How to Manage and Optimize Apple Search Ads Discovery Campaigns?

Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns are designed to give advertisers the broadest possible reach on the App Store and help them identify new, relevant keywords for search results ads. A typical discovery campaign relies on general audience settings and has two ad groups: one set to broad match and one with the Search Match enabled. This allows its ads to appear for diverse search queries.

An Apple Search Ads discovery campaign should be a crucial component of every account, regardless of the campaign structure chosen, either semantics-based or value-based. They’ll continuously, incrementally expand our keyword pool (a semantic core) and new downloads.

Discovery campaigns are critical to newcomers to Apple Search Ads Advanced, as new apps or those beginning to use the platform need to compile a keyword pool quickly. However, new advertisers sometimes neglect them due to budgetary concerns. This is detrimental to long-term growth and establishing a successful presence on the App Store.

Understanding discovery campaigns is crucial for all Apple Search Ads users as they’ll be an integral part of App Store advertising even after scaling and expansion.

Apple Search Ads Guide for 2024: From Beginner to Expert

Our step-by-step, comprehensive guide to Apple Search Ads Advanced.

How do Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns work?

Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns are created like any other but optimized to find new keywords, with user acquisition being their secondary objective. This is accomplished by always utilizing two ad groups within a single discovery campaign:

1. An ad group with Search Match enabled, which will use multiple resources to match your ad to relevant searches on the App Store. Read more about it on the help page of Apple Search Ads. Search Match algorithm shows ads automatically for relevant search terms.
2. An ad group set to broad match type, which will extend your ad’s reach to relevant close variants, including singulars, plurals, misspellings, synonyms, related searches, and phrases containing the term. 

The aim is to ensure maximum reach, so no other audience settings are used. Regardless of the approach to structuring campaigns, an Apple Search Ads discovery campaign is standardized. Such configuration serves the goal of collecting a pool of keywords with a high search volume, relevance, and growth potential within the set cost per acquisition (CPA) or cost per goal (CPG) targets to be transferred into a proper exact match brand, competitor, and category campaign for optimized bidding.

Benefits of Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns

The main benefit of running a discovery campaign is a continuous influx of new, relevant keywords for our other campaigns. However, there are more:

• The Search Match feature will match ads with search terms automatically. The algorithm considers many factors for this purpose. Consequently, it can be a great source of inspiration for manual keyword research;
• Broad match can also provide significant reach and keywords we wouldn’t normally consider. Again, this ad group should be closely monitored to spot new opportunities and misses.
• Overall, the campaign contributes to user acquisition and download velocity despite its optimization goals, which result in below-average tap-through and conversion rates.

Remember, the primary goal of an Apple Search Ads discovery campaign is finding new keywords for your most profitable exact-match campaigns. However, with proper optimization, Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns will also contribute to user acquisition, alleviating the additional cost of running them.

Considerations regarding Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns

There are some considerations:

• Broad-match campaigns can become a burden without proper maintenance. This is why this ad group needs a regular overview to negate irrelevant keywords;
• Your discovery campaign may need a warm-up period of data aggregation before taking off. Secure a budget to accumulate enough data for proper evaluation;
• Newcomers may trim the budget, which will not result in the proper scaling of discovery campaigns. Proper optimization requires investment in long-term prospects.
• The value-based Apple Search Ads campaign structure may require an additional testing campaign (frequently referred to as proxy or probing)  to evaluate the potential of newly discovered search terms to connect their data with revenue-generating in-app or in-game events (like purchases, subscriptions, etc.).

We address them in the article, so stay tuned.

How to manage and optimize an Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns

Managing and optimizing a discovery campaign in Apple Search Ads includes the following tasks:

1. Monitoring performance and identifying search terms with user acquisition potential;
2. Adding search terms as keywords to proper brand, category, competitor, or value-tier campaigns set to the exact match type;
3. Adding best-performing keywords from exact match campaigns to the broad match ad group in discovery to allow the platform to find more relevant variants of it;
4. For transparent reporting, all keywords in exact match groups should be added to the discovery campaign as negative exact match keywords.
5. All keywords from your broad match campaign should be added to the discovery campaign as negative exact match keywords. Negating underperforming keywords and search terms in discovery to avoid targeting irrelevant search queries;
6. Optionally: adding promising search terms and keywords from discovery to an exact match testing campaign (also referred to as proxy or probing).

The entire keyword flow is explained on the chart below:

The first step is to tie discovery campaigns to the Apple Search Ads campaign structure of choice and create a proper keyword flow.

