How Search tab earns the suggestion

Where the suggestion sits#

The Search tab is the App Store discovery screen: charts, categories and a search field, with the paid suggestion sitting above the organic suggestions before the visitor types. It is one of the exactly 4 App Store placements (Today tab, Search tab, search results, product pages under You Might Also Like), and its mindset is browsing, not hunting. Apple own Search tab guidance describes the single suggestion slot and its 91 market reach.

Because no query exists yet, relevance comes from store signals rather than keywords: category fit, ratings, seasonality and past browsing shape who sees what. Start at the Apple Ads hub for context, then contrast with query led capture in our search results guide.

Who the Search tab suits#

New apps needing discovery, seasonal apps riding a moment, and brands defending mental availability all suit the Search tab: each buys presence among browsers who never typed a rival name. Niche utilities with narrow vocabularies suit it less, since broad suggestion reach wastes impressions on browsers outside the use case. Match the surface to the job, not the novelty.

Pair Search tab pushes with keyword cover below, so browsers who later search find you again at higher intent. Keyword harvesting in our harvesting guide turns suggestion sparked interest into captured demand.

Bidding and budgets on CPT#

Search tab uses CPT bidding per thousand impressions, so price the bid from the worth of a suggestion view to your plan rather than from tap maths. Keep it in a dedicated campaign with its own daily budget, because blending suggestion impressions with search taps in one budget starves one of them. Expect modest tap rates and price accordingly.

Review bids weekly against product page views per thousand, not daily against installs, since browsing traffic converts slower. Structure splits follow our account structure guide throughout.

Creative that earns the tap#

The suggestion shows icon, name, subtitle and screenshots, so the listing itself is the creative: a legible icon, a plain benefit subtitle and first two screenshots that explain the app in seconds. Ratings and review counts sit beside the suggestion, which means reputation management is creative work here. Polish the store listing before funding suggestions.

Test subtitle variants and screenshot order on a calm schedule, since suggestion audiences punish confusion fast. Asset rules live in our screenshots guide, with technical detail in the developer promotion docs.

Landing and audience fit#

Route Search tab traffic to a custom product page tuned for browsers: orient first, sell second, with screenshots that restate the suggestion promise. Default pages built for searchers assume intent the browser never had, so they bounce. One orientation led page per push is the practical standard.

Layer gentle audience scoping where plans allow, but keep it broad: over refinement on a discovery surface strangles delivery. Refinement options are detailed in our audience refinement guide.

Reading Search tab results#

Read impressions, taps, product page views and delayed installs in that order, and allow a longer window than search results before judging. Suggestion sparked installs often arrive days later via a remembered name search, so short window reads undercount the surface badly. Placement splits in our placement reporting guide keep the credit honest.

Kill suggestions that earn views but never page views: the listing, not the bid, is at fault. Escalate persistent weakness to our team for a listing teardown.

Frequently asked questions#