Considerations for keyword bids

Know when to raise or lower max CPT bids in your search
results campaigns

For Apple Search Ads Advanced search results campaigns, we recommend creating a tiered bidding strategy across your ad groups. This enables you to apply your most aggressive bids to important exact match keywords, strong bids for similar keywords in broad match that may also work well, and more moderate bids for new queries that may be discovered by your Search Match campaign.

We also suggest that you refer to the bid recommendations available within your account.

Learn more about recommendations

When to raise a max CPT bid

Here are a few scenarios where you might want to raise your max CPT bid:

  • Search Match is matching your ad to relevant terms that are increasing conversions for your app.
    You can test raising your max CPT bid to see if it gets you more impressions.

  • If you have a keyword that’s delivering conversions below your CPA cap. Consider making incremental increases to your max CPT bid on that keyword, with the goal to gain more impressions and conversions within your CPA target.
    You can use our recommended bid as a guide.

  • You’re not seeing many impressions for popular keywords.
    Assuming your app is relevant for the keyword, it’s possible that you’re being outbid by other advertisers interested in showing their ad for that term. Raise your max CPT bid for specific keywords to see if you can gain more impressions and conversions. Again, you can use our recommended bid as a guide.

When to lower a max CPT bid


Here’s a scenario where you might consider lowering your max CPT bid:

  • If you have a keyword that’s delivering taps, but low conversions at a CPA higher than your cap.
    Lower the bid to keep your CPA down. You may still win some impressions, but may see fewer impressions for that term.

Note that adjusting your max CPT bid for a specific keyword overrides the ad group default max CPT bid for that keyword. The ad group default max CPT bid will still apply to new keywords that are added to that ad group.