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Tearing down a competitor app's growth strategy with store-intelligence data

Ariel Michaeli's step-by-step competitor teardown in Appfigures (Jan 2026, PicsArt example) — size and trend (downloads vs revenue), audience by age×gender and country, co-used apps, rating drops, organic and Apple Ads keywords (avoid the keywords they dominate), custom product pages, metadata change history and SDKs (MMPs, engagement tools) — and how to turn it into a plan.

Updated 2026-10-24·2 sources·user-acquisitioncompetitor-researchasoapple-adscustom-product-pagestools

Tearing down a competitor’s growth strategy

TL;DR

Ariel’s sequence, using Appfigures on PicsArt (photo editing), Jan 2026:1

  1. Is it worth studying? PicsArt had ~6.9M downloads and ~$8.2M after-fee revenue in 30 days, and was #1 in the US at ~$3M, above Adobe.2
  2. Trend: downloads were slightly down over 90/180/365 days, while revenue kept growing. Fewer but better-targeted users.34
  3. Audience: look at age × gender together. The blended split (~45% male) hid that 18–24, the largest group, was about half female.5
  4. Countries: India, then Indonesia, then the US. A newcomer must target India somehow, or fight only in the saturated US.6
  5. Co-used apps: users also had Prequel, VSCO, Facetune and more. Low loyalty means high churn, so plan engagement.7
  6. Ratings: written reviews dropped after late August, and the reviews complained about price and AI features. That’s an opening for a cheaper rival.89
  7. Keywords and Apple Ads: ~10,000 ranking keywords and ~2,500–3,000 paid keywords. Stay away from keywords where they hold the top impression share and target uncontested long-tail terms (the “eraser” cluster).1011
  8. Custom product pages show which intents they target, e.g. background removal with its own screenshot set and video.12
  9. Update timeline: name/subtitle changes (PicsArt added “AI” in many localisations last year) and release cadence (675 updates over 11 years).1314
  10. SDKs: Adjust and AppsFlyer (heavy paid UA), Braze and CleverTap (re-engagement), in-app support chat. They confirm the “acquire hard, re-engage hard” read.1516

Details

From data to decisions. The PicsArt read: a tough, disloyal category, but revenue is growing. So you must spend on ads, target hyper-specifically with CPPs, and invest in re-engagement. Feature gaps (eraser) and price complaints are your entry points.17

Why CPPs matter here. A user who searched “magic eraser” needs to see the eraser immediately, not an app that seems to be about AI avatars and costumes.12 (See Custom product pages — matching the App Store page to each ad.)

Organic vs paid keywords. For intent, Ariel weights the keywords in a competitor’s name and subtitle (what Apple’s algorithm sees them as) above what they bid on (from his Apple Ads setup video, same workflow).18

Disagreements / caveats

See also

Footnotes

  1. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 00:00 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  2. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 00:47 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  3. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 01:33 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  4. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 03:06 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  5. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 04:43 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  6. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 05:32 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  7. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 07:07 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  8. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 07:56 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  9. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 08:43 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  10. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 09:29 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  11. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 11:05 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  12. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 13:25 — Ariel Michaeli ↩ ↩2

  13. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 15:47 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  14. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 16:34 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  15. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 18:09 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  16. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 19:45 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  17. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 20:33 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  18. How to Set Up an Apple Search Ads Campaign the Right Way #ASA @ 06:27 — Ariel Michaeli ↩

  19. Copy This Strategy, It'll Blow Up Your App @ 01:33 — Ariel Michaeli ↩