Advanced | Overview

How ads are created

Apple Search Ads uses the app name, subtitle, description, preview videos, and screenshots you already provided in your App Store product page to create your ad. The first sentence of your App Store product page description is the most important — this is what users can read in your ad without having to tap to read more. If you change your App Store metadata, it can take up to 24 hours to be reflected in the ad preview within your account, and up to two hours for it to be reflected in your ad on the App Store.

Tip: Review app metadata.

Since ad content relies on metadata, take the time to review your app metadata in App Store Connect before you start a campaign. Apple Search Ads doesn’t support customization of ad creative, so you can’t change the way your ad looks or upload your own ad design. However, you can use Creative Sets to create more ad variations that leverage additional App Store assets and align to your ad group keyword themes or audiences.

Review App Store metadata best practices

How ads appear

When a user searches on the App Store, a single, sponsored ad may appear at the top of the search results. All ads have a blue background and ad disclosure icon. Ads can appear in one of several formats, depending on the user’s device and what may work best for the search query and user.

To see examples of how your ads look as you set up your campaign, go to the Creative Sets module during campaign creation. The preview doesn’t show actual app ratings, but the live ad on the App Store shows live ratings plus the price and currency of the app for the country or region you chose.

Whether your ad shows over other advertisers bidding on that same query is determined by the combination of your app’s relevance to the search query and the amount of your bid.

It’s just as important to know when your app won’t appear. For example, if your app isn’t relevant to what the user is looking for, it won’t make it into the ad spot — regardless of how much you may be willing to pay. Apple Search Ads considers both relevance as well as bidding, and does not put apps into auctions if they are not a good match.