Searchadshq ASA Talks: Michael Shubin on Apple Search Ads

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Michael Shubin (independent consultant on Apple Search Ads) is interviewed by SplitMetrics: his experience, running discovery campaigns, mistakes he made, etc.

Source:
Searchadshq ASA Talks: Michael Shubin on Apple Search Ads
(no direct link to watch/listen)
(direct link to watch/listen)
Type:
Webinar
Publication date:
January 30, 2020
Added to the Vault on:
April 30, 2020
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💎 #
1

Do not keep daily caps too low: you may lose money in a sense. Instead if you do not want to spend too much money, lower your bid and get cheaper installs. 

06:15
💎 #
2

Renaming your campaigns and ad group might mess with the performance data on your MMP. If you want to change names, just run new campaigns. 

07:25
💎 #
3

Regarding cannibalization you should know your organic positions so you can identify keywords where you have #1 and #2 on iPhone and #1 to #5 on iPad and consider if you need brand defense on them or not.  

11:18
💎 #
4

To estimate the impact of cannibalization, put your campaigns where you have possible cannibalization on pause for a week (without changing anything else) and compare week by week results and see if there is any organic uplift. 

12:33
💎 #
5

Tweak your metadata on the App Store to try an increase your relevance score (which is based on keywords, app name, subtitle, maybe even your screenshots since your conversion rate depends on them too). This will help you scale your campaigns. 

14:35
The gems from this resource are only available to premium members.
💎 #
1

Do not keep daily caps too low: you may lose money in a sense. Instead if you do not want to spend too much money, lower your bid and get cheaper installs. 

06:15
💎 #
2

Renaming your campaigns and ad group might mess with the performance data on your MMP. If you want to change names, just run new campaigns. 

07:25
💎 #
3

Regarding cannibalization you should know your organic positions so you can identify keywords where you have #1 and #2 on iPhone and #1 to #5 on iPad and consider if you need brand defense on them or not.  

11:18
💎 #
4

To estimate the impact of cannibalization, put your campaigns where you have possible cannibalization on pause for a week (without changing anything else) and compare week by week results and see if there is any organic uplift. 

12:33
💎 #
5

Tweak your metadata on the App Store to try an increase your relevance score (which is based on keywords, app name, subtitle, maybe even your screenshots since your conversion rate depends on them too). This will help you scale your campaigns. 

14:35
The gems from this resource are only available to premium members.

Gems are the key bite-size insights "mined" from a specific mobile marketing resource, like a webinar, a panel or a podcast.
They allow you to save time by grasping the most important information in a couple of minutes, and also each include the timestamp from the source.

💎 #
1

Do not keep daily caps too low: you may lose money in a sense. Instead if you do not want to spend too much money, lower your bid and get cheaper installs. 

06:15
💎 #
2

Renaming your campaigns and ad group might mess with the performance data on your MMP. If you want to change names, just run new campaigns. 

07:25
💎 #
3

Regarding cannibalization you should know your organic positions so you can identify keywords where you have #1 and #2 on iPhone and #1 to #5 on iPad and consider if you need brand defense on them or not.  

11:18
💎 #
4

To estimate the impact of cannibalization, put your campaigns where you have possible cannibalization on pause for a week (without changing anything else) and compare week by week results and see if there is any organic uplift. 

12:33
💎 #
5

Tweak your metadata on the App Store to try an increase your relevance score (which is based on keywords, app name, subtitle, maybe even your screenshots since your conversion rate depends on them too). This will help you scale your campaigns. 

14:35

Notes for this resource are currently being transferred and will be available soon.

Experience & Generalities

Started ASA at ABBYY in 2016 and as soon as early 2017 it became one of the most important UA channels.

Competition on organic search results is really tough and it's difficult for players to get to #1 and #2 positions.

Good results come from a combination of product, keywords and bids. This can get you a decent amount of traffic at a very good price (got $0.4 CPI in the US).

Discovery campaigns can drive thousands of new search terms for an app, continuously.


