Apple Search Ads - Keyword expansion with discovery campaigns & Performance benchmarks | SplitMetrics

APPLE SEARCH ADS
EDITION FT. SEARCHADSHQ
& PHITURE

Keywords expansion
with discovery campaigns and
performance benchmarks
Tanya V
Head of Customer Success, SplitMetrics

1. Keywords expansion overview
2. Step by step with discovery campaigns
3. Benchmarks from SearchAdsHQ team
Agenda

1. Utility centric (amazon, faceapp, angry birds) - 66%
2. Discovery centric (match 3 game, yoga app, photo editor) - 34%
Search queries types

Trafﬁc of a higher quality and bigger conversion rates. Compare “games” vs.
“education games for kids”.
Long-tail keywords are less competitive, and therefore cheaper.
More sustainable results.
Why use long-tail keywords

Apple’s algorithm determines this relevance based on your app category and metadata — title,
subtitle and keywords.
Keywords technical relevance

1. Impressions volume, which can be assessed by search popularity;
2. Competition, which can be assessed by the number of search results;
3. Technical relevance, which is the app’s position in search results (preferably <100);
4. Logical relevance: the bigger TTR and download rate for the app, the better;
5. Default CTP Bid: the average bid for a category or a given app to reach target KPIs
(and we’ll come up to this later in this presentation)
Checklist for keywords:

“80% of SEOs and marketers do keyword research wrong. They plug in a main keyword to Google’s
Keyword Planner, download the result, and then start sorting through them in a spreadsheet. But
here’s the thing: literally thousands of other marketers have already searched the exact same keyword”
Neil Patel

Two approaches to ﬁnding relevant keywords
1. Keywords pickling and analysis
2. Discovery campaigns in Search Ads

Keywords pickling
- Own Search Ads organic report
- Competitors research

Keywords pickling
- Related keywords in Apple Search Ads

Keywords pickling
- App store suggestions
- PPC search suggestions
- Google ads keyword planner
- Keyword multiplicator and synonyms

What to do with them?
- Get keywords performance metrics
- Remove low volume terms and irrelevant keywords
- Check the keywords efﬁciency index
- Group keywords
- Bids tailing

Discovery campaigns pros
- Discovery campaigns are a relatively simple method of expanding the keywords list
gradually;
- There are hardly any preparatory activities or research needed to get started;
- Discovery campaigns allow to immediately ﬁnd relevant keywords (technical
relevance) and evaluate their performance (CPT, TTR, etc.), which is impossible using
Keyword Planner;
- Discovery campaigns also help ﬁnd negative keywords.

Discovery campaigns cons
- The discovery process requires expertise and constant attention;
- It takes time to obtain good results;
- You have to allocate part of your budget for the discovery;
- Apple Search Ads has a limitation on the number of keywords in a group; this can be a
problem for large accounts, but in practice, everything usually works well.

Step 1 - Create appropriate account structure
Keep things in order!!

Step 2 - Analyze Search Terms Performance

Step 3 - Identify good search terms
- Mind that there is no post-install data available for search terms in MMPs
- The best way to evaluate the quality of search terms is to look at their Cost per
Acquisition (CPA).
- For example, if your target CPA is $5.0, then queries with Downloads > 0 and CPA <
$5.0 can be considered winning.

Step 3 - What to do with them
- Convert them into exact match and add them into your exact match group (depending
on the structure semantic / value based it can be a certain topic or a certain value)
- Add them as a negative exact match to your discovery campaign
- Optionally add them to the broad match adgroup

Step 4 - Identify bad search terms
- The search terms that don’t bring any downloads
- The search terms that result in 3 x Target CPA.

Step 4 - What to do with them
- Add them as exact match negative to your discovery campaign

Step 5 - Identify the search match terms with
insufﬁcient data

Step 6 - Keep mining new keywords
- Take these steps every 1-2 weeks.
- The trafﬁc volume will start dropping in your discovery campaigns in a while - that’s
natural.
- You can gradually increase the CPT bid in your discovery campaigns to get into auctions
with more expensive keywords.

Step 7 - Consider Broad Match
Broad match is similar to Search Match, but in this case you can use a list of keywords and the results. It will
match your ads to relevant search terms such as partial or close words, long variants, synonyms or related
search terms.

