Apple Search Ads: Tips & Best Practices

Check out our guide to Apple Search Ads in 2023

1. Optimize your app metadata before starting a campaign

Apple Search Ads are based on your App Store product page metadata that’s uploaded to App Store Connect. Many elements of your app metadata, such as your icon, title, subtitle, and screenshots, have the power to make your ad more effective. Here are a few best practices for Apple Search Ads creatives to keep in mind:

• Make sure your metadata elements reflect your app’s core experience
• Keep them up-to-date with new versions
• Advertisers should review their app metadata in App Store Connect before starting a new campaign. This is because the ad creative’s appearance is based on this metadata and cannot be changed later.

2. Start a naming convention for Apple Search Ads campaigns

It’s unlikely to see UA managers with only one or two active Apple Search Ads campaigns. Creating and managing campaigns gets quicker and simpler once you get the hang of things and start following best practices for your Apple Search Ads campaign structure.

Therefore, establish a naming convention for your campaigns and ad groups that makes it easy to navigate from the start.

Some important elements to include in campaign names are:

• app name
• country
• campaign type
• keyword match type

3. Build well-structured search results campaigns

Following Apple Search Ads best practices, structure your search results campaigns by separating your keywords into 4 separate campaigns, with each campaign focusing on a different keyword theme:

• Brand campaign: Protects your brand name and branded keywords from competitors. Keywords in this campaign will help your ad appear for searches directly related to your app and brand.
• Generic campaign: Appear for users who search for keywords related to your app’s core features, functionality, and category.
• Competitor campaign: Visible to users searching for keywords related to competitors’ brand names.
• Discovery campaign: Reaches new and wider audience and discovers new keywords by utilizing broad match or Search Match campaigns.

Structuring your account by keyword themes helps you measure results, monitor performance, optimize campaigns, and plan for long-term growth. Note that campaign selections like competitor keywords, Search Match, and broad match may not be suitable for all countries and regions.

Find the best ASA keywords and optimize your Share of Voice (SOV) using AppTweak

4. Choose the right match type for the best results

In Apple Search Ads, match types allow you to match user searches with your keywords. This includes “broad match” and “exact match.” For best results, you should run both of these for your campaigns.

• The broad match setting matches your ad to search terms related to your targeted keyword
• An exact match allows you to show ads to users searching for that exact term. It gives you less exposure but connects you with high-intent audiences looking for a specific function.

Using both allows you to see what works best for your app and discover which terms consistently generate installs.

Learn about the different match types in Apple Search Ads

For brand, category, and competitor campaigns:

• Set all keywords to exact match and turn off Search Match to make sure your ads appear for specific keywords you want to bid on.
• Use discovery campaigns to find new high-performing keywords. These should include a broad match and a Search Match ad group to identify relevant searches you’re not currently bidding on.
• Once you identify high-performing search terms in your discovery campaign, add them to your brand, category, and competitor campaigns as exact match keywords for more control. Then, add these keywords as exact match negative keywords in your discovery campaign to prevent bidding against yourself.

Boost your app visibility with Apple Search Ads placements

5. Give discovery campaigns enough time to find keywords

The first time you launch a discovery campaign, it takes some time for Apple to match your app with relevant search terms.

Wait for a few weeks for Apple to do its job and gather enough data to provide you with relevant keyword suggestions.

Since we recommend allocating a lower budget for discovery campaigns than others, it shouldn’t be a problem for you to wait a bit longer for results than usual.

A clear indicator that you still need to wait for Apple to get more data is the “low volume” value. This indicates that the keyword you’ve targeted has not yet received enough Impressions for Apple to draw a conclusion.

6. Use negative keywords in your Search Ads campaign

Negative keywords ensure your ads won’t display for certain search terms and can be added at the campaign or ad group level. Keywords app developers and marketers may want to exclude are:

• Search terms with poor performance
• For paid apps, search terms that contain “free”
• Names of apps you do not want to compete with
• Words you do not want your app to be associated with
• Irrelevant search terms automatically suggested by Apple (for example, “dating” for a video calls app)
• Top-performers transferred from discovery campaigns to exact match campaigns

For broad match and Search Match ad groups, add all brand, category, and competitor keywords as negative keywords. This matches your ad to related searches but prevents the discovery campaign from matching exact keywords you’re already bidding on.

