Today, we are going to analyze the Apple Search Ads strategies of the popular photo and video editings apps to learn more about how to manage Apple Search Ads effectively.
These three apps are among the top 20 Apple Search Ads advertisers in the US, making them a perfect study case to learn from.
Top Advertisers in Apple Search Ads
Remember the times when getting photographed is a big deal? If so, it means you have lived long enough to see that it has become an act as normal as drinking water. Now, you need to take a few selfies daily to maintain your social media presence. It’s only better if you complement your selfies with some Photo & Video Editing Apps such as Splice, Picsart, and Youcam.
But what about your app’s presence in the app stores, right? Just like social media, all you have to do is to be more visible. And Apple Search Ads is a great way to build brand awareness in the App Store.
Splice Video Editor & Maker
Let’s first start by saying that Splice has an ASO visibility score of 92 in the Apple App Store. Meaning that they are already ranking high organically for related keywords. But still, they are running Apple Search Ads in 39 countries and bidding on 6025 keywords in the US. Why?
Because other apps might get ahead of you with paid keywords even if your app ranks first in organic results. That is why you should build your user acquisition strategies accordingly. By combining your App Store Optimization Efforts with Apple Search Ads, you can make sure that you are one step ahead of your competitors.
Let’s see some examples
Organic Ranking for “iMovie”
With our Keyword Explorer, you can search for keywords and instantly view the organic rankings. Here, we see that Splice ranks third for the “imovie” search. A good spot but we can also see that Splice gets almost 80% of the impression share for this keyword. So, even though Splice does not have the first spot organically, they are still the first app that appears for many of the search queries.
Organic Ranking for “Video”
Another example is that when users search for “video”, Splice will probably be at the top of the search results as it gets 52% of the impression share. Although it ranks organically eighth.
Now let’s talk about an important distinction. While some users will search for ‘discovery’ or ‘generic’ keywords, a good portion of users will directly use brand keywords to download their next app. That is why Apple Search Ads can be a great tool to build a presence in competitor keywords.
Splice also seems to be active in this aspect.
As you can see, they are doing more than looking for a share. In most of these brand keywords, Splice has the lion’s share.
Find relevant keywords with high volumes.
Appear in front of users prior to your competitors.
How Picsart Photo & Video Editor Manage Apple Search Ads
Picsart says bring your creativity to life. And they surely provide features to make it happen. Moreover, they optimize Apple Search Ads and App Store so well that it is almost impossible not to encounter Picsart if you are looking for a Photo Editing App.
With over 9k paid keywords in the US, they manage Apple Search Ads in 25 countries. Impressive but not as much as their app store visibility score: 95.
As you receive downloads with Apple Search Ads, your organic traffic will also increase. Now with this in mind, let’s take a look at their Apple Search Ads strategies.
Organic Rankings for “PicsArt”
As you can see, Picsart organically ranks first for their own brand keyword which has a pretty high volume. However, they oddly don’t bid on the ‘Picsart’ keyword. As a result, we see other apps dominating the impression share.
On the other hand, they are protecting their brand keywords by bidding on 32 long-tail keywords that include “PicsArt”.
Here, Picsart organically ranks third for another popular keyword: “Photo Editor”. This time, they bid on the keyword yet their impression share is below 3%. As you can see, Facetune is bidding on and getting 50% of the impression share for this keyword although they are ranking second in the organic search.
This might be stemming from the competition for this keyword due to its high search volume. As a result, their bid level might not be enough to get a high impression share. In these kinds of situations, SearchAds.com’s automation tool allows you to do bulk operations and manage Apple Search Ads more efficiently by adjusting your bids depending on the competition.
YouCam Makeup: Selfie Editor
Now, let’s take a look at the most aggressive one out of the three. Youcam is bidding on more than 21k keywords and running Apple Search Ads in 5 countries. The interesting part is that they utilize 13 creative sets to maximize click-through rates. Creative Sets will allow you to connect with users in a more direct way by customizing your assets for specific search queries.
This is one of their custom creative sets targeting users who are looking for effects, stickers, and filters for their selfies. This is an effective way of increasing conversions as you get the opportunity to show related features of your app.
Above, we see another creative set to highlight different features of YouCam. Assume that a user searched for “change hair color”. In this case, you would want to show that your app has this feature, right?
The use of creative sets will come into prominence with iOS 15 and custom product pages. With our new feature Creative Asset Hub, you can instantly monitor top creatives in your category and analyze your competitors. In this way, you can uncover the latest creative trends and optimize your product pages.
Now let’s see YouCam’s keywords.
Keywords with Most Organic Downloads
These are the keywords that YouCam gets the most organic downloads from. As you can see, they organically rank in the top 10 for these keywords.
Apple Search Ads Results for Keywords with Most Organic Downloads
And here, we have YouCam’s Apple Search Ads results for some of these keywords. Except for their competitors’ brand keywords, they have the biggest impression share for the rest of the keywords.
This perfectly demonstrates how you should approach Apple Search Ads and App Store Optimization. You have to find the balance and manage them in harmony for maximum growth.
Schedule a demo with our experts now and let’s start scaling your Apple Search Ads campaigns the smart way!
