Machuret / ASO, no agency

ASO agency review · September 2026

Apptamin review: beautiful app previews. Avoid mistaking a video studio for an ASO strategy.

Apptamin, founded in the south of France in 2012, makes app preview videos, promo videos and game trailers, and writes a well-read blog about ASO. The videos are good. The confusion is that a lot of developers hire Apptamin thinking they are hiring ASO, and then wonder why a polished preview video did not change their search installs. It could not. Here is why.

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Thinking about hiring Apptamin for ASO? Avoid. Let me explain what a video actually does on a listing.

Gabriel Machuret · September 2026

Apptamin is an unusual entry on a list of ASO agencies, because strictly it is not one. It is a creative studio, around since 2012, that makes app preview videos, promotional videos and game trailers, and it happens to publish one of the better blogs about App Store Optimization. That blog is how most people find them, and it is how the confusion starts. Reading about ASO on a video studio’s site leads people to believe the video is the ASO. It is not, and the distinction is worth a few hundred pounds of your money and a few months of your time.

Here is what a preview video does on a store page. On iOS it autoplays in search results and on the product page, and for some categories, mostly games and highly visual apps, it can lift conversion. For most apps it is watched by a minority of visitors, and the first screenshot does far more work than the video does. Apple’s own placement tells you this: the video occupies the first slot and the screenshots follow, but the majority of tap-throughs are decided by what is visible without pressing play. A great video on a listing with a weak title, an untested first screenshot and a keyword field nobody has interrogated is a beautiful thing that changes very little.

Now consider what a video studio is optimised for. Production quality, storytelling, motion, sound. Those are craft skills and Apptamin has them. What a studio is not optimised for is the boring, decisive layer beneath: keyword architecture, subtitle copy, the claim in screenshot one, the test that proves it. A studio will sell you a video because that is what it makes. It will not sell you a rewritten keyword field, because that is not on the shelf. And the video will be priced as a studio prices things, per project, with revisions and a retainer option for ongoing creative.

The sequencing problem is real. If you commission the video before the listing’s message has been decided and tested, the video will be built on an unproven claim. Then, when the screenshot test shows a different claim converts better, the video is out of date and the money is spent. Creative should follow the test, not lead it.

Compare that with hiring one consultant who does not make videos and will tell you plainly whether you need one. The teardown, the rewrite, the first-screenshot test, the handover, with dates. If the test shows your category rewards motion, I will write the brief for a video with a proven message, and you can commission it from a studio like Apptamin knowing it is built on something that already works. The ASO fee is fixed and the video, if you need it, is a separate per-project purchase from people who are good at it.

In fairness: if you already know your listing’s message, have tested it, and want a high-quality preview video or trailer made by people who understand the stores, Apptamin is a very good choice and their blog is worth your time regardless. If you came here for ASO, a video is step four, not step one. Send me their proposal and I will tell you whether your listing is ready for it.

02 — What the showreel says vs what moves a listing

Hover a row to unredact

App preview video

Autoplays, looks wonderful, and is watched by a minority of visitors in most categories. The first screenshot decides more tap-throughs than the video does.

Translation: Screenshot one wins

ASO expertise

A genuinely good blog about ASO, written by a studio that sells video. The advice is sound. The product on the shelf is the video, whatever the advice says.

Translation: Read the blog, buy carefully

Localized versions

A video per storefront is a real cost multiplier. Before paying it, know whether the claim in the video has been tested in even one storefront.

Translation: Test before you multiply

03 — Where a video-studio fee actually goes

Typical agency economics · illustrative, not their books
$36,000a year at a typical $3,000/month retainer$27,360of it never touches your app store listing

Production capacity. Motion designers, editors, sound. A studio keeps its bench busy, and the bench is on every quote.

Revisions & project management. Rounds of feedback, versions per storefront, coordination.

Content & marketing. The ASO blog that brought you here is a marketing cost, and a good one.

Overhead & margin. Studio, software, and the owners’ return.

Change to what converts. The part of a video that actually moves the listing. For most categories, less than a quarter of the value.

04 — Red flags when buying video before ASO

If you see three, send it to me
  1. A video proposed before your first screenshot has a measured conversion rate
  2. Localized video versions quoted before the primary message is tested
  3. ‘ASO’ on the proposal when the deliverable is only a video
  4. A retainer for ongoing creative on a listing that has never been tested
  5. No mention of the title, subtitle or keyword field anywhere
  6. Revisions priced as the main line item

05 — Apptamin vs one consultant

Same goal: more installs from search
ApptaminGabriel, direct
What they makeVideos and trailersDecisions: keywords, claims, tests
Where it sits in the processStep four, done firstSteps one to three, in order
Who does the workA production team via a project managerGabriel, on every deliverable
PricingPer video, plus revisions; retainer optionalFixed scope, fixed fee
Typical 12-month spend≈ $36,000 at $3k/mo of ongoing creative$9,500, one engagement
Video, if neededMade by them, on your briefBriefed by me, on a tested message, made by whoever you choose
When it endsYou have a videoYour team runs ASO without me

06 — Fair play — what Apptamin genuinely does well

Credit where it is due

07 — Should you avoid Apptamin?

Honest answer: depends who you are

Avoid if

You came here for ASO and would be buying a video insteadYour listing’s message has never been testedYour category is not highly visualYou would be paying for localized versions of an unproven claim

Hire them if

Your message is tested and you now need a great video or trailerYou are a game or a visual app where motion clearly convertsYou want a creative studio that actually understands the stores

07 — Before you sign

Send me
Apptamin’s
quote.

I will tell you whether your listing is ready for a video, what needs to be decided and tested first, and quote that as a fixed fee. If you are ready and the video is the right next step, I will say so and write the brief.

One reply from Gabriel. Same scope, fixed fee, or an honest ‘sign with them’.

08 — Objections

“Doesn’t every serious app need a preview video?” +

Games and visual apps benefit most. For many categories the video is watched by a minority and the first screenshot does the work. Test the message before you spend on motion.

“Can you make the video?” +

No. I brief it on a tested message and you commission it from a studio. Apptamin is a good one. The brief is the part that makes the money worthwhile.

“Their blog is excellent. Doesn’t that mean they know ASO?” +

They do, and the blog is worth reading. Knowing ASO and selling ASO are different; what is on their shelf is video.

“Is this review biased?” +

Yes. I compete for ASO work. That is why the argument is about sequencing and what a video can do, not about their craft, which I have credited.

Apptamin quoted you? Test the message before you film it.Send their proposal