How to run a free-download promo for your iOS app launch

If you've just shipped an iOS app, the biggest problem you have isn't quality — it's that nobody knows it exists yet. A free-download promo, run in a tight window around launch, is one of the few genuinely effective levers an indie developer has to fix that without spending on ads.

Why velocity matters more than volume

The App Store's ranking algorithm weighs download velocity — how fast downloads are happening relative to your app's baseline — more heavily than raw cumulative downloads. A hundred downloads spread evenly over a month barely register. A hundred downloads in 48 hours can meaningfully move your position in category charts and search, which in turn drives more organic downloads. That compounding effect is the entire point of concentrating a giveaway into a short window instead of trickling codes out over weeks.

When to run it

Launch week is the highest-leverage moment: you have no existing baseline to move, so a burst has the largest relative effect. The next best window is right after a significant update — a version bump gives you a second, smaller version of the same effect, and a reason to re-engage anyone who missed the first round.

How to structure it

1. Pick the mechanism. For a paid app, App Store offer codes let people install for free without ever entering payment details — the best option for a cold-outreach giveaway, since there's no purchase-then-refund friction. See our comparison of offer codes vs. promo codes if you're not sure which one applies to your app.
2. Generate more codes than you think you need. Not every code gets redeemed — expect some falloff between someone clicking "claim" and actually installing. Apple lets you generate offer codes in batches of up to 100 per campaign at a time.
3. Concentrate the window. Set the promotion to run for a few days, not a few weeks. A shorter window with the same total code count produces a sharper velocity spike.
4. Distribute where your actual audience is, not just broadly — indie-dev communities (r/iOSProgramming, r/apple, Indie Hackers), your own social following, and app-deal sites like this one all reach people who are specifically looking for exactly this.
5. Watch your ranking, not just claim count. Claims tell you the promo worked; ranking movement tells you whether it actually reached enough people fast enough to matter. If ranking doesn't move, the window was probably too spread out or the code count too low relative to your app's category.

What it won't fix

A download burst gets people to install. It doesn't make them stay if the app itself doesn't hold up — and a spike in installs followed by a spike in uninstalls or 1-star reviews can hurt more than it helps. Run this once you're confident in the first-run experience, not before.