Top mistakes to avoid

  • [💎@06:15] Do not keep daily caps too low: you may lose money in a sense. Instead if you do not want to spend too much money, lower your bid and get cheaper installs.
  • [💎@07:25] Renaming your campaigns and ad group might mess with the performance data on your MMP. If you want to change names, just run new campaigns.


Optimal bid and how to find it

There is probably an optimal bid which guarantees that you get a decent amount of taps at the best price.

To find the optimal bid, run experiments with different bids where you measure the amount of taps and average cost per tap.


Minimal budget to get first results with ASA

Not really any minimum budget to get started: you can put low bids and start getting installs. But to measure performance and understand ROI you need to draft 100 installs for each segment/keywords.

Example: 5 keywords for 2 store fronts at $1 KPI → you need at least $1,000. But it's best to have $2-3,000 so you can collect 200-300 so you get more stable results.


Cannibalization of organic traffic

Cannibalization is a real problem. But there are some approaches to work with it.

[💎@11:18] Regarding cannibalization you should know your organic positions so you can identify keywords where you have #1 and #2 on iPhone and #1 to #5 on iPad.

For these keywords, ask yourself:

  1. Do you need to defend your brand vs. competitors?
  2. Does your product look similar to your competitor (can people confuse it)?

If yes, you do need to spend some money for brand defense.


[💎@12:33] To estimate the impact of cannibalization, put your campaigns where you have possible cannibalization on pause for a week (without changing anything else) and compare week by week results and see if there is any organic uplift.


What to do when campaigns won't scale?

It makes sense to use indirect competitors and close terms more or less relevant to your app because you can't know what will work better in terms of conversion rate.

Also:

  • Anyone can dig more and more for new keywords through discovery keywords
  • [💎@14:35] Tweak your metadata on the App Store to try an increase your relevance score (which is based on keywords, app name, subtitle, maybe even your screenshots since your conversion rate depends on them too). If you invest time and money in that you should be able to scale your campaigns
  • Try Creative Sets on ASA to improve conversion rates
  • Consider tweaking your product itself to be relevant for a wider audience


Current state of ASA and trends

Still early days for the ASA industry. There is a lack of tools still, lack of learning resources, etc. Some of your competitors may not be running ASA properly so you have an opportunity.


Michael thinks there can be expansion to new markets like Brazil, China, etc. (Russia opened) as well as new placements (ads in News app appeared), formats or changes in the logic.


Maybe better tools from Apple in the future?


The notes from this resource are only available to premium members.

Experience & Generalities

Started ASA at ABBYY in 2016 and as soon as early 2017 it became one of the most important UA channels.

Competition on organic search results is really tough and it's difficult for players to get to #1 and #2 positions.

Good results come from a combination of product, keywords and bids. This can get you a decent amount of traffic at a very good price (got $0.4 CPI in the US).

Discovery campaigns can drive thousands of new search terms for an app, continuously.


Top mistakes to avoid

  • [💎@06:15] Do not keep daily caps too low: you may lose money in a sense. Instead if you do not want to spend too much money, lower your bid and get cheaper installs.
  • [💎@07:25] Renaming your campaigns and ad group might mess with the performance data on your MMP. If you want to change names, just run new campaigns.


Optimal bid and how to find it

There is probably an optimal bid which guarantees that you get a decent amount of taps at the best price.

To find the optimal bid, run experiments with different bids where you measure the amount of taps and average cost per tap.


Minimal budget to get first results with ASA

Not really any minimum budget to get started: you can put low bids and start getting installs. But to measure performance and understand ROI you need to draft 100 installs for each segment/keywords.

Example: 5 keywords for 2 store fronts at $1 KPI → you need at least $1,000. But it's best to have $2-3,000 so you can collect 200-300 so you get more stable results.


Cannibalization of organic traffic

Cannibalization is a real problem. But there are some approaches to work with it.

[💎@11:18] Regarding cannibalization you should know your organic positions so you can identify keywords where you have #1 and #2 on iPhone and #1 to #5 on iPad.

For these keywords, ask yourself:

  1. Do you need to defend your brand vs. competitors?
  2. Does your product look similar to your competitor (can people confuse it)?

