Patient support, adherence, and digital therapeutics apps live or die on discoverability, but most biotech and pharma teams treat ASO as an afterthought handled by whoever built the app. We build the keyword strategy, listing optimization, and compliant review management the category actually requires.
The Problem
Keyword strategy gets built around brand terms nobody is searching
Most biotech and pharma app listings optimize for the drug or program name, but patients rarely search a brand name they've never heard of before diagnosis. They search the condition, the symptom, or a caregiver-focused phrase. Without keyword research grounded in actual patient search behavior, the app stays invisible to the exact audience it was built to reach, no matter how well it performs once someone finds it.
Review management runs into real regulatory constraints most ASO playbooks ignore
Standard ASO advice says to actively solicit and respond to reviews, but pharma and biotech apps operate under adverse event reporting obligations that make an unmonitored public review section a genuine compliance risk. Most teams either ignore reviews entirely, missing the ranking and conversion benefit, or engage without a process for routing adverse event mentions to pharmacovigilance, which is its own problem.
App store listings read like a regulatory label, not a discoverable product page
Legal and medical review processes, appropriately cautious given the category, often produce listing copy so hedged and clinical that it fails to communicate what the app actually does for a searching, worried patient or caregiver in the first few seconds of a store visit. Conversion from impression to install suffers even when the app itself is genuinely useful, because the listing doesn't earn the tap.
Localization and platform coverage lag behind where patients actually are
Clinical trial recruitment and adherence programs often run across multiple countries and languages, but app store presence frequently stays English-only and iOS-first long after the program has expanded. Patients searching in their own language and on Android, which dominates in many international markets, find nothing, and enrollment or adherence numbers suffer in ways nobody traces back to a listing gap.
How We Help
We start with keyword research built around actual patient and caregiver search behavior for the specific condition or trial, not the program's internal brand name. This usually surfaces a completely different keyword set than what the app is currently optimized for, and it becomes the foundation for every listing decision that follows.
From there we rebuild the listing itself – title, subtitle, screenshots, and description – to communicate what the app does for a searching patient within the first few seconds, while staying inside the medical, legal, and regulatory review process your team already runs. We work within that review cycle rather than around it, translating what legal and medical need to see into copy that still converts, because the two goals aren't actually in conflict once someone frames the tradeoff correctly.
Review management gets a real process instead of silence or unmonitored engagement. We build a routing workflow that flags potential adverse event mentions in reviews to your pharmacovigilance team per your existing safety reporting obligations, while still allowing genuine engagement with non-safety feedback that helps both ranking and future users deciding whether to install. This lets you participate in the review ecosystem app stores reward without creating a compliance gap.
We extend platform and localization coverage to match where your patient population actually is. For multi-country trials or programs, that means store listings in the languages and on the platforms your enrollment or adherence targets require, not just the market where the app happened to launch first. We prioritize this rollout by where patient volume and unmet discoverability actually intersect, not a blanket global rollout that spreads effort thin.
What we deliver
- Patient search research – keyword strategy built around condition and symptom search behavior, not brand terms alone
- Compliant listing optimization – title, screenshots, and description rebuilt for conversion within your medical/legal review process
- Adverse event-aware review management – a routing workflow that lets you engage with reviews inside your pharmacovigilance obligations
- Platform and localization expansion – store presence extended to match actual patient population geography and device usage
A patient app that's clinically excellent but invisible in the store isn't a marketing gap – it's an access gap. The keyword research most biotech teams skip is often the single biggest lever on enrollment or adherence numbers they already have a budget to move.
Our Methodology
We run this as a 90-day sprint built around the two constraints that make biotech and pharma ASO genuinely different from a standard consumer app: real regulatory limits on review engagement, and a review process that tends to produce listing copy too hedged to convert. The first 30 days are diagnostic – patient search keyword research, a listing audit against current medical/legal-approved copy, and a review of your current adverse event reporting process as it relates to app store reviews. Days 30 to 60 rebuild the listing and stand up the compliant review routing workflow, working inside your existing approval cycle rather than trying to bypass it. The final 30 days extend platform and localization coverage and monitor conversion and ranking movement.
