The week you launch is too late to start marketing.
I've seen founders spend twelve months on product and twelve days on go-to-market. Then they're surprised when day-one installs are flat. The apps that hit category charts - Driving Lessons+ going #1 in Education across Australia and the UK in two months, for example - did the unglamorous pre-launch work months earlier.
This is the checklist we walk through with every Australian team that engages us for pre-launch planning.
Strategic foundation (T-12 to T-8 weeks)
- One-sentence positioning. "An app for X who want to do Y, instead of doing Z." If you can't say it clearly, your App Store listing won't either.
- Keyword research before copy. The terms your audience searches for should drive positioning - not the other way around.
- Competitive review. Top 10 apps in your category: their listings, reviews, pricing. Find the wedge.
- Day-one and 30-day install targets. Every other decision anchors to these numbers.
App Store and Google Play (T-8 to T-4 weeks)
- Metadata draft - title, subtitle, descriptions, keyword set. Readable for humans, tuned for ranking.
- Screenshot suite - 5–10 variants minimum. First three carry most of the conversion weight.
- 15–30 second preview video - motion in the first 3 seconds.
- Icon tested at thumbnail size - squint at it next to competitors in greyscale.
- TestFlight / Play beta tracks live - internal and external testing configured before launch week chaos.
Paid acquisition setup (T-4 to T-2 weeks)
- Apple Search Ads account built - discovery, brand, category, competitor structures ready. Don't spend yet.
- Google App Campaigns ready - cross-platform Universal App Campaigns (UAC) plus Play-specific campaigns if Android matters.
- Meta Ads Manager - Conversions API (CAPI) wired, audiences and creative loaded.
- TikTok Ads (if relevant) - under-35, visual-led categories only.
- MMP live - AppsFlyer, Adjust, or Singular reporting cleanly before launch day.
Content, PR, and discoverability (T-4 to T-1 weeks)
- Launch-week PR - AU tech press (StartupDaily, SmartCompany, etc.), category trade press, podcast outreach.
- Content calendar - first 30 days: founder story, customer proof, category point of view.
- Community activation - Product Hunt if relevant, Reddit/Discord/category forums where your users actually are.
- Website and FAQ clarity - confirm your marketing site states app name, category, pricing, platforms, and region in plain text. AI assistants and search engines both parse this before launch narrative hardens.
- AI visibility baseline - run the free AI App Visibility Check or follow How to check if AI is recommending your app to see whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, and similar tools would recommend you or your competitors. Fix gaps now - it is harder to rewrite narrative after launch.
Launch day
Coordinated push: store live, press out, ASA and Google campaigns on, Meta/TikTok creative live, founder posts published, community threads active. One orchestrated moment beats a drip of half-finished activations.
Australian specifics that actually matter
- Timing - Tuesday to Thursday morning AEDT/AEST for consumer apps is usually strongest.
- Press lead time - brief AU tech journalists at least two weeks ahead, not the night before.
- Featuring submission - Apple editorial consideration via App Store Connect, ideally 8 weeks out.
- Regulated categories - finance, health, gambling: budget extra time for App Store review and AU compliance (ASIC, TGA, etc.).
Common mistakes
Launching without an MMP. Spending big on cold paid in week one before you know CPI or retention. Ignoring day-one ratings (they skew the next 90 days of organic conversion). Treating launch day as the finish line instead of the start of a 30-day sprint.
Pre-launch is the highest-leverage marketing you'll do
Well-executed pre-launch can deliver 10x the installs of a "ship and hope" approach for the same downstream spend. The listing, the tracking, the campaigns ready to flip on - that's what separates apps that momentum from apps that stall.
Want a pre-launch review? Apply for a strategy call with me - I read every application.