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An editorial slot on the marketplace where an app gets surfaced beyond its organic ranking — typically a hero card on a category page, a "new and trending" rail, a Spotlight badge, or a Cloud Fortified / Top Vendor distinction.
Also known as: editorial pick, marketplace spotlight, featured app, staff pick, marketplace promotion
Featured placements are a strong install-velocity signal because they reach merchants who weren't searching for the app by name. AppRanks tracks featured-section memberships per platform; when an app loses a featured slot, the public app page shows the change in the "Featured Placements" section with the date of the change. On Shopify the most-watched featured rails are the App Store homepage carousel, the category Spotlights, and the Built for Shopify badge. On Atlassian the equivalent is Spotlight membership combined with Cloud Fortified status. Losing a featured slot often precedes a measurable install-velocity drop — typically visible in the next 3-10 days of velocity data.
Featured slots are the marketplace equivalent of paid acquisition for free — apps reach merchants who weren't searching for the app's category, often producing 3-10x install velocity over what organic ranking alone would deliver. Tracking featured-slot changes over time also gives early warning: marketplaces typically rotate slots based on quality signals (rating, support response, performance), so a slot loss is often the visible front-edge of a deeper listing-quality issue worth investigating before install velocity drops show up in the headline metrics.