What separates this from a generic ASO agency is that most ASO playbooks are built for consumer apps with no regulatory constraints, and applying that playbook directly to a pharma or biotech app either creates compliance risk or gets rejected outright by medical review. We build the process to work inside your actual constraints from day one, because for most programs the problem isn't unwillingness to do ASO well – it's that nobody built a version of ASO that legal, medical, and marketing could all sign off on.
How We Work
The first 30 days are audit and research. We conduct patient and caregiver keyword research for your specific condition or trial, audit your current listing against that research, and map your existing adverse event reporting process to understand what a compliant review workflow needs to look like. Days 30 through 60 are rebuild – new listing copy and creative move through your medical/legal review process with our support translating research into copy that survives that review, and the review routing workflow gets implemented. By day 90 we're extending platform and language coverage and tracking conversion movement.
On our side, the team is an ASO lead who owns keyword strategy and listing optimization, working directly with your medical, legal, and regulatory reviewers rather than around them. From your side, we need app store console access, visibility into your medical/legal review timeline and requirements, and a point of contact on your safety or pharmacovigilance team to align the review routing workflow with existing obligations.
Cadence is weekly during the first 90 days, covering research findings, listing draft status moving through review, and workflow implementation, with async updates as review approvals come through since medical/legal timelines don't always match a weekly rhythm. Typical engagement length is 3 to 6 months for the initial buildout, with many programs continuing on a lighter monitoring retainer once the listing and review workflow are stable, particularly across trial phases or program expansions.
What to expect at each phase: month one surfaces the actual keyword gap between what patients search and what the app currently ranks for. Month two is largely working new listing copy through medical/legal review, which can take longer than a standard marketing timeline given the category. Month three onward is where conversion and installs typically start reflecting the rebuilt listing and expanded coverage.
- Higher app store visibility on patient and caregiver search terms
- Improved impression-to-install conversion from listing rebuild
- Compliant review engagement that supports ranking without adverse event risk
- Expanded enrollment or adherence reach through platform and language coverage
If your biotech & pharma company needs aso leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
How much does an ASO engagement cost for a biotech or pharma company?
Most biotech and pharma ASO engagements with us run $6K-15K monthly, depending on the number of app listings, markets, and the complexity of your medical/legal review process. That's typically less than the cost of a dedicated in-house ASO hire, and it includes navigating regulatory review that a generic ASO agency isn't equipped to handle. Multi-country programs with several languages sit toward the higher end.
How long before we see results from an ASO engagement?
Keyword research and initial listing recommendations are typically ready within the first 2-3 weeks, but timeline to live changes depends heavily on your medical/legal review cycle, which can add several weeks beyond a standard marketing timeline. Ranking and conversion improvements usually show up within 30-60 days of the new listing going live.
How does the ASO team integrate with our existing staff?
We work directly with your medical, legal, and regulatory reviewers to move listing copy through your existing approval process, rather than trying to bypass it. Weekly working sessions cover research and draft status with your marketing or digital health lead. If you have an in-house app team, we become the ASO specialist layer that understands both app store mechanics and your compliance constraints.
What makes Winston Francois different from a traditional ASO agency?
Most ASO agencies apply a consumer app playbook that either ignores your adverse event reporting obligations or gets rejected by medical/legal review before it ever ships. We build keyword strategy and review workflows that work inside your actual regulatory constraints from the start. We operate as an embedded team accountable to installs and enrollment, not a generic optimization checklist.
How do you measure ROI from an ASO engagement?
We track store search ranking on patient and caregiver keyword terms, impression-to-install conversion rate, and where possible, downstream enrollment or adherence metrics the app was built to support. Because ASO's business impact runs through enrollment or adherence rather than direct revenue in most biotech and pharma cases, we tie reporting to whichever of those metrics your program is actually accountable for.
What type of biotech or pharma company is the right fit for this service?
Companies with a patient-facing app – adherence support, digital therapeutic, or clinical trial engagement – where enrollment or usage is below what the underlying patient population would suggest are the best fit. Programs expanding into new markets or languages where app store presence hasn't kept pace also see fast impact. The first step is the patient search keyword research against your current listing.
