Families celebrate and stream.
Shahid captures seasonal demand.

To scale subscriber growth globally and easily optimize performance, the Shahid team set up separate Apple Search Ads campaigns by country or region. With keyword discovery campaigns and Search Match, they were able to perform keyword mining automatically and find new relevant keywords. Brand and category campaigns helped the team reach people searching for their brand terms as well as relevant entertainment keywords related to available content on the Shahid app.

The team at Shahid actively monitored campaign performance and moved high-performing keywords to exact match. This maximized impressions and improved cost-per-acquisition. 

Broad match ensured that ads appeared for close variations of relevant keywords.

After unveiling an all-new premium subscription-based service called Shahid VIP, the team wanted to reengage fans who had downloaded the previous version of the app in the past. They created a returning users campaign and reintroduced this audience to the app by highlighting newly available content like recent box office releases and international offerings.

“With Apple Search Ads, we were able to maintain strong impression share, which ensured our visibility in key markets and was key to acquiring both new and lapsed users,” says Shahid’s Head of Performance Marketing Ali Aktas.  

Leading into moments of high seasonal demand like Ramadan, the team at Shahid began testing seasonally themed ad groups several months in advance. Monitoring the performance of these new user and returning user campaigns informed their seasonal budget planning, bidding strategy, and daily caps so they stayed competitive.¹ The team also updated creative assets to reflect this seasonality and improve relevancy for potential customers looking for entertainment during holidays.

“A seasonal strategy has been a huge part of our success, helping us learn in real time, capture increased demand, and generate incremental growth at the point motivated customers are ready to take action and convert,” says Ali Aktas. In fact, Apple Search Ads drove 80 percent subscription growth in the month leading up to Ramadan, and incremental organic downloads continued to grow while paid campaigns were running.