Organic downloads

Organic downloads are downloads from people who found your app without a paid ad: through store search, browsing categories and charts, editorial features, links from websites or word of mouth. Downloads that follow an ad tap are called paid.

Why it matters

Organic downloads are what App Store Optimization works on. With no ad budget, every download is organic, and they are the downloads that keep coming when you stop spending.

Neither store reports a single "organic" number, so you build it from the source breakdowns:

• App Store Connect splits downloads into App Store search, App Store browse, app referrer, web referrer and others. App Store search also includes downloads from Apple Ads shown in search results, so subtract your Apple Ads installs for an organic search figure.
• Play Console splits store listing visitors and installs into Google Play search, Google Play explore, and referral and ad traffic.

Example (a fictional app)

An indie developer starts a small Apple Ads campaign and sees downloads from App Store search double. Before concluding that the campaign is a success, they subtract the installs Apple Ads reports for the same days and countries. The organic part of search downloads is unchanged. The campaign brought its own installs; it did not lift organic search with it, at least not in those weeks.

Where Indevaro fits

Indevaro reads App Store Connect and Google Play downloads, and Apple Ads and Google Ads results, and shows them side by side with their dates, so you can see paid installs next to the store totals. It does not manage campaigns or bids; you do that in Apple Ads or Google Ads.