• DE&I Commitment
  • Careers
  • Locations
  • Book a Meeting
    Book a Meeting
  • Company
    Learn a little more about us, our values, and our team
    Our Values
    We don't just talk the talk; we live by our core values
    About Us
    Empowering brands to realize their potential with data, insights, and technology
    Leadership
    Meet our leadership team
    Secure Data Architecture
    Our promise of data security and privacy. We keep your data safe from publishers, competitors and bad actors
    Corporate Social Responsibility
    We are committed to making a positive impact on our communities and our planet
  • Platform
    Plan, manage, optimize, and measure your campaigns with our omnichannel platform
    Our Platform
    A platform that connects all walled garden media
    Connected Media
    Create and manage campaigns across search, social, retail media and apps, in one platform
    Connected Data
    Make data-driven decisions as you plan and strategize
    See the industries we serve
    Learn how our customizable solutions can help with your unique needs
    Explore our partner integrations
    See the media, retailer, and data partners we work with
  • Clients
  • News and Events
    Check out recent announcements and see what we’re up to
    News
    Check out our recent media coverage
    Events
    Join us for our next conference or webinar
    Omnichannel platform launch
    Read the press release to see how we're helping marketers win the walled gardens
    Let's talk omni at Shoptalk!
    Learn how our omnichannel platform can help you build a winning strategy
  • Resources
    From new releases, to industry trends and best practices, Skai has you covered
    Blog
    Read the latest insights and thought leadership from our industry experts
    Capabilities
    Take your campaigns to the next level by enhancing your platform capabilities
    Research
    Explore our reports and whitepapers so you can keep up on the latest industry trends
    Subscribe
    Sign up to get the latest updates straight to your inbox
    Quarterly Trends Report
    Learn digital advertising campaign performance trends from Q4 2022
Back to Blog

Fall Cleaning: In-Cider Opportunities for iOS 12 App Store Discoverability

Keri Miriello, Senior Product Marketing Manager @ Skai™

September  05, 2018

While spring cleaning is the traditional time to kick out the clutter and start with a fresh focus, mobile developers work on a shifted calendar. Fall is the new spring, blowing in fresh new mobile devices, new system updates, and new app storefronts for users to explore. Apple has been updating the App Store to coincide with the expected general release of iOS 12 this month. Are you prepared to grab the first-mover advantage and increase App Store discoverability over your competition?

Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me …

Yes, advertisers are already spinning in the craziness of “The Season,” with significant monthly holidays occurring through the end of the year. Times are never busier, but working on supporting the new iOS 12 updates to improve App Store discoverability right now has never been more important.

Why? For the simple reason that increasing app store discoverability and engagement now can yield an in-store ranking lead over competitors. This organically supports your paid strategies throughout the all-important November and December timeframes when digital downloads are concentrated thanks to cyber promotions and digital gift cards.

Let’s quickly remember two other truths that affect your bottom line:

Revenue

Graph of worldwide gross app revenue in the first half of 2018Apple’s App Store is still the revenue leader. Even though the quantity of Android devices is driving a lead in total app downloads, Apple customers spend more on apps and bring in more total revenue across all app developers. The Apple brand reflects a focus on the quality of the experience rather than lowest cost, and Apple consumers are willing to pay for that value.

Adoption

iOS 11 adoption pie chartAs of May 2018, iOS 11 adoption was over 80% across all iOS devices. Equivalent numbers for the latest Android version measure in the 6-10% range.

This reveals an important psychological aspect of iOS users: they are more willing to trust, download, and try new software in Apple’s ecosystem.

If past patterns prevail this year, a majority of iOS users will actually upgrade to iOS 12 within the first 4-6 weeks of release…and those system updates are accompanied by more app browsing to find apps that highlight the latest features in Apple’s devices and software.

As highlighted at Apple’s developer conference in June, iOS 12 may drive even faster adoption than before: iOS 12 promises to increase system performance and improve battery life even on older devices! This could result in record-breaking adoption rates and a commensurate increase in searches and downloads of updated apps.

For all of these reasons, this is the time to act to improve your App Store discoverability!

Fall Cleaning Recipes

So, now that you’re ready to begin your fall cleaning, let’s run down the steps and get your Apple Search Ads campaigns polished and squeaky clean!

Apple Search Ads location selectionFall Cleaning 1: Update Your Campaign Locations

Since Search Ads launched in 2016, it has rolled out to more of Apple’s localized app stores, with Search Ads Basic rolling out to all thirteen app stores that support Search Ads, and Search Ads Advanced hitting seven. However, as new stores are added, you need to revisit your campaigns and manually opt-in to the new locations (and most likely update your campaign budget too).

As you perform this location review, also remember to create or update localized versions of your key app assets for the new storefronts and highlight user interface improvements or new app features to maximize the visual impact of your messaging in each store.

Fall Cleaning 2: Upgrade from Search Ads Basic to Search Ads Advanced

While Search Ads Basic offers simple cost-per-install campaigns that automatically use a subset of your store assets, Search Ads Advanced offers a key advantage if you can accept that your ads will run in fewer localized stores. This advantage is due to running multiple ad groups within a single campaign, with each ad group running under distinct sets of keywords and audience targeting parameters. The precision of matching audiences and keywords with campaign objectives provides a level of precision that has been the best practice with SEM practitioners for years.

Now is also the time to review the updated keyword frequencies and audience patterns associated with your app’s organic store traffic and align your ad group definitions to boost or conquest across your competitive space.

Remember though that you can’t spend your way to app store discoverability with new app categories…Search Ads will not run if you overextend your advertising reach into complementary areas where your app does not offer direct functionality. Boosting your pizza ordering app when people search for football games sounds smart and clever, but Apple will throw a flag and you’ll be penalized 30 yards. This is the equivalent to trying to buy your search ads out of a “quality score” deficit in SEM campaigns…you will go broke quickly with these tactics.

Fall Cleaning 3: “Set” Your Creative

Assuming you are running Search Ads Advanced, you should make use of the Creative Sets feature that was added over the summer.

Apple Search Ads Advanced Creative Sets feature

In the example above, you can see that different creative is displayed when different keywords are used, making the ad even more relevant to the user. Apple will also apply machine learning algorithms to show different dynamic combinations of your selected creative when triggered by the different keyword groups, thus automatically optimizing the ad appearance to drive higher levels of performance across your chosen audiences. This is key for App Store discoverability—do not pass this option up!

Fall Cleaning 4: Beating the Browse

App store installs by source Although Search is king, organic store browsing is the second highest discovery method used by users. To succeed, make sure your app’s store copy is up to date, and utilize the extended media slots of 3 app preview videos and 10 static screenshots. These should be checked against the different device size settings and specialized for each supported locale.

Apple’s curated articles in the App Store (eg, App of the Day, Game of the Day, and special Topics) also typically drive order of magnitude increases in awareness, and with the rollout of iOS 12, these curated articles will be presented in a personalized fashion based on app download history, along with other factors. This means that we expect Browse to be an even greater factor in driving app downloads, so get your app page polished right now!

Fall Cleaning 5: Going Beyond Apple Insights

While Search Ads are a fantastic tool in-store, we need to message prospects wherever they are. Now is a great time to review the audience, creative, and messaging insights from your other app advertising campaigns that are typically running on other popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube or Snap. Applying those insights to the organic traffic keyword and audience patterns from the App Store can provide compelling updates that truly reflect your customers’ personality and interests.

Spick and Span and Ready To Go!

Congratulations…you’ve done your best to take advantage of this very special fall cleaning and to improve your App Store discoverability! Now take a short rest (not too long!) for the inevitable announcements and the new wave of downloads to begin!

If you’re interested in easily scaling your App campaigns across multiple publishers and stores and gleaning powerful insights to maximize your customers’ lifetime value, please reach out to us and get a demo of our Skai Apps solution. It can help you quickly manage all your fall cleaning in one place and help you with winter, spring, and summer cleaning too!

Learn More About Skai Apps

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email
  • Copy Link
    Copied!
Tags: Apple, apps, Create, Data, Measure, Mobile, Optimize, Plan, shopping, Target, xTLx
  • Previous Post
  • Next Post

Subscribe to Updates

Media that matters.
Marketing that works.
© 2023 Kenshoo, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Recruitment Privacy Policy.
  • Connected Data
    • Market Intelligence
    • Our Approach
    • By Need
    • By Solution
  • Connected Strategy
    • Dynamic Marketing Mix
    • Budget Forecasting
    • Strategic Consulting
  • Connected Media
    • Overview
    • Retail Media
    • Paid Search
    • Paid Social
    • App Marketing
    • Auditing
    • Expert Services
  • Measurement
    • Incrementality
    • Experiments
    • Cross-Channel Attribution
  • Resources
    • Blog
    • Glossary
    • Case Studies
    • Training & Enablement
    • Developer Hub
Privacy Preference

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential, while others help us to improve this website and your experience.

Privacy Preference

Save All

Save

Accept Only Essential Cookies

Manage Cookie Preferences

Cookie Details Privacy Policy Imprint

Privacy Preference

Here you will find an overview of all cookies used. You can give your consent to whole categories or display further information and select certain cookies.

Save All Save Accept Only Essential Cookies

Back

Privacy Preference

Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper function of the website.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Name
Provider Owner of this website, Imprint
Purpose Saves the visitors preferences selected in the Cookie Box of Borlabs Cookie.
Host(s) .skai.io, skai.io
Cookie Name borlabs-cookie
Cookie Expiry 1 Year
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Purpose This cookie stores selections made by the user in the Accessibe tool in order to maintain those settings on future visits. These cookies help us make our website compliant with our obligations under US law.
Privacy Policy https://accessibe.com/privacy-policy
Cookie Name acsbState, acsbReset
Cookie Expiry n/a
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) skai.io
Cookie Name wordpress_sec_,wordpress_test_cookie,wp-postpass_*, wordpresspass_*, wordpressuser_*
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

We use these cookies to enhance functionality and allow for personalisation, such as live chats, videos and the use of social media.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) .chilipiper.com, skai.chilipiper.com
Cookie Name fs_uid, CHILI_PIPER_CLUSTER, guest-session, _sp_ses*, _sp_id*
Cookie Expiry Session / 2 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) .comeet.co, www.comeet.co
Cookie Name visid_incap_, nlbi_#######, incap_ses_, referrer22_00a, incap_ses_1364_2167377
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year
Accept
Name
Provider Owner of this website
Host(s) skai.io
Cookie Name moduleFormPardotDownload
Cookie Expiry 30 days

Statistics cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us to understand how our visitors use our website.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Google used for website analytics. Generates statistical data on how the visitor uses the website.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Cookie Name _ga,_ga_*,_gat,_gat_*,_gid
Cookie Expiry 2 Months
Accept
Name
Provider Hotjar Ltd., Dragonara Business Centre, 5th Floor, Dragonara Road, Paceville St Julian's STJ 3141 Malta
Purpose Hotjar is an user behavior analytic tool by Hotjar Ltd.. We use Hotjar to understand how users interact with our website.
Privacy Policy https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy/
Host(s) *.hotjar.com
Cookie Name _hjClosedSurveyInvites, _hjDonePolls, _hjMinimizedPolls, _hjDoneTestersWidgets, _hjIncludedInSample, _hjShownFeedbackMessage, _hjid, _hjRecordingLastActivity, hjTLDTest, _hjUserAttributesHash, _hjCachedUserAttributes, _hjLocalStorageTest, _hjptid, _hjSessionUser_2229986, _hjIncludedInPageviewSample, _hjIncludedInSessionSample, _hjAbsoluteSessionInProgress, _hjFirstSeen
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

Marketing cookies are used by third-party advertisers or publishers to display personalized ads. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Linkedin
Cookie Name lidc, li_gc, lang, AnalyticsSyncHistory, UserMatchHistory, li_sugr, bcookie, TDCPM, TDID, bscookie, ln_or
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year
Accept
Name
Provider Skai
Accept
Name
Provider 6sense
Cookie Name _gd_session, _an_uid, _gd_visitor, _gd_svisitor, 6suuid
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Pardot
Purpose Cookie name associated with services from marketing automation and lead generation platform Pardot. The visitor value is the visitor_id in your Pardot account. This cookie is set for visitors by the Pardot tracking code.
Host(s) .pardot.com, pi.pardot.com, skai.io
Cookie Name pardot, visitor_id*, lpv*
Cookie Expiry Session / 10 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Google used for conversion tracking of Google Ads.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Cookie Name IDE, 1P_JAR, NID, SOCS, CONSENT, AEC, _gcl_au, OTZ, test_cookie
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Purpose Cookie by Facebook used for website analytics, ad targeting, and ad measurement.
Privacy Policy https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies
Cookie Name _fbp,act,c_user,datr,fr,tr,m_pixel_ration,pl,presence,sb,spin,wd,xs
Cookie Expiry Session / 1 Year

Content from video platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. If External Media cookies are accepted, access to those contents no longer requires manual consent.

Show Cookie Information Hide Cookie Information

Accept
Name
Provider Wistia
Host(s) .wistia.com
Cookie Name cb_anonymous_id, _sp_ses.2b40, _li_dcdm_c, __hssrc, _gcl_au, _clsk, hubspotutk, _sp_id.2b40, __hssc, __hstc, _uetsid, _uetvid, _gid, _ga, _ga_GQR109DZ3Y, _lc2, fpi, _ex-pricing-cta, _fbp, cb_group_id, cb_user_id, _clck
Cookie Expiry Session / 400 Days
Accept
Name
Provider Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock Instagram content.
Privacy Policy https://www.instagram.com/legal/privacy/
Host(s) .instagram.com
Cookie Name pigeon_state
Cookie Expiry Session
Accept
Name
Provider Openstreetmap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB4 0WS, United Kingdom
Purpose Used to unblock OpenStreetMap content.
Privacy Policy https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy
Host(s) .openstreetmap.org
Cookie Name _osm_location, _osm_session, _osm_totp_token, _osm_welcome, _pk_id., _pk_ref., _pk_ses., qos_token
Cookie Expiry 1-10 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Twitter International Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock Twitter content.
Privacy Policy https://twitter.com/privacy
Host(s) .twimg.com, .twitter.com
Cookie Name __widgetsettings, local_storage_support_test
Cookie Expiry Unlimited
Accept
Name
Provider Vimeo Inc., 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA
Purpose Used to unblock Vimeo content.
Privacy Policy https://vimeo.com/privacy
Host(s) player.vimeo.com
Cookie Name vuid
Cookie Expiry 2 Years
Accept
Name
Provider Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
Purpose Used to unblock YouTube content.
Privacy Policy https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=en
Host(s) google.com
Cookie Name CONSENT
Cookie Expiry 6 Month

Borlabs Cookie powered by Borlabs Cookie

Privacy Policy Imprint