Your guide to Apple Search Ads: Tips & best practices | Adjust

Once you’ve decided on the solution best suited to you, there are several ways to optimize your ASA performance. Particularly with Apple Search Ads Advanced, you have greater control over how your campaigns are managed. Here are a few additional ways you can make the most of ASA. (This list is based on Apple Search Ads Advanced and therefore includes ASA’s wider range of configurable settings.)

1. Review app metadata before starting a campaign

It’s essential for advertisers to review their app metadata (located in App Store Connect) prior to starting a new campaign. This is because the appearance of your ad creative is based on this metadata and can’t be changed after this point. You can find more best practices for App Store metadata here.

Note that with Apple Search Ads, the same ad won’t necessarily appear for each user. There are several types of ads, and variants include the number of screenshots, preview videos, and app descriptions.

2. Targeting keywords based on your USP

If you have ASA Advanced and want to refine which keywords are going to generate installs, it’s important to understand how your target audience will attempt to find your app. For example, how will you communicate your app’s USP? This could be, for example, adding “meal planning” and “step counter” as keywords for your health and fitness app. Knowing what your audience is likely to search for allows you to generate the best possible conversion rate.

Because these keywords are also more specific, you can limit competition and have a higher chance of winning bids. General keywords will always be more competitive and will require a higher CPC bid. You should also monitor the performance of these keywords to test whether they are reaching a sufficient number of users.

3. Use your existing Apple ID to cross-promote and duplicate settings

When signing up for Apple Search Ads, ensure that you use the Apple ID linked to your App Store Connect account. This enables you to cross-promote your ads to existing users and add them as an audience customer type. Apple also has a duplication feature that allows you to copy many of your settings over with ease.

4. Use both match types for the best results

For Apple Search Ads, match types enable you to match user searches with your keywords. This includes “broad match” and “exact match.” For best results, you should run both of these for your campaigns. As you might expect, a broad match will include your ad in related search terms, while an exact match allows you to show ads to users searching that exact term. The latter gives you less exposure but connects you with an audience looking for a specific function. Using both allows you to see what works best for your app and discover which terms consistently generate installs. To learn more about different match types, take a look at Apple’s documentation.

5. Make use of negative keywords

In addition to broad match and exact match keywords, you can use negative keywords to define which terms you don’t want to have included in your bids. This narrows the options for your targeted ads but also ensures you aren’t bidding against yourself.

6. Combining and segmenting countries & regions

With ASA Advanced, advertisers can create campaigns that group countries and regions based on their similarities. This allows you to make optimizations linked to specific attributes, such as language and customer value. The value of each country or region can be learned prior to this by creating and analyzing individual campaigns.

7. Don’t ignore the relationship between ASA and ASO

When setting up your Apple Search Ads campaigns, it can be easy to forget the relevance of App Store Optimization (ASO). As we’ve already covered, Apple uses information based on your app’s metadata in the App Store, so it’s important to ensure that your ASO is strong. This extends to every aspect of ASO, from the relevance of your preview videos to the impact of your screenshots. Make sure your app’s presentation within the App Store is in its optimal state prior to setting up any campaign.

Find out how combining App Store Optimization and App Store Advertising and using them in conjunction is key to attracting users and increasing ROI.

8. Optimize your bids over time

It’s essential for advertisers to adapt their strategy over time, changing bids and budgets based on performance to generate more installs and greater ROI. This includes monitoring whether it’s worth raising your maximum bid for a particular keyword that you’re no longer winning, or evaluating whether your budget is better spent on another keyword. Regardless of your analysis, the key is to be adaptable. To help with this, Apple’s recommended bid amount will inform you of how much more would be needed for a strong chance of winning those bids. This can be utilized as the baseline of your  Search Ads analysis.