ASO agency review · September 2026
SplitMetrics was founded in 2015 by Max Kamenkov as A/B testing software for app store pages, added Apple Ads automation, and later stood up a services arm, now called SplitMetrics Growth Services. It also owns App Radar. When a software group sells managed ASO, the service has two customers: you, and the product roadmap. Here is what that does to your engagement.
Thinking about hiring SplitMetrics’ agency? Avoid. Let me explain what a services arm is for.
Gabriel Machuret · September 2026SplitMetrics is a software company. It built one of the best-known A/B testing tools for app store pages, then an Apple Ads automation platform, then in 2023 bought App Radar to add an ASO tool. The services arm, formerly SplitMetrics Agency and now Growth Services, sits on top of all that. I want to be careful here, because the products are genuinely good and the services team knows them well. The problem is not competence. It is what a services arm is for inside a software company.
Software companies build services teams for three reasons: to make big customers successful so they renew, to generate case studies that sell the product, and to feed the roadmap with real-world usage. Every one of those is legitimate, and every one of those means the service is a means to an end that is not your listing. Your engagement is priced, staffed and reported in a way that serves the software business first. The people on it are excellent at the tools because the tools are the point.
That shows up in the shape of the work. A SplitMetrics engagement is organised around what the platform does: pre-launch A/B tests on landing pages, Apple Ads campaigns run through the automation, keyword tracking through the acquired tool. Those are useful activities. But the most important ASO decisions are made before any test runs: what your first screenshot should claim, which terms deserve the title, whether your category rewards a feature list or a feeling. A testing tool cannot answer those. It can only tell you which of two things you already thought of did better. If both are wrong, the test is expensive confirmation.
There is also the Apple Ads dimension. SplitMetrics’ largest software line is Apple Ads automation, and the services arm manages spend through it. That gives the organic work a paid neighbour with daily dashboards and a percentage-of-spend logic, and the same imbalance you see at every media-adjacent agency: paid fills the report, organic gets a slide, and the retainer follows the report.
Compare that with hiring one consultant with no software to demo and no spend to manage. The teardown, in which the hard decisions are actually made. The rewrite. One creative hypothesis at a time, tested with whatever tool fits, including theirs if it is the right one. The handover, with dates. My only incentive is that the listing works. The fee is fixed and a fraction of a year of managed services, and when it ends, your team owns the reasoning and can use any product it likes.
In fairness: if you are already a SplitMetrics software customer, run large Apple Ads budgets, and want the vendor’s own people operating both, the services arm is the coherent choice and their platform knowledge is unmatched. If you want independent judgment on what your listing should say, before any test is designed, the services arm is the wrong place to buy it. Send me their proposal and I will show you what the thinking costs without the product attached.
02 — Where a software-company services fee actually goes
Typical agency economics · illustrative, not their booksTwo software platforms plus an acquired tool. The engineering bill is shared across every customer, managed ones included.
The services arm generates case studies and expansions. Its cost is a sales cost.
Managing spend through the automation platform: analysts, dashboards, daily attention.
Your point of contact, plus the group’s management and finance across brands.
The specialist actually changing your store, working in the platforms. About a quarter.
03 — SplitMetrics Agency vs one consultant
Same goal: more installs from searchOption A — SplitMetrics Agency
Services arm of a software group
Test results in the platform
Platform specialists, via an account manager
Managed services retainer
≈ $72,000 at a typical $6k/mo, before ad spend and seats
Managed through their automation
Renewal, and the platforms stay theirs
Option B — Gabriel, direct Live
One consultant, no software
The teardown, before any test
Gabriel, on every deliverable
Fixed scope, fixed fee
$9,500, one engagement
Set up, handed over, your team runs it
Your team runs ASO with any tool
04 — Red flags in a software-company services proposal
If you see three, send it to meSoftware seats required as a condition of the service
Testing proposed before anyone has stated what the first screenshot should claim
Apple Ads management bundled with organic work
Success measured in test wins and ranking movement, not search installs
Case studies that are really product case studies
A minimum term matched to the subscription
05 — What the platform says vs what your listing needs
Three things to translate before you signA/B tests tell you which of two ideas did better. They cannot generate the idea, and they cannot tell you both were wrong. The decision comes before the tool.
Tests confirm; people decidePre-launch tests, Apple Ads, ASO and analytics from one vendor. Each step runs through a product the vendor sells. The cycle is theirs.
The cycle is a funnelExperts in the software, which is real. Judgment about your category comes from having lived in it, which no platform certification provides.
Product experts, not category experts06 — Should you avoid SplitMetrics Agency?
Honest answer: depends who you are07 — Fair play — what SplitMetrics genuinely does well
Credit where it is due07 — Before you sign
I will separate the thinking from the tooling, tell you what your listing should say before any test is designed, and quote that as a fixed fee. If their platform-led service fits you, I will say so.
08 — Objections
It is rigorous at choosing between ideas. The quality of the ideas is decided earlier, by a person. Rigorous testing of two weak screenshots gives you a rigorously chosen weak screenshot.
Then their services are coherent. Ask whether the managed work would differ from what a good consultant could do in the same tool, and compare the totals.
If they fit your category and budget, yes, and I would hand the setup to your team. I have no platform loyalty.
Yes. I compete for ASO work. That is why the argument is about software-company services economics, not competence, and why I have credited their products.