Short answer: Managed ASO at Admiral Media costs from €2,900 per month for one app on the App Store and Google Play in one market. Each additional market or language adds €1,500 per month. The monthly fee covers keyword research, metadata, creative testing and conversion reporting. A one-time ASO Audit costs €2,500 and is credited to your first month if you start a retainer within 30 days. What any agency charges comes down to how many apps, stores and markets are covered and how much creative production and testing is included.
Table of Contents
Most ASO agencies only share prices on a sales call, which makes budgeting hard. We publish ours below, explain what drives the number up or down, and show how to judge whether the fee pays back. Use the calculator to estimate your own monthly cost, or run your listing through our free ASO Checker to see where it stands first.
ASO pricing at a glance
These are the prices for Admiral Media’s App Store Optimization service as of September 2026. Your proposal confirms the app, stores, markets, deliverables and term before any work starts.
| Option | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Managed ASO | from €2,900 / month | One app on the App Store and Google Play, one market and language. Keyword research, metadata, creative review, native A/B tests where traffic allows, a monthly report and a senior ASO specialist with weekly calls. |
| Extra market or language | +€1,500 / month | Local keyword research, metadata and localised creative for each additional market. |
| Keyword Custom Product Pages | +€1,500 / month | Up to 6 keyword-linked Custom Product Pages a quarter plus Google Play custom store listings, with creative production included. |
| AI app visibility | +€1,000 / month | Tracking and improving how ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity describe and recommend your app. |
| ASO Audit | €2,500 one-time | Keyword gap, creative review, three competitors and a 90-day roadmap. Credited to your first month if you start a retainer within 30 days. |
| Audit + Workshop | €9,500 one-time | For in-house teams: audit, metadata update, training and six months of check-ins. |
Estimate your monthly ASO cost
Pick the number of markets you want to grow in and any programs you need. The estimate covers one app on both stores. More than one app? Each additional app is scoped separately, so ask us for a quote.
What a monthly ASO retainer includes
A retainer should cover four kinds of work every month. This is what managed ASO at Admiral Media includes, and the question to put to any agency you compare.
| Work | What happens each month | What to check in any quote |
|---|---|---|
| Store discovery and keyword research | A keyword map per market and language, refreshed as search demand and your roadmap change, plus competitor keyword and listing reviews. | Which markets are covered and how often the map is refreshed. |
| Metadata | App name, subtitle and keyword field on iOS, title, short and full description on Google Play, with updates timed to your releases. | Whether every change is shown to you before it goes live. |
| Creative testing | Icon, screenshot and preview video variants, tested with Apple’s Product Page Optimization and Google Play’s store listing experiments where traffic allows, with sample size checked before a variant is kept. | How many asset sets and tests the fee covers, and who designs them. |
| Conversion reporting | A monthly report with the store funnel by source (impressions, page views, conversion), rankings and organic installs per market, peer benchmarks and a ranked backlog for the next 30 days. | Conversion and downloads by source, not only keyword ranks. |
Usually priced on top: each additional market (+€1,500 per month), keyword Custom Product Pages (+€1,500 per month), AI app visibility (+€1,000 per month) and additional apps, which are scoped separately. Few agencies publish their prices, so we do not quote a market range. Compare quotes by these four rows instead: a lower fee that leaves out creative or reporting is not cheaper.
What drives the cost of ASO
Two quotes for “ASO” can differ by thousands per month because they describe different amounts of work. These six factors explain most of the gap.
1. Number of apps and stores
Each app needs its own keyword research, metadata and creative. Covering both the App Store and Google Play roughly doubles the metadata work, because the two stores index text differently: Apple uses a title, subtitle and hidden keyword field, while Google Play reads the title, short description and long description. Our Google Play ASO guide covers what the Play work involves.
2. Markets and languages
Localisation is research, not translation. Search terms in Germany, Korea or Brazil are not literal translations of English keywords, and screenshots often need local copy and proof. This is why most agencies, including us, price per market.
