How we acquire users for our own apps and for the teams we work with: Apple Search Ads structure and bidding, App Store Optimization, creative testing, attribution after ATT, and the three numbers a subscription app should actually report.
How to build an Apple Search Ads keyword list when you have no history: category terms, competitor names, problem phrases, and the one source most people forget, the App Store search bar itself.
Twelve uncomfortable lessons from managing close to $100,000 a month in Apple Search Ads budget: on brand terms, Search Match, country targets, custom product pages and why installs are the wrong number.
A custom product page lets an ad land on a store page built for that exact search. How to decide which intents deserve a page, what changes between pages, and how to measure the difference.
Before we raise an Apple Search Ads budget, we check campaign structure, match types, brand defense, country-level CPA targets, custom product pages and the negative keyword list. The full checklist.
Installs are the number everyone shows and nobody can spend. The three that run a subscription business: cost per trial, trial-to-paid rate, and first renewal. How to get them, by keyword and by country.
Most apps localize for a handful of large markets and leave the rest in English. The storefronts in between often have real search volume, little competition and lower ad prices. How to pick them and what to localize first.
Ratings decide your position in search results and the conversion of your page. When to ask, how to ask, and the moments that produce five stars without a single nagging pop-up.
A video ad for an app has about three seconds before the thumb moves. What goes in those seconds, how many variants to test, and how to judge them on trial starts instead of views.
TikTok rewards ads that do not look like ads. What that means in practice for an app: native-feeling creative, sound on, a hook in the first second, and a product page that matches the video.
Bidding on your own name feels like paying for installs you would have had anyway. Sometimes it is. The two situations where it is clearly worth it, and how to run it so the numbers stay honest.
A practical App Store Optimization checklist: title, subtitle, keyword field, screenshots, ratings, localization and the product page tests to run. Twenty minutes, no tools required.
Every Apple Search Ads account leaks money on searches that will never convert. The negative keyword list is how you stop it. What to add, where to add it, and the weekly routine that keeps it growing.
The App Store subtitle is the most valuable copy most developers never think about. How to use the 30 characters: keywords, promise, and the one word that should never be in it.
App Store featuring is free, enormous, and not a lottery. What the editorial team is looking for, how to use the featuring request form, and why timing your pitch to a platform feature matters.
Most people decide on your app from the first screenshot alone, in about a second. A framework for the first three frames: one promise, one proof, one reason to keep going.
Ad prices and demand move with the calendar: new year, back to school, holidays, summer. How to plan budgets around the peaks, what to do in the troughs, and the seasonal moments specific to each app category.
Since App Tracking Transparency, most iOS ad attribution is probabilistic or aggregated. What each channel can tell you, how to build a measurement setup that is honest about its gaps, and why first-party data matters more than ever.
A single price converted into every currency is wrong almost everywhere. How to set storefront prices from local purchasing power and conversion data, what to do with trials, and the markets where cheaper is not better.
A preview video autoplays in search results and on your page. Done well it shows the product doing its thing in seconds. Done badly it replaces your best screenshot with a logo animation. How to decide and what to show.
Most new apps spend their first budget on installs. If week-two retention is weak, that money buys users who leave. A simple rule for deciding whether to spend on traffic or on the product, and what number to check first.
The two channels most iOS apps start with answer different questions. Apple Search Ads catches people who already want an app; Meta creates the want. How to decide, and how to run them together.
