Apple Ads Guide Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards defining key Apple Ads terms, campaign structures, auction mechanics, and metrics based on Ivan Sparrow's guide.

Apple Ads Basic

An account type designed for developers with no marketing experience where Apple automatically handles keywords, audience, and bids with fully automated management.

Apple Ads Advanced

An account type providing full control over manual keyword selection, individual bids, Custom Product Pages, audience and device targeting, A/B testing, and detailed reporting.

Second-Price Auction

An auction model used by Apple Ads where the highest bidder wins the ad placement but pays the amount of the second-highest bid plus one cent.

Relevance

A critical auction factor determined by how well an app matches a search keyword and how efficiently its store listing converts taps into downloads.

Today Tab

An ad placement featuring high-reach banner ads directly on the App Store homepage.

Search Tab

An ad placement located in the "Suggested Apps" section displayed to users before they type a search query.

Product Pages Placement

An ad placement appearing in the "You Might Also Like" section on competitor app product pages.

Search Results Placement

The primary Apple Ads performance format where ads appear at the top of search results when a user enters a relevant search query.

Broad Match

A keyword targeting match type where Apple displays ads for search queries containing related terms, synonyms, and variations of the target keyword.

Exact Match

A keyword targeting match type where ads appear only when a user searches for the precise keyword phrase specified.

SKAG (Single Keyword Ad Group)

A campaign setup structure originating from Google Ads where each individual keyword is isolated in its own separate ad group.

Classic 4-in-1 Structure

The standard Apple-recommended structure consisting of four campaigns per target country: Generic, Competitors, Brand, and Discovery.

Generic Campaign

A campaign targeting relevant general category keywords using exact match.

Competitors Campaign

A campaign targeting competitor brand names using exact match to capture existing competitor demand.

Brand Campaign

A defensive campaign targeting an app's own brand keywords using exact match to protect organic search traffic from competitors.

Discovery Campaign

A campaign using broad match keywords or Search Match to uncover new relevant search terms and capture low-volume queries.

7-in-1 Structure

An expanded campaign structure adding Top, Proxy, and Reco campaigns to the standard Classic 4-in-1 model.

Top Campaign

A campaign dedicated to housing proven, high-performing winner keywords that are managed manually with aggressive bids.

Proxy Campaign

A campaign where individual exact match search terms identified in Discovery campaigns are tested to track post-install metrics and ROAS.

Reco Campaign

A campaign designated specifically for testing keyword suggestions generated by Apple's algorithm.

Value-Based Structure

A campaign organization framework that categorizes and splits keywords into separate campaigns based on their specific ARPU and ROAS tiers.

"General to Specific" Structure

A starter strategy combining multiple countries and broad match keywords in initial campaigns to identify top-performing GEOs before building full individual campaign structures.

Ongoing ROAS

A dynamic return on ad spend metric for a specific period or campaign that continuously increases over time as subscription renewals generate new revenue against fixed historical spend.

Cohort ROAS

A measurement evaluating return on ad spend generated by a specific cohort of users acquired during a defined timeframe (such as 1-day or 7-day windows).

Impression Share (IS)

The percentage calculated by dividing the number of impressions an ad received by the total estimated available impressions for that search term.

Average Tap-Through Rate (TTR)

The percentage calculated by dividing the total number of ad taps by total ad impressions.

Average Conversion Rate (CR)

The percentage calculated by dividing total app downloads by the total number of ad taps.

Custom Product Pages (CPPs)

Alternative App Store product page variations (up to 70) with tailored screenshots, promotional text, videos, or deep links designed for specific search keywords or user segments.

Deep Links

A feature in CPP settings (iOS 18+) that routes users who tap "Open" directly to a specific internal screen, onboarding flow, or paywall within the app.