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Joined May 2024
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I spent over $12,000+ on Apple Ads. Here's what I learned and you should know:
1. Use CPPs to tailor screenshots and messaging to each keyword instead of sending all ad traffic to one generic listing.
2. Use at least 6 strong screenshots on your default listing or CPPs; the icon and first 3 screenshots drive conversions.
3. Start with Search Results: people are actively searching, unlike those browsing the other 3 ad placements.
4. Test CPT bids rather than blindly using Apple's suggested bid; use LTV and conversion rates to set limits.
5. Test Maximize Conversions alongside a broad-match/Search Match discovery campaign to uncover new keywords.
6. Judge new campaigns after 3–5 days, ideally a week; wait 24 hours after bid changes before tweaking again.
7. Turn off Search Match in tightly controlled campaigns; use it in discovery to mine search queries.
8. Avoid targeting 100 countries in one campaign; split markets to see where acquisition pays off.
9. Test long-tail, category, typo, misspelling, and competitor keywords—not just obvious terms.
10. Move winning discovery keywords into exact-match campaigns to control bids more precisely.
11. I got $0.30–$0.50 installs from “free [competitor]” searches, though many won't pay.
12. Competitor keywords waste money if users were looking for that exact competing app.
13. For Maximize Conversions, experiment with a daily budget near 30× your target CPA.
14. Localize keywords and CPPs; users often search in their own language, not English.
15. Look beyond the US: Brazil, Poland, Slovakia, and Croatia may bring cheaper taps.
16. In Apple's second-price-style auction, actual CPT may be below your maximum bid.
17. Your App Store listing is the creative; optimize the icon and first screenshots.
18. Avoid keyword duplication across campaigns to keep performance easier to track.
19. Choose Apple Ads Advanced over Basic for bid, keyword, and match-type control.
20. Pause obvious losers and redirect budget to keywords acquiring valuable users.
21. Keywords can perform differently across countries and seasons; keep testing.
22. Apple lets you build up to 70 CPPs; test different use cases and audiences.
23. My organic installs rose during ads, but that doesn't prove causation.
24. Annual or lifetime plans can improve upfront cash flow for ad spend.
25. Track CPT, CPA, LTV, ROAS, and paid conversions—not just downloads.
26. Most keywords may not spend; it doesn't mean something is broken.
27. Test several CPT bids instead of one blanket bid for every term.
28. Review metrics daily without constantly changing campaigns.
29. An install CPA isn't the same as a paying-customer CPA.
30. Calculate break-even CPA before scaling.
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Programmatic SEO be like:
SEO doesn’t scale
you write one page
rank for a couple of keywords
get one stream of traffic
all for 200-500 clicks/mo
it’s progress, but let’s be honest…
it barely moves the needle
you’re trading time for output, and there’s a hard ceiling on that
meanwhile, we used programmatic SEO to generate 692,000 clicks in 4 months
most SEO = writing content
programmatic SEO = building systems
instead of writing one page per topic
you identify search patterns like:
- “best [category]”
- “vs [y]”
- “[tool] for [use case]”
then you create pages for every variation
so instead of chasing traffic, you’re capturing demand that already exists
and because the structure repeats, you can scale output without scaling effort
you build one page template, then plug in different inputs (use cases, industries, competitors) to generate variations for each possible combination
so instead of writing for countless hours to produce 100s of pages, you design 1 system that produces 1000s of pages for you
that’s how you remove the hard ceiling caused by writing each page manually
SEO stopped rewarding effort long ago
now the only play is leverage
programmatic SEO is what unlocks that leverage
its so crazy how you can add one high intent page to your landing, and chat gpt almost immediately begins citing you for it.
ima spend the next month updating my whole blog
make it less sloppy, more content
last time i did that, i revived one article.
This is why I said never compete on price in a couple of posts ago
It's an endless battle of ever shrinking margins.
They will eat you @marclou, like Amazon said: your margin is my opportunity
Introducing Datafast 🎉 (But for free)
Yes, if you don't want to pay even $1 doaller for any web analytics software again
It's open-source, so you can deploy in 2 minutes (at $0 cost)
Here is the link: github.com/surendrapandar/mi…
Enjoy ✌️
