How to set up ads in the App Store

The number of mobile applications for iOS is constantly growing, and today there are more than 4 million in the App Store. Apple Search Ads is a valuable aid for those who want to place their product at the top of the search on the App Store. As a platform for advertisers, Search Ads essentially make life easier for iPhone and iPad owners by drawing attention to individual products and making it easier to choose the right product for work, play, or relaxation.

A Brief Overview

Paid promotion in Apple Search Ads is available in 59 countries. According to Apple, 65% of apps are installed after a search in the App Store.

The biggest category for applications is games, which make up almost a quarter of all products in the App Store. In second place, with almost half that number, are business applications.

A huge number of competitors is not a reason to deny yourself advertising on the App Store. Since the cost of a click and ad position is determined not so much by competition, but by the country where the ad is shown, an app’s category, how well it matches search queries, and user interest.

Next, we’ll go over how the service works and what needs to be done to launch advertising.

How Apple Search Ads works

The service can be compared to Google Ads and Facebook Ads. This is also where auctions take place, which determine how much an individual click will cost. Apple Search Ads provides two options:

• Pay per click (CPT)
• Pay per installation (CPI)

If an advertiser sets up advertising on their own and does not have advanced knowledge of targeting, they can use the match search function, which makes it easier to work with keywords. The intention is for the system to take into account application metadata, information from similar applications from the same category, and other search data. Based on the information received, search phrases are determined by which the ad will be displayed.

For specialists in online advertising, the service offers a few advanced features:

• Manual targeting according to various parameters (geography, demographics, type of device, etc.).
• Self-selection of search queries.
• Various options for planning advertising impressions.

Using these settings allows you to reach the target audience at the right moment more accurately. For example, showing ads to users near your office only during your company’s business hours.

Options with Apple Search Ads

by knowing the purpose behind advertising and having a certain level of skill in working with its settings, you can choose one of two packages: Basic or Advanced.

Basic Search Ads

A basic account format is a great option for small projects and new advertisers. Here, the default is intelligent display automation, and the advertiser only needs to do a minimum amount of intervention and adjustment.

Key details for the Basic Plan:

• Only pay-per-install (CPI) option is available.
• Basic reports available.
• Budget limit to $10 k per month for one application.
• Maximum of 50 applications for paid promotion.

Advanced Search Ads

The advanced plan opens up wider functionality and detailed analytics, but also requires more involvement from the advertiser. Here you can and should select*подбирать key queries, set a range for the cost per click, and check costs.

Key details for the Advanced Plan:

• A pay-per-click strategy is available.
• You can manage keywords and audiences.
• Advanced analytics available with detailed reports.
• Unlimited advertising budget.
• An unlimited number of apps can be promoted.

How to Set up Search Ads

Кабинет Search Ads имеет довольно понятный интерфейс и даже интуитивно можно пройти от регистрации в кабинете до запуска рекламы. Мы лишь расскажем о некоторых тонкостях, которые встречаются на каждом этапе настройки.

Search Ads has a fairly clear interface and even intuitively you can go from registering in the kabinet*start page to launching advertising. We will only talk about some of the subtleties that are you’ll encounter at each stage of the configuration.

1. Registration in the advertising cabinet*. All you need to do is enter your Apple ID.
2. Choose a plan: Basic or Advanced. For the first, your metadata is enough for the system. The second requires you to set up audiences, budgets, and an impression schedule.
3. Create an advertising account. At this stage, a form is filled out with the name of the project, country, time zone, and currency.
4. Create a campaign. At this stage, you’ll specify the application’s name, Apple ID, the campaign name, set the total and daily budget, and add negative keywords.

5. Create an ad group. At this step, the group’s name is indicated and the main ad settings are made.

5.1. The cost per click (CPT) and CPA target are set. The first value shows how much the advertiser is willing to pay for a click on the ad. The second is how much they are willing to spend to get a conversion. The CPT listed here will be relevant for all keywords. If it’s important to you to set up on a per-query basis, you can skip this step in the group setup and set bids at the keyword level.

5.2. The targeting options are selected. In the basic account type, you can select the Search Match option, which will perform an automatic setup.
5.3. Search queries are set.
5.4. Audiences can be adjusted. At first, it’s important to study the target audience in order to indicate at this stage its key characteristics: gender and age, location, devices for displaying ads, user status (they can be either new or already familiar with the product or its developer).

5.5. The schedule for broadcasting ads is set: the time and the date of the first and last impressions.

After setting these parameters, the system offers ad options for smartphones and tablets. All that’s left is to approve them and enter your payment details.

Paid advertising in the App Store is a great way to make yourself known and help users find your app. In addition to the correct settings, preparatory actions are also important: testing the application, checking key queries, drawing up a portrait of the audience. Offering users a product that is relevant to their interests is the surest way to recoup advertising.

Use these guidelines, experiment, and analyze their effectiveness, and you’ll see how powerful Apple Search Ads is an advertising tool. Internet Marketing Agency Web-Sci wishes you effective advertising!