Leveraging product pages – while browsing ads

We’re diving into the product pages – while browsing placement. Learn what the placement is, why you should be running campaigns on them, and best practices for optimization.

Today, we’re diving into the product pages – while browsing placement. We’ll explain what it is, why you should be running campaigns on them, and best practices for optimizing towards success.

What are product pages ads?

The product pages – while browsing placement displays ads to users when they’re exploring and researching apps on the App Store. These ads appear on an app’s product page at the top of the “You Might Also Like” list.

Ads are generated automatically from existing assets in your App Store product page – which include your app’s name, icon, and subtitle. To run them, you need to define the app categories where you want the placement to appear, which we’ll get more into later.

Like all the other placements we went over in previous classes, Product pages runs on a CPT or cost per tap pricing model. Meaning you’re only paying when someone actually taps on the ads.

Why run product pages ads?

Well, product pages ads reach users at a different part of their App Store journey. they’re reaching users who are searching for something specific, or are researching new apps. These are high intent users who know what they want.

Plus, since these ads appear in the “You Might Also Like” list, the users engaging with them have to scroll to the bottom of the page – which makes them even higher intent. They’re likely browsing and open for recommendations.

So even though your ads on this placement might be reaching fewer people, we actually tend to see much higher CVR than other placements because of this intent.

How to set up product pages campaigns on your Apple Search Ads account

When you log into your Apple Search Ads account, first tap “create campaign” and you’ll see all 4 of the available placements. Then choose “product pages”.

Once you do, you’ll be asked to select the countries and regions where you want to run your campaign.
Then you’ll need to fill out your billing information, and if you scroll down you get here. This is where you’ll choose the audience you want to run on – either ‘reach all eligible users’ or ‘choose specific audiences’.

As a reminder, if you don’t choose specific targeting settings, Apple will automatically optimize your settings for you – doing the backend work and taking relevant data signals into account. That way you reach a bigger audience – including those users with Personalized Ads turned off.

Here, you’ll also choose the app categories you want to run on. There are 3 options: all, similar, and other.

The ‘All’ categories will show your ad across all app categories. Similar will show your ad on apps like yours. And finally, Other… will show your ad on apps different from yours.

There is room to experiment here and it definitely requires testing and checking the performance before adjusting the settings. What you choose also depends on what your campaign goals are – we’ll get more into this in a minute.

Finally, when you scroll down you can see a preview of what the product page ad will look like.

Tips for optimizing product pages campaigns

Okay, so now that you’ve set up your product pages campaigns, let’s go over how to best optimize them.

Let’s circle back to when you’re choosing what app categories your campaign is running on: All, Similar, or Other. When making a decision, it’s helpful to be concrete about your campaign goals. Ask yourself: Am I trying to engage with my core audience? Do I want to explore a new user base? Am I JUST starting my campaign activity? Or… Am I ready to start optimizing my campaigns?

Once you answer these questions, create different ad groups for each category to compare performance.

Tip 1: Test All for maximum reach

All will show your ad across all app categories. This is a great place to start when you’re in the beginning stages of testing your campaign activity. Using All can be great for brand awareness – since it’ll give you maximum exposure for potential users to see your ad. But like we said before, it’ll depend on your campaign goals and whether you want to use it that way. All can also be beneficial if you’re targeting small markets and getting low traffic in other categories.

If you see good performance on All, you don’t necessarily need to also test on Similar and Other – because by definition, testing on all categories gives you the most reach and opportunity.

Tip 2: Test Similar on a smaller budget

If you have a smaller budget, testing on Similar lowers your risk because you already know your ad is going to a highly relevant audience. Because Similar shows your ad to apps like yours, those users are the most likely to engage.

Tip 3: Find new audiences with Other

Now, testing on Other can expand your app’s reach by showing your ad to apps different from yours. You won’t necessarily know how users will engage, but it’s a great way to push the envelope and begin understanding your ad’s potential with new and different audiences.

Tip 4: Test on Similar and Other to maximize brand awareness

If you have a bigger budget to play with, and don’t need immediate ROI, use product pages to test the potential of a brand awareness campaign by running on both Other and Similar. While you already know that Similar reaches users that are more likely to be interested in your app, testing on Other shows your ad to users that weren’t necessarily looking for you.

Like we’ve mentioned in past episodes, just keep in mind that targeting specific audiences will restrict the reach of your campaigns.

Conclusion

Great! I hope this was helpful for setting up and optimizing your product pages campaigns. Well See you in the next episode!