How to Use Apple Ads: A Basic Guide

App discovery in Türkiye is moving inside the store. According to StatCounter's September 2026 data, 19.23% of mobile and tablet devices in Türkiye run iOS. Moreover, according to Apple's own data, more than 650 million people visit the App Store every week, and about 65% of downloads happen directly after a search. For an app brand that wants to reach iOS users in Türkiye, the App Store is no longer just a distribution channel, but also an advertising platform. In this article, we walked through app advertising with Apple ads with all its steps. You can start reading our article right away to learn everything from account setup to your first campaign, keyword and bidding strategy, and the finer points of App Store advertising for the Turkish market.

What Is Apple Ads?

Apple Ads is Apple's advertising platform for app developers and marketers, which runs only inside the App Store. The platform's former name was Apple Ads Search. This change shows Apple's intention to take its advertising solutions beyond search results alone.

In fact, this story is fairly new for the Turkish market. In October 2024, Apple launched the service in 21 countries, including Türkiye, and ads started to be shown in the Today tab, the Search tab, search results and product pages. According to Apple, ads allow apps to receive twice as many impressions as organic results.

Apple Ads Basic or Advanced?

For App Store advertising strategies, Apple offers two different plans. Here are the options you can consider:

Source: Apple Ads, Compare Apple Ads solutions

Apple Ads Placements: At Which Moment Do You Want to Reach the User?

As we mentioned in the previous section, Apple Ads Advanced offers four placements: the Today tab, the Search tab, search results and product pages. When choosing a placement, ask yourself this question: What is the user doing when they see the ad?

1. Search results: The user is actively searching for an app. The likelihood of being chosen is highest here, and it is the most logical starting point for your first campaign.
2. Search tab: You appear at the top of the suggested apps list before the user has searched for anything. This placement is discovery-focused and does not include keyword targeting.
3. Today tab: The first thing users encounter when they open the App Store. It is suitable for launches, major updates or campaign periods.
4. Product pages: You appear in the "You Might Also Like" section while the user is browsing other apps. You reach an audience that is in the stage of evaluating apps.

App Store Advertising and the Setup Process

Since the account setup steps for advertising on the App Store may change over time as the interface is updated, small differences may be seen. However, the basic flow is as follows:

1. Prepare your app page: Apple automatically creates your ads from the metadata and visuals you provide in App Store Connect. That is why your Turkish title, subtitle, screenshots and reviews are part of ad performance.
2. Open your account: If you are opening an account for business use, proceed with a corporate Apple account. This way, you avoid authorization confusion when team members change. The account currency is selected during setup. Once the currency is set, it cannot be changed; a new account is required to change it. Teams operating in Türkiye should check whether TRY is available in the list.
3. Add a payment method. Campaigns do not go live without a valid payment method. You can add Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards as a payment method with Apple.
4. Create a search results campaign: Select Türkiye as the country and set a daily budget. For your first setup, starting with a single country, a single goal and a small number of relevant keywords makes it easier to read the data.
5. Add an ad group and keywords: Set the default maximum CPT bid, choose match types, and add negative keywords before launch.
6. Connect measurement: The number of installs alone is not enough for measurement. The more data, the stronger the strategy… To see post-install data such as subscriptions, purchases and retention, connect AdServices or a mobile measurement tool (such as Adjust, AppsFlyer).

Keyword and Campaign Structure in App Store Ads

In Apple Ads, keywords determine who your ad will be shown to. A strong keyword strategy means separating user intent into different campaigns. Keywords are the words or phrases you choose to say "let my ad appear for these searches." When you add a keyword, you also tell Apple how flexible to be. You have three different options when setting up your keywords:

• Exact match: Shown only for that word and its very close variations (plurals, typos, etc.)
• Broad match: Also shown for related searches. You can think more broadly for your campaign.
• Search Match: Apple automatically matches by looking at your app page and similar apps

If you put all your keywords in a single campaign, you cannot see which type of search makes you money. That is why separating keywords into four groups based on user intent is a common method:

Apple recommends using exact match in brand, category and competitor campaigns, and broad match in discovery campaigns. In line with this, move search terms that perform well in discovery to the relevant campaign as exact match, and add them as negatives to the discovery campaign to prevent overlap.

How Does the App Store Personalized Ads Setting Affect Results?

Since iOS 15, users make their personalized ads choice when they first open the App Store. The proportion of users who turn off the App Store personalized ads setting is high. According to Apple, 78% of App Store search volume on iOS 17 and later comes from devices with personalized ads turned off. This situation has two consequences for campaign setup:

• When you apply an age or gender restriction, you automatically exclude users who have turned off personalized ads. Starting your first campaigns with the default audience settings preserves your reach.
• According to data from Apple's 2022 presentation, the conversion rate in search ads was 62.1% for users with personalization on and 62.5% for users with it off. However, since these figures are old, it is worth verifying them with your own account's data.

This picture shows that success in Apple Ads depends more on keyword selection and the alignment of the ad message than on audience filters such as age or gender. In other words, you reach the user not by who they are, but by what they are searching for at that moment.

6 Points to Pay Attention to in Your Apple Ads Strategy

1. Start your first campaign with a single country, a single goal and a small number of relevant keywords.
2. Build your negative keyword list from the start and update it regularly.
3. Keep brand, category, competitor and discovery terms in separate campaigns.
4. Do not leave Search Match and broad match on without reviewing search terms.
5. Do not evaluate placements with the same expectations; the roles of the Today tab and search results are different.
6. Measure success not only by installs, but by subscriptions, purchases and retention.

References

• https://ads.apple.com/app-store/help/ad-groups/0021-modify-audience-settings
• https://ads.apple.com/app-store/help/get-started/0030-set-your-payment-method
• https://webrazzi.com/2024/10/03/apple-search-ads-turkiye-de-kullanima-acildi/
• https://www.mobileaction.co/blog/mobile-advertising/apple-search-ads-guide
• https://www.apptweak.com/aso-blog/guide-to-apple-search-ads
• https://www.cyberclick.net/numericalblogen/mastering-apple-ads