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Canva

A world empowered to design.
Canva scales globally.

Canva ad on the App Store
Empowering the world to design is Canva’s mission. Based on performance insights directly from Apple Search Ads, the graphics and design app scaled growth globally, optimized keywords for user intent, and increased retention.

The Results

3x global user growth with Apple Search Ads in six months.
30% higher install-to-trial rates compared to similar channels.
8% higher user retention compared to similar channels.

The Challenge

After launching subscriptions on iOS, the team at Canva needed to grow app discovery with diverse audiences and scale revenue globally. To drive trial-to-subscription conversions, they wanted to capture strong intent from people searching on the App Store for help with a broad array of design projects.

With Apple Search Ads, we tap into signals of intent that directly match our product offering, attracting subscribers who start trials faster and stay engaged longer.

The Solution

Optimize keyword strategy based on intent.

Canva has a wide range of capabilities and potential customers, including small business owners, marketers, and educators. With Apple Search Ads, the Canva team created discovery campaigns to find new, relevant search terms related to the app’s varied features and the diverse design needs of prospects. They then optimized campaigns by moving high-performing keywords into exact match to drive subscription conversions and high return on ad spend (ROAS).

 

“We use Apple Search Ads to discover new relevant keywords with high trial intent,” says Canva Growth Marketer Lorena Casillas. “We are able to unlock new demand, scale spend, and improve ROAS without compromising efficiency.”

Inform business decisions with trusted insights.

To improve visibility into performance, teams at Canva integrated the Apple Search Ads Attribution API, developing data visualization tools and sophisticated dashboards. By tracking keyword-level performance at each stage of the funnel, they maximized efficiency and improved their end-to-end user experience from trials to subscriptions.

 

“The Apple Search Ads Attribution API helps us understand the intent of the users  — or the kinds of projects they want to create — when they install the app,” says Canva Growth Manager Renee Psomadelis. “This informs how we optimize both the preinstall and postinstall funnels, from tap-through rate to number of subscribers and ROI.”

Invest to drive organic and international growth.

The Canva team also leveraged Apple Search Ads insights into keyword tap-through and conversion rates to refine the metadata on their App Store product page. This positively impacted the app’s organic App Store presence while Apple Search Ads helped drive incremental install growth.

 

“In different markets like Latin America and others, we have invested in Apple Search Ads and have achieved organic uplift,” shares Psomadelis. “In the U.S., we saw estimated blended cost-per-install decrease by 40 percent when we took into account the incremental organic installs that paid was driving.”

Company Snapshot

  • Canva
  • Photo and Video category
  • Founded in 2013
  • Based in Sydney, Australia
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