ASO on the App Store used to be simple: one name, one subtitle, a hundred characters of keywords and one set of screenshots for everyone. Someone searching for "voice journal" and someone searching for "private journal" saw the same page and the same first three screenshots.
As of October 2026 that's no longer true. You can spread your keywords across custom product pages, and each of those pages now has its own header and its own search results image. That gives you a chain: search → its own page → its own image. Below is how to build it and where it stops.
The technical details (sizes, formats, rejection rules) are in the first article. This one is only about how to use them.
What hasn't changed#
The same three fields are indexed: the name (30 characters), the subtitle (30) and the hidden keyword field (100). The description, promotional text and What's New play no part in search. Apple doesn't claim that creative affects ranking. Its job is different: it decides whether someone taps your app after seeing it in results, and through installs it affects your positions too.
Keep that in mind: the new tools work on conversion and don't replace keyword work. If your app doesn't show up for a query, no header will help.
Link one: custom pages for keywords#
Custom Product Pages have been around for a long time as an advertising tool. In July 2025 Apple let you assign keywords from your keyword field to them, and they became part of organic search. If your app ranks for an assigned keyword, people see the custom page in search instead of the default one.
Numbers to rely on:
- up to 70 custom product pages per app (up from 35);
- each has its own screenshots, previews, promotional text, keywords and deep link, plus its own URL;
- deep links work on iOS and iPadOS 18 and later and only start working once the page is approved.
You can only assign words that are already in the app's keyword field. A custom page adds no new keywords. It solves a different problem: who among the people who found you sees what.
Link two: the search image for that query#
Since 5 October, a custom page, like the default one, has fields for the header and the search results asset. That closes the chain. For the search asset, Apple's advice is "state the obvious": people in search are looking for something specific, so the image should confirm they found it.
Which gives a simple rule: the search asset on a custom page repeats the meaning of its keywords. The page for "voice journal" shows dictation in search. The page for "private journal" shows how privacy works.
One caveat you should know. Apple says search creative can be tailored to the context of a search, but the documentation describes no separate "this keyword, this image" mechanism. As far as I can tell from the docs, matching to a query happens precisely through assigning keywords to a custom page with its own asset. If Apple later describes something finer, I'll update this article.
A real example#
Take my journal app Lanternly. In September I gathered search demand for it: App Store suggestions for the US and Russia, plus Google Trends. That produced clusters, and the pages are built around them.
| Query cluster | What to show in the header and search |
|---|---|
| voice journal | dictating an entry and the resulting text |
| private journal | a screen with no sign-in and the line "data stays on device" |
| journal app for mac | the journal on a Mac next to an iPhone |
| gratitude journal | a filled-in gratitude entry |
According to Google Trends (US, five-year window), "private journal" and "voice journal" grew several times over in the last year compared with the year before. That's a signal of demand, not a traffic promise: part of the growth came from a spike after WWDC in June.
People do search for "private", but almost nobody types "no account". So "no sign-up" is an argument for the image on the page, not a keyword. You only see this in real suggestions, which is why I build clusters from data.
Link three: the header for people who arrive directly#
Everyone who opens the page sees the header: from search, from a link, from a collection. Here Apple's advice is different: one clear idea for someone seeing the app for the first time.
On the default page that's usually the core idea of the product. On a custom page it continues the thought the person arrived with. If they searched for a voice journal and tapped an image of dictation, the header shouldn't greet them with something generic about "a journal for everything".
The cheapest start is a universal 5244 × 2950 asset. One image covers both the header and search, and you make dedicated ones for the main clusters later.
Test instead of guessing#
The default page has product page optimization (A/B tests): up to three treatments against the current page, running for up to 90 days. Since 5 October, treatments can include creative assets, so you can test the header. When a treatment is applied, its assets replace the default ones.
For custom pages, look at App Analytics: each page's conversion is shown separately. If a cluster page converts worse than the default page, the cluster may be wrong, and the search image is the first thing to look at.
Seasonality without a new version#
Changing images used to mean shipping an update. Now you can upload assets to the Asset Library and submit them for review separately from a version, ahead of time. An approved asset goes into the header, search or a custom page without another review.
In-App Events serve the same purpose: up to 10 events published at once, up to 15 approved per app, lasting from 15 minutes to 31 days. A holiday header and a holiday event can be approved in November and switched on when the time comes.
A plan for one evening#
If you have one app and no marketing department, this is the order I'd go in:
- Gather 3–5 query clusters from real App Store suggestions.
- Check that the words from those clusters are already in your keyword field. If not, fix the keyword field first, then everything else.
- Make a universal 5244 × 2950 asset for the default page.
- For the two main clusters, create custom pages with assigned keywords, their own first screenshots and their own search asset.
- Submit the assets for review through the library without waiting for a release.
- A month later, compare page conversion in App Analytics and decide what to redo.
Where the limits are#
- Creative assets are supported on iOS and iPadOS 27 and later. Apple doesn't spell out what users on older systems see; assume they get regular screenshots.
- How an image is picked for a specific query outside custom pages isn't described by Apple.
- Apple Ads can't use creative assets yet; Apple promises that later.
- From April 2027, every submission will need iPhone Duo screenshots. If you're producing new screenshot sets for custom pages now, make those too so you don't redo them in six months.
The new fields don't make ASO simpler: there are more pages and images now, and they need maintaining. But you can now show different people different things not only through screenshots but through the main image in search, all without an ad budget. For a small app, I think that's the most useful App Store change in the last couple of years.
