---
title: "Using Apple's promotional text well"
description: "The only listing field updatable without review: what belongs in 170 characters, ownership and expiry checks, locale timing, and the claims that still get you rejected."
excerpt: "Promotional text is the listing's news ticker — anything true this week that was not true last month. An empty field beats a fossil promotion."
source_url: "https://appstorehelper.com/guides/apple-promotional-text-workflow"
mirror_url: "https://appstorehelper.com/mirror/guides/apple-promotional-text-workflow"
section: "Editorial guides for app-store growth teams"
locale: "en"
published_at: "2026-07-30"
updated_at: "2026-07-30"
reading_time: "6 min read"
tags:
  - "promotional text"
  - "App Store"
  - "conversion"
  - "metadata"
---

## 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 — 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 — 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 — 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 — monthly is enough — 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 — 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 — a milestone, a press mention, an urgent clarification — 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 — 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 — 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

1. Field has a named owner and a monthly staleness check.
2. Current text says something that was not true last quarter.
3. Every time-boxed claim has a calendared removal date.
4. All live locales updated in the same pass, or scoped deliberately.
5. Claims verifiable against the shipping build and storefront pricing.
6. No keyword stuffing — 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 — 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 — 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.