3. Creative production
Store creative is where most of the cost sits. Icons, screenshots, preview videos, Custom Product Pages and, from 2026, the new Creative Assets that Apple shows in the product page header and search results all need design and approval. Ask exactly how many assets a month the fee includes.
4. Testing volume
Apple’s Product Page Optimization and Google Play’s Store Listing Experiments are free to run, but each test needs enough traffic to reach a result. An agency promising weekly tests on a small app is selling activity, not learning. Test volume should follow your traffic.
5. Seniority and support
A senior specialist who owns your account, joins a weekly call and answers in Slack costs more than a junior running a checklist. Check who actually does the work and how often you will hear from them.
6. Connection to paid acquisition
ASO priced as part of a performance team can use paid data: which Apple Ads keywords convert, which ad creatives win on Meta or TikTok. That makes metadata and creative decisions faster and better, and it lets Custom Product Pages serve both paid and organic search.
ASO pricing models and packages
ASO is sold in four main ways. Knowing which one you are being offered makes quotes easier to compare.
- Monthly retainer. The most common model for ongoing ASO. You pay a fixed fee for a defined scope: apps, stores, markets and a monthly set of deliverables. It suits apps that ship updates and have enough traffic to test.
- One-time project or audit. A fixed price for an audit, a launch listing or a metadata overhaul. Good for new markets, launches and teams that want a roadmap before committing.
- Training and workshops. A fixed price to upskill an in-house team, usually with follow-up check-ins. You keep the execution; the agency supplies method and review.
- Performance-based fees. Some providers tie fees to rankings or installs. Treat these carefully: rankings are easy to move for irrelevant keywords, and installs are affected by paid campaigns, featuring and seasonality that the agency does not control.
Packages are usually built from the same blocks: a base fee per app, a charge per market or language, and add-ons for creative production or extra programs. That is how the table above is structured.
Retainer, audit or workshop: which one fits?
- Established app with store traffic and paid UA: a monthly retainer. There is enough traffic to test, and the gains compound month after month.
- New market launch or a listing that has not changed in a year: start with the one-time audit. You get a roadmap and the first metadata update, then decide whether ongoing work is worth it.
- Team with an in-house ASO or growth lead: the audit and workshop. We train your team and check in for six months instead of doing the work for you.
- Pre-launch or very low traffic: a one-time audit only. Paying monthly for experiments your traffic cannot power is money wasted.
What you should get for the money
Whatever you pay, the first 90 days should produce written, checkable deliverables. At Admiral Media they look like this:
- Weeks 1 to 2: read access to App Store Connect and Play Console, a keyword map per market, three competitor listings reviewed and a baseline of impressions, page views and conversion by source.
- Weeks 3 to 6: a metadata plan for both stores, a review of your icon and first three screenshots, and the first approved update live.
- Weeks 7 to 12: native A/B tests where traffic allows, Custom Product Pages where keyword intent calls for them, and a decision on each result.
- Every month: a report with what shipped, what moved and how you compare with peers in App Store Connect, plus a ranked backlog for the next 30 days.
How to pick an ASO partner for what the fee buys
Price only tells you part of the story. Before you sign, check that the fee pays for these five things.
- A named senior owner. One specialist who knows your account, joins a regular call and can explain every change.
- Transparent reporting. Store data by source against a baseline agreed before work starts, including tests that did not win.
- Experience in your markets. Local keyword research and results per market, not one global report.
- A workflow that fits your product team. Store changes timed to your release cycle and briefs your designers can build from. Icon tests need planning: Apple needs every alternate icon in a Product Page Optimization test to be in your published app binary (Apple). If the drop-off is after the install, in onboarding or on the paywall, the partner should be able to run conversion rate optimization on those screens too.
- A link to the rest of growth. Paid UA data to choose tests, and AEO (answer engine optimization) to see how ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity describe your app.
Admiral Media is one option built around these points. For the full selection checklist, including how to compare proposals priced in parts, the evidence to ask for and twelve questions for the first call, read how to choose an ASO agency, or talk to our team. A senior strategist replies within one business day.
