Search Ads - Analyze, Strategize, Optimize

In our previous blog we spoke about the exciting new Search Ads feature available in iOS 10 and how the optimization of your metadata will be a key factor affecting how well your ad performs.

It’s not enough to know your app ad is generating a positive response

What you really want and need to know is; could you be spending your money differently to make your ad more effective? To do this an analysis of your ad campaign needs to be undertaken and its performance measured.

To track your ROI Apple have designed an intuitive campaign management and reporting UI, enabling an understanding to what is exactly happening within your campaigns. The campaign trending overview shows the most important metrics, which can then be analysed and used to identify opportunities to increase impressions, taps and downloads.

It is possible to manage keywords, with the ability to pause any that have a low conversion rate and utilise the Ad Keyword tool to produce recommendations of similar words that can then be used. It is important to keep in mind however that organic ASO is also needed. Apple produces your keywords so if you do not currently rank for certain keywords that you wish to be used, these will not be given to you no matter how much you bid.

A search terms page is located within campaigns, with allows the viewing of all search queries that have been matched to your ad through Search Match and your own choices. This shows which search terms are increasing traffic to your app and allows them to then be used as keywords.

Search Ads will offer APIs for campaign creation, management, and reporting, which once installed can be used to identify groups of users, and understand their value over time.

To get the most out the API’s your focus needs to be on advance targeting, rather than allowing Apple’s automatic Search Match. Although reports will be available from Search Match results, it will be more beneficial for reports from advanced targeting to be monitored as this area gives you control of audience, gender, age and device location.

The attribution API is useful once a new customer has been acquired as it will allow an insight into, for example, keywords that drove a download and from there report on valuable your customers are from certain keywords, this information can then be used to optimize your keywords.

The main points to take away from the new Search Ads feature in order to allow you to get the most out of it is:

  • Optimize you app metadata
  • Find out the value of your customer
  • Implement attribution API code

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