Google Play custom store listings: target by country, keyword and lapsed users

Custom store listings let one Android app show different store pages to different people. Your existing listing becomes the default store listing; each custom listing replaces it for the segment it targets. That can be a country, a set of Play search keywords, people who stopped using the app, buyer groups, ad traffic or anyone who opens a special link.

Last checked on 5 November 2026 against Play Console Help.

What can a custom store listing change?

A custom store listing can change your app's name, icon, short and full descriptions and graphic assets. Your contact details, privacy policy and app category are shared across all versions of the listing. You can create up to 50 custom store listings per app.

Custom store listings are not translated automatically. You choose a default language for each one, and users in the targeted countries see that language unless you add their language as a translation. Google recommends adding translations for every language spoken in the countries you target. Your default listing, by contrast, can fall back to automatic Google Translate translations.

Which audiences can a custom store listing target?

Play Console Help lists these targeting options:

Some limits apply:

• Country: you can target several countries with one listing, but each country with only one custom listing at a time. A country is unavailable until your app is released there to production or a testing track.
• Churned and lapsed users: these options do not apply to new apps.
• Pre-registration: shown only in countries where the app is in pre-registration, not where it is released.
• Ads traffic: after the listing is approved, you select it as a landing page in Google Ads. Google notes ad-targeted listings currently show on AdMob and not on ads in Google Play search.
• Unique URL: the link is https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=[packageName]&listing=[parameter]; the parameter must be unique and use lowercase letters, digits, period, hyphen, underscore or tilde.

How do you create a custom store listing?

You need a published default store listing first. Then:

1. Open Play Console and select your app.
2. Go to Grow users → Store presence → Custom store listings.
3. Click Create custom store listing and choose: create a new listing, duplicate an existing listing (including the default one), or create a new listing within a group.
4. Under "Listing details", type a name for your own reference. Users never see it, and it cannot be edited later.
5. Next to "Targeting", choose the audience segment.
6. Under "App details", set the default language with Manage translations → Change default language, and add translations with Manage your own translations.
7. Type the app name, short description and full description.
8. Upload the graphics in the "Graphics" section, then click Create.

Store listing groups help when you run many listings. Every app starts with a "Default store listing group"; listings in a group inherit its icon, screenshots and descriptions, and changing a group asset updates every listing in the group.

How do search keyword listings work?

A search keyword listing shows your custom page to people who find your app through the Play search terms you pick. The steps:

1. When choosing the audience, select Search keywords, then Select search keywords.
2. Click the keywords Play Console shows as already bringing you traffic, or enter and run searches for new ones.
3. Click View variations on a keyword to see the spelling corrections and translations in that keyword bundle, and select or deselect them.
4. Save, then fill in the listing text and graphics as above.

Play Console may offer to "Generate descriptions using Gemini" from your published default listing and the chosen search terms; you can insert, edit or discard the suggestions.

Use this for searches with a clear, different intent. For example, an invented fitness app could show a running-focused listing to people searching "running plan" and a yoga-focused one to people searching "yoga for beginners", while everyone else sees the general listing.

Does a custom store listing affect search ranking?

Google does not say that it does. A search keyword listing changes what a person sees after searching those terms. Play Console Help says nothing about it changing where your app ranks for them. Google does say that search ranks apps on a combination of ratings, reviews, downloads and other factors, so a page that turns more searchers into installs could help over time. That is an expectation to measure, not a documented rule.

How do you measure a custom store listing?

Custom listings appear as a breakdown in store listing performance reports once they receive enough visitors; Google does not publish the threshold. You can also run store listing experiments on custom store listings, not only on the default one, to test their assets.

How do Google Play custom store listings compare with Apple custom product pages?

The biggest practical difference: on Google Play you can change the app name and icon per segment, and you can target people by their past behavior (lapsed, churned, buyers). Apple's pages keep the app name and icon and change the visual story and promotional text. The custom product pages guide covers Apple's side in detail.

How Uptika helps

Before you write a keyword listing, use the free Keyword Atlas to see how popular and how crowded a term is in each country, and Listing X-Ray to see how your default listing covers the store's own suggestions. After it goes live, the free Keyword radar records your Google Play rank for each of those keywords every day (the first page, about 30 apps), so you can see whether the new page changed anything. See also the store listing guide. Start free.

Questions

Sources

1. Create custom store listings to target specific user segments (Play Console Help)
2. Run A/B tests on your store listing (Play Console Help)
3. Get discovered on Google Play search (Play Console Help)
4. Configure multiple product page versions (App Store Connect Help)