Here are additional management tips:

1. Create a separate Discovery campaign for each market or region.
2. We advise weekly checkups for discovery campaigns. This will allow the campaign to accumulate sufficient data to transfer keywords without overburdening you.

How to optimize the broad match ad group?

Broad match will show ads for relevant search terms, such as partial or close words, long variants, synonyms, or related search terms. It’s pretty straightforward, and the broad match ad group can find relevant keywords well.

However, logical and semantic relevance don’t need to be correlated with value. Therefore, careful monitoring and cyclical clean-up of these campaigns are required to filter out underperforming keywords.

The broad match ad group will perform better if you supply it with “starter” keywords, allowing the algorithm to offer more variants. This means both best-performing exact match keywords from your brand, competitor, and category campaigns and lists of manually compiled keywords with our Keyword Discovery feature.

How to optimize the Search Match ad group?

Search Match is a feature of Apple Search Ads that automatically matches your ad to relevant search terms without you having to identify and actively bid on keywords. The exact algorithm is undisclosed and most likely considers many factors. It’s best to assume that textual app metadata significantly contributes to Search Match’s performance, and app store optimization (ASO) is crucial for success.

Search Match might return results similar to the broad match type, but it doesn’t require specifying the list of keywords, working entirely independently. This has the significant benefit of “thinking outside the box,” as the method helps discover keywords that could be missed, for example, search queries for competitors’ apps or even localized keywords.

How to align a discovery campaign with manual keyword research?

There are several reasons to expand your discovery campaigns with manual keyword research:

1. App updates that result in new features. This creates a new opportunity to address more search queries. Compiling a keyword list after an update can implement new keywords quickly.
2. Holidays, festive periods, or significant events can generate new search terms. App Store users may be looking for seasonal promotions or updates, which are frequently short-lived, so timely keyword research is advised.
3. Discovery campaigns will provide a continuous, steady influx of new keywords, but they will always be limited by budget. Manual keyword discovery with the free SplitMetrics Acquire Starter Plan costs nothing and will significantly expand your overall keyword pool.

Add new keywords you find manually to your broad match campaign so the platform can verify their performance and target even more variants.

If you are entirely new to Apple Search Ads, keyword research and evaluation are the first steps after the basic setup. Our Keyword Discovery feature has valuable insights and metrics to make the initial keyword research as data-driven as possible. What you find with our tool can be allocated straight to proper exact match campaigns: brand, competitor, or category. A proxy campaign can also be used.

Later on, you might be repeating manual keyword research regularly. There are multiple approaches to aligning manual keyword research with discovery campaigns:

• Distribute them directly to exact-match campaigns. Our platform provides enough keyword insights to make this viable. You may add them to a separate ad group for better monitoring transparency and more courageous bidding to test their performance; 
• Add them to your discovery campaign’s separate testing ad group. After evaluation, the best-performing keywords can be automatically transferred to a proper exact match campaign. Additionally, the broad match will find even more variants for you to explore;
• Add them to a probing/proxy campaign. These campaigns are optimized for rapidly increasing impressions, so you can boost new keywords and test their performance quickly.

To understand the versatility of our Keyword Discovery tool, we highly recommend reading the following article:

Apple Search Ads Keywords in 2024: Basics, Expansion & Best Practices

Apple Search Ads campaigns need strong keyword pools that are systematically optimized.

How much of the budget should be assigned to an Apple Search Ads discovery campaign?

The share of the Apple Search Ads campaign budget allocated to discovery depends on several factors. A new app should invest more in discovery to expand its keyword pool quickly and maximize impressions. An established app will reduce discovery spending by negating irrelevant keywords. Ultimately, no keyword pool can grow indefinitely. Over time, the budget may decrease as optimized discovery campaigns slow down, with many exact-match negative keywords narrowing their scope.

Analyzing Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns

Analysis of Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns should allow search terms some runtime. How much exactly? It varies from app to app, as they have different monetization strategies and sales cycles.

Many advertisers opt for a 14-day or even shorter observation period, depending on their budget. Accumulating sufficient data is the main criterion in this case. Regardless, we recommend a weekly health-check session with Apple Search Ads analytics, a workflow that seems to work best for newcomers. 

The goals of your weekly analysis sessions should be to arrange search terms into three tiers:

• Good search terms with conversion potential
• Bad search terms with no conversions
• Terms with insufficient data.

