Apple Search Ads 2017: Pros & Cons From An Early Adopter
Welcome to my first post of 2017! Before we dive into today’s topic, let’s take a look back at the blog’s 2016 statistics: Total views grew by 116% over 2015, and Google edged out Facebook three times over, becoming our top traffic source. Meanwhile, LinkedIn and Twitter are in third and fourth places respectively. 2017 is off to a promising start.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming…
Are you familiar with Apple Search Ads? Well if you work in mobile advertising, you should be. And if you’re not, no worries, I’ll change that by the end of this article.
What are Apple Search Ads?
With more than 1.5 million apps on the App Store, Apple recognized the need to give advertisers a way to help their apps stand out in the crowd. Just a few tactics included a featured apps section, a discounted apps section, and top banners. Now, as of October 5, 2016, advertisers could advertise iOS apps as well in the search results on the App Store, thanks to Apple Search Ads. In case you were wondering, Google had enabled app advertising long ago—in the search functionality within Google Play.
Apple advertising platform: pros & cons
I’ve tried Apple Search Ads since the very first day it came on the scene. To celebrate its four-month anniversary, I’ve decided to share four pros and cons about this bourgeoning new platform.
Apple Search Ads Pros:
It’s the ultimate way to advertise your iOS app
There is no placement like this one. As 65 to 80 percent of installs happen after a search is done on the App Store, this allow advertisers to show their app at this very precise moment. Unlike Google, Apple Search Ads are displayed on the App Store only, where Google forces advertisers who want to promote their app in Google Play to also promote their app on its search engine.
It’s easy to use
This advertising platform has been designed to be accessible for everyone. Accounts are really easy to set up, and the platform proposes auto-targeting options if you don’t want to enter keywords yourself. Finally, you don’t have to create ads—they are automatically generated from your app description. If you want to change your ads, you have to change the naming of your app, or the description, directly in the App Store. In addition, if you use Adjust, the trackers are automatically created. Easy-peasy.
Access to insightful data
Apple Search Ads allow you to see which search terms trigger your ads and the KPIs help you to understand the performance in detail. This provides some useful insights that you should use to work on your app store optimization.
Better performance
There’s an overall better CPI than on other networks. This can be explained by the higher conversion rate (the user is already in the app store, and obviously looking for an app), or by the fact that all companies are not yet using Apple Search Ads, so the auctions remained low, even if, in my view, prices started to rise since we launched it, meaning than more and more competitors began competing on keywords.
Apple Search Ads Cons:
It’s hard to scale
Apple chose relevance above everything else. Even if you are willing to bid high. If you target irrelevant keywords, Apple will simply not show your ads. For the same reason, if people don’t find your ad or your app appealing and don’t click on it, Apple will stop showing your ad, regardless of your bid.
It’s only available in the USA
So far, Apple Search Ads are only available in the USA. I don’t see an obvious reason for this. The platform has been tested, it is not a beta, and it works. Why isn’t it available in the other countries yet? Don’t tell me that Apple doesn’t have enough resources to translate the interface.
Poor user experience
Navigation could have been better, especially if you are used to Google AdWords. The more you use the platform, the more small things irritate you. For example, to edit the setting of campaigns, or ad groups, you must click on each of them and click on the edit link at the very top right of the screen. Just a little bit tedious.
Maintenance and optimization could be simpler
Speaking of tedium, basic functionality available in AdWords doesn’t exist on the Apple advertising platform. There is no shared library, which means that if you want to negative a keyword you have to go into every single ad group and add negative keywords locally. Or, if you want to change bids, you have to go one by one to each keyword. It doesn’t sound as bad as it is, but when you have lot of keywords, you would rather spend your time doing something else.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you haven't started Apple Search Ads, you should definitely check it out. There are still a few things that I wished were better, but considering that the platform is only 4 month old, it is still overall not so bad. And who knows, there are maybe a lot of improvements planned in the future.
Link to the blog article below :