The iOS app launch checklist, from App Review to day 30

The approval email from App Review feels like the finish line. It's closer to the start. If the release is left on automatic, the app goes out as soon as it's approved, before anyone knows it exists.

That's why this list starts weeks before the approval email, and why it doesn't stop on launch day.

It's written for one person shipping one iOS app. Every rule links to Apple's or Product Hunt's own page, and the sources at the end say when I checked them.

What should you do three weeks or more before launch?

• Nominate the app for App Store featuring. You do it in App Store Connect, and it's free. Apple's help page asks for a minimum lead time of 3 weeks, and its featuring page suggests up to three months ahead for wider consideration.
• Set the release to manual. App Store Connect lets you release a version manually, automatically, or automatically after a date you pick. Leave it on automatic and App Review picks your launch day.
• Open pre-orders if people are already waiting. A new app can take pre-orders with a release date between two and 180 days out.
• Run a public TestFlight beta. You can invite up to 10,000 external testers, by email or with a public link. Those testers are your first launch-day audience.
• Join Product Hunt now if you'll launch there. Product Hunt recommends joining three months or more ahead, and a new account has to wait one week before it can post.

Is your product page ready?

Most of the page is set once and frozen until your next version. Check these limits before you submit:

Three keyword rules from Apple's search guide:

• Separate keywords with commas and no spaces.
• Don't repeat words that are already in your app name, subtitle or category.
• Skip plurals of words you've already used. Apple treats them as duplicates.

The keyword field is counted in bytes in App Store Connect, though Apple's marketing pages say characters. An accented letter takes two bytes. If your keywords aren't plain English, count bytes.

Use promotional text for launch week. It's the one line you can rewrite on launch morning without waiting for review.

What should you prepare the week before?

• Make a campaign link for every place you'll post. App Store Connect builds links with a provider token (pt) and a campaign token (ct), and its analytics then shows product page views, downloads and sales for each one. Without them, launch week arrives as one undivided number.
• Write each launch post now, in that place's style. An X post, a Reddit post and a Product Hunt description are three different things. Writing them on the day is how they end up as one post pasted three times.
• Check each community's self-promotion rules. Subreddits and forums differ a lot. The Launch Map has the rules for each place, checked on its own site and dated.
• Pick the day. Product Hunt launches go live at 12:01 AM Pacific and can be scheduled up to 30 days ahead. Their own numbers say weekend launches get 15% more Visit clicks than weekday ones.

What happens on launch day?

• Release the version yourself in App Store Connect.
• Post in the places you chose, each with its own campaign link.
• On Product Hunt, post a first comment as the maker. Product Hunt says 70% of Product of the Day, Week or Month winners had one.
• Don't ask anyone for upvotes. Product Hunt's guide says to never ask outright.
• Reply to every comment the same day, including the critical ones.

Two or three places done properly beat ten done badly. You can't reply properly in ten places in one day, and replies are most of what launch day is.

What should you do in the first week?

• Ask for a rating at a good moment, not on first open. The system shows the prompt at most three times per app in a 365-day period, so spend it after someone finishes something they came for.
• Read your campaign links every day. Which post sent people who downloaded? Which one only sent views?
• Ship the first fix quickly, in phases if you're nervous. A phased release rolls an update out over 7 days to people with automatic updates on.

What should you do from day 8 to day 30?

• Match the page to the people. You can publish up to 70 custom product pages, each with its own link. Send Reddit readers to screenshots that answer what Reddit asked.
• Plan an in-app event if something real is happening. Events can appear in App Store search results.
• Launch somewhere new each week. Don't treat week one as the whole launch. Directories, newsletters and press can still be ahead of you, and the Launch Map has them in order.
• Write down what worked. One paragraph per place: what you posted, what it sent, and whether you'd do it again. You'll want it for the next launch.

What should you skip?

• Launching everywhere on the same day. You won't keep up with the replies.
• Paying for votes or traffic. Product Hunt's own rule is do not pay anyone to hunt or send traffic to your product.
• Ads in week one. Until you know which free channel works, you don't know what an ad is competing with.