Step 7 - Consider Broad Match
Think of it as an iceberg: if you create a group with several broad match keywords
and set a small budget, you can generate hundreds of related search terms.

Apple Search Ads industry benchmarks

1. Tap-through rate (TTR)
Avr. TTR 6.06% in 2019
vs Avr. TTR 7.11% in 2018

1. Tap-through rate (TTR)
Top TTRs (~9%):
- Health & ﬁtness
- Productivity
- Utilities
Lowest TTRs (<5%):
- Travel
- Social Networking
- Games

2. Average Conversion Rate (CVR)
Avr. CVR claimed by Apple 50%
vs Avr. CVR 49.69% in 2019

2. Average Conversion Rate
Top conversion rates (>50%):
- Lifestyle
- Music
- Photo & Video
Lowest conversion rates (<45%):
- Social Networking
- Travel
- Finance

2. Average Conversion Rate
-Update your metadata, video and imagery you’ve provided in your listing. It makes sense to
modify these app page elements to achieve much better results.
-Make your ad more relevant to search queries by adding creative sets. You can align them with
particular themes and / or audience.
-Focus on segments that drive high TTR and CVR.
-Mind localization. In order to improve relevance of the ads for another market modify app’s
metadata.
-Work on the rating of your app.

3. Average Cost per Tap
Avr. CPT $0.95 in 2019 vs
Avr. CPT $0.84 in 2018

4. Cost per Acquisition
Avr. CPA $1.90 in 2019 vs
Avr. CPA $1.76 in 2018

4. Cost per Acquisition
Highest CPA for US - $2.13
vs
Japan $1.91

Q&A
Or send your questions to tanya.v@splitmetrics.com

Pg. 51
1.5k ASO practitioners Incipia

●
●
●
●
bid & relevancy
ASA
2nd-price auction Relevancy score

Brand Generic Competitor
Ad group Ad group list
Campaigns
Ad groups Ad group list
Keywords Keyword list Keyword list Keyword list
Exact match

Exact Match
[taxi]
Broad Match
taxi
Search Match
Common Misspellings
Search Term Match Source Matches Search Terms
Exact Match
Singular/Plural
Example
taxii
taxi
taxis
Singular/Plural
Common Misspellings
Synonyms
Related searches
Phrases with the term
Metadata keywords
Other search data
taxii
taxis
cab
ﬁnd a driver
taxi service in berlin

Pg. 63
Brand Defense
High TTR -> low CPT
Cannibalization vs. Incrementality
Brand
Ad group
Campaigns
Ad groups
Keywords Keyword list

● General terms
● Users are in “exploration
mode”
● Multiple ad groups for level
of intent (likelihood a person
downloads the app)GenericCampaigns
Ad groups
AG 1
Audiobooks
Keywords Keyword List
(audiobook app,
Listen
audiobooks,
download
audiobooks,...)
AG 2
Books
AG 2
Podcasts
AG 2
Free Audiobooks
Keyword List
(romance ebook,
ebook
subscription, buy
books,...)
Keyword List
(podcast online,
streaming
podcast, stream
podcast,...)
Keyword List
(free Audiobook,
Audiobook free
download,...)

Pg. 65
Competitor
AG 1
Audiobooks
Keyword List
(competitor 1,
competitor 2,...)
AG 2
Books
AG 2
Podcasts
Keyword List
(competitor 1,
competitor 2,...)
Keyword List
(competitor 1,
competitor 2,...)
● Usually more
expensive
● Capture installs from
competitors
Campaigns
Ad groups
Keywords

Discovery
Search
Match
Broad
Match
Brand Generic Competitor
Exact Match AG 1,
Exact Match AG 2,..
Exact Match AG 1,
Exact Match AG 2,..
Campaigns
Ad groups Exact Match AG 1,
Exact Match AG 2,..
Keywords Keyword list AG 1,
Keyword list AG2,...
Keyword list AG 1,
Keyword list AG 1,
Keyword
list

Campaign
Explore new search terms
1. Relevant search terms
can be missed
2. Use in markets where
you don’t master the
language
Discovery
Search
Match
Broad
Match
Ad groups

