Practitioner pattern · Dilip Reddy (Founder of Search Ads Optimization, a platform for managing and scaling Apple Search Ads)
Bid lower on your own app's name and check you still show up
Can keep the same share of views at about half the cost; results vary by app
Workedapple-search-ads
What they did
Run brand keywords if your app is easily replaced by a competitor (skip if network effects make you irreplaceable). Then test lower brand bids and track impression share, which Apple reports per search term per country. If impression share holds (e.g. ~90%), you have roughly halved the cost; some companies accept ~70% impression share for a ~70% cost cut. Apple charges per tap and favors the relevant brand app, so you can often win your brand term below competitors' bids, but a competitor with much better screenshots, messaging or ratings can take share, so keep monitoring. Move the savings to generic high-intent keywords that bring new users.
What happened
Often the same impression share at about half the cost; not guaranteed.
- Stage
- any
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from this episode
- Copy your search ads into new countries and start with very low bidsSome apps see surprising results in new markets; no numbers
- Group search ad keywords by how interested searchers are, and bid differently per groupGuest's main way to scale search ads; overall performance improves, no numbers
- Bid bad keywords very low instead of deleting them, and retry in 2-3 monthsKeeps keywords that may later become the most profitable; no numbers
- Keep ad results for your app's name separate from all other keywords
- Change bids each week based on the last 7-15 days, not on the season
- Judge search ads on when they pay back, not first-week return40-50% first-week return is fine for subscription apps
- Aim for ads to pay back by the first yearly renewal, not in 7 daysGrows faster by stacking subscriber cohorts; no results given
- Test a new App Store page by showing it to ads in half the US states
- Spend $10-20 a day on search ads to get your first interested usersAbout five or six installs a day from people searching for your app's use
- Start with 'weather' as a broad keyword and bid low on features you lack