Here’s the analysis workflow:

First, let’s establish the framework of an Apple Search Ads discovery campaign analysis:

How is this distinction significant in practice and performance analysis? When you add a keyword with a broad match setting, your ad will be displayed for multiple search terms, as in the example below:

In Apple Search Ads, search terms triggered by broad match keywords in discovery campaigns are visible, along with relevant performance metrics like impressions, taps, and downloads.

This works similarly when the Search Match feature is running, revealing search terms with their key metrics (although you have no control over keyword selection in this case, as Search Match is fully automated).

How and when to use proxy campaigns?

Proxy campaigns are created to test promising search terms’ potential to deliver post-install goals. Add search terms that triggered downloads as exact match keywords to a proxy campaign to maximize impressions quickly and see whether they can bring in-app purchases or subscriptions.

Proxy campaigns are used by advertisers relying on the value-based campaign structure to optimize them for ROI/ROAS.

To start running a proxy campaign, connect your Apple Search Ads campaigns with in-app data aggregated by a mobile measurement partner (MMP) through the free SplitMetrics Acquire Starter Plan.

Identify good search terms

Good search terms are relevant, well-performing search terms that grow traffic while maintaining its quality. The best way to evaluate the quality of search terms is to look at their Cost per Acquisition (CPA). For example, if your target CPA is $5, then queries with downloads registered and a CPA below the target of $5 can be considered good.

After you’ve found your winning query, take the following steps:

1. Add the winning search term to a proper exact match group in a brand, competitor, or category campaign. Add it to a probing campaign in the value-based structure before moving it to a proper tier.
2. Add the search query as an exact match negative keyword to your discovery campaign to maintain reporting transparency and avoid duplication.

Identify bad search terms

Bad search terms are less relevant or unviable financially. They don’t generate any installs or significantly exceed the target CPA (we recommend a 3-time multiplied as a threshold). Search terms that haven’t generated downloads or have a CPA three times the target CPA should be added to the discovery campaign as a negative exact-match keyword.

Identify search terms with insufficient data

These are search terms with insufficient data to be moved to any categories. There are 2 cases:

1. There have been no conversions, and your spend threshold hasn’t been reached yet. For example, the search terms have spent less than 3 x Target CPA and haven’t brought any downloads yet.
2. A search term is a “low-volume term” that has received fewer impressions than the privacy threshold set by Apple Search Ads.

Your solution is to wait. Ultimately, there may be no need to move the term anywhere, as Search Match generates downloads well with low-volume terms.

How to boost and automate Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns with SplitMetrics Acquire

Using the free SplitMetrics Acquire Starter Plan will help you improve the performance of your discovery campaign considerably in several ways:

• The Keyword Discovery feature will help you find even more valuable keywords, allowing you to analyze your app and competitors or conduct manual research.
• The Brand Protection feature will provide additional insights into branded keywords, either yours or those belonging to competitors.
• Automation templates will let you automate keyword flow between your campaigns, saving you quite a bit of manual labor and money by acting whenever data-driven criteria are met, not waiting for the weekly check-up. 

The platform can discern between brand, competitor, and generic search terms and move them to proper exact match campaigns when CPA, download, and spend criteria are met. In the free SplitMetrics Acquire Starter Plan, the Keyword Discovery tool includes such features as:

• Brand Protection will help you spot valuable competitor keywords to target and protect your brand at the same time;
• Our search popularity metric will give you a more detailed breakdown of keyword popularity for a more straightforward evaluation of their potential;

For examples of configuring automation rules to manage keyword flow in your Apple Search Ads account, please visit our guide to automation:

SplitMetrics’ Ultimate Apple Search Ads Automation Guide [2024]

How to use them & why to use them: a comprehensive guide.

Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns: a summary

Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns will expand your keyword pool gradually and contribute to user acquisition.

• They require attention and monitoring but are crucial to every Apple Search Ads campaign structure.
• Search Match ad group in a discovery campaign will provide new keywords and provide additional downloads by targeting many search terms that are relevant, but have volume below the privacy threshold.
• A broad match ad group will also provide keywords but needs close attention to avoid targeting irrelevant search terms.
• Supplementing discovery campaigns with keyword research is always recommended.
• Discovery campaigns will be especially valuable for Apple Search Ads newcomers, who need to compile expansive keyword pools quickly.
• Discovery campaigns may slow down over time because of the optimization involving negating more and more keywords.

To summarize, Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns are a key to success on the App Store. Increase their efficiency using the Keyword Discovery and automation features of the free SplitMetrics Acquire Starter Plan.

Run Apple Search Ads discovery campaigns effectively

Use the free SplitMetrics Acquire Starter Plan for keyword research and automation

Create Free Account