Apple Ads theory: Target and Negative Keywords

For Search Results placement, you can add target and negative keywords to your ad groups.

Target Keywords

For Target Keywords, you can set a CPT Bid and Match Type.

CPT Bid at the keyword level takes priority over the Ad Group CPT Bid. Bidding in Apple Ads it not as straightforward as it seems, and I'll cover it in the next article.

Match type. You can choose Exact or Broad match for targeting. However, for Target Keywords, Exact match isn't truly exact. According to Apple's documentation, exact match may include spelling variations, word rearrangements, translations, and other variants deemed close by their systems.

Exact Match target keyword "photo edit free" can also target "photoeditfree", "edit photo free", "free photos editor", "fre photo editor", "free photo editor app", "フォトエディター".

If you want a precise targeting, you can use the SKAG campaign structure.

Target keywords also have a SAP - Search Ads Popularity index. In Apple Ads dashboard it is shown on a 1-5 scale, but you can check the API response in your browser to see the actual 5-99 scale, which is more accurate. There are browser plugins that convert the 1-5 range to the 5-99 scale, and ASO services, that also show the actual data. This 5-99 scale is exponential, meaning that the difference in percentage between sap 30 and 15 is less, than between 50 and 25.

Negative keywords

For negative keywords you can only specify the match type:

Exact Match blocks the exact keyword, but not its variations. For example, if you add "kids puzzles" as an exact negative keyword, you app will not appear for the search term "kids puzzles", but will still appear for the "puzzles kids" or "kids puzzles app". Note that symbols are stripped. It means that "hello-world" exact match negative keyword also blocks "helloworld" search term. If you are using ASATools campaign management, these cases are checked automatically, so you don't accidentally block your traffic.

Broad Match blocks the exact keyword and it variations. For example "kids puzzle games" will block "kids puzzle games", "puzzle games kids", but not "kids puzzle apps". Meanwhile "kids puzzle" would block "kids puzzle", "puzzle kids", and "kids puzzle apps".