Apple Search Ads has been an increasingly popular user acquisition channel, and any marketer who wants to acquire more users should definitely utilize it to the fullest. Learn some of the best tactics and use cases to see how you can make the most out of Apple Search Ads to achieve tremendous app growth and cut down on the labor work.

1. Measuring, Optimizing & Scaling
Apple Search Ads
Best Practices with SearchAds.com
Yusuf Barutcu, Apple Search Ads Advisor, SearchAds.com
Liz Lauer-Lopez, Director of Product Advocacy
May 14, 2020

2. Essential marketing data infrastructure
to help you efficiently reach your goals
Revenue New Users
ROI Reduced CPI
Retention

3. How campaigns are delivered
● How much did we spend across sources?
● What keywords had the highest CTR?
● Which country has the highest reach?
The action of every user
● What is my average revenue per user?
● What is my retention rate this month?
The return on every dollar spent
● What is my 3d, 7d, 14d, 30d CPA?
● What’s ROI of this specific creative or ad element?
Top questions to answer
for your business

4. Section 1 Why should you use
Apple Search Ads?

5. Why use Apple Search Ads?
Source: https://searchads.apple.com/
70% 65% 50%
App Store visitors
who use search to
find apps.
Downloads that occur
directly after a search on
the App Store.
Apple Search Ads
average conversion
rate.

6. CVR Trends in 2019
Conversion Rate Trends for Categories
ConversionRate
70 -
60 -
50 -
40 -
2019-01 2019-02 2019-03 2019-04 2019-05 2019-06 2019-07 2019-08 2019-09 2019-10 2019-11 2019-12 2020-01
Shopping
Health & Fıtness
Lifestyle
Games
Travel
Date

7. TTR Trends in 2019
Tap Through Rate Trends for Categories
TapThroughRate(%)
10 -
8 -
6 -
4 -
2019-01 2019-02 2019-03 2019-04 2019-05 2019-06 2019-07 2019-08 2019-09 2019-10 2019-11 2019-12 2020-01
Shopping
Health & Fitness
Lifestyle
Games
Travel
Date
12 -

8. Which categories use Apple Search Ads most?
*January 2020 data

9. LAT On Dilemma
● LAT (Limit Ad Tracking) is a privacy option that
allows iOS users to opt out of receiving ads
targeted by their interests. Users may still receive
the same number of ads, but the ads may be less
relevant to them.
● LAT on users cannot be targeted in other digital
marketing channels. On Apple Search Ads, at
least LAT on users are more relevant because they
search for it.
● Due to Apple’s Privacy Policy, LAT On user data
can’t be passed through the Attribution API used
by MMPs, so the number of attributed conversions
reported by your MMP may be lower.

10. Section 2 How to structure your
Apple Search Ads account?

11. What are Exact, Broad & Search Match?
Exact Match Broad Match Search Match
Recommended:
Use for discovery purposes
only as this match type
includes misspellings,
related searches, and
sometimes the same words
in different languages.
Recommended:
Helps us better targeting
and more effective use of
budget.
Recommended:
Use for discovery purposes
as it provides relative search
terms that can be used in
your campaigns.

12. Brand & Competitor Brand Campaigns
● 65% of downloads occur after a search (Apple Search Ads says)
● A big chunk of them are “brand” searches.
● So, targeting brand keywords is important.
Focus on 2 types of Brand Campaigns
Your Own Brand Competitor’s Brand
Protect your brand!
If you don’t target
your brand
keywords, your
competitors will.
Appear on your
competitor’s traffic!
The target audience
of your competitor
will be similar to
yours.

13. Then, what’s next?
● What to focus? - Generic terms to be more
present for the potential users.
● How to bid? - Use Exact Match to bid the
keywords individually.
● How to know what to bid at time=0? - You can’t
know 🙂 → Set up a discovery campaign with
different match types.

14. Get keywords ideas from your competitors’ advertising keywords.
Find new keywords via Keyword Auction Insights
● Search apps that are running Apple Search Ads campaigns, or keywords
● Get insight of competition info by impression share
● Add keywords to ad group directly from cart

15. Learn every single
keyword an app
ranks for up to top
250 results
Filter results based
on search score
and ranking
Run ads directly
from
keywords cart
Find more keywords via Organic Keyword Hunt
Get keywords ideas from organic keywords database as well.

