How to launch and scale Apple Search Ads?

  Apple Search Ads (ASA) is an advertising platform tailored for app developers and marketers to promote iOS apps within the App Store. (more details you can learn from here) We can notice that there are two questions that concern almost everyone: how to launch and scale ASA.

How to launch and test Apple Search Ads campaigns properly?

Defining the test budget

In order to measure ROI, we have to collect a sufficient number of revenue-generating events for each phrase and country. Let’s assume that in our product this is a subscription that is activated by an average of 5% of new users.

How many subscriptions do you need to estimate ROI? For a statistically significant result, you would likely need too many, and such a test budget would be difficult to get approved.

Based on some experience, less than 10 events will not be enough in practice, as the results will be too unreliable, but if you have 200–300 events, the results are usually very reliable. You can use 50 events as a benchmark — this is a reasonable compromise.

If the budget for the test is limited, you can always:

• Limit the test to only one placement. We recommend testing ads in Search Results first.
• Test in countries with lower installation costs.
• Reduce the number of segments to be tested.
• Generate only 20 or 30 events per segment (but no less than 10). This will not allow us to draw reliable conclusions, but it can serve as a guide for making decisions on more in-depth testing.
• Do not test all Keywords in all countries, but limit yourself to certain combinations of countries and Keywords, selected with your product and niche in mind.

All of these measures may reduce the quality of your test, but can be a reasonable compromise for you if you have a limited budget.

Campaign Structure for Search Results Placement

Assuming the test budget is approved, we can move on to testing the channel itself and making it work on a permanent basis. To do this, you need to think about the structure of your advertising account.

This consists of Campaigns, Ad Groups, Keywords, and Negative Keywords.

Negative Keywords are phrases that are not relevant or desirable for the particular Campaign or Ad Group, and for which you do not want to show ads.

Often campaigns are grouped according to the principle of following one of the advertising strategies: Discovery, Probing, Scaling, Brand, or others:

• The Discovery strategy aims to identify new search queries that have not previously been used as Keywords.
• The Probing strategy involves test buying a large number of Keywords in order to determine which of them can generate a significant amount of traffic.
• The Scaling strategy involves working with a small number of popular Keywords in order to buy the maximum amount of search traffic with them.
• The Brand strategy is aimed at protecting search traffic on the App Store from competitors.

You can also choose different match types:

• Search Match — a feature whereby ads can be automatically matched to search queries, so you don’t have to figure out all the possible Keywords and assign bids. Instead, you can let it work automatically and see actual Search Terms afterwards.
• Broad Match — shows ads for Search Terms similar to the selected Keyword. Broad match can take into account singular and plural noun forms, spelling mistakes, synonyms, related Search Terms, and phrases that include the term in whole or in part.
• Exact Match — allows you to select only the Keywords for which you want to show ads, and also covers their close variations.

Optimizing bids

Bid optimization is a cyclical process that includes:

• Collecting data and predicting conversions at Keyword levels when working with Search Results placement, and Country level for all placements.
• Calculating new bids.
• Updating bids in the ad account.