How Zupee grew organic downloads by 134% after rebuilding its ASO for free-to-play

Key takeaways

Challenge

Until October 2025, Zupee’s organic visibility on Google Play was closely tied to real-money gaming (RMG) intent. Its keyword strategy and store positioning were built around that model.

But when regulations in India changed, Zupee had to remove all real-money mechanics and related terminology from its Play Store listing. Keywords that had historically driven installs were no longer usable, and compliance risk was high.

At the same time, Zupee now needed to compete in the broader Board Games category against free-to-play apps that had spent years building visibility around those searches.

Before AppTweak, the team relied primarily on a market intelligence tool for keyword research and rank tracking. This supported monitoring, but it wasn’t enough to rebuild discovery and conversion at scale – particularly across keyword strategy, competitive research, and custom store listing (CSL) visibility.

The initiative was led by Zupee’s organic marketing team, with strategy set by Saumil Shah and Lekhika Dhariyal and execution driven by Mohit Singh and Sanchi Gupta. Their KPI was clear: sustained growth in organic downloads. Every change needed to deliver measurable impact.

Solution

Zupee used AppTweak as its core workflow to rebuild ASO under a fully free-to-play positioning.

1. Rebuilding keyword coverage around free-to-play intent

The team shifted from money-intent searches to compliant free-to-play and board game discovery.

Using AppTweak’s Keyword Research, Zupee:

• Identified high-intent free-to-play and gaming keywords aligned with the new positioning
• Re-prioritized toward broader category-level discovery terms
• Benchmarked metadata strategies used by leading free-to-play competitors

This created a structured framework to rebuild the store listing and expand into a scalable, compliant keyword set.

2. Using competitor visibility to guide execution

With AppTweak’s competitor analysis features, Zupee tracked how top apps were executing on Google Play across metadata, store presence, and promotional content.

One clear gap was promotions – competitors were more active and visible. Based on those insights, Zupee introduced relevant promotional content aligned with key moments and user intent, strengthening visibility in competitive searches.

3. Launching intent-matched custom store listings (CSLs)

Through AppTweak, Zupee identified when competitors were ranking for high-value keywords using personalized custom store listings rather than their default listing.

After gathering insights, the team launched targeted CSLs with aligned creatives and messaging so store visitors saw an experience that directly matched to what they searched for.

4. Turning review feedback into reinstall growth

Finally, Zupee used AppTweak’s sentiment analysis to identify recurring themes in negative reviews, including concerns about bots, unfair gameplay, and stability.

Those insights informed new CSLs targeting users who had previously uninstalled the app. CSL messaging addressed these concerns directly – highlighting Zupee’s real-player gameplay, improved stability, and 24/7 support.

Results

Within three months of rebuilding its ASO strategy for free-to-play, Zupee achieved measurable organic growth vs. the October baseline:

• November: Organic installs declined by ~20% after restricted keywords were removed
• December: Organic downloads had grown +47% vs. the October baseline
• January: Organic downloads had grown by +134%

Keyword visibility followed a similar trajectory:

• November: -50% keywords ranking in the top 3
• December: +80%
• January: +133%

Alongside download and visibility growth, Zupee strengthened its overall presence on Google Play:

• Reached No. 2 in Top Free Board Games charts in India
• Featured in the Top Free Apps 2025 collection
• Recovered ~25% of previously uninstalled users through targeted CSLs

By rebuilding keyword coverage, using competitor insights to guide execution, and launching intent-matched CSLs, Zupee successfully repositioned itself within the free-to-play gaming category while scaling organic growth.