Apple Ads Guide for 2026

What Is Apple Ads and Why Was It Renamed?

Apple Ads is Apple’s official advertising platform that allows developers and businesses to promote apps across the App Store.

Previously known as Apple Search Ads, the platform was renamed Apple Ads on April 14, 2025, reflecting the expansion of Apple’s advertising solutions beyond search:

«Our advertising solutions go beyond search — so we’re changing our name».

‍Since Apple’s advertising products are no longer limited to search results, the platform was renamed accordingly.

Primary Campaign Management Models in Apple Ads

Apple Ads offers two campaign management formats — Basic and Advanced — each with its own bidding approach and level of control.

Apple Ads Basic

This mode uses a Cost Per Install (CPI) model: advertisers set a target cost per install, and the system automatically selects keywords while aiming to stay within the specified budget. At first glance, this approach appears convenient—you pay only for installs and don’t need to manage individual keywords manually.

However, this approach has a key drawback: limited control over keyword quality. Because keywords are selected automatically, irrelevant terms often appear - the kind of search terms that don’t align with user intent or the app’s actual value proposition. As a result, there’s a higher risk of acquiring users who fail to complete target actions after installation. Moreover, despite the fixed CPI, the system offers little flexibility in bid management, which can lead to overpaying for traffic that could be acquired more efficiently through manual optimization.

Apple Ads Advanced

This setup utilizes the opposite approach. It allows you to use either Cost Per Tap (CPT) bidding or Cost Per Install with a defined target CPA, giving you full control over your campaigns and the ability to:

• Manually select keywords to ensure relevance and align with user intent
• Manage bids at the ad group level for precise cost control
• Gradually optimize performance using campaign analytics and insights

This is especially useful in competitive niches or for apps that require precise audience targeting.

Apple Ads Advanced also unlocks broader targeting options. You can select:

• Countries
• Device types
• User demographic characteristics
• Multiple App Store placements — Search Tab, Today Tab, Product Page, and Search Results

In this mode, you can also create Custom Product Pages (CPPs) — unique versions of your app’s product page tailored to specific keywords or audience segments. This approach better aligns with user expectations and can significantly improve conversion rates.

Basic is suitable for a quick launch with minimal setup but comes with limited control and carries a higher risk of attracting less relevant traffic.

Advanced provides greater flexibility for advertisers willing to invest time and resources in analytics and optimization.

Differences Between Apple Ads Placements: Search Tab, Today Tab, Search Results, and Product Page

Search Tab, Today Tab, and Product Page are display placements primarily aimed at increasing brand awareness. They deliver the largest reach and significantly outperform Search Results in terms of impressions.

Search Tab ads are displayed in the recommended apps list to increase discoverability.

Today Tab ads are shown on the App Store’s main page, providing high-visibility placement to capture user attention.

Product Page ads appear in the “You Might Also Like” section at the bottom of an app’s product page that the user is currently viewing, offering contextual exposure.

Search Results is a keyword-based search placement and remains the most popular option in Apple Ads. Ads in this placement allow your app to appear at the top of search results for selected keywords — even above organic listings.

How to Create a Campaign in Apple Ads Advanced

To launch a campaign in Apple Ads Advanced, follow these steps:

1. Connect your Apple Ads account to App Store Connect.
2. Select the app you want to promote.

3. Choose the placement format: Search Tab, Today Tab, Search Results, or Product Page.

4. Specify the countries where the campaign will run.

5. Set the campaign name.
6. Define the Daily Cap.

7. Create an Ad Group name.
8. Assign a Default Max CPT Bid for the ad group.

9. Define the target audience.

For Search Results campaigns:

1. Choose the keyword match type — Exact Match or Broad Match

      1.1 Exact Match 

      1.2 Broad Match

2. Add the required keywords to launch the campaign

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What Apple Ads Is Missing — and How RadASO Solves It

Although Apple Ads provides many essential metrics and tools, several critical indicators and features are missing, including:

• Installs / Impressions
• Impressions Share
• Rank
• Cannibalization protection

These missing metrics can have a significant impact on campaign performance.

1. The Installs / Impressions ratio can be calculated manually, although it is time-consuming. Metrics such as Impressions Share and Rank, however, are nearly impossible to calculate without access to Apple Ads’ internal data. These indicators are crucial for understanding how often users install an app after seeing an ad and for identifying which screenshots perform best during creative testing.

2. Impressions Share indicates the portion of available traffic you capture for specific keywords compared to competitors. It helps you assess whether a keyword has growth potential or if increasing bids will merely raise costs without generating meaningful results.

3. Rank reflects your app’s organic position for a specific keyword. This metric helps assess whether organic visibility is improving or declining and whether paid promotion for a keyword should be paused once the app reaches a strong organic position.

4. Cannibalization Protection automatically disables paid keywords for which your app already ranks highly organically. This prevents wasting budget on traffic that would be acquired through organic means. The feature is particularly useful after SEO optimization to avoid duplicating efforts.
   

While Apple Ads does not offer these features, they are fully implemented in RadASO’s tool. It provides access to key metrics and automatically pauses paid keywords once they reach a predefined organic rank, helping prevent traffic cannibalization and reduce costs.

Key Metrics in Apple Ads and How to Interpret Them

Apple Ads provides a wide range of metrics. The most important ones for daily campaign management include: Spend, Impressions, Taps, Installs, Installs (Tap-Through), AVG CPT, AVG CPA, AVG CPA (Tap-Through), TTR, CR, CR (Tap-Through), CPT Bid, and CPA Goal. Most are well known, but some are often confused.

On most ad platforms, CPA stands for Cost Per Acquisition. In Apple Ads, an “acquisition” specifically refers to an app install. In practice, CPA is equivalent to CPI. This means that metrics such as CPA Goal or AVG CPA, refer to the average cost per install.

Installs are divided into three categories:

• Tap-Through — the total number of new and repeat installs from users who tapped on your ad within 30 days.
• View-Through — the total number of new and repeat installs from users who viewed your ad but did not tap it within one day.
• ‍Total — the combined number of installs from Tap-Through and View-Through during the reporting period.

Types of Search Results Campaigns in Apple Ads and Understanding the Role of SAP

Search Results campaigns are typically divided into three main types:

• Brand campaigns
• General search terms
• Competitor campaigns

Brand Campaigns

These campaigns target keywords related to the app’s brand name or its variations. Their purpose is to protect the brand from competitors bidding on similar terms, improve indexing, and increase organic visibility. They also contribute to growth in View-Through installs.

Another reason to run brand campaigns is the enhanced visual presence in search results. When users search for your brand, they see six screenshots simultaneously—three in the ad and three in the organic listing. This increased visibility captures attention, showcases more unique selling points, and encourages users to take action.

General Search Terms

Generic Campaigns target non-branded keywords that reflect broad user intent, such as “clothing,” “shoes,” “online shopping,” or “store.” They help attract a wide audience that has not yet decided on a specific brand.

Competitors’ Brands

Competitor Campaigns target keywords that include competitors’ app names. Advertisers use them to intercept users who were considering installing a competing app. For greater efficiency, competitor keywords are usually grouped separately, simplifying management—especially when competitors have many high-SAP keywords or when these keywords generate the most conversions.

SAP (Search Ads Popularity)

SAP indicates how frequently users search for a term in the App Store based on Apple Ads data. The SAP score ranges from 1 to 100 and can be found in the Monthly Search Term Rank Report under Insights → Explore Insights in your Apple Ads account.