Shoppers enjoy cash back.
Cashrewards scales seasonal growth.

To better connect with a range of potential Black Friday customers, the Cashrewards team updated their custom product pages in App Store Connect, adding different app previews, screenshots, and promotional text beyond their default product page. They tested creative highlighting seasonality and brand messaging with a strong call to action. The team aligned ad variations based on these custom product pages with high-performing seasonal keyword ad groups, increasing relevancy and urgency for people interested in savings and cash back during the busiest shopping season. 

“With ad variations, we can deliver a cohesive experience for our customers by aligning creative seamlessly across channels — from out-of-home to digital ads,” says Cashrewards Head of Shopper Marketing Karlien McLeod. “We were able to test seasonal messaging without impacting our business-as-usual ads, gaining valuable insights on what creative most resonates and drives a more qualified lead.”

With a Today tab ad, the team at Cashrewards also placed their brand prominently on the front page of the App Store — making it some of the first content that people see when they begin their App Store visit. Developed with ad creative based on custom product pages, the Today tab ads featured distinctive brand colors and a clear hierarchy of messaging to highlight a seasonal moment. To further boost brand awareness with a broad audience before customers narrowed in on a search, the Cashrewards team invested in ads on the Search tab, which are featured at the top of the suggested apps list. 

The team also used ads on the product page to connect with users who have scrolled to the bottom of relevant product pages, actively researching apps and getting information to help them decide whether to download. “The high visibility of ads on the Today tab reinforced our Cashrewards branding, while ads on the product page and Search tab offered a new opportunity to engage people at the top of the funnel and keep our app top of mind,” says McLeod. “These ads helped to increase our brand presence and awareness, delivering cost-effective impressions and taps.” 

Search results campaigns helped the Cashrewards team capture strong intent on the App Store. They separated these Apple Search Ads campaigns by keyword theme: brand, discovery, competitive, and category. In preparation for spikes in interest around shopping during Black Friday, the team added seasonal keywords, discovering new relevant search terms with a high conversion rate and low cost-per-tap. 

By monitoring campaigns closely at the keyword level, the team optimized for efficiency and increased bidding on the most relevant terms, unlocking additional scale. “While running Today tab, Search tab, product page, and search results campaigns, paid installs increased by 136 percent and organic installs increased by 163 percent during Black Friday,” says McLeod. “Taking a full-funnel approach to our paid campaigns during this critical retail period complemented our organic results and drove significant cumulative growth.”