The Apple Ads Hub

What is Apple Ads and why does the storefront win?

Most marketers treat Apple Ads as a search box with a budget slider. That assumption leaves installs on the table. Apple Search Ads became Apple Ads in April 2025 as inventory grew beyond search, and the platform now sells exactly four App Store placements, Today tab, Search tab, search results and product pages under You Might Also Like, across 91 markets with product pages in 90.

Two campaign types split the work. Basic buys installs in search results only, billed per install with a 10,000 dollar ceiling per app per month and a 30 day attribution window. Advanced buys taps everywhere, billed per tap with a daily budget and a monthly ceiling of daily spend times 30.4, up to 5,000 keywords and 5,000 negatives per ad group. From March 2026 extra sponsored positions appear inside search results, starting the UK and Japan on 3 March, with wider rollout by end of March: one placement, more positions, no position picking or bidding.

Plan with estimated vendor benchmarks, never as promises. SplitMetrics 2025 reports CPT 2.25 dollars, CPA 3.76 dollars, TTR 9.7 per cent and CR 66.2 per cent, while AppTweak reports median CPT 0.92 dollars globally and 1.91 dollars in the US. Apple reports top position conversion above 60 per cent. Use the workbench below to turn those ranges into your own tap price.

How do you price a tap?

Advanced bills per tap, so the tap price is the whole game. Suggested max tap equals target install cost times tap to install conversion rate, and the monthly ceiling equals daily budget times 30.4.

Plan with estimated vendor data: SplitMetrics 2025 reports CPT 2.25 dollars with conversion 66.2 per cent, while AppTweak reports median CPT 0.92 dollars globally and 1.91 dollars in the US. Start near the estimator output, then shade bids down as your own conversion history builds.

Exact, Broad or Search Match: which does what?

Exact buys precision, Broad buys discovery with control, and Search Match lets Apple pair your listing with queries automatically. Each ad group holds up to 5,000 keywords and 5,000 negatives, so structure carries scale.

Keep discovery and brand intent apart, localise keywords per market rather than translating blindly, and review search popularity before bidding on terms nobody types.

How do you harvest search terms?

Search Match and Broad surface queries your Exact lists missed. Promote converting queries to Exact with proper bids, and bury waste as exact negatives so it never returns.

Run the relevancy checker weekly on fresh terms. Bargain hunting words like free or cheap deserve negatives unless your app truly monetises that crowd.

Basic or Advanced: which fits your app?

Basic buys installs hands free in search results only, billed per install with a 10,000 dollar ceiling per app per month, a 30 day attribution window and a 50 app limit. Advanced buys taps everywhere with full keyword and page control.

One app with modest spend and no time for keywords suits Basic. Anything with multiple apps, localisation needs or proven winners deserves Advanced. The chooser tool above settles borderline cases in seconds.

How much budget proves anything?

Advanced sets a daily budget with a monthly ceiling of daily spend times 30.4, and lifetime budgets were paused in June 2026. Maximize Conversions, the AI bidder for search results announced in February 2026, asks for target CPA plus Search Match plus automatic bids with about two weeks of learning room.

Split test budgets by intent, discovery apart from brand, so winners never starve behind your own top terms. Revisit tap prices as conversion drifts by season.

Do custom product pages earn their keep?

Up to 70 custom product pages per app, with 35 ad variations per ad group, let each keyword theme land on screenshots and copy written for it. Pair pages with deep links so tappers skip the generic front door.

Test pages like creative: hold one control page, rotate challengers, and retire losers fast. Product page optimisation tests belong in the same calendar as keyword harvests.

What creative does the storefront need?

The listing is the landing page. Screenshot sets in every size, up to three app previews, an icon and subtitle that read at a glance, and localisation for each of the 91 markets carry more weight than bid tweaks. A fall 2026 custom creative asset upload was announced, so treat new formats as pilots until availability is confirmed.

Run the coverage checker monthly. Gaps in previews or localisation silently tax every tap you buy.

How do you measure Apple Ads honestly?

AdAttributionKit is the forward path on iOS 17.4 and later, with conversion values from 0 to 63, MMP wiring and a postback copy endpoint. SKAdNetwork remains the legacy path with no published deprecation date. Apple Ads windows run 30 day tap and 1 day view, with 90 and 61 days for pre-orders, and Attribution API tokens live 24 hours.

Score your setup with the readiness planner. Null rates and mismatched windows explain most reporting gaps, so fix schema and endpoints before blaming bids.

How do you scale past winners?

Scale by splitting discovery from brand, consolidating spend behind proven ad groups, and expanding markets only after the home store converts. From March 2026 extra sponsored positions inside search results add reach in the same placement, starting the UK and Japan on 3 March.

Category medians frame expectations: AppTweak reports US medians from 1.55 dollars for Productivity to 4.21 dollars for Games. Never bid a Games budget on a Utilities plan.

Where does Apple Ads travel well?

Today tab, Search tab and search results serve 91 markets with over 500 million weekly Today tab visitors, while product pages serve 90 with mainland China unavailable. Each market needs localised keywords, pages and bids, since tap prices and behaviour differ by store.

The DMA position from February 2026 keeps Apple Ads outside gatekeeper designation given limited EU scale, while alternative marketplaces fragment discovery. Own your App Store presence first, since rivals rent the same intent.