The mobile app marketing industry is experiencing major effects of COVID-19. SearchAdsHQ looked into the impact of COVID-19 on Apple Search Ads across 6 category groups (Games, Work from Home (Education, Business, Utilities), Photo & Video, Health & Fitness, Finance and Travel) in the countries most affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Read the full report here: https://splitmetrics.com/blog/impact-of-covid19-on-apple-search-ads/. For other industry averages and trends, get Apple Search Ads Benchmarks Report 2020: https://searchadshq.com/apple-search-ads-benchmarks-2020.

1. The Impact of COVID-19
on Apple Search Ads

2. searchadshq.com
Average Daily Hours Per Device on Mobile
During COVID-19 Pandemic
1st Phase of Countries Impacted at Scale 2nd Phase of Countries Impacted at Scale 3rd Phase of Countries Impacted at Scale

3. Research objectives
1. Understand how COVID-19 affected:
2. Confirm the assumptions:
Key metrics – Downloads and Cost per Acquisition (CPA) – in the worst-hit
countries;
User behavior across different categories.
Entertainment and remote collaboration apps are growing in popularity;
The usage of travel and booking apps is reducing.
searchadshq.com

4. Countries under research
The 2nd phase countries affected
South Korea (KR)
searchadshq.com
Japan (JP)
Italy (IT)
The 3rd phase countries affected
The United States (US)
The United Kingdom (UK)
Spain (ES)
France (FR)
Germany (DE)

5. 6 category groups under research
Games
searchadshq.com
Work from Home: Education,
Business, Utilities
Photo & Video
Health & Fitness FinanceTravel, Transportation,
Booking

6. Games
The 2nd phase countries
(KR, JP, IT)
apps
searchadshq.com
impressions
downloads
The 3rd phase countries
(US, UK, ES, FR, DE)
36
14.4M
249K
apps
impressions
downloads
67
36.5M
821K

7. Games
increase in Downloads
60%
Downloads in 2nd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
searchadshq.com
increase in Downloads
27%
Downloads in 3rd Phase Countries (US,
UK, ES, FR & DE)

8. Games
increase in CPA
10-20%
CPA in 2nd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
searchadshq.com
CPA in 3rd Phase Countries
(US, UK, ES, FR & DE)
avg CPA for the period
$1.41
avg CPA for the period
$2.89

9. Work from Home: Education, Business, Utilities
The 2nd phase countries
(KR, JP, IT)
apps
searchadshq.com
impressions
downloads
The 3rd phase countries
(US, UK, ES, FR, DE)
27
21.3M
789K
apps
impressions
downloads
50
47.4M
2.1M

10. Work From Home
increase in Downloads
120%
Downloads in 2nd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
searchadshq.com
Downloads in 2nd Phase Countries
(US, UK, ES, FR & DE)

11. Work From Home
decrease in Downloads
10-15%
CPA in 3rd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
searchadshq.com
CPA in 3rd Phase Countries
(US, UK, ES, FR & DE)

12. Photo & Video
The 2nd phase countries
(KR, JP, IT)
apps
searchadshq.com
impressions
downloads
The 3rd phase countries
(US, UK, ES, FR, DE)
10
1.2M
86.3K
apps
impressions
downloads
36
4.5M
2.1M

13. Photo & Video
increase in Downloads
80%
Downloads in 2nd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
searchadshq.com
CPA in 2nd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
increase in CPA
21%
avg CPA for the period
$0.73

14. Photo & Video
increase in Downloads
15%
Downloads in 3rd Phase Countries
(US, UK, ES, FR & DE)
searchadshq.com
CPA in 3rd Phase Countries
(US, UK, ES, FR & DE)
decrease in CPA
5%

15. Health & Fitness
The 2nd phase countries
(KR, JP, IT)
apps
searchadshq.com
impressions
downloads
The 3rd phase countries
(US, UK, ES, FR, DE)
27
5.5M
220.4K
apps
impressions
downloads
36
16.2M
840K

16. Health & Fitness
decrease in Downloads
25%
Downloads in 2nd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
searchadshq.com
CPA in 2nd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
decrease in CPA
42%
avg CPA for the period
$1.21

17. Health & Fitness
increase in Downloads
17%
Downloads in 3rd Phase Countries
(US, UK, ES, FR & DE)
searchadshq.com
CPA in 3rd Phase Countries
(US, UK, ES, FR & DE)
decrease in CPA
38%
avg CPA for the period
$1.58

18. Finance
The 2nd phase countries
(KR, JP, IT)
apps
searchadshq.com
impressions
downloads
The 3rd phase countries
(US, UK, ES, FR, DE)
6
3.3M
35.6K
apps
impressions
downloads
9
3.6M
56.2K

19. Finance
increase in Downloads
150%
Downloads in 2nd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
searchadshq.com
CPA in 2nd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
increase in CPA
32%
avg CPA for the period
$2.79

20. Finance
increase in Downloads
67%
Downloads in 3rd Phase Countries
(US, UK, ES, FR & DE)
searchadshq.com
CPA in 3rd Phase Countries
(US, UK, ES, FR & DE)
avg CPA for the period
$6.03

21. searchadshq.com
Finance: Impressions in 3rd Phase Countries (US, UK, ES, FR, DE)
Metric by Regions

22. Travel, Transportation, Booking
The 2nd phase countries
(KR, JP, IT)
apps
searchadshq.com
impressions
downloads
The 3rd phase countries
(US, UK, ES, FR, DE)
5
261K
29K
apps
impressions
downloads
12
3M
150.4K

23. Travel, Transportation, Booking
decrease in Downloads
3x
Downloads in 2nd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
searchadshq.com
CPA in 2nd Phase Countries
(KR, JP, IT)
decrease in CPA
55%
avg CPA for the period
$2.0

24. Travel, Transportation, Booking
decrease in Downloads
3x
Downloads in 3rd Phase Countries
(US, UK, ES, FR & DE)
searchadshq.com
CPA in 3rd Phase Countries
(US, UK, ES, FR & DE)
decrease in CPA
51%
avg CPA for the period
$2.2

25. The Impact of COVID-19 on Apple Search: Findings
Gaming, Business, Education, Entertainment and Photo & Video benefit;
Travel, Booking and Transportation are negatively affected.
searchadshq.com
Significant changes in Downloads and CPA for South Korea, Japan & Italy.
Reason: restrictive measures imposed by governments.
COVID-19 increased the usage of Games by >160%; Business and Education
by ≃ 200-300%.
Downloads in Finance grew by 150% and 67% in the 1st and 2nd country
groups respectively, with major boost in Japan and the US.

26. The Impact of COVID-19 on Apple Search: Findings
For South Korea, Japan and Italy, the Downloads trend in Health & Fitness
follows a U-curve. Reasons:
searchadshq.com
Users keep downloading Photo & Video apps to edit vacation photos. 80%
increase in downloads for South Korea, Japan and Italy.
● moderate advertising strategies;
● apps repositioning
Travel, Transportation and Booking are in decline: downloads decreaseв by a
factor of 3, and CPA more than halved (in the 2nd phase countries).

27. searchadshq.com
Thank you!