Pillow app icon

Pillow

People track
sleep health.
Pillow stays competitive across marketing funnel.

Pillow ad on the App Store

Customers track their sleep with Pillow to improve habits and overall wellness. With a 360-degree strategy across all available Apple Search Ads placements on the App Store, the health and fitness app improved brand awareness, conversions, and revenue, while staying competitive during peak season.

The Results

14% increase in downloads year over year from Apple Search Ads.
30% more impressions year over year.
19% increase in new subscription revenue.
52% increase in tap-through rate on search results campaigns.

The Challenge

The team at Pillow wanted to stay competitive during the peak seasonal moment of the year. To capture increased category interest, they needed to boost brand awareness across the App Store with diverse audiences interested in improving their sleep health and overall well-being. To make Pillow stand out from the competition, it would also be critical for the team to better position their broad range of evolving app features and tailor messaging to different customer segments across
markets worldwide.

Apple Search Ads plays a vital role across our marketing funnel, helping us increase brand awareness in a growing, competitive category while also allowing us to drive more conversions by tailoring our message for different
audiences and markets.

The Solution

Drive awareness on the Today tab and Search tab.

In addition to search results campaigns, the Pillow team invested in all available Apple Search Ads placements, driving app discovery with more potential customers. With Today tab ads1, they were able to position their brand prominently on the front page of the App Store, reaching hundreds of millions of people starting their App Store visit. “The Today tab ad placement helped us increase visibility, attracting new customers who may not have discovered our app otherwise, as well as reengaging existing ones to drive more downloads,” says Neybox Co-founder Spyros Passas. “Today tab campaigns also helped us stand out from the competition especially during peak seasons, and establish our brand as one of the leading apps in its category.”

 

To boost market share with an even broader audience, the team at Pillow also invested in ads on the Search tab, which are featured at the top of the suggested apps list. With ads on product pages, they reached people who scrolled to the bottom of relevant product pages, actively researching apps and getting information to help them decide whether to download.

Optimize ad relevancy and alignment
across channels.

The Pillow team made ad variations based on custom product pages set up in App Store Connect to create more relevant and engaging App Store experiences for specific audiences. These custom ads showcased unique features, functionality, and user benefits that align with the needs and goals of different audiences. For example, in some custom product pages, the team highlighted how to track sleep using Apple Watch for customers interested in that capability. Other custom product pages were aimed at customers interested in sleep tracking with iPhone and featured that app functionality.

 

Potential customers who tapped one of these ads landed on a custom product page that matched the ad creative — creating a seamless experience. “By testing different ad variations, we have been able to optimize our messaging and creative across all channels, which has resulted in improved engagement and conversion rates across our marketing mix,” says Neybox Co-founder Panos Spiliotis. Ad variations focused on Apple Watch features drove 63 percent higher tap-through rates with Apple Search Ads and 83 percent more installs than the default ad.

Drive performance across channels with Apple Search Ads insights.

The Pillow team closely monitored performance of Apple Search Ads campaigns to optimize bidding and budgeting, tracking key metrics such as impressions, click-through rates, and conversion rates. They also gained valuable insights into the seasonality of their app across specific markets, offering a better ability to forecast as well as plan timing and spend for new campaigns. “Insights from Apple Search Ads campaigns have significantly informed our business and marketing strategy, improving engagement and conversion rates across every marketing channel,” says Passas.

 

With search results campaigns, the team actively discovered new keywords, helping them better understand the needs and preferences of different audiences. The team also found that running Apple Search Ads campaigns positively impacted their organic growth. “In addition to being an effective tool for driving growth, our Apple Search Ads campaigns have helped us understand our core customers and what resonates with them, resulting in better performance across our marketing campaigns,” says Spiliotis.

 

Company Snapshot

  • Neybox Digital Ltd.
  • Health and Fitness category
  • Launched in 2014
  • Based in Nicosia, Cyprus
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