After you submit: drive traffic to your app

Getting listed is the start, not the finish. Today, ChatGPT and Claude do not suggest apps proactively: your app shows up when the assistant searches the web and finds content saying it exists and how to use it. So once you are submitted, the real work is to drive traffic to the app and capture that value on your own site. This page explains what to do, in what order, and how to measure it.

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The two milestones

1. Traffic on the app inside ChatGPT and Claude: installs, conversations, and the quotes or leads it generates.
2. Traffic on the agent on your website: sessions, leads captured, and conversion compared to your classic funnel.

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The three levers

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Lever 1: put the agent on your website

The fastest way to capture leads is to run the same agent on your own site, where you control the experience and do not depend on an assistant surfacing your app. The Waniwani chat widget embeds the agent on any page. This is the highest-leverage step, so do it first.

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Lever 2: GEO (generative engine optimization)

GEO is the practice of publishing content that teaches assistants your app exists and how to install it, so they describe it correctly and suggest it when relevant. It works. We ran a controlled experiment on an app with zero starting authority (NA Drink Finder, an independent ChatGPT app) on a brand-new domain, with no other marketing input, just content: 74 GEO-optimized articles over 33 days, with 1,881 prompts tracked across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overview. The takeaway: before GEO, ChatGPT did not suggest the app, described it as a mobile app, or said it did not exist. After publishing content, it described the app correctly and explained how to install it. Answers citing our content described the app correctly 2.3x more often. Read the full write-up at waniwani.ai/research/chatgpt-app-geo-experiment.

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Lever 3: PR and comms

Comms has two goals: create third-party corroboration and generate direct traffic. A reusable plan for a launch:

1. Press release (under 500 words, with a “first” or “new” angle, your site URL, and your app URL).
2. Pitch one reference industry publication (one trade outlet beats ten generic tech blogs).
3. LinkedIn: one post from the company page and one personal post from the founder (personal posts reach further).
4. Email your prospect and partner base announcing the launch.
5. A results post at day 30 or 60 (“we generated X quotes through ChatGPT in one month”). This is highly citable and creates a second wave of content.

A strong angle compounds: the first live insurance app on ChatGPT got picked up by industry press precisely because “first” is newsworthy. Find the equivalent “first” or “new” angle for your category.

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KPIs to track

The app (ChatGPT and Claude) The agent on your website

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What to expect

Set expectations early: the assistants will not surface your app on day one. Treat the weeks after launch as an ongoing program rather than a single event. Review the KPIs above on a regular cadence (a bi-weekly check-in works well), and let the data point you at which lever to push next.