Apple Search Ads is a powerful tool for any app marketer looking to boost discoverability and fuel app downloads in the App Store. However, Apple Search Ads is only as good as you make it, and that is entirely dependent on the ad campaign structure. A meticulously organized campaign can help you better measure performance, optimize keyword bids, and scale to new audiences effectively. The structure is one of the things that can greatly improve in understanding of the campaign performance and give you a clearer vision of how the campaign is doing, thus facilitating better decision-making and higher ROI. In this blog, we will delve into the best practices for structuring your Apple Search Ads campaign to achieve the best results.
Before diving into the specifics, it's essential to understand how the different elements of an Apple Search Ads campaign relate to each other. You set your budget and select the countries and regions that your ads will appear in at the campaign level. Within each campaign, you create ad groups where you can select keywords, set bids, and create ad variations. This hierarchical structure allows you to easily manage your campaigns and target your ads to particular segments of the market.
Campaigns are at the top of the hierarchy and are used for budgeting and targeting specific regions. Ad groups within these campaigns allow for more granular control over bidding and keyword selection. You can divide your focus themes up into different campaigns and ad groups and show them ads that are relevant to the audience and therefore increase the performance of the ad and the engagement of the user.
A robust ad campaign structure involves categorizing your campaigns by keyword themes. These are the 4 main types of campaigns you need to have in your Apple Search Ads account:
*Source* https://searchads.apple.com/best-practices/campaign-structure
This kind of campaign uses broad match keywords, and Search Match to automatically find keywords related to the search. After these keywords are recognized, add them to the corresponding brand, category, or competitor campaign as new exact-match keywords. This ensures that high-performing keywords are optimized for maximum impact. Additionally, ensure these keywords are added as exact match negative keywords in the discovery campaign to avoid overlap and optimize ad performance.
The insights gained from discovery campaigns are invaluable. They are great for expanding your keyword base and tracking user search patterns. Regularly analyzing the performance of keywords in discovery campaigns can reveal new opportunities and help you stay ahead of competitors. The key is to keep updating your campaigns with the high-performing keywords, and eliminating the non-performing ones, so that your targeting gets more and more refined, and your ad spend becomes more and more efficient.
Consider separating campaigns by individual countries or regions, especially for larger markets with dedicated budgets or distinct goals. That way it is easier to track performance and manage a budget. For example, if you have individual campaigns for high-priority markets, you can distribute budgets more accurately and you can customize your strategies to each region's preferences and behaviors. This method can make your advertising more effective in many diverse markets.
For smaller or similar markets, grouping multiple countries into one campaign can simplify management and reduce administrative overhead. This is especially helpful if the grouped countries share similar customer values, languages, or regional traits. Moreover, using the campaign duplication feature can save time and effort when expanding successful campaigns to new regions. This means that you can duplicate the parameters of a successful campaign and apply them to new markets.
For more sophisticated needs, consider the following advanced structuring approaches:
Regular monitoring and optimization are crucial for maintaining the effectiveness of your Apple Search Ads campaigns. Here are some key practices:
So by incorporating these sophisticated techniques into your campaign plan, you will be able to continuously improve and maintain your success with Apple Search Ads.
Creating a well-structured Apple Search Ads campaign is crucial for maximizing your ad spend and achieving high ROI. You can improve your ad performance if you organize your campaigns by keyword themes, make good use of discovery campaigns, and manage your campaigns regionally and by budget. For more sophisticated requirements, semantics-based or value-based methods should be used to acquire even more analysis and optimization.
With a strategic and organized structure to the campaign, better performance can be tracked, budgets can be better allocated to the appropriate media, and most importantly the ads can be more relevant. Continuously add/revise keywords from the discovery campaign to keep your campaigns optimized and competitive. So with these tips, your Apple Search Ads campaign can generate significant returns and help to continue app growth.
If you are looking to achieve an incremental scale for your iOS app, feel free to connect with our Apple Search Ads campaign managers to help set up high-performing paid iOS campaigns.