Direct answer
Apple's promotional text is the only listing field you can change without submitting a new app version: 170 characters, displayed above the description, updatable at any time. That single property defines its job β it is the listing's news ticker, the place for anything true this week that was not true last month: a launch offer, a major feature that just shipped, a seasonal use case, an award. It is not indexed for search, so keyword duty stays with the other fields; its value is pure conversion timing. The failure pattern is predictable: teams either leave it empty, duplicate the description's first line, or write one "promotion" at launch that quietly becomes eighteen months old β which converts the field from a freshness signal into a staleness signal.
What belongs in promotional text
| Use | Example shape | Why it works here |
|---|---|---|
| Feature launch | "New in this release: shared budgets for households." | Reaches visitors before the description does |
| Time-boxed offer | "Annual plan 40% off through January." | Only field that can keep offer copy current |
| Seasonal relevance | "Tax season ready: import last year in one tap." | Timely angle without touching reviewed metadata |
| Momentum proof | "Now 2M lists created every week." | Fresh numbers beat the static ones below |
| Event tie-in | "As featured in this week's developer keynote." | News value decays fast β this field doesn't wait for review |
Recommended flow
1. Assign the field an owner and a review date
Promotional text needs what other fields get for free from the release cycle: a scheduled reason to be looked at. Give it an owner and a standing expiry check β monthly is enough β so nothing stale survives.
2. Write it as news, not as a second subtitle
The subtitle states what the app is; promotional text states what is new or true right now. If the draft would have been equally true six months ago, it is not promotional text yet.
3. Pair every time-boxed claim with a removal date
An offer with an end date goes into the calendar at write time. Expired offers visible in a live listing damage more trust than the offer earned β and pricing claims that contradict the storefront are rejection material on the next review.
4. Use it to bridge review gaps
When something important changes between releases β a milestone, a press mention, an urgent clarification β promotional text is the only listing surface that can respond same-day. Teams that remember this in calm weeks respond faster in eventful ones.
5. Localize it with the same timing
A promotion visible in English but absent in other locales tells non-English markets they are second-tier. Update all locales in the same pass, or scope the promotion explicitly to the markets it applies to.
6. Keep claims within what the build supports
The field skips version review, but it does not skip the rules: unsupportable claims, competitor references, and price promises the storefront contradicts are all still violations β ones that surface at your next submission.
Common failure modes
The fossil promotion
"Launch special!" eighteen months in tells every visitor the team stopped looking. An empty field is better than an expired one.
Subtitle duplication
Repeating the subtitle wastes the only field that can carry time-sensitive information. If there is genuinely no news, momentum proof or a seasonal angle still beats repetition.
Set-and-forget offers
The offer ships, the end date passes, the text stays. This is the most common promotional-text failure and the most preventable β the removal date belongs in the calendar before the offer goes live.
Treating it as keyword space
Promotional text is not indexed for App Store search. Keywords stuffed here earn nothing in discovery and cost the field its actual conversion job.
Promotional text checklist
- Field has a named owner and a monthly staleness check.
- Current text says something that was not true last quarter.
- Every time-boxed claim has a calendared removal date.
- All live locales updated in the same pass, or scoped deliberately.
- Claims verifiable against the shipping build and storefront pricing.
- No keyword stuffing β discovery lives in the other fields.
Operating rule
Promotional text should answer "what would we want a visitor to know today that the rest of the listing cannot say yet?" If the answer is nothing, momentum proof β never a fossil.
Why this matters in App Store Helper
App Store Helper treats promotional text as a first-class listing asset with its own drafts, locale variants, and review state β so the monthly staleness check is a visible workflow step, offer copy stays consistent across languages, and the claim-boundary review that protects your metadata covers this field too.