16. Campaign Structure in Apple Search Ads
CampaignAdGroup
Brand Generic Competitors Discovery
Add new search terms as exact match keywords
Add all keywords as negatives in discovery campaigns
Exact Keywords Exact Keywords Exact Keywords
Broad
Keywords
Search
Match

17. Section 3 How to manage & optimize your
Apple Search Ads account?

18. Metrics & in-app conversion events
Optimization starts from the nearest metric:
● Impression
● TTR (Tap Through Rate)
● CR (Conversion Rate/ Tap To Download)
● CPA (Cost per Acquisition a.k.a. CPI)
In-app conversion events:
● Attributed Install
● Sign up
● Trial Started (or Add to Cart)
● Subscription (or Purchase)
● Ad revenue

19. Quality Score Approach
Quality score on Google Ads or Relevancy score on
Facebook Ads is one of the most important metrics to
improve the performance of the activities.
Is there any reflection of this approach in Apple Search
Ads?
Yes, there is! 🙂
→ TTR and CR

20. Quality Score Approach - Example 1
Same spend by 38% lower CPT
High TTR%
Same Spend
>> less CPT
CPT TTR%
Spend from 1000
impressions
Lower TTR
Higher TTR
$12.00
$7.50 20.0%
12.5% $1,500
$1,500

21. Quality Score Approach - Example 2
Same spend, 55% more downloads
High TTR%
High CPT%
>> more downloads
TTR% CR%
Downloads from
1000 impressions
Lower TTR
Higher TTR
10.0%
19.5% 84.6%
75.0% 75
165

22. What else can help me to decide how to bid?
● TTR vs. CR
● CPA
● Share of voice and your ranking in it
● Bid - CPT - CPA Correlation
You can optimize your ads by bidding precisely
to Exact Match campaigns based on:

23. Optimizing with Multiple Goals
BrandGenericCompetitor
SignUp
Trial
Purchase
90%
50%
70%
50%
30%
25%
20%
15%
15%

24. Automation Examples
● Decrease bid by CPT. If CPT target is $7...
Condition: CPT > $7
Action: Decrease bid by 5% per 12 hours
Benefit: Basic way to improve CPT. You can also increase bid at
good ROAS keywords
● Pause keywords before at CPT threshold If CPT threshold is $5...
Condition: Install<1 & Spend $5
Action: Pause
Benefit: If you manage by CPT, it can result (e.g.) $6 until the first
install happens. You can save the $1
● Increase bid at low impression keywords
Condition: Taps<1
Action: Increase bid 5% until $1
Benefit: Many keywords can’t have good volume to be circled at
PDCA. Let them get on the table.

25. Discovery Campaign Setup
Step - 1
Allocate 10%-30% of
your budget to
discovery campaign
Step - 2
Adjust keyword match
type: Broad or Search
Match On
Step - 3
Track the downloads
coming from search
terms & optimize bids
Step - 4
Choose the best search
terms based on TTR &
CPA and add them to
other campaigns
Tedious work starts 😓 👉

26. Is there a way to cut-down on this workload?
Yes! - Search Term Automation Rule

27. Search Term Automation Rule - Use CaseCampaignAdGroup
Competitor Exact
Competitor
Discovery
Negate in the original campaign
Add Search Terms as keywords
Competitor Exact
Match
Competitor Broad
Match
Competitor Search
Match
Criteria to add Search
Terms as keywords:
CPA < $5
TTR > 10%

28. Search Term Automation Rule - Example

29. Section 4 Avoid Data Discrepancies

30. Discrepancies - Why we have them?
1. LAT On users cannot be tracked by MMP.
1. Returning users problem: When a user re-
downloads your app:
○ Apple Search Ads says: “It’s an old user”
○ MMP says: “It’s a returning user”
How to solve returning users issue? →

31. Lookback window differs!
User downloads
your app
UA Manager
checks the
conversions
User makes a
purchase
through your app
This purchase will appear in different time
intervals on different dashboards.
● Your MMP partner will show this
purchase between 6/1 - 6/30
● Your campaign management
platform will show it on the basis of
download date: 5/1 - 5/30
So, which time interval should you be looking at?
Solution: Clarify custom metrics according to your needs.
5/12 6/20 6/30

32. Using Custom Metrics

33. Estimating Total Installs

34. Finding the real CPI

35. Redeem your credits
Get in touch to get your $1000 worth credits to use on
SearchAds.com !
yusuf@searchads.com
Deadline: May 22nd

36. Thank you.
Questions? Ask us more at yusuf@searchads.com and liz@singular.net