Apple Search Ads Campaign Structure for Indie Apps

Keep the first structure boring

The best starter Apple Search Ads structure for an indie app is intentionally simple: Search Results campaigns, one country per campaign, one intent per ad group, exact match keywords, manual bids, and Search Match off.

This structure is not fancy. That is the point. You are not trying to build a giant media-buying machine on day one. You are trying to learn which searches can produce profitable users.

A simple structure makes the first lessons easier to trust.

One country per campaign

Do not blend countries when your budget is small. Search volume, bids, competition, price localization, product-market fit, and subscription conversion can all change by country.

A campaign average across the US, UK, Canada, Brazil, and Germany can hide what is actually happening. One country might spend, another might convert, and another might have cheap taps with no revenue.

Separate campaigns make budget, bid, and localization decisions much cleaner.

One intent per ad group

An ad group should represent one search intent. Running plan, 5k training plan, and marathon training plan can each deserve different screenshots, copy, and paywall framing.

If you mix unrelated intents in one ad group, the average becomes hard to diagnose. Weak TTR might come from one keyword. Weak trials might come from another. Good revenue might come from the only keyword that actually matches your product.

Intent-level structure makes optimization less mysterious.

Start exact, expand later

Exact match gives cleaner answers. Did this keyword create taps, installs, trials, and revenue? If yes, you can scale. If not, you can fix the funnel or pause.

Broad match and discovery can be useful later, but they are noisier at the beginning. They can spend before you know what good looks like.

Once exact keywords prove an intent, you can test nearby terms, custom product pages, and broader discovery with better guardrails.

How AppSprint ASO helps

AppSprint ASO can plan exact campaigns from tracked ASO keywords and keep results readable by country.

AppSprint ASO is built for the app founder workflow around App Store search: research keywords, compare competitors, update metadata, manage Apple Search Ads, and connect revenue so paid search decisions are tied to what actually pays back.