If yes, you do need to spend some money for brand defense.


[💎@12:33] To estimate the impact of cannibalization, put your campaigns where you have possible cannibalization on pause for a week (without changing anything else) and compare week by week results and see if there is any organic uplift.


What to do when campaigns won't scale?

It makes sense to use indirect competitors and close terms more or less relevant to your app because you can't know what will work better in terms of conversion rate.

Also:

  • Anyone can dig more and more for new keywords through discovery keywords
  • [💎@14:35] Tweak your metadata on the App Store to try an increase your relevance score (which is based on keywords, app name, subtitle, maybe even your screenshots since your conversion rate depends on them too). If you invest time and money in that you should be able to scale your campaigns
  • Try Creative Sets on ASA to improve conversion rates
  • Consider tweaking your product itself to be relevant for a wider audience


Current state of ASA and trends

Still early days for the ASA industry. There is a lack of tools still, lack of learning resources, etc. Some of your competitors may not be running ASA properly so you have an opportunity.


Michael thinks there can be expansion to new markets like Brazil, China, etc. (Russia opened) as well as new placements (ads in News app appeared), formats or changes in the logic.


Maybe better tools from Apple in the future?


The notes from this resource are only available to premium members.

Experience & Generalities

Started ASA at ABBYY in 2016 and as soon as early 2017 it became one of the most important UA channels.

Competition on organic search results is really tough and it's difficult for players to get to #1 and #2 positions.

Good results come from a combination of product, keywords and bids. This can get you a decent amount of traffic at a very good price (got $0.4 CPI in the US).

Discovery campaigns can drive thousands of new search terms for an app, continuously.


Top mistakes to avoid

  • [💎@06:15] Do not keep daily caps too low: you may lose money in a sense. Instead if you do not want to spend too much money, lower your bid and get cheaper installs.
  • [💎@07:25] Renaming your campaigns and ad group might mess with the performance data on your MMP. If you want to change names, just run new campaigns.


Optimal bid and how to find it

There is probably an optimal bid which guarantees that you get a decent amount of taps at the best price.

To find the optimal bid, run experiments with different bids where you measure the amount of taps and average cost per tap.


Minimal budget to get first results with ASA

Not really any minimum budget to get started: you can put low bids and start getting installs. But to measure performance and understand ROI you need to draft 100 installs for each segment/keywords.

Example: 5 keywords for 2 store fronts at $1 KPI → you need at least $1,000. But it's best to have $2-3,000 so you can collect 200-300 so you get more stable results.


Cannibalization of organic traffic

Cannibalization is a real problem. But there are some approaches to work with it.

[💎@11:18] Regarding cannibalization you should know your organic positions so you can identify keywords where you have #1 and #2 on iPhone and #1 to #5 on iPad.

For these keywords, ask yourself:

  1. Do you need to defend your brand vs. competitors?
  2. Does your product look similar to your competitor (can people confuse it)?

If yes, you do need to spend some money for brand defense.


[💎@12:33] To estimate the impact of cannibalization, put your campaigns where you have possible cannibalization on pause for a week (without changing anything else) and compare week by week results and see if there is any organic uplift.


What to do when campaigns won't scale?

It makes sense to use indirect competitors and close terms more or less relevant to your app because you can't know what will work better in terms of conversion rate.

Also:

  • Anyone can dig more and more for new keywords through discovery keywords
  • [💎@14:35] Tweak your metadata on the App Store to try an increase your relevance score (which is based on keywords, app name, subtitle, maybe even your screenshots since your conversion rate depends on them too). If you invest time and money in that you should be able to scale your campaigns
  • Try Creative Sets on ASA to improve conversion rates
  • Consider tweaking your product itself to be relevant for a wider audience


Current state of ASA and trends

Still early days for the ASA industry. There is a lack of tools still, lack of learning resources, etc. Some of your competitors may not be running ASA properly so you have an opportunity.


Michael thinks there can be expansion to new markets like Brazil, China, etc. (Russia opened) as well as new placements (ads in News app appeared), formats or changes in the logic.


Maybe better tools from Apple in the future?