Information Technology Titan Automates Management of $Millions in Monthly Apple Search Ads Spend

Vertical: Social Media, Entertainment, and More

Takeaways

>$1M
Monthly Spend
Managed With Automation

Up to 39%
Reduction in CPA
Across Int’l Regions

>20
Countries & Languages
Optimized With Automated
Keyword Bid Management

Customer

A dominant tech industry powerhouse that operates a suite of popular digital platforms. One of the largest app publishers in the world, the company shapes the way humanity communicates, shares information, and engages with digital content.

Challenge

The agency running paid search acquisition efforts for the customer found its team stretched thin managing Apple Search Ads (ASA) campaigns. The weekly person-hours necessary to analyze campaigns, adjust keyword bids, pause and restart ad groups, shift daily budgets, and complete other tasks across a plethora of countries and regions kept the team buried. The task burden limited how nimbly the team could react to changing market dynamics—making it difficult to achieve target cost per acquisition (CPA) rates and maximize efficiency for millions of dollars in monthly ASA spend.

Solution

The agency tapped into Search Ads Maven, the Apple Search Ads campaign management platform. Working with the Search Ads Maven team, they were able to outline their growth goals across each of the customer’s apps in Apple’s App Store and build an automation strategy. Using Automation Studio within the platform, automation rules were created that

Monitored campaign performance hourly to quickly adapt to market dynamics
Updated keyword min & max bids based on market dynamics and the optimal CPA target for each country and region
Centralized the management of CPA targets for all countries

Once automation was activated, spend efficiency greatly improved. The agency was able to step back from the burdensome task load of manual ASA campaign management and focus on larger strategic initiatives to meet the customer’s growth and spend efficiency goals.

Impact

Within 6 months, the automation strategy drove a reduction in the customer’s average CPA across all markets, with certain APAC countries dropping by as much as 39%. All keyword bidding was auto-optimized across more than 20 countries and numerous languages. The agency was able to maximize efficiency in managing over $1 million in monthly ASA spend, proving that with the right automation strategy, scale is possible without sacrificing return on investment. They can now unlock additional spend on ASA for the customer.

”Our team will never approach Apple Search Ads the same way again. The automation we can activate through Search Ads Maven gives us the confidence to not only set new CPA targets and growth goals, but also achieve them.
Senior Digital Marketing Account Manager