Apple announced in July that they would begin to make view-through metrics available for Apple Search Ads advertisers, with the following metrics available at view-through level:
- Installs
- Redownloads
- New downloads
What Are View-Through Installs in Apple Search Ads?
Apple Search Ads View-through installs are defined as installs from users who viewed the ads but didn’t tap on it within a one-day window.
The Benefits of a 24-Hour Attribution Window in Apple Search Ads
Firstly, respect to Apple for choosing the relatively short one-day attribution window. It is something of a stretch to assume that a user who searched for a term and was exposed to an Apple search ad taking up most of their phone screen has been influenced by it whatsoever, but it’s just about buyable when using a 24 hour lookback period.
Will We Use View-Through Metrics for Search Results Campaigns?
How much are we likely to use this for the Search Results campaigns that make up the majority of our agency’s Apple Search Ads spend? The answer is fleetingly. As with this metric within Google Ads, it’s a useful side note to measure upper funnel activity, but ultimately isn’t going to play a role in any major budget decisions. To boot, we aren’t able to segment by tap-through and view-through conversions within major MMPs, and Apple doesn’t appear as a view-through integration partner within our preferred MMP, Appsflyer. Until this is the case, we aren’t going to be able to measure view-through actions or revenue, and this metric is likely to remain fairly secondary. If you’re curious about how privacy changes are impacting audience targeting across other platforms like Google, check out our blog on Google Phasing Out Similar Audiences.
Why Apple Released View-Through Metrics: Boosting Confidence in Upper-Funnel Campaigns
Undoubtedly the main reason Apple have released this metric is to boost confidence in their Today Tab, Search Tab and Product Page campaigns, which have all been relatively slow to get off the ground. These campaign types don’t require a user to perform a Search as audience targeting done completely within the back-end, with the exception of the standard audience targeting options (primarily demographic) which are already available within Search Results campaigns. Although this was always likely to be Apple’s preferred approach given their privacy-centric mentality, this places them acres behind Meta’s highly personalised audience targeting methods, and has resulted in lower levels of confidence from marketers in placing their trust (and budget) into these newer campaign types.
Looking Ahead for Apple Search Ads
Apple will be hopeful that this new layer of visibility of view through data will kick-start their upper-funnel placements, as there is plenty more inventory on the App Store (and across the Apple ecosystem) to go around once this proof of concept is successful. Only time will tell if view-through metrics instil the level of confidence required from the industry.
For help getting the most out of your Apple search ads campaigns. Get in contact with our team. We’re Apple search ads experts, and have years of experience helping clients like you achieve their goals with the platform.