Ad Variations

Two hands holding an iPhone. The App store is open to an ad variation for an example app, NoMoss.

Best Practices

Creating ad variations based on custom product pages can help make your search results ads more relevant to potential customers. Drive results using the following suggestions to create ad variations.

Understand how custom product pages work.

Custom product pages are additional versions of your App Store product page that use different app previews, screenshots, and promotional text to highlight specific features or content. You can set up custom product pages anytime in App Store Connect without submitting new app versions. All you need is Marketing role access to the App Store Connect account. All of your approved pages will be available in Apple Search Ads — giving you lots of options for creating ad variations focused on different customer interests.

An ad variation for an example app, TripTrek, showing that three dining-related images from the app are tailored to appear for the search query "travel dining planner.

Align custom product page assets with keyword themes.

When you create an ad variation for a particular ad group, connect its custom product page content with your keyword theme.

Let’s say you were promoting a travel app called TripTrek and had an ad group with keywords like travel dining planner and vacation food journal. You could create a custom product page that showcased your dining-related app features to match your ad creative with the keywords for that ad group.

An ad variation for an example app, NoMoss. Three screenshots showing new levels in the game to highlight new content.

Highlight new features and relevant content.

Whether you’re launching a new look, additional features or functionality, or a special promotion, ad variations allow you to elevate your offering and your message. Give users a peek at your app interface with refreshed screenshots and app previews, and call out updates or promotions in your text.

For example, if you were running a custom ad for a maze game, you could showcase new levels to catch the attention of interested customers.

An app screenshot showing the search query "men's fitness" with an image of a man exercising below it.

Instead of modifying settings, run tailored creative.

The search terms people enter — not the audience profiles they fit — are the strongest signals of their interests and intent. Rather than modifying your audience settings, boost ad relevance by using creative assets that resonate with customers’ searches. For example, if you were promoting a fitness app, instead of targeting a male audience, you could use screenshots featuring men to tie to related searches.

If you modify your audience settings, your ad can’t be served to devices with Personalized Ads turned off. Since 78% of search volume comes from devices with Personalized Ads off,^* changing your audience settings can significantly limit the number of customers who see your ad.

An ad variation for an example app, TripTrek, showing festive New Year's imagery. A tile in the app that says Nearby Events is highlighted.

Tap into the power of key seasons and events.

Specific seasons, holidays, and events can represent big opportunities for downloads. During these key times, you can use ad variations to reflect seasonality, promotions, or celebrations in your ad creative. Create up to 35 custom ads, and activate or pause them as needed throughout the year.

If you were promoting the travel app, TripTrek, you might show festive New Year’s imagery within your custom ad in December to encourage downloads from end-of-year travelers.

Keep your campaign’s countries and regions in mind.

In order for your ad variation to run, the assets in your custom product page must be compatible with your campaign’s chosen country, region, and targeted device. If your assets are in an incompatible language or formatted for a different device, your ad can’t run. Before you create your custom ad, check that you’re using a custom product page that aligns with your campaign settings.

Connect with broader marketing campaigns.

Custom ads make it easier to align your creative strategy across marketing channels. Each custom product page includes a unique URL that you can use as the destination for social media ads, email, TV, and outdoor — in addition to your Apple Search Ads campaign. This allows you to create consistency across your broader marketing initiatives. If your strategy changes, you can create a new ad variation using a different custom product page anytime.

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