Discovery
Search
Match
Broad
Match
Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP)

Brand Generic Competitor Discovery
Search
Match
Exact Match Exact Match
Campaign
Broad
Match
Exact MatchAd groups

Brand Generic Competitor Discovery Probing
Search
Match
Exact Match Exact MatchExact Match
Campaign
Broad
Match
Exact MatchAd groups

Probing
Exact Match
Campaign
● Test new keywords
found in Discovery
● See downstream
performance from the
MMP
Ad groups

Search
Match
Campaign
1
Broad
Match
Exact Match
1. Add all targeting
Exact Match terms
as negative Exact
Match keywords in
Discovery Campaign
Ad groups

Search
Match
Campaign
Broad
Match
Exact Match
2
2. Adding Exact Match
keywords as Broad
Match keywords to
the Discovery
Campaign
Ad groups

Search
Match
Campaign
Broad
Match
Exact Match
33. Add Search Terms from
Discovery as Exact
Match keywords to the
Probing
(Bid = 1.25 * CPT)
Ad groups

4
Search
Match
Campaign
Broad
Match
Exact Match
4. Redistribute keywords
with enough volume and
reasonable cost-per-goal
to the other Campaigns
(weekly)
Ad groups

Pg. 78
>> Probing script live
demo

Brand (very high bid / test optimal bid)
Tier 1 (high bid)
Tier 2
(medium bid)
Tier 3
(low bid)
Discovery
(medium-
high bid)
Decreasing
LTV and bid

Brand (very high bid)
Tier 1 (high bid)
Tier 2
(medium bid)
Discovery
(medium-
high bid)
Bid=€5-10
Decreasing
LTV and bid
Meditation
LTV €10
Bid €10
Relaxation
LTV €5
Bid €5
Calm
Max bid
Fitness
LTV €3
Bid €3
Tier 3
(low bid)

Brand (highest budget possible)
Tier 1 (maximal budget)
Tier 2
Tier 3
Waterfalling
budget
downward
Discovery
(10-20%
budget)

€5,000.00
€5,000.00
€2,500.00
€1,000.00
€1,000.00
Brand
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Discovery

Broad Match
Search Match
€10.00
€10.00

Limited Ad
Tracking
enabled
(LAT on)
1
2
3
4
5

Cost-per-acquisition (CPA) = total spend divided by the number
of installs (i.e. downloads)

1. Let Apple collect data
on CPA before
implementing a CPA goal
2. Pause SKAGs that
realistically have no
chance of reaching your
CPA goal
3. Make sure CPA goal
doesn’t minimize the
volume
4. Use high max CPT bid &
CPA goal
5. Drastically lower CPA
when keywords are
underperforming
6. Test different CPA
goals

Pg. 93
Create more
relevant
combinations of ads
with their keywords
Evaluate the
performance of
creative sets with
individual keywords

https://asostack.com/creative-sets-results-calculator-for-apple-search-ads-a65ea8a927d5

Bidding for a keyword over time
Time

Bid change
Impressions
Time
Keyword 1
≠ B - A
A
B

Bid change for
Keyword 1
Time
Keyword 1
= (B - A) - (D - C)
Impact of bid
change
A
B
Keyword 2
C
D
Impressions
Assumption:
Keywords have to follow a
common trend before the
bid change
Assumption

Bid increase for
Keyword 1 from €3
to €5
100
105
30
5
Impact of bid change from €3 to €5:
= (30 - 5) - (105 - 100)
= 20
+ 20 impressions
Time

Pg. 100
>> Bid automation
Increase/Decrease bids based on CPA over period since the last bid change:
bid(cpa_high = 5, cpa_low = 1, curr = 'USD', change = 0.1)
Maximizing monetary proﬁt subject to budget constraints:
find optimal keyword-bid pairs

Moritz Daan
Co-Founder &
Partner
Sirid Krüger
Marketing
Manager
Michael Shubin
ASO Evangelist
André Ziller
Online Marketing
Manager
Teo Ivanov
Head of User
Acquisition

Apple Search Ads - Keyword expansion with discovery campaigns & Performance benchmarks | SplitMetrics

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