How to judge whether ASO pays back
ASO pays back in two ways: more organic installs, and cheaper paid installs because more of your paid traffic converts on the store page. Both are measurable in App Store Connect and Play Console if you track them against a fixed baseline.
A simple illustration of the paid side: at $1.00 per store visit and a 30% conversion rate, each install costs about $3.33. Lift conversion to 36% and the same visit costs about $2.78 per install. That is a hypothetical calculation, not a client result, but it shows why the fee should be judged against your total acquisition cost rather than in isolation.
Two platform facts make the organic side worth taking seriously. Apple says 65% of App Store downloads start with a search, and it reports that Custom Product Pages lift conversion by 2.5 percentage points on average compared with default pages. Since late 2025 you can also assign keywords to each Custom Product Page so it appears in organic search, which turns them from a paid-only tool into an ASO lever.
No agency can guarantee rankings or a specific lift. Judge an agency on whether its changes are tied to a hypothesis, measured against a baseline and reported honestly, including tests that did not win.
Case study: NeuroNation in Korea, +93% search downloads
NeuroNation, a brain training app, was ranking low or not at all for its top keywords in the Korean App Store. Hangul makes keyword work hard for non-native speakers. Admiral Media’s ASO team researched Korean search terms, analysed competitors and rewrote the App Store title, subtitle and keyword field. The NeuroNation Korea case study reports 93.10% growth in search downloads and 43.95% growth in search impressions from that metadata work.
Red flags in ASO pricing
- A tool login sold as a service. Data is useful, but you are paying for decisions, copy and creative.
- Unlimited tests on a small app. Tests without enough traffic produce noise.
- Changes without your approval. Every metadata and creative change should be shown to you before it goes live.
- A long contract with no written plan. Ask for the 90-day deliverables before you sign.
Guaranteed rankings and help with reviews are red flags too. See how to choose an ASO agency for the full list.
Frequently asked questions
How much does ASO cost per month?
Managed ASO at Admiral Media starts from €2,900 per month for one app on the App Store and Google Play in one market, plus €1,500 per month for each additional market. Agencies that do not publish prices usually scope by the same factors: apps, stores, markets, creative volume and testing.
Do ASO agencies charge per app or per market?
Usually both. We price per segment: one app on both stores in one language is the base fee, and each additional market or language adds a segment. Additional apps are scoped separately because each needs its own research and creative.
What is the difference between ASO agency pricing and ASO tool pricing?
An ASO tool charges a subscription for keyword and competitor data. An agency fee pays for the people who decide what to change, write the metadata, produce the creative and run the tests. Agencies normally use licensed tools as part of that work.
Can I start with a one-time ASO audit?
Yes. The ASO Audit costs €2,500 and includes a keyword gap analysis, a creative review, three competitors and a 90-day roadmap. If you start a retainer within 30 days, the fee is credited to your first month.
How long does it take to see results from ASO?
Metadata changes usually take a few weeks to show in rankings and search downloads, because the stores need time to index them and collect traffic. Creative tests need enough traffic to reach a result, often two to six weeks per test.
Is ASO worth it for small apps?
If your app has little store traffic, start with a one-time audit and a metadata update. Monthly testing only pays off once there is enough traffic for experiments to reach a result.
How do I measure whether my ASO agency is delivering value?
Agree a baseline in App Store Connect and Play Console before work starts: impressions, product page views, conversion by source and downloads from search. Track changes against it every month. Google Play switched from conversion rate to click-through rate in mid-2026, so compare like with like.
What is included in a monthly ASO retainer?
Four kinds of work: store discovery and keyword research per market, metadata for the App Store and Google Play, creative testing of icons, screenshots and preview videos, and a monthly conversion report by source with a ranked backlog. At Admiral Media this starts from €2,900 per month for one app on both stores in one market.
Get a scoped quote for your app
Share your App Store or Google Play link and the markets you care about. A senior ASO specialist replies with next steps and a price based on the table above.
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