7. Create a campaign that will reach all eligible users

To deliver personalized ads, Apple uses information about a user to serve ads that are more relevant to them. If a user doesn’t want to receive these ads, they can choose to turn off the “Personalized Ads” setting on their device. This does not decrease the number of ads a user sees, but the ads may be less relevant to the user.

When setting up a campaign, you can choose for your ad to appear to all eligible users, or you can modify settings to focus on specific audiences including device, customer type, demographics, and location. To maximize your reach on the App Store, Apple recommends you to let Apple Search Ads automatically match your ad to the widest possible audience by selecting the “Reach All Eligible Users” option.

You can select “Choose Specific Audiences” and refine your target, but doing so will exclude users with “Personalized Ads” turned off from seeing your ads and may narrow your audience too much.

8. Prioritize when ad groups overlap

It’s crucial to set different bids for each ad group in cases where ad groups target overlapping demographics, such as one group targeting all eligible users and another targeting a specific demographic, like young people aged 18 to 25.

Setting different bids will allow you to prioritize one ad group over the other when displaying your ads. By assigning different bids, you can allocate more budget or prioritize a higher bid for the ad group that is more relevant or important to you. For example, if you’d like to prioritize the ad group targeting young people aged 18 to 25 because you know they’re more likely to make in-app purchases, you might set a higher bid for that group.

9. Launch your initial campaign without a CPA cap

When you create a campaign, you’ll need to set a daily budget that is the average amount your campaign will spend each day over the course of the month.

In Apple Search Ads campaigns, a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) cap is optional and is the amount you ideally want to pay for a conversion. The CPA cap is taken into account when determining the winning bid amount for an ad placement (up to your max CPT bid), but the setting can limit your potential impressions and taps if set too low.

Therefore, it is recommended that you initially launch your Apple Search Ads campaign without a CPA cap and give your campaign some time to run so you can learn from results. Once you have an understanding of your initial performance, you can then add a CPA cap and monitor the impact it has on your results.

10. Set max CPT bids based on campaign themes

When you consider your bid strategy for search results ads, consider varying your max CPT (cost-per-tap) bid amount by campaign and match type. On the Recommendations page, you may find recommended adjustments to the max CPT bids.

You can apply aggressive bid amounts on exact match keywords, as they’re your core performance drivers and the most relevant to your campaign. More investment provides you with more control over when your ad appears. For optimal performance, most of your traffic should come from exact match campaigns.

• As a general rule, place moderate bid amounts on broad match and Search Match. The goal of these discovery campaigns is to identify relevant keywords, but it may not drive high efficiency like exact matches.
• Also, remember to move high-performing terms from discovery campaigns to the exact match campaigns to have more control over bidding strategy.

11. Run proxy campaigns (if you have the time & money)

While discovery campaigns can help you find new keyword opportunities through search, they cannot help you measure the performance of these search terms post-install (for example, to differentiate between users who merely installed your app and those who installed and subsequently drove app revenue).

On the one hand, Apple does not track the performance of keywords post-install.

On the other hand, MMPs are unable to track whether search terms led to installs. This is because you are not the one actively targeting search terms, Apple is doing it automatically: as a result, MMPs have no visibility on these search terms.

12. Leverage custom product pages in Apple Search Ads

Custom product pages (CPPs) are unique landing pages that help you to show different facets of the app to specific audiences, while maintaining consistent messaging and a seamless experience throughout the user acquisition journey.

In terms of ASA, advertisers can now direct traffic from an ad group with keywords for a specific audience to a CPP with creatives tailored to that audience and user intent. Users will see the CPP creatives in the search results ad. When users tap on the ad, they’ll be taken to the custom page, thus creating a smooth experience. This can result in higher conversion rates, tap-through-rates, and increase in funnel engagement metrics as users are shown more relevant content and creatives earlier in their journey.

