Apple Search Ads is one of the best ways to acquire new users after the deprecation of IDFA. However, receiving Apple Search Ads impressions can be more tricky than it appears.
Taps on our ads are what make us spend money. If we are not getting any impressions, we won’t be able to get any taps.
If we can’t spend our advertising budget, we cannot reach out to users that may download our app. Not to mention that we won’t have any metrics to track or analyze. And, if we are not getting any downloads, what is the point of our app marketing campaign?
As we’ve seen, without ad impressions our whole marketing campaign loses its purpose. That is why we have to pay close attention to the subject of increasing our ad impressions in Apple Search Ads.
Don’t Be Afraid To Increase Your Bids
The first step of any marketing campaign is determining our budget. After we determine this based on our marketing goals, we should optimize our bids. Some might think that optimizing our bids means that we should set them as low as possible. However, this is far from the truth.
Using daily caps, you can make sure that you will not exceed your budget while also evenly distributing your spending. This way you can use your Apple Search Ads budget in an efficient way.
So why would we want to spend more money on taps? Well, if our bids are so low that we cannot get any impressions, this probably means that our competitors are taking away our potential users. Within your goals, you should increase your bids until a point where you are still profitable but also get more impressions.
Think of ad impressions as the foundation of a building while revenue is the roof. You cannot have the top floor without building a solid foundation first. Therefore, we should not be afraid of increasing the bids that will eventually result in revenue.
Our automation tools can allow you to make this process easier by optimizing your bids for you. Below, you can see a simple automation rule which will increase our bids every day by 10% until we start seeing some impressions.
The bottom line is, don’t be afraid to spend some money and gather some data for improving your Apple Search Ads Strategy.
Optimize Apple Search Ads Tap-Through Rates
After we increase our bids to a level where we see the number of desired impressions, we will have some metrics that we can use to scale our campaign further. Tap-Through Rates are one of the most significant metrics.
This metric shows the ratio of people who tapped on your ad after viewing it. It is simple but can draw the thin line between a successful and unsuccessful campaign. Let me tell you how.
Keeping a close eye on your TTR is one of the most crucial steps for optimizing Apple Search Ads. If lots of people see your ads but they don’t tap to get more information, there might be a few reasons behind this. Either we are showing our ad to irrelevant people (more on this in the next section) or our ads are not attractive enough to convince users to tap on our ad.
One effective solution to this problem is Apple Search Ads Creative Sets. Especially for apps that serve many purposes, creative sets are a great solution to increase Tap-Through rates. Assume that you have an app that allows users to track calories, follow workout programs, and also provide dietary guidance.
Depending on the keyword that they use, you can show different product pages to these users. This way you can tailor your message according to the needs and desires of the user, maximizing conversions.
Through SearchAds Intelligence, you can not only see how many different creative sets your competitors are using but also the specific keywords that their creative sets appear in. By analyzing Creative Sets, you can improve your Tap-Through rates, potentially making it easier for you to gain impressions.
As a reference point, you can take a look at our Apple Search Ads benchmarks report. This way you can compare and contrast your own performance against industry benchmarks. Optimizing Apple Search Ads will be much easier once you obtain the relevant data.
Find the Best Apple Search Ads Keywords
The beauty of Apple Search Ads is that it allows you to reach the right audience. However, the keywords you target in your campaign will be the determining factor when it comes to reaching the right people.
People that use the search bar to download apps are more likely to engage with your app more, and naturally bring in more revenue. So if your ad appears at the top of the search results for relevant keywords, there is no doubt that you will acquire users that will be more fruitful for your business compared to users acquired from other channels.
Additionally, you are more likely to win auctions for more relevant keywords as Apple Search Ads aims to provide an optimal user experience. If your ad is considered to be irrelevant, it is likely for your costs to go up.
So how do you find the right keywords?
Well, our Search Ads Intelligence tool might be the place to start. By looking at the keywords that your competitors bid on, you can instantly discover keywords with good potential.
Additionally, targeting long-tail keywords with high user intent is also an effective way to increase your Apple Search Ads revenue.
Finally, Discovery Campaigns are yet another great way to find some new keywords. Through Search Match, not only can you discover search terms, but you can also understand how the search algorithm perceives your app. Getting matched to ‘irrelevant’ keywords might show that your App Store Optimization strategy is insufficient to represent your app properly.
Improve Apple Search Ads Campaigns with App Store Optimization
App Store Optimization is for organic results, right? Yes, ASO can bring organic traffic to our app but the benefits of ASO do not end there. It is also a very important aspect of our Apple Search Ads campaigns.
We will face two outcomes if we are bidding on irrelevant keywords. First, the auction may be won by more relevant apps even though they bid less. Secondly, even if we win the auction, our Tap-Through Rates will be low, resulting in low download rates. This will also drive our user acquisition costs higher.
Instead, we should focus on bettering our ASO for our app. A properly built metadata and high Tap-Through Rates can give us the edge over our competitors. Additionally, you can use the keywords you discover through Apple Search Ads in your ASO strategy to boost your organic rankings.
On the other hand, you can add the keywords that perform well organically in your Apple Search Ads campaigns to increase your impressions.
Through our Apple Search Ads Keyword tool, we can see that the 3 apps that receive the most impressions from the keyword ‘meditation’ are all organically ranking in the top 10 for the given keyword.
Start Collecting Data and Observe Outcomes
As data grows, you can see what is working with your campaign and what is not. This way you can optimize and get the most out of your Apple Search Ads budget.
Eager to learn more? Schedule a meeting with our experts today and start scaling your Apple Search Ads campaigns!
