returns that competitor without reaching the store and without writing a snapshot, for the same reason a repeat import does. See Importing twice costs nothing extra.

​

Suggested competitors

The competitor step of the guided setup suggests up to ten apps from two sources, in this order. A keyword result counts every storefront you track keywords in, so an app that ranks in your German results is suggested with those appearances. Its title, developer, rating and icon are the ones your home storefront shows when the app ranked there during the window, and the newest result of another storefront when it did not. An app is therefore named the same way every day, in the language of your own listing. Google Play lists popular apps from unrelated categories among the similar apps, so a Google Play suggestion is kept only when its title and description share at least half as many of the words and phrases in your title and short description as the closest similar app does, and the ones sharing the most come first. The apps you already track and the keyword results are left out before the closest one is chosen. The App Store list is kept in the store’s order. Your own app and the competitors you already track are never suggested, and an app both sources name is listed once, as a keyword result. Reading the keyword results costs nothing, because they come from the searches the daily run already made. The similar apps lookup reaches the store while you wait and spends one store lookup of the hourly allowance. When the store does not answer or the hourly allowance is spent, the keyword result apps are still listed and the similar apps are left out. GET /apps/{id}/competitors/suggestions answers the same list, and so does the competitor_suggestions MCP tool.

​

Why are competitors free to track?

A position check searches the keyword’s storefront once and records positions for the primary app and for every competitor attached to it from that single search. So adding a competitor costs zero extra store requests on keywords you already track. Ten competitors on a keyword are still one search per day. Adding a keyword, or a market, is what costs budget. See Countries and markets.

​

Compare listings

The comparison view puts your listing beside each competitor field by field, with character counts against the store limits. The gap analysis is the useful half: it shows phrases competitors index that you do not, so you can decide whether they belong in your own title, subtitle, keyword field or short description. Adding one from there tracks it with the source COMPETITOR, which starts its relevance lower than a keyword drawn from your own listing. See Popularity, difficulty and opportunity.

​

Collapse a section

The competitors tab has three sections: the add form together with the competitors you track, Apps you don’t track yet, and the comparison matrix. Each section collapses behind its title. The window tabs of the discovery section and the only gaps switch of the matrix stay beside their titles while the section is collapsed. The choice is remembered in this browser and is not part of the link. When you print the page, a collapsed section prints its title and nothing else.

​

Read the comparison matrix

The matrix lists every tracked keyword with your position and each competitor’s. Click any header to sort by it, your own column and each competitor included, and click again to reverse. Search narrows the keywords by text, and the result filter keeps the rows where you are winning (you rank best, or alone), losing (a competitor ranks better, or ranks where you do not) or tied. The only gaps switch still asks the server for gap rows alone. When you track keywords in more than one market, the first column names the market of each row, so the same phrase tracked in two storefronts is two rows you can tell apart. On a phone the column is hidden to leave room for the positions, and the market appears under the keyword instead. Columns shows or hides the column on any screen, and the choice is remembered in this browser. The Market filter beside Result keeps the rows of one market, is part of the link, and clears with Clear all. See Countries and markets. Each position is shaded by its grade and the best position in a row stays underlined. Popularity and difficulty carry their grade too. See How are scores graded?. A dash in place of a position means no check has run yet for that app and keyword, which is how a competitor you just added looks until the next keyword check. >200 means the check ran and did not find the app within the captured depth. Export CSV in the matrix writes the rows shown, in the order shown, and the competitor list above it exports as well. See Export the keyword comparison to CSV. Discovery sorts the same way, by appearances, keywords, best position, average position or rating, and searches by app name. To find searches around what competitors target, use Competitor searches in Suggestions on the keywords page. See Get keyword suggestions.

​

Why does a competitor rank above you?

Press a keyword in the matrix to open its breakdown. Your app comes first, then every competitor, each with its position on the latest daily check. For each app the panel reads every listing the keyword’s market searches. On the App Store that is the title and subtitle of each localization the storefront reads, plus the keyword fields you saved for those localizations. A competitor’s keyword field is private and is never shown. On Google Play it is the title, the short description and the long description, and the text of the long description is not shown. See App Store and Google Play and Which localizations does a storefront read?. The keyword’s words are marked where they appear. Each field says whether it holds the whole phrase, every word or some of them, which is the same verdict the coverage table uses. See Check keyword coverage. Words of two localizations never combine into one phrase, so each localization is judged on its own. See What does each store index?. A word that matches only when accents are ignored, such as guidees for guidées, has a dotted mark and does not count as a match. Stores usually treat the two spellings alike, but neither store documents it. Not read names the localizations the market searches whose listing has not been captured for that app. For a competitor only the native localizations of an English default storefront are captured, so the others stay unread rather than guessed. When the keyword’s market has no stored listing of an app, the panel reads its home listing and says so. A competitor that ranks above you carries one note, from the first rule that applies: These are rules of thumb. Installs and engagement, the strongest signals, are not visible for other apps, and neither store publishes how it weighs a field. For Not read and Words not all visible the card says whether none of the words show or only some of them, the same count the field badges give. Your own card says how many competitors rank above you, which words none of your listings holds, which match only with accents ignored, and whether your listing changed or you saved a keyword field this market reads in the last 28 days, because ranks usually take two to four weeks to settle. The panel reads stored data only and makes no store request.

​

Watch competitor metadata changes

Competitor listings are snapshotted on the same schedule as your own, and a field level change appears in the changes feed marked as a competitor change. Alerts can carry them in a separate competitor report. See Watch listing changes.

​

Troubleshooting

• A competitor shows no positions. It only gets positions on keywords you track, in the storefronts you track them in. A dash means its first check has not run yet; it fills in on the next keyword check.
• A competitor’s ratings column is empty on Google Play. Google Play search results carry no rating counts.
• You added the wrong app. Removing a competitor removes its position history with it, so confirm the store id before adding.

​

Related