When creating a Today tab ad, one of the requirements is to have a live custom product page. The CPP you use must include at least 4 portrait or 5 landscape assets. Your ad’s background will be automatically generated from your assets using a darkened and blurred visual effect.

13. Optimize your Search Ads campaigns over time

Once you set up a campaign, the work has only just begun!

• Continuously monitor your campaign to see what’s working and what’s not.
• Use analytics to track your ad’s performance and make adjustments to your campaign as needed.
• On the Recommendations page, you may even find customized daily budget recommendations for each app that’s actively running search results campaigns. This will help you stay on top of your campaign and make any necessary optimizations to ensure its success.
• You can increase or decrease bids and budget anytime on the Apple Search Ads console.

Situations to increase bids include:

• Your Search Match terms are increasing conversions for your app. In this case, you can try raising your max CPT bid to see if it gets you more impressions.
• Your keywords are performing below your CPA cap in terms of conversion rates. Sometimes, incremental increases in your bids on those words can increase impressions and conversions. Apple Search Ads has a suggested range that you can use as a guide.
• You’re bidding on relevant, popular keywords but not seeing any impressions.

Situations to decrease bids include:

• Your CPA is higher than your goal, specifically on a keyword that’s getting taps but not conversions. In this case, you should lower your bid. Lowering the bid keeps your CPA down. You may still win some impressions, but may see fewer impressions for that term.

While optimizing bids is important, don’t forget to optimize the keywords within your campaigns as well. As mentioned previously, once you identify search terms that perform well in your discovery campaigns, you can add them to the brand, category, and competitor campaigns as new exact match keywords. Then repeat the process of adding these keywords as exact match negative keywords in your discovery campaign.

14. Take advantage of the synergy between ASA and ASO

Apple Search Ads can be a great tool to improve your ASO strategy. Running ASA alone can often generate uplifts in organic visibility, conversion, and keyword rankings by generating additional downloads. By adding another step, you can create a synergy loop between ASA and ASO.

Identifying the most powerful ASA keywords with high conversion rates and implementing them in your ASO strategy (creatives, keywords, etc.) further helps strengthen your App Store visibility and conversion optimization. This synergy is crucial for your app’s success in the long run, as it maximizes the overall impact across channels by applying and validating learnings from ASA to ASO.

The 3 areas of synergies across ASA and ASO include:

1. Custom product pages (CPPs)

Implementing CPPs into your ASA campaigns can result in a more seamless user experience and lead to higher conversion and tap-through rates. This will allow you to bid higher, be more competitive in auctions, acquire a higher impression share, and increase the overall scale of these keywords.

2. Increase organic rankings & visibility

Bidding on keywords with ASA allows you to appear in the top results for keywords that your app does not rank well for organically. In turn, this positively impacts your visibility for those keywords on the App Store. Since your app receives more downloads from a specific keyword due to an ASA ad, its organic keyword ranking is also likely to see an uplift.

Learn how Apple Search Ads can help boost your app’s organic keyword rankings and grow your app

3. Keyword strategy & discovery

Another way in which ASA can positively impact your ASO is by discovering the keywords that could be highly relevant for your app.

Add high-performing and well-converting keywords from your ASA campaigns to your app’s metadata (title, subtitle, keyword field) to see a positive impact on your app’s visibility and keyword rankings. Including important keywords in your metadata increases visibility for ASA, creating a win-win situation.

Discover how to select effective keywords to maximize the performance of your Apple Search Ads campaigns

15. Be cautious of brand cannibalization

When it comes to brand campaigns, there is a risk of paying for downloads that would have otherwise been driven organically. Many advertisers advocate for bidding on an app’s own brand terms to prevent competitors from “stealing” their traffic.

However, these brand defense campaigns do have an obvious downside. While they are meant to secure search traffic from being diverted, they introduce the question of how many installs would have been driven organically but were cannibalized instead. Measuring the exact cost of cannibalization has been central to Apple Search Ads since it was introduced on the App Store.

