Moburst Unveils AI-Driven Mobile Growth Playbook for App Publishers
A growing share of app discovery now starts outside the traditional app stores, with a significant portion taking place through AI-mediated search sessions. Industry research indicates that this trend is set to continue, with forecasts suggesting a substantial shift towards AI chatbots and assistants in organic search volume. For app publishers, this means users can research, compare, and make informed decisions about an app before ever opening a store listing.
The increasing importance of AI-driven discovery has led to a surge in demand for mobile growth marketing agencies that specialize in Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). However, the pool of specialist vendors is still relatively small. Many general SEO shops have added AEO expertise to their service pages without developing mobile-specific measurement capabilities, leaving procurement teams with limited options.
A key challenge facing app publishers is finding a vendor that can effectively connect AEO work to an app’s existing App Store Optimization (ASO) program. This requires fluency in the app-store-specific layer, including Apple’s automatically generated App Store Tags and Google Play’s Guided Search. Generalist SEO agencies often lack this expertise, which can lead to mismatched expectations and underwhelming results.
Moburst, a full-service mobile marketing agency, has formalized an AI-driven mobile growth playbook aimed at helping app publishers get recommended by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. The company’s approach focuses on connecting AEO work directly to an app’s existing ASO program, treating citation performance and store ranking as interconnected components rather than separate budgets.
According to Jessican Abadia, VP Organic at Moburst, ‘mobile publishers don’t need another generic SEO vendor with an AI label bolted on. They need a partner that already understands how app store algorithms work, because that is the foundation this entire discipline sits on top of.’ This emphasis on mobile-specific expertise highlights the importance of selecting a vendor with experience in app-store optimization.
Procurement teams evaluating AEO vendors should consider several key factors when making their decision. First and foremost, they need to assess whether the agency has demonstrated fluency in the app-store-specific layer. This includes understanding how App Store Tags interact with AI-assisted browse discovery and how third-party mentions on sites like Product Hunt get weighted by AI systems answering app-recommendation questions.
Additionally, teams should ask about an agency’s approach to localization. An app marketed across multiple regions needs its AEO signals consistent in each market’s dominant language and each region’s preferred AI assistant. This is a different problem than localizing a single corporate website, requiring specialized knowledge of regional preferences and cultural nuances.
When evaluating potential vendors, procurement teams should ask for examples of App Store Tag optimization work, a description of how the agency handles Google Play’s Guided Search specifically, and a concrete account of how citation tracking connects back to existing ASO reporting. This will help ensure that the chosen vendor has a comprehensive understanding of mobile-specific AEO requirements.
Moburst’s innovation lies in starting from AEO and letting it inform everything else the firm does, rather than treating it as one channel among many. The company tracks AEO on its own but also uses what it learns from AI citation patterns to shape ASO, paid acquisition, and creative decisions across the board. This integrated approach allows Moburst to guide changes to metadata, messaging, or targeting elsewhere based on shifts in how an app shows up in AI answers.
For CIOs and marketing leaders, selecting a vendor that can effectively connect AEO work to an app’s existing ASO program is crucial. The industry hype surrounding AI assistants should not overshadow the importance of finding a partner with genuine expertise in mobile-specific optimization. Questions about how a vendor built its approach are more useful right now than any ranking or award.