Search results
Reach users the moment they’re searching for apps
to download
Search results ads help customers discover your app right when they’re searching for apps to download. When a user searches on the App Store, your ad can appear at the top of their search results. And starting in 2026, we’ll be introducing more ads to increase opportunity in search results.
Available in 2026: Additional opportunities in
search results
Search is the way most people find and download apps on the App Store, with nearly 65 percent of downloads happening directly after a search.1 To help give advertisers more opportunities to drive downloads from search results, Apple Ads will introduce additional ads across search queries. You don’t need to change your campaign in order to be eligible for any new positions. Your ad will run in either the existing position — at the top of search results — or further down in search results. If you have a search results campaign running, your ad will be automatically eligible for all available positions, but you can’t select or bid for a particular one.
The ad format will be the same in any position, using a default product page or custom product page, and an optional deep link. You’ll be billed as usual based on your pricing model: cost per tap or cost per install.
How ads are created
A default ad is created based on your app’s product page, or you can create ad variations from custom product pages you set up in App Store Connect. Ad variations allow you to align ad creative with specific audiences and keyword themes. You can also select a custom product page with a deep link that directs users to the exact place you want in your app. Deep links for search results placements are available on devices running iOS or iPadOS 18 and later.
How ads are matched to
search queries
To match your ad to relevant searches, search results campaigns use keywords. You can either choose your own keywords or use the ones we suggest. Our intelligent technology matches the user’s search term with the app being promoted, delivering more than a 60 percent average conversion rate for ads at the top of search results.2
Whether a search results ad displays over other advertisers bidding on that same query is determined by a combination of factors, including your app’s relevance to the search query and the amount of your keyword bid. If your app isn’t relevant to what the user is searching for, it won’t be displayed — regardless of how much you may be willing to pay. Apple Ads considers both relevance and bids, and doesn’t put apps into auctions if they’re not a good match.