Which key factors should influence your choice to run brand defense campaigns in Apple Search Ads?

Some common mistakes to avoid in Apple Search Ads

1. Don’t increase or decrease bids on keywords too much at a time

Instead of making all your bid adjustments at one time, only increase or decrease your keyword bids by around 20% at once. This will help you better assess the performance of your keywords depending on how much money you spend on them. It can also help you avoid over/under-spending on keywords.

2. Don’t spend as much money on discovery campaigns

Discovery campaigns are, as the name implies, there to help you discover new keyword opportunities rather than driving downloads to your app. As such, you should adapt your budget for Discovery campaigns.

If you’re unsure where to start, we recommend spending 20% of your overall Apple Search Ads budget on Discovery campaigns. The other 80% should be for your performance-based brand, competitor, and generic campaigns.

3. Don’t confuse Return on Investment with Return on Ad Spend

When you report on your Apple Search Ads campaigns, you’ll probably look at your return on investment (ROI) and return on ad spend (ROAS). However, the two metrics often get confused:

ROI calculates the profit gained from an advertising campaign by taking into consideration all the marketing efforts made for this campaign (employee salary, training, spend, ect.). On the other hand, ROAS calculates how much money you made for each dollar you spent for this campaign.

ROAS is better used to measure the performance of a specific acquisition channel, for instance Apple Search Ads, whereas ROI measures the overall performance of your marketing campaigns.

4. Don’t miss store visitors with Personalized Ads turned off

Apple Search Ads provides audience targeting options that can seem useful at first glance, allowing you to target users based on age, gender, and customer type (new users, returning users, users of my other apps).

While this can help you reach more qualified store visitors, enabling these audience targeting options means you’ll exclude store visitors who have Personalized Ads turned off.

Only 22% of App Store visitors have Personalized Ads turned on. While there are a few cases of audience targeting options still coming in handy, we recommend mostly running Apple Search Ads campaigns with audience targeting options turned off, so you can reach a majority of store visitors with your ads.

If you want to target specific demographics, bid on keywords more relevant to these groups instead (e.g., the majority of people searching for “period tracker” will identify as female).

5. Don’t forget differences between ASA console & MMP data

If you’re already familiar with Apple Search Ads, it’s highly likely you’re using Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) data to decide on which keywords you should bid more or less based on their estimated lifetime value. However, you might have noticed that Apple Search Ads data is not necessarily the same as MMP data.

This is because certain types of downloads are attributed by MMPs to other marketing channels than Apple Search Ads.

MMPs, for instance, are better at determining where re-downloads initially come from, whereas Apple automatically attributes redownloads to Apple Search Ads, effectively hiding where your revenue really comes from.

On the other hand, Limit Ad Tracking (LAT) on the App Store means MMPs do not have access to this data, resulting in a lower number of downloads to your app.

Learn how MMP data can help you with ASO

TL;DR

Let’s recap the Apple Search Ads best practices to ensure that your campaign is optimized for success and reaches its full potential:

• Optimize your app metadata, such as your icon, title, subtitle, and screenshots, before starting a campaign

• Build well-structured search results campaigns focussing on different keyword themes

• Choose the right match type to match user searches with your keywords

• Add negative keywords to prevent your ad from appearing for certain searches and thus improve campaign efficiency

• Set audience targeting to “Reach All Eligible Users” to maximize your reach on the App Store

• Launch your initial campaign without a CPA cap

• Consider varying your max CPT bid amount by campaign and match type

• Use custom product pages in your Search Ads campaign for higher conversion rate

• Continuously monitor your Search Ads campaign to track your ad’s performance

• Leverage the synergy between ASA and ASO, as it helps strengthen your App Store visibility and conversion optimization

• Be cautious of brand cannibalization as it runs the risk of paying for downloads that would have otherwise been driven organically

If you are unsure about your current ASA strategy, feel free to reach out to us! Our team of App Growth Consultants provide a variety of ASA services including keyword research and recommendations, campaign audits, CPP creation, as well as full service campaign management.

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