Increasing visibility and attracting a quality audience are important tasks for any Apple Search Ads mobile app developer. It is possible to achieve high conversion rates and minimize promotion costs thanks to competent campaign optimization. Don’t forget that this advertising platform is seriously different from ASO, the rules are completely different here. The article discusses various aspects of working with Apple Search Ads: from the use of automatic tools to moderation.
You can read about the differences between ASO and ASA at https://affcommunity.org/en/promoting-apps-using-apple-search-adsasa/.
Tips for improving the performance of Apple Search Ads
Here are a few ways to optimize your strategy:
- Discovery type campaigns. Use them, find automatically the best keywords to promote your app.
- Creativity Generation. Try automated creativity generation through Creative Sets and analyse changes in conversions.
- International Promotion. Expand your campaign to other countries. In some regions, users may be more active and ad costs may be lower. For example, Apple Search Ads recently became available in Latin America.
- Targeting Settings. Remove age and gender restrictions to reach more potential customers.
- New keywords. Update your keyword list based on your app’s data, such as headlines and subheadings.
To properly plan your ASA budget, use this formula:
B = (E / CR) × C × K × A,
where:
E is the number of targeted actions (let’s say deposits on a gambling app);
CR – conversion rate (e.g., 7% of users who click on an ad perform the desired action);
C – number of countries in which advertising is planned;
K – number of keywords;
A – number of audience segments (e.g. male and female profiles).
Example calculation:
(30 / 0.07) × 3 × 50 × 2 = 128,000 installs. With an install price of about $1.99, the total will be approximately $255k.
ASA moderation rules
Apple Search Ads strictly enforces moderation rules. Categorically prohibited gambling and betting applications, as they are very closely related to gambling. It is also unacceptable to use terms related to quick earnings, free spins, etc. Despite this, there are methods to circumvent these restrictions, but their success is often unpredictable, because it depends on a variety of factors, including the time of existence of webview-applications. ASA testing should be performed only when a sufficient number of applications are available.
