ASO agency review · September 2026
App Media was founded in Sydney in 2009 by Jarrah Robertson, calls itself Australia’s longest-running specialist app marketing agency, and now operates from New Zealand as well. It sells launches, ASO, Apple Search Ads, Google App Campaigns, paid social and, lately, AI app discovery optimisation. Incumbency in a small market is a real advantage for the agency. It is a weaker reason for you to sign.
Thinking about hiring App Media? Avoid. Let me explain what incumbency buys, and what it does not.
Gabriel Machuret · September 2026App Media has a claim few agencies can make: it has been doing app marketing since 2009, the year after the App Store opened, and it has done it in Australia the whole time. Longest-running specialist app agency in the country, a Sydney address in a serious tower, a page for every Australian city and one for New Zealand. If you are an Australian company looking for a local agency, they are the incumbent, and incumbents get the first call. This page is about what that first call actually buys.
Incumbency in a small market works like this. There are only so many app companies in Australia with a marketing budget, and the longest-running agency has met most of them. That gives it references, familiarity, and a sales pitch built on longevity. What it does not give it is depth in your category, because a small market forces a specialist agency to be a generalist: fintech one month, fitness the next, a government app after that. Depth in ASO is category depth. An agency that has survived by serving every category in a small country has breadth by necessity.
The service list shows the same pressure. Launches, ASO, Apple Search Ads, Google App Campaigns, paid social across six platforms, viral video, and now AI app discovery optimisation. That is a full-service menu from a modest team, and each new line is added because the local market is not big enough to support a pure ASO shop. Paid media is where such an agency earns; organic is the door. Your listing gets the process, and the report leans toward the campaigns.
There is also the time-zone argument, which is the strongest one for a local agency and worth taking seriously. Being able to call someone in Sydney during Sydney hours matters. But ASO is not a daily-contact discipline. It is a teardown, a rewrite, a test, a wait, and a handover. The contact you need is a few well-timed conversations with someone who has actually thought about your category, and that person does not need to be in your time zone to be on your listing.
Set that against one consultant with no local office, a fixed client list, and nothing on the menu but the store. The teardown of your listing and your five competitors in your actual markets, which for most Australian apps includes the US and the UK. The rewrite, one creative test at a time, the handover, with dates. The fee is fixed and a fraction of a year’s retainer, and when it ends your team can run the next round in any time zone.
To be fair to them: for an Australian company that wants a local, long-established team to run paid search and social with a light organic pass alongside, and values being able to meet in person, App Media is the sensible local choice and the longevity is genuine. If your listing is the problem and depth in your category matters more than a Sydney address, incumbency is not the qualification. Send over the proposal and I will show you which of its lines actually touch the listing.
02 — Where a local full-service retainer actually goes
Typical agency economics · illustrative, not their booksSearch Ads, app campaigns, paid social across six platforms. The part of the agency that earns with spend.
City landing pages, the longevity story, local networking. Keeping the first call coming.
Your local point of contact, running the meetings and the blended report.
Prestige office overhead, tools, and the owner’s return.
The specialist actually changing your store. About a quarter.
03 — App Media vs one consultant
Same goal: more installs from searchOption A — App Media
Local, long-established, in person
A specialist inside a full-service local team
Monthly retainer
≈ $60,000 at a typical $5k/mo, before ad spend
Blended paid-and-organic deck
Australia and New Zealand first
Renewal, and the paid accounts stay local
Option B — Gabriel, direct Live
Category depth, any time zone
Gabriel, on every deliverable
Fixed scope, fixed fee
$9,500, one engagement
A changelog: what shipped, what it did to search installs
Wherever your installs actually come from
Your team runs ASO without me
04 — Red flags in a local incumbent’s proposal
If you see three, send it to meLongevity presented as the main qualification
ASO bundled with paid search and social
Case studies across unrelated categories with no depth in yours
Organic results reported only inside a blended deck
‘AI discovery’ or similar new lines with no described method
A minimum term matched to the media contract
05 — What ‘longest-running’ says vs what your listing gets
Three things to translate before you signReal longevity, earned by surviving a small market. Surviving a small market means serving every category, and serving every category means depth in none.
Longevity bought breadthA Sydney address and Sydney hours. Valuable for paid media and meetings. ASO needs a few well-timed conversations with someone who knows your category, from anywhere.
Time zone is not depthA new line for a new buzzword. Store ranking still rewards a considered claim in the title and first screenshot, tested slowly. New labels do not change the levers.
New label, same levers06 — Should you avoid App Media?
Honest answer: depends who you are07 — Fair play — what App Media genuinely does well
Credit where it is due07 — Before you sign
I will separate the organic work from the paid and the incumbency, tell you what your listing needs in your actual markets, and quote it as a fixed fee. If a local full-service team is the right call, I will say so.
08 — Objections
For paid media and meetings, yes. ASO is a few well-timed conversations and a lot of careful work. The person doing it needs to know your category, not your postcode.
And have served every category in a small market to survive. Ask for three clients in your category and what happened to their search installs.
I can be on a call in your hours, and I take a fixed number of clients so those calls are with me. The work happens on the listing, not in the meeting room.
Yes. I compete for ASO work. That is why the argument is about incumbency and small-market economics, not competence, and why I have said who should hire them.