Straight-up strategies to boost your business's bottom line. No jargon, just results.

If your app has traction but installs aren't growing, the problem is almost never the product.

It's positioning that doesn't land. A listing that doesn't convert. Campaigns sending traffic to a broken funnel.

I help Shopify app founders fix the foundation before they scale it. Positioning, listing optimization, and ad strategy that work together.

What most people miss: your App Store listing needs to serve three audiences at once. Merchants (conversion). Search (discoverability). AI crawlers. Most listings are built for none of them.

100+ app audits. A system that does in 30 days what most agencies take 3 months to deliver.

Start with an audit: audit.ohadmichaeli.com

Ohad Michaeli

I tell Shopify app founders to spend $1,500 a month on ads.

Not to get installs. To get smarter.

Most think I'm crazy. They're bootstrapped. Every dollar matters. Why waste money on clicks that won't convert?

Because you're learning what merchants actually search for. Not what you think they search for. What they type when they need a solution.

You see which keywords cost $50 per click. Where competitors are bleeding money. What's worth fighting for.

Here's the play:

Underbid on expensive keywords. Shopify suggests $30? Bid $28.

You won't win every auction, but you'll see the search volume. The intent. What gets clicked.

Then optimize your listing around that.

The trick: maximizing CTR per search term reduces your CPC. Higher predicted CTR means you win bids at lower costs.

That $1,500 tells you which play you're running.

This isn't just marketing spend. It's reconnaissance.

Ohad Michaeli 🫧

100+ Shopify app audits 🫧 I help founders fix their positioning, listing, and ads before they scale the wrong thing.

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Shopify just killed the Canva screenshot.

New requirements (link in 1st comment): every listing image must show real UI. No logo-only slides. No stock graphics. Every image must be unique. Enforcement starts March 26.

You know those listings where all five screenshots are just big text over a gradient? "BOOST YOUR SALES!" with maybe a tiny corner of actual product UI?

Gone.

And I love it.

Because I've audited dozens of listings where I couldn't figure out what the app actually does from the screenshots.

Five images, zero clarity.

Merchants install based on the description, then uninstall when the UI doesn't match what they imagined.

Now every app has to show what it actually looks like inside a store.
Which means the apps with clean, intuitive UIs just got a massive advantage.

No more hiding behind marketing fluff.

Most founders will still get it wrong. 
They'll screenshot their dashboard, slap it into the listing, and call it done. 
Raw, unframed, no context.

That's almost worse than the Canva slides.

Each screenshot should answer a specific question a merchant has while scrolling.

"What does setup look like?"
"How does this show up in my store?"
"What data will I actually see?"

If your screenshots don't answer those questions in order, you're wasting the six slots Shopify gives you.

Go look at your listing right now. 
Would you install your own app based on those images?

I can help.

Why do we act like saying “I want to sell you something” is a crime?

I called someone out mid-call.

"Are you prospecting me right now?"

A long pause.

Then: "No, no. Just learning. Discovering."

He was lying. And we both knew it.

He'd reached out asking to "understand the Shopify ecosystem better." Wanted my perspective as someone who spent years building in it.

Ten minutes in, he started walking me through his AI product. How it solved the exact problems I had. How founders like me loved it.

Classic disguise.

The thing is, I don't blame him for wanting to sell. I blame him for not owning it.

Because the disguise doesn't protect you. It destroys you.

Once I called him out, that was basically it. Not because he was selling, but because he’d spent the first 10 minutes making things up. You can’t really come back from that.

I mean... COME ON...

People hide behind "learning conversations" and "discovery calls" when they're clearly selling. They think the disguise makes it easier to get a yes. It doesn't. It just guarantees a no.

The prospect isn't dumb. They see it. They say nothing. They just never respond again.

"I built something I think could help you. I might be wrong. Can I take 5 minutes to find out?"

That's it. Honesty beats any pitch deck.

I keep seeing the same $2,000/month mistake.

App founders spending $2,000 a month on Shopify Ads while their listing still confuses merchants.

That's running billboard ads for a store with no sign on the door.

Your ad spend becomes expensive user research showing you that nobody understands what you sell.

The order of operations. Every time:

Fix positioning first. Then run ads.
Fix positioning first. Then build new features.
Fix positioning first. Then write blog posts.

Every dollar you spend on marketing, every feature you ship, every piece of content you publish gets amplified or wasted depending on whether merchants can immediately tell what you do.

Positioning compounds. A clear position means every blog post reinforces it. Every review echoes it. Every merchant who recommends you uses the language you gave them.

Over 12 months, that's the difference between an app still scrambling for installs and one that merchants recommend to each other unprompted.

The boring, unsexy work of getting your positioning right will outperform almost anything else you do for your Shopify app.

147+ Shopify app audits. Same pattern almost every time.

Good product. Bad listing. Zero traction.

Not all install problems are the same. A visibility problem and a conversion problem require completely different fixes.

I've narrowed it down to 5 specific problems:

1. Nobody sees your app. Your search impressions are under 200/month. Merchants aren't finding you.

2. They see it but don't click. Impressions are fine, click-through rate is garbage. Your name and tagline aren't giving merchants a reason to care.

3. They click but don't install. Your listing page isn't closing the deal. Screenshots, copy, or reviews are scaring people off.

4. They install but immediately uninstall. Most users are gone within 72 hours. Your listing is making promises your onboarding can't keep.

5. Your category is wrong. You're solving a problem merchants don't know they have. Or you're in the wrong category entirely.

Most founders I talk to have a mix of two or three. But there's always one doing the most damage.

Open your analytics dashboard. Check impressions, listing views, install rate, retention. The numbers tell you which problem you have.

Which one are you dealing with?

One space. 
That's what separated page 1 from page 2.

Had an audit call with my friend Gideon.

He runs partnerships for a solid Shopify app. Great product, strong reviews, around 500 installs.

He wanted quick wins for their App Store listing.

We're going through it and I notice something.

They were optimizing for "chatbot", one word.
But their competitors ranked for "chat bot", two words.

We checked:
Page 2 for "chatbot"
Page 1 for "chat bot"

One space. That's it.

——

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐩𝐩 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐰𝐨 𝐣𝐨𝐛𝐬:

Turn visitors into users, and help new people find you.

Most founders only think about the first one.

The apps that get found don't stuff keywords. They match the exact words merchants type. Every character counts.

Most of the wins I find on audit calls are this quiet. Nothing flashy. Just the gap between what you wrote and what merchants actually type.

What's the one keyword your app most needs to rank for? Go check how the page 1 apps spell it.

——

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