Cost per tap in productivity fell a third this year — free Apple Ads playbook | SplitMetrics

Back to School 2026 · Free Playbook

35% lower cost per tap. The most efficient time to scale may be right now.

Across productivity, August 2026 is the cheapest acquisition window seen this year, creating an unusually strong window to scale your Apple Ads.
Using SplitMetrics data for Apple Ads, we analyzed the best-performing apps in the category to see who and how is using that opportunity.

$6.8M

peak monthly spend in the season

93%

bidding on competitors’ brands

Free playbook

Productivity Apps in Apple Ads
Back to School season 2026

One field. Add your work email and the playbook is on its way.

Built from three SplitMetrics sources: Iris AI Agent for live market intelligence insights, SplitMetrics Acquire for the full category and campaign picture, and App Radar for organic search and creative.

What’s inside

Four questions the playbook answers with category data

Every figure below is SplitMetrics data for Apple Ads, covering the best-performing productivity apps, January to July 2026.

24%

share of voice the largest app holds on its own name

Brand defense

Not every big name covers its own brand search.

Smaller and single-purpose apps sit close to 100% on their own name, while some of the largest spend most of their keywords elsewhere. Inside: the share-of-voice numbers on brand terms, and the move worth making first.

35%

lower cost per tap since January

Benchmarks

What does it cost to run Apple Ads in productivity right now?

Costs came down across the category over the first half of the year, and install costs followed. The full H1 2026 SplitMetrics benchmark set is inside: tap-through rate, conversion rate, cost per install and cost per 1,000 impressions, with what each number means for your app.

93%

of active advertisers bid on a competitor’s brand name

Competitor bidding

How hard does the category bid on competitor brand names?

Many sit at 78 to 100% share of voice on competitors’ terms, and competitor keywords take up most of the biggest budgets. Inside: the share-of-voice picture on competitor terms, and how to keep that targeting tight.

100%

of listings lead with features, not an audience

Listing and creative

Every listing in the category sounds the same. What breaks the pattern?

Feature-led copy across the board, with almost nothing about who the app is for or when they need it. Inside: what changes when a page is built around a moment instead of a feature list, and how to match the page to the search behind each ad.

FREE playbook

Get the full productivity playbook.

✓How the top-performing productivity apps run Apple Ads.

✓The full H1 2026 benchmark set: tap-through, conversion, cost per install, cost per 1,000, and the cost curve.

✓How the leaders handle brand defense and competitor bidding, with share-of-voice data.

✓The listing and creative moves almost no one in the category is making.

A 10-minute read you can hand to whoever runs your app growth. Every finding comes with the move to make.

One field. Add your work email and the playbook is on its way.

Prefer a personal read on your own app? Get a free expert app review.

Productivity and utility apps already growing with SplitMetrics

Our cooperation with the SplitMetrics team has been excellent. They have been responsive, knowledgeable, and supportive throughout our partnership. Their platform has provided valuable insights and tools for testing and optimizing our custom product pages. Based on our experience, we would definitely recommend SplitMetrics to other publishers looking to improve their mobile app’s performance and user experience.

Aurore Dupont, UA Manager
Ad Hoc Labs, Productivity & Utilities

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The intelligence behind this page

What backs up these numbers

1.6M+

Apple Ads campaigns managed through SplitMetrics, with over a decade in the category.

40%

of the biggest advertisers use SplitMetrics to run Apple Ads.

10,000+

apps and brands grown with SplitMetrics across categories.

98%

customer satisfaction, with 9 in 10 staying year over year.