Tightrope Interactive tops the charts with #2 in the US weather apps

Tightrope Interactive, a company in the utilities and weather industry, recently expanded into the mobile space with their weather app, SKAI. The highly competitive nature of the weather app market made it challenging for them to rank organically through App Store Optimization (ASO) and to efficiently leverage Apple Ads campaigns. Dan Walsh, VP of Marketing, explains how they turned things around and achieved their goals using MobileAction’s tools for both paid and organic user acquisition.

The challenge

“Before using MobileAction, our ASO efforts were limited. We struggled to gain visibility in a highly competitive market, and SKAI ranked for fewer than 200 organic keywords,” explained Dan. This limited their market presence and competitive edge against established weather apps. Dan added, “As a subscription-based app, understanding our cost-per-subscriber is crucial for maintaining profitability, yet we weren’t able to easily track this metric.” They needed solutions to improve both their organic and paid user acquisition.

The solution

The turning point for Tightrope Interactive came when they began leveraging MobileAction’s suite of products—ASO Intelligence, Compass, and App Intelligence—alongside the SearchAds.com platform. Using keyword research tools like Compass Explore, Keyword Gap, and Keyword Tracking, they analyzed their competitors, discovered strong organic keywords others were using (and many that their competitors weren’t), and monitored the performance of selected keywords. Dan elaborated, “MobileAction’s ASO keyword research tools were instrumental in our rapid growth, allowing us to significantly increase our ranked keywords from the less than 200 organic terms we had achieved with our previous mix of third-party tools.”

Additionally, SearchAds.com’s mobile measurement partner (MMP) integration allowed them to view the full app marketing funnel and track their custom events in one place. Integrating subscriber data from AppsFlyer into SearchAds.com at the keyword level was a critical step. It not only let them see the impact of post-download activities but also enabled them to create automations based on their custom events. “This was vital for our success,” Dan emphasized. “It allowed us to cut keywords that initially seemed relevant and drove installs at a good price but ultimately didn’t generate revenue, and double down on the ones that did.”

Another key benefit MobileAction offered to Tightrope Interactive was exceptional customer support and tailored guidance. The MobileAction team was always available to assist with any questions about the platform or to offer expert advice on ASO and Apple Search Ads campaign optimization. “The onboarding we received helped us get up to speed quickly and allowed us to unlock the full potential of the tools right away. Instead of just scratching the surface we were using MobileAction’s full power from day one.”

"MobileAction’s ASO keyword research tools were instrumental in our rapid growth. Also, by integrating subscriber data from our mobile measurement partner into SearchAds.com at the keyword level, we gained the transparency we needed to refine our campaigns. Over the course of 3 months, we improved ROAS by 69%. I can’t imagine running our UA campaigns without this critical data—it would be like flying blind."

Dan Walsh

VP of Marketing

The results