Hey everyone!

Today's newsletter: how i made an extra $100k+ at Openсhat, took a new app from $0 to $300/month with simple changes — and why I built localizeshots.com.

Localization brought Openchat a six-figure sum

There are plenty of features that will 100% increase revenue for any mobile app. But for some reason, these features stay stuck in the backlog for months. Because it's always more fun to build new functionality than to implement discount offers or push notifications.

Store and app localization is exactly one of those features that will 100% make you money, but nobody wants to deal with it.

This task was discussed internally from the very launch of the Openchat, but there were always more exciting features in the backlog.

In the end, we got to localizing both the stores and the app itself almost 2 years later.

Results came almost immediately.

For example, we started getting installs from South America – we weren't buying traffic in those countries intentionally (aside from a few tests), but after localizing the stores, organic installs appeared:

Brazil:

Argentina:

And here's how install-to-trial conversion changed in geos like France and Germany:

and

By localizing onboarding and the paywall, we got a noticeable boost in conversion, and as a result – in revenue.

These improvements let you start buying geos that were previously unprofitable and add keywords in Apple Ads that weren't previously showing the right ROI.

And in the countries where I was already spending heavily in Apple Ads, the results got even better.

For example, the Czech Republic and Romania were among the top spenders at the time, and localization enabled us to increase budgets and improve ROAS.

Romania:

Czech Republic:

So not only did our organic traffic increase, but our paid ad performance improved as well.

Case #2: how a zero-revenue app started making $300/month just from localization.

I have a second, experimental app – an AI video generation tool. When I bought it, there was practically no revenue.

The first things I did:

The result: conversion rate increased, and installs and purchases began coming from new countries.

It's hard to say what had the biggest impact, but all metrics improved, and the app went from $0 to $300/month in revenue.

And the revenue isn't just from the US – it's coming from new geos where the store was localized.

Screenshots: the part everyone skips

And then it was time for screenshots.

First, I wanted to make them more converting. Second, they also needed to be localized. And this is where everything breaks down.

I hate working on store screenshots.

The moment I imagine how much time it will take, I immediately lose all motivation.

You need to find a designer, come up with copy, get them designed, run A/B tests – only to see the new screenshots lose to the old ones. Go for round two, and keep going until you find a winner.

Then – you need to localize all of them for all 40 geos available in the App Store.

After that, you need separate screenshot packs for Custom Product Pages to run more targeted ads in Apple Ads.

Every iteration is money, time, and nerves.

That's why I hate working on screenshots.

I had a few options:

In the end, it all led to me building my own service for generating and localizing screenshots, which now lets me generate screenshots for 40 locales in 2 minutes:

localizeshots.com

For my entire career, I've been building apps that solve other people's problems. This is the first time I built something for myself - and I'm very happy with the result.

The way I see it, if software is needed, it should be like this: as simple as possible, solving one task, without hours of learning.

If you want to increase revenue for your current apps, go do your store, screenshots, and app localization right now.

At the very least, store and screenshot localization can now be done in a couple of minutes.