Apple Search Ads: Metrics You Need to Know

One of the most important tasks in promoting your app in the AppStore is to maximize the visibility and improve the conversion rate. This is done by App Store Optimization, a set of marketing optimization techniques and metrics analysis using App Store Optimization tools to support the promotion of your app on the app store. Among all, Apple Search Ads is a crucial App Store Optimization tactics for iOS apps, as it is the only way to advertise in Apple Store. 

Apple Search Ads' Metrics

Apple search ads promote the app for the developers and help the consumer find what they need. They have customizable plans that are suited to the needs of the app owner. Analyzing performance metrics like revenue, subscription, trials, issues, and cohorts can help you understand the marketing outreach of the app.

Apple search ads provide you with several performance metrics. Some of them are :

• Spend: The total cost spent on Apple Search Ads campaigns. 

• Avg CPA (cost-per-acquisition): Cost per acquisition is the average cost spent per conversion. CPA = total cost for conversions / total number of conversions.  

• Avg CPM (cost-per-thousand-impressions): The average cost per every thousand impressions. Avg CPM = (Total cost/Total Impressions)*1000

• Avg CPT (cost-per-tap): The cost per each tap by the consumer. Avg CPT = (Total cost/Total number of taps) of particular ad campaign.

• Avg Daily Spend: The cost spent per day on the marketing techniques required to promote your apps on apple search ads.

• Impressions: The number of times your ad was displayed to the users. 

• Taps: The number of times the users have tapped on the ad to redirect to the respective link to your product page.

• Installs: The number of times the users have downloaded your app from the AppStore.

• TTR (tap-through rate): The ratio of taps to impressions. Calculated by TTR = taps/impressions. It gives a rough idea of how the ad successfully induces curiosity in the user.

• CR (conversion rate): CR = Installs / Taps. It helps us evaluate the effectiveness of your website in convincing the users to download/install your app. 

• New downloads: The number of times users have downloaded your app for the first time.

• Re-downloads: The number of times a user has downloaded more than once.

What's Next——Appflow.ai

Appflow.ai is a tool that provides you with metrics analysis of your ASA campaign. You might be curious as to why the app owner might need Appflow.ai. 

ASA is the way app owners advertise for user acquisition, when app owners integrate their ASA metrics to Appflow.ai, they could see the real value of a user after download, like how many trials, subscriptions, revenue... etc. 

Appflow.ai could help them better evaluate the ROI with Attribution, and then improve their advertising strategy. Appflow.ai systematically gives you a dashboard from which you can monitor the effects of your ASA campaign. Appflow.ai provides you with a dashboard consisting of parameters like:

• Revenue:

Revenue is one of the most important factors to monitor when your app is out there collecting users and popularity. Even if SEM strategies work, but they do not yield enough revenue then the SEM must be modified to focus on revenue through various methods like paid services, etc. The revenue tab of appflow.ai consists of multiple detailed analyses of revenue like：

1. Overall revenue: The sum of all payments excluding refunded money for the selected period
2. Revenue without a commission: The sum of all payments excluding refunds and stores commission (usually 30%) 
3. Revenue by platform: Total of all payments by platform, excluding refunds
4. Top 3 countries by revenue: 3 countries with the highest revenue of all.
5. Top 3 Profitable SKUs: 3 SKUs that show the biggest revenue out of all. The revenue is shown excluding commission.
6. LTV: An average payment per user per month/churn rate for the period.

• Subscription:

The subscription tab shows the information regarding subscribed features in your app. It lets you know the longevity of the users subscribing to the app. It reveals how much the subscription plan is attractive to the users. It has multiple features to analyze the churn rate, number of renewed/canceled subscriptions, etc. Some of the features are:

1. New Subscriptions: Number of end users subscribed to the app/project during the selected period.
2. Active Subscriptions: The number of subscribers you have on board for the selected period.
3. Renewed Subscriptions: The number of subscription renewing events during the selected period.
4. Churn Rate: Calculated as (last user at period start/user at the period start)*100%. Churned=Trial cancellations, subscription renewals, and refunds have been voided during the selected period.
5. Canceled subscriptions: The number of subscriptions canceled during the selected period.

• Trials:

A trial period is important to make the users familiar with the app and also to get a feel of what features they might be working with. If the trial period features are restricted too much, the user might cancel midway. Else if it is completely transparent, users might not subscribe to the paid version. Balance of displaying features and usability is important to attract users to become long-time consumers.

1. New installs: New installations during the selected period.
2. New Trials: New trials started during the selected period.
3. Active trial: Trials that are active during the selected period.
4. Canceled trials: The number of trials canceled for the selected period.
5. Install to trial rate: The sum of all installs for the chosen period that was converted to trials (any day even out of chosen period) from all installs from the selected period)
6. Trials to purchase rate: The sum of trials for the chosen period that were converted to subscriptions (any day even out ofApple Search Ads is a crucial App Store Optimization tactic for iOS apps. This article compiles a list of ASA metrics that you need to know to promote the app.s for the selected period).

• Issues:

1. Refunds (events): The number of refunds that happened for the selected period
2. Refunds (amount): The amount of money was refunded for the selected period
3. Cancellations from Trials: Several trials were canceled for the selected time.
4. Cancellations from Renewals: Several renewal-off events for the selected period.
5. Billing Issues: The number of Billing issues that happened to end-users for the selected period.
6. Crashlytics: The number of crashes that happened to end-users for the selected time.

Conclusion

Apple Search Ads help advertisers connect to their target audience. For every keyword the user types, advertisers bid their applications to that keyword and gain the top positions for recommendations. 

Appflow.ai dashboard enables app marketers and product managers to keep tracking these metrics and improve the Apple Search Ads ROI. Learning from the right parameters helps increase your user base. So Appflow.ai is a must-have for people using the Apple search ads channel. 

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