Apple Ads: the ‘stability’ playbook is relevance + control, not automation (summary)

Original article (source): Business of Apps — “Apple Ads strategy for stable growth and higher ROI”

• https://www.businessofapps.com/insights/apple-ads-strategy-for-stable-growth-and-higher-roi/

This post is a summary with attribution + a backlink.

The core idea

Business of Apps recaps a talk by Viktor Orlov with a useful, slightly contrarian thesis:

• Apple Ads doesn’t reward “clever automation”.
• It rewards correctness: account structure, relevance, and conversion.

If you want stability (and better ROI), you don’t start with bid tweaks — you start with control and intent alignment.

The practical takeaways (what to actually change)

1) Structure is the first performance lever

The article argues that bundling lots of keywords into one ad group feels efficient but destroys visibility.

Operational translation:

• move toward single‑keyword ad groups (or very tight clusters)
• treat structure as your reporting layer, not an afterthought

2) Your biggest competitor is the #1 organic result

This reframes the auction: you’re not only fighting other bidders — you’re fighting the best organic alternative for the query.

Operational translation:

• audit the top organic listing for your most expensive queries
• compare their first-frame promise vs yours (CPPs matter here)

3) IPM is the hidden “scaling wall”

They highlight installs-per-mille (IPM) as the relevance proxy that governs impression allocation.

Operational translation:

• if you’re capped on impressions, don’t just raise bids
• treat it as a relevance problem: improve tap rate + conversion rate together

4) Custom Product Pages are positioned as the relevance engine

CPPs are described as the most underused lever, especially now that Apple expanded CPP limits.

Operational translation:

• build CPPs for high-value intents (brand defence, category head terms, competitor “switchers”)
• align screenshot #1 and the first screen of onboarding to the query intent

5) Pricing is an outcome, not a lever

The article’s blunt line: if a keyword isn’t profitable for you, it’s probably profitable for someone else.

Operational translation:

• use profitability thresholds to prune keywords
• invest more effort in improving relevance (CPPs + creative) before scaling spend

Read the original: https://www.businessofapps.com/insights/apple-ads