Apple Search Ads: What to Consider When Creating and Setting Up Advertising Campaigns

Lead Mobile Promotion Manager “Realweb”

For the Russian market, Apple Search Ads is a new phenomenon. Not all advertisers had time to try the platform, and many specialists are just beginning to get acquainted with its capabilities.

In this article, we will understand the tricks of Apple Search Ads and tell you what it takes to make your ad campaigns to the liking of users and increase the overall traffic flow.

What you shouldn’t do without when launching an Apple Search Ads campaign:

IOS application. It’s worth noting that Apple Search Ads has a number of limitations that may prevent your app from being admitted to ads. For example, if screenshots of a different application are used for advertising. More information about the rules can be found here.
Email and Apple ID for registration in the service.
Integration of Apple Search Ads into your tracker, if any.

❗️ We strongly recommend integrating Apple Search Ads into your tracker, as the statistics in the Search Ads itself may differ from the real indicators.

Integration into the application iAd.framework and AdSupport.framework – without them, the tracker will not work correctly.

Where ads are placed and what they look like

“On the first line. In the first place “, – positions the platform itself Apple, and it can not be denied in the accuracy of expression. Ads will indeed appear on the first line in the AppStore search.

According to Apple Search Ads data from all available countries and regions, the average click-to-install conversion rate is 50%. According to the Singular ROI Index 2019, this source is ranked 4th in ROI, behind only Facebook, Unity and Google Ads. In terms of the volume of installations, Search Ads also takes a confident 4th place.

But this is theory, but what is in practice? In the experience of Realweb, up to 30,000 installations per month can be driven through this source, and this is not the limit. Search Ads now account for an average of 20% of traffic from our large clients, and we continue to increase its volume.

How to set up an ad campaign in Apple Search Ads

Depending on the tasks, Apple offers two options for interacting with the product – Basic or Advanced:

Basic suitable for those who prefer simplicity. In this case, only GEO and “Budget” are available from the settings, the system itself will select suitable keywords and start showing ads for them. In this case, the purchase will be carried out according to the CPI model;
Advanced – an option for those who like to delve into the intricacies and want to fully control the advertising campaign. Purchasing is carried out by CPT (Cost per Tab), and it is possible to accurately specify keywords for ad groups.

❗️ We recommend using the second option to fine tune and cover the keywords you want.

As in the case of Facebook, the structure of advertising campaigns here is built on the principle of “Campaign” – “Ad group” – “Advertisement”.

At the first level, we select the app we want to advertise, set the total and daily budget, and set up billing information. It is best to create one campaign for one application, this will make it easier to interact with the closing documents.

At the ad group level, the maximum CPT for a particular app is displayed, so you can roughly calculate the final app install price based on an average CR of 50%.

At the start of the placement, it is better to use it, since in this case Apple Search Ads will be able to enter the auction without any problems and overclock your RK. After the test, you can change it to the one that suits you in terms of economics and indicators.

Here you can also set up the target CPA by specifying the required app installation price. It is very important to realistically estimate the cost of the purchase, and not to set “impossible” tasks for the system.

Once configured, you can move on to composing keywords and the Search Match function. Apple Search Ads has a pretty good built-in tool for finding keywords that are suitable for your application, which we will dwell on in more detail.

How to work with keywords for Apple Search Ads

We divide words into three groups:

general phrases;
competitor inquiries;
brand inquiries.

Common phrases belong to the application. For example, in the case of the Tanuki restaurant chain, these are “delivery”, “food delivery”, “roll delivery”, etc. These words help build volume and attract an audience that is not looking for a specific application, but simply wants to get acquainted with the market. On average, these users account for about 30% of traffic.

Competitor inquiries help to show that the advertised application is not only not worse, but also better than competitors. With the development of Apple Search Ads in Russia, it becomes more and more difficult to purchase such traffic, because today many companies are concerned with protecting their brand. But in terms of in-app conversion, this traffic is on par with regular search traffic.

Brand inquiries primarily have the function of protecting the brand, preventing competitors from luring users into their applications.

Another point that deserves attention when choosing keywords is the “Popularity” indicator. It gives information about how many people entered a particular request in the AppStore search. We try to exclude requests with a popularity of less than 20% from advertising campaigns, as they are often ineffective and bring a minimal amount of traffic.

When starting a campaign, you should pay attention to the possibility of choosing an exact or broad match. This difference can be demonstrated with one of the search queries:

Exact match request – “fast delivery”

Shows will be:

“fast delivery”,
“fast delivery”.

There will be no impressions:

“Rolls delivery”,
“Sushi with delivery”,
“Food delivery”, etc.

Broad match request – “fast delivery”

Shows will be:

“fast delivery”,
“fast delivery”,
“Rolls delivery”,
“Sushi with delivery”,
“Food delivery”, etc.

When starting work, we recommend using only exact match to avoid wasting budget on ineffective keywords. As your campaign gains traction, you can create some of the best performing broad match keywords for your price, thereby increasing your ad volume.

The situation is similar with the “Search Match” function, the essence of which is to automatically expand the list of active keywords. At the test stage, it can greatly worsen the picture of the cost of the conversion. Therefore, it should be considered only at the stage of scaling and follow a few rules when using:

add to a separate ad group;
exclude keywords used in generic and brand campaigns from impressions.

After compiling a list of keywords, it is worth referring to the targeting offered by the system:

By device (preferred device is iPhone or iPad);
by social demographic (gender and age of the target audience);
by type of clients (for example, those who have already downloaded the application or only new users).

❗️ It would be incorrect to say what exactly to specify in the targeting settings, since only the advertiser knows which users he needs. But it is important to split ad groups on iPhone and iPad, as users of the latter are more expensive.

The nuances of creating ads for Apple Search Ads

When creating ads for Apple Search Ads, we are very limited in choice, and, unfortunately, it will not work to use unique solutions or ingenious ideas on banners. In the service, we can only use screenshots and a description of the application from the AppStore, and the ad text is formed independently, so the flight of imagination is very limited.

But you can create an optimal structure for an advertising campaign.

During the tests, we developed two templates that we continue to use.:

The first one is suitable for those who want to manage purchases for each keyword separately. In this case, we recommend that you create one ad group per word. This approach will be appreciated by advertisers with a limited set of key phrases, who, for example, only want to protect their brand.
The second option is to combine your ad group by keyword type – generic, brand, and competitors. In this case, you can easily add new keys and track which ones bring more traffic. However, keep in mind that an ad group with automatic search for new keywords should be isolated in each of the options.

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