Apple Ads is the advertising platform inside the App Store. Until April 2025 it was called Apple Search Ads, and most people still search for it under that name. It is unlike every other user acquisition channel a game marketer buys: the person who sees the ad is already in the store, very often typing a search, and is one tap from the install button. Intent is as high as it gets, which is why Apple Ads is usually among the first paid channels an iOS game turns on and among the last it turns off.
This guide covers where the ads appear, the two campaign types, how to structure keywords for a game, how bidding and measurement work, and the one thing that surprises people coming from playable and video campaigns: on Apple Ads you do not upload ad creative at all.
Where Apple Ads appear
At the time of writing there are four placements, each run as its own campaign type in Advanced:
- Search results. The original placement, shown when someone searches the App Store. For years there was a single ad slot at the top of the results. Apple announced in December 2025 that it would add more ad positions further down the results, starting on 3 March 2026 on devices running iOS and iPadOS 26.2 or later. Advertisers cannot choose or bid for a particular position; an existing search results campaign is eligible for all of them automatically.
- Search tab. A slot on the Search tab before the person types anything, at the top of the suggested apps list. It reaches people who are browsing rather than looking for something specific.
- Today tab. A prominent tile on the App Store's front page. It is a reach placement, closer to a brand buy than to a search ad, and it suits a launch or a major update.
- Product pages. A slot in the list of suggested apps that appears on other apps' product pages, shown to people who are already looking at an app in a related category.
Search placements are billed per tap (cost per tap, or CPT): you pay when someone taps the ad, not when it is shown. The Today tab is bought on impressions. Check Apple's current documentation before budgeting, because placements and pricing models have changed several times since the product launched.
Basic versus Advanced
Apple Ads comes in two versions. Basic is the simple one: you set a monthly budget and a maximum cost per install, and Apple decides keywords and audiences for you. It is billed per install and gives you very little control or reporting. Advanced is the full product, with keywords, match types, audiences, placements, bids and detailed reporting, billed per tap on search placements. Almost every game that spends seriously on Apple Ads uses Advanced, because keyword control is where the value is.
You do not make the creative
On other channels, creative is the main lever. On Apple Ads the ad is assembled from your App Store product page: the icon, name, subtitle and the first screenshots or app preview video. You cannot upload a banner, a video or a playable. That has two consequences for game teams.
- Your store page is your ad. The first three screenshots carry the whole message in a search result, so they deserve the same testing discipline as a video ad. App Store Optimization for mobile games covers how to approach them.
- Custom product pages become ad variations. In Advanced you can attach a custom product page to an ad group, so a keyword group about, say, puzzle games shows puzzle screenshots while a group about relaxing games shows calm ones. Custom product pages explains how the same pages also give paid traffic from other channels a store page that matches the ad.
Structuring campaigns for a game
The structure most teams settle on separates keywords by intent, because each kind of search converts and costs differently and needs its own budget:
- Brand. Searches for your game's name and close misspellings. Cheap and high converting, and mostly a defence against competitors bidding on your name.
- Category or generic. Searches such as merge games, puzzle games offline or tower defense. This is where new players come from, and where most of the budget usually goes.
- Competitor. Searches for other games' names. Allowed, but relevance matters: Apple shows ads only when it judges the app a good match, and a competitor's fans convert well only when your game genuinely resembles theirs.
- Discovery. Broad match and search match, which lets Apple find searches you did not think of. Run it with a lower bid and harvest the terms that convert into the exact match campaigns above.
Use exact match in the brand, category and competitor campaigns, and add each campaign's exact keywords as negatives in the discovery campaign so the same search is not bought twice at two prices.
Bidding and budgets
In search campaigns you set a maximum cost per tap per keyword, and optionally a cost per acquisition goal. The auction weighs your bid against how relevant Apple judges your app to the search, so a highly relevant app can win at a lower bid. Costs vary enormously by country, category and keyword, from cents to several dollars per tap. Rather than copying a benchmark, start bids where the suggested range sits, then move each keyword on its own results: raise bids on keywords whose installs go on to pay back, cut the ones that only bring taps.
Judge keywords on what the players do after installing, not on cost per install. A cheap generic keyword can bring players who leave on day one, while an expensive competitor keyword can bring players who spend. ROAS and LTV for mobile games covers how to tell.
Measurement without the ATT prompt
Apple Ads has its own attribution route, the AdServices framework. An app asks for an attribution token and exchanges it for campaign, ad group and keyword information, and this works without the App Tracking Transparency prompt. Every major mobile measurement partner supports it, so Apple Ads installs land in the same reports as the rest of your paid traffic, down to keyword level.
Watch for double counting. Someone who sees your playable on an ad network, then searches your game's name in the App Store and taps your brand ad, can be claimed by both. Brand campaigns often look extremely efficient for exactly this reason. An incrementality test, such as pausing brand bids in a few countries, tells you how many of those installs you would have got anyway.
How Apple Ads fits with playable and video campaigns
Apple Ads harvests demand; most other channels create it. A strong playable on in-app networks, Meta or TikTok makes people curious enough to search for the game, and some of that interest is captured in the App Store. That is why category and brand search volume often rises when a new creative takes off elsewhere, and why the two budgets should be read together rather than as separate channels competing for credit.
Keep the message consistent. If the playable sells a specific fantasy, the screenshots and the custom product page that Apple Ads shows should continue it. Playable Ads Maker exports one project in the format each of 13 ad networks asks for, and the same art can go straight into the screenshots that Apple Ads and your store page use.
Common mistakes
- Leaving search match on in every campaign, so the same search is bought in several places.
- Judging keywords on cost per tap or cost per install alone.
- Ignoring the store page. With no creative to upload, the screenshots are the only creative lever.
- Running only brand keywords and reporting a very low cost per install that is mostly organic traffic.
- Bidding on competitors whose players want a different game. Relevance decides whether the ad shows at all.
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