Avantgrade review: an SEO agency that sells ASO. Avoid the assumption that search is search.

Avantgrade is a respected Italian search agency. Since 2011 it has done SEO for brands in fashion, beauty and manufacturing, and it has been quicker than most to fold AI into its work and to talk about visibility across Google, app stores and the new answer engines as one problem. That framing is attractive, especially to a marketing director who already trusts them with the website. It is also the reason I would not buy ASO from them, because it rests on an idea that is wrong in practice: that the app stores are just another search engine.

They are not. Google indexes the open web and ranks pages on hundreds of signals including links from other sites. The App Store and Google Play index a closed catalogue and rank apps on a small set of signals the developer controls directly, title, subtitle, keyword field, plus signals the developer earns, conversion rate, ratings, retention, velocity. There are no backlinks. Description text barely matters on iOS. The first screenshot matters more than any paragraph. An SEO team applies its instincts and produces a keyword-rich long description, a content calendar and a report about visibility, and none of it moves the levers the stores actually use.

AI does not fix this. Generating metadata variants faster produces more of the wrong kind of variant. What the stores reward is a considered claim in the title and the first screenshot, tested one variable at a time, and patience while the ranking responds. That is craft with a slow feedback loop, and it is precisely the kind of work a fast, AI-augmented search agency finds unrewarding, because there is nothing to optimise daily.

There is also the client base. Avantgrade’s strength is Italian brands in beauty, fashion and manufacturing, and its ASO case studies come from the same world: brand apps for companies whose main business is elsewhere. That is different from an app company whose store listing is the front door to the business. The instincts, the benchmarks and the urgency are set by a world where the app is a companion, not the product.

Compare that with hiring one consultant who has never done SEO and does not confuse the two. The teardown of your listing and your five competitors in the store, not on Google. The rewrite of the fields the stores actually rank. One screenshot hypothesis tested against another. 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 without an SEO agency or an AI.

In fairness: if Avantgrade already runs your SEO well, and your app is a companion to a larger brand business, a light ASO pass from the same team keeps things simple and their search expertise is real on the web. If your app is your business and the listing is what needs work, buy it from someone whose only search engine is the App Store. Send me their proposal and I will show you which lines are SEO habits and which are store work.