Apple Search Ads is quite new for most of us. The popularity of Apple Search Ads has been increasing day by day.
With Apple Search Ads, you can promote your apps or games at the top of search results on the App Store. It’s a powerful and easy way to help people find your app or game on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.
According to Apple Search Ads,
- 70% of visitors use search to find an app in Apple Store
- 65% of all app installs occur directly after a search on the App Store
- 50% average conversion rate for downloads
What Are Apple Search Ads?
Apple Search Ads are paid text ads for driving awareness and installs for apps and games within Apple’s App Store.
There are 2 different types of Apple Search Ads-
- Apple Search Ads Basic
- Apple Search Ads Advanced
Apple Search Ads Basic
- A limit of 50 apps
- Maximum budget 10,000$
- Due to the limited customization, it is quick and easy to set up
- Uses only cost-per-install (CPI) pricing model
- Suited for advertisers who don’t have extensive marketing and optimization expertise
Apple Search Ads Advanced
- No budget limitation
- No limit of apps quantity
- Full control on campaigns and details
- Need proper keywords and optimization.
- Uses multiple pricing models like cost-per-tap, cost-per-install, cost-per-thousand-impressions.
- Suited for experienced advertisers
Tips to Optimize Apple Search Ads to Boost Conversion
1. Check Your App Metadata Before Launching a Campaign
It’s crucial for advertisers to check their app metadata carefully before launching a new campaign. This is because the appearance of your ad will be based on the metadata of your app and you can’t change it later on.
2. Target Right Keywords
Keywords are very essential to get better results. You must do proper research and find out the keywords that will boost installs.
Although short keywords like “banking”, “fitness”, “insurance”, etc drive a lot of traffic. But these common search terms have huge competition.
You can use long-tail keywords to reduce the costs. These keywords have lower traffic but are less competitive in the rankings.
Don’t use unauthorized trademarked terms, celebrity names, or other protected words and phrases. Also, avoid using keywords that are not relevant to your app or game. Otherwise, your campaign, as well as the app, may get rejected by App Store.
3. Use Both Broad Match and Exact Match Keywords for Best Results
For good coverage and performance, Apple Search Ads recommend running campaigns with both broad match and exact match keywords.
Exact Match: Your ads will run on a specific term only
Broad Match: Your ad will run on a specific keyword and relevant close variants of the keyword.
You may distribute your spending based on 80/20 to get the maximum returns. 80% of your budget may be for exact match keywords, and the remaining 20% may be for broad match keywords.
4. Exclude Unnecessary Keywords from Bidding
Along with broad match and exact match keywords, you can use negative keywords to define which terms you want to exclude from bidding.
5. Adjust Your Bids Over Time
It’s essential for advertisers to monitor the performance of campaigns regularly. This will help you to determine when you should increase or decrease the bids for better ROI.
Remember, A particular strategy will not work equally all the time. So you need to adapt accordingly.
Final Words
Apple Search Ads is an excellent, powerful and affordable channel to boost downloads as well as the organic ranking for iOS apps and games. Proper strategy and keyword optimization can give you a fantastic conversion at a reasonable cost.
Want to run your own Apple Search Ads campaign or want to maximize ROI on your existing campaigns, but not sure how? Get in touch! Our app marketing team will help you to create a customized ad strategy that drives installs, increase app engagement, minimize effort and reduce cost.