How to Run Discovery Campaigns for Apple Search Ads (ASA)

In Apple Search Ads (ASA), many advertisers concentrate the majority of their ad spend on a small set of high-performing keywords.

This strategy can leave you vulnerable. If competitors start bidding on the same keywords, your cost per install (CPI) can increase quickly.

For ASA success, a robust keyword discovery strategy is essential. A strong discovery campaign enables you to explore new markets, reduce your reliance on high-cost keywords, and identify untapped keyword opportunities.

Remember: The goal isn’t just to find more keywords—it’s about discovering high-performing keywords that will drive results.

Apple’s ASA platform offers three discovery match types—Search Match, Broad Match, and Exact Match—each designed to help you find new keywords and optimize your app’s visibility.

In this blog, we’ll explore how to run effective discovery campaigns in Apple Search Ads using these match types and the strategies that will help you scale.

What are discovery campaigns in Apple Search Ads?

Discovery campaigns in Apple Search Ads are designed to help you find effective keywords that can be added to your brand, category, or competitor campaigns.

These campaigns allow you to tap into new keyword opportunities and expand your reach, helping you move beyond a narrow set of high-cost keywords.

Apple Search Ads offers three primary match types for discovery campaigns:

1. Search Match
2. Broad Match
3. Exact Match

You can create a discovery campaign with each match type for every new market you’re targeting. Understanding how to use discovery campaigns effectively is key to scaling your ASA campaigns.

1. Search Match discovery campaigns (based on your app)

Search Match is an automated feature in Apple Search Ads that identifies relevant keywords based on your app’s metadata, category, and market context. This match type provides a blend of branded, generic, and competitor keywords without requiring manual input.

Let’s take the example of Kazidomi, a Belgium-based online supermarket app for healthy and sustainable products.

By running a Search Match discovery campaign, Apple might automatically target keywords like “supermarket,” “healthy food,” or even competitor terms like “Walmart” or “Yuka.”

Search Match can also show your ad on high-traffic keywords with room for your bids, such as “twitter” or “snapchat,” so be sure to set less relevant keywords as well as all the terms you’re already targeting in other campaigns as negative keywords. It is also a good practice to set all your branded keywords as negative keywords, as this will help the discovery campaign focus solely on finding new opportunities.

Once you’ve set your discovery campaign up, regularly review the Search Terms report to identify keywords that are working well and move them to your stable campaigns.

2. Broad Match discovery campaigns (based on seed keywords)

Broad Match allows you to discover keywords based on seed terms you choose. Unlike Search Match campaigns, you now provide specific keywords as input, and Apple will find related variations.

For instance, if Kazidomi wanted to target competitor keywords in France like “Walmart” or “Yuka,” setting them as Broad Match will allow Apple to find related keywords and expand the discovery potential.

In AppTweak, you can easily export a list of all the keywords you’re targeting in existing campaigns and paste them directly into the Broad Match discovery campaign.

Again, remember to always set negative keywords—including your branded keywords and the ones you’re already targeting—to ensure the discovery campaign uncovers new opportunities without overlapping your existing campaigns.

Once the campaign is live, review the Search Terms report regularly to see which keywords are performing well and move them into your stable campaigns. This will help you capitalize on the keywords that are driving conversions while filtering them out from your discovery campaigns to avoid overlap.

3. Exact Match: Expand your reach with AI keyword suggestions

Apple’s Search Match and Broad Match campaigns are great ways to discover new keywords. For more control over where your ads are displayed, consider running Exact Match campaigns.

With Exact Match, your ads will only show when users search for the exact keywords you’ve bid on. This ensures you’re targeting users with high intent, making it ideal for refined discovery campaigns.

However, discovering enough relevant keywords for Exact Match campaigns can be challenging. This is where AppTweak’s Atlas AI comes into play, helping you uncover high-value keywords that could be missed by traditional discovery approaches.

Atlas AI analyzes 10+ years of App Store & Google Play data (millions of keyword data points) and suggests high-performance keywords that fit your app’s category, market, and user base.

By implementing these suggestions, you’ll ensure that your Exact Match discovery campaigns target the most relevant, high-intent users.

With Exact Match, you also don’t need to set negative keywords since you’re only bidding on the exact terms you want. However, you’ll still want to regularly review keyword performance to ensure you’re hitting the right targets.

Leverage organic keyword opportunities for ASA

Before diving into Atlas AI, keep in mind that many advertisers approach ASA and ASO in isolation, missing valuable opportunities for synergy.

Integrating organic keywords from your ASO strategy into your Exact Match campaigns can significantly boost your discovery efforts.

Learn all about the synergy between ASO and ASA

For instance, focus on keywords where your app ranks between positions #4 and #10 in organic search results. These mid-ranked keywords are ideal for Exact Match campaigns, offering a prime opportunity to increase visibility and capture more relevant traffic.

Identify relevant themes for Apple Search Ads with clusters

Now enter Atlas AI, AppTweak’s proprietary AI model trained exclusively on app store data.

While many tools offer generic keyword recommendations, Atlas AI delivers thousands of highly relevant, tailored keyword suggestions in one place, specific to any country and language.

Discover more AI tools for app store marketing in this blog

One of the most powerful features of Atlas AI is Keyword Clusters. Instead of focusing on a single keyword, Keyword Clusters group related terms (long-tail keywords) around their broader themes. This is particularly effective for scaling ASA campaigns while maintaining alignment with your app’s core offerings.

Keyword Clusters are also a great source of inspiration for Custom Product Pages (CPPs). For example, a search for “healthy” reveals relevant themes like “food,” “recipes,” and “meal.” Building campaigns or CPPs around these clusters can boost both your reach and conversions by targeting high-intent keywords.

Find ASA keywords for your niche market with AppDNA

Finally, AppDNA is a powerful tool designed to uncover niche keywords using our unique app store taxonomy.

Rather than relying solely on seed keywords, AppDNA digs deeper into your app’s specific market, surfacing hidden opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.

For example, a supermarket app can explore keywords not only within the “grocery delivery” market but also related subcategories like “food delivery” or “restaurants & cafes” to discover even more keyword ideas.

Conclusion

Keyword discovery is a continuous process for Apple Search Ads. Markets evolve, new keywords appear, and search behaviors change. We recommend allocating at least 10% of your budget to discovery campaigns and increasing this percentage when entering new markets or launching new features.

With AppTweak’s AI-powered tools to find new keywords for Apple Search Ads, you can streamline your keyword discovery process and ensure you’re always targeting the most relevant and high-performing keywords.

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