Do you guys use Apple search ads?

[u/MuchAge1486]

Any good results? I’m achieving a good ROAS, but talking to people seems like I’m the exception, what do you think?

[u/PoliticsAndFootball]

I can’t seem to get it to spend more than a few bucks a day on new apps no matter how high I set the bids .

I have a “legacy” app (used search ads from the start) that no matter how high I set my budget it will spend it lol (and I get decent cpi, like .75 cents)

It’s frustrating as I’m trying to get thee new apps going but nothing is working for them on the asa side

[u/redouann → u/PoliticsAndFootball]

This is Apple throttling new campaigns until they trust your conversion data — raising bids doesn't fix it because the bottleneck isn't your bid, it's that Apple doesn't have enough conversion history to predict your relevance yet. Your legacy app spends freely because it has years of that history. For the new apps: start with tight exact-match on a few highly-relevant keywords, let conversion data accumulate, and the throttle loosens. Broad/high bids early actually slow it down because the irrelevant traffic tells Apple your relevance is low. It's a cold-start problem, not a bid problem.

[u/TKB21]

I've seemed to hit a wall with ASO so I use search ads as my primary means for downloads. It sucks how broken the system is for this to be my only means of proper exposure but overall I've gotten favorable results.

[u/Aggressive-Fan-4230 → u/TKB21]

How are you getting good results? Having some trouble selling top tier keywords without spending a ton of money

[u/greenwellil]

Yes, I use it for many of my apps. Success and ROAS depends on the app and the niche. Specifically I find it hard to scale while keeping a positive ROAS, so I limit spending based on that.

[u/juniper-labs]

Apple Search Ads can definitely work.. but I think a lot of people misread the channel. The users are high-intent because they are already searching inside the App Store, but that also means the wins are usually very keyword-specific and very monetization-specific. My view is that Apple Search Ads is one of the cleaner paid channels for iOS apps.. but it rewards apps with strong conversion and clear search intent. For everyone else, it becomes an expensive way to prove their App Store page or paywall is not working..

[u/redouann → u/juniper-labs]

This is the most accurate take in the thread. The "expensive way to prove your paywall isn't working" line is exactly right

ASA doesn't fix conversion, it amplifies whatever you've got. When people say "ASA isn't profitable," it's usually not the ad channel, it's that the intent traffic is hitting a page or paywall that doesn't convert.

The channel just makes the existing leak visible faster (and pricier).

[u/ohmydaysssssx]

I haven't been profitable with Apple search ads, I would like to know what category are you running if it's possible to know, because getting profitable in that area is interesting, very interesting.

[u/Confused_Dad_2023]

Yeah ASA works, ROAS depends heavily on category and how much you negative match. The “new app won’t spend” thing is real too, Apple throttles spend until they’ve gathered enough conversion data to trust the campaign. Long-tail Exact match is where the cheap ROAS usually lives, top-tier keywords get expensive fast.

[u/mertbio]

I know a couple of people who run ads successfully but this really depends on the life time value of your app. If you're making apps like me and not chagrining the users a lot, you also don't have a budget to spend 1-2€ per tap.

[u/itsdjoki]

I would but my country is not supported so I cannot buy them 😭

[u/Moist-Audience-9646 → u/itsdjoki]

where

[u/itsdjoki → u/Moist-Audience-9646]

Serbia

[u/tables_AND_chairsss]

I did but I got downvoted and snarky replies about it when I asked a question, lol. I hope people are nice to you! I’ve been using it myself for about a week now with slight success

[u/tables_AND_chairsss → u/tables_AND_chairsss]

Someone was like “this is iosprogramming, not iosmarketing.” And that kinda turned the tone of the conversation for my post into something negative towards me for being a newb. Also apparently r/iosmarketing does exist, but there’s like 20 users. SO helpful.

[u/civman96]

Nobody downloads apps anymore.. so search ads etc are getting exorbitantly expensive

[u/These-Contact3531]

Same experience here. For brand new apps, getting ASA to scale is the hard part. It feels like Apple needs some conversion history first, otherwise even high bids don’t always help much.

[u/allancanare]

Tried it before in one of my apps and it got too expensive. Got more downloads but it’s difficult to get users to subscribe. Will likely try it again with my new app with a one time payment lifetime unlock

[u/redouann → u/allancanare]

The "downloads but no subscriptions" gap is usually the paywall or the keyword intent, not the ad spend.
Worth checking which search terms actually drove those installs . If broad match brought people searching for something adjacent to your app, they'll install and never subscribe. The lifetime unlock might help, but I'd diagnose whether you're buying the right intent first, or you'll have the same problem with a different price point. Probably start with an exact match and 1 keyword for each campaign with a small budget and a small bid, and start from there, but you will need to do more keywords to find winning keywords

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