Apple Search Ads Update: Aligning Keywords to Screenshots and more

A brand new feature for Apple Search Ads was announced. The essence of the update is as follows: now app publishers that run Apple Search Ads can align various keywords with different screenshots and app previews.

The main novelty introduced in Apple Search Ads are so-called Creative Sets. A Creative Set will consist of screenshots and app previews of publisher’s choice. However, mind that you can select screenshots and app previews only from the ones you have on the App Store product page.

Apple Search Ads Update: Screenshots and App Previews Aligned to Keywords

Creative Sets introduction is definitely good news as it’ll sure add more variations to your Apple Search Ads activity. Now it’s possible to create up to 10 Creative Sets per ad group making screenshots and app previews highly relevant to the keywords you run your Apple Search Ads for.

It’s possible thanks to binding relevant screenshots and video app previews to certain ad group keyword themes in Apple Search Ads. Moreover, you can align screenshots and app previews to various audience segments based on:

• Gender;
• Age,
• Location.

On top of that, Apple Search Ads machine learning will enhance user response to your ads thanks to targeted screenshots and app previews. This update should increase Apple Search Ads overall performance which is already pretty impressive: Apple states that the average conversion rate of their ad platform is 50%.

Apple Search Ads Update: How to Prepare Your Product Page

It comes as no surprise that App Store product pages with optimized screenshots and app previews will be the first to unlock the potential offered by the latest Apple Search Ads Update. However, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. It’s a good idea to make Creative Sets relevant to the updates of your app: screenshots and app previews within Apple Search Ads banners might be a great way of delivering new cool features your app can offer;
2. Now publishers are to be more careful when updating screenshots and app previews as there is a possibility they can delete the image which is at the core of their Creative Sets. Yet, the enhanced screenshots limit makes the situation way easier compared to the times when App Store product pages allowed only 5 screenshots on them.
3. Making your Creative Set for Apple Search Ads, take into consideration image number limit.

• When it comes to iPhone the required number of images is 4 or more screenshots/app previews for the portrait mode and 2 or more for the landscape one.
• In case of iPad, the limitations are the following: 3 or more assets for the portrait mode and 2 or more for landscape.

4. Don’t neglect the order in which you upload screenshots and app previews. The thing is in Creative Set within Apple Search Ads they will be shown in the order they were uploaded to the App Store. No matter what is the number of screenshots/app previews within your Creative Set, the selected assets will be shown in the same order they appear on your product page.
5. Mobile A/B testing is one of the best ways to optimize your screenshots and app previews which will help to make users respond to your Apple Search Ads and eventually boosting your app’s conversion rate. The experiments in the context of App Store search might be the most beneficial.

The introduction of Creative Sets within Apple Search Ads is an additional reason in favour of giving this ad platform a try. Moreover, this update concerning screenshots and app previews is yet another incentive to revise your App Store product page and empower it with highly performant assets.

SearchAdsHQ is always there to facilitate work with Apple Search Ads and help you make the most of this ad platform. Thanks to the tools it provides, you can make Search Ads profitable at scale. 

Ensure your app growth with SplitMetrics Acquire

Try out our free Starter Plan of best-in-class Apple Search Ads optimization & automation platform. Get started now. No credit card required.

Create Free Account