Apple Search Ads Campaign Structure

A campaign structure in Apple Search Ads Advanced establishes how campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads are organized. It’s essential for handling the different types of campaigns run on the App Store and their optimization objectives. A campaign structure reflects an advertiser’s budget and priorities and impacts potential scaling and expansion.

Apple Search Ads Basic is a fully automated advertising platform. Therefore, a campaign structure is only a component of Apple Search Ads Advanced. Additionally, a campaign structure in Apple Search Ads Advanced typically refers to search results ads only, as other placements (Today tab, search tab, and product pages) are assigned a separate campaign upon creation.

How can campaigns be structured in Apple Search Ads?

There are two main approaches to structuring campaigns in Apple Search Ads:

1. Semantics-based campaign structure: organizes keywords and ads by theme, including brand, competitor, generic, and discovery campaigns. A proxy campaign may also be added;
2. Value-based campaign structure: organizes keywords and ads by their ability to generate revenue, including brand, discovery, proxy, and three tiers of generic campaigns (reflecting their value). A competitor campaign can also be included.

These two approaches can be mixed to reflect an advertiser’s individual goals. For example, a semantic-based campaign structure can include multiple generic campaigns, reflecting their relevance and revenue-generating potential, for improved Apple Search Ads Optimization.

Which structure is best suited for beginners?

The semantics-based approach is the best choice for beginners, who will likely implement elements of the value-based approach sooner or later as their advertising on the App Store grows in scope and range.

For a detailed comparison and explanation of why the semantics-based approach is the best for new advertisers, please refer to our article: How to Choose the Right Apple Search Ads Campaign Structure for Search Results Ads?

How can you manage a campaign structure in Apple Search Ads in the free SplitMetrics Starter Plan?

Maintaining a campaign structure requires managing keywords, optimizing bids, budgets, reporting, and analytics. A campaign structure of choice significantly impacts these activities and the daily, weekly, and monthly workload related to Apple Search Ads management.

The free SplitMetrics Acquire Starter Plan allows users to automate most of these tasks, transferring keywords between campaigns, negating them, and changing bids automatically. The platform includes easy-to-implement automation rule templates.

Recommended reading

To properly understand campaign structures, please refer to our articles:

How to Choose the Right Apple Search Ads Campaign Structure for Search Results Ads?

How to Build a Semantics-Based Apple Search Ads Account Structure for Search Results Ads

How to Build a Value-Based Apple Search Ads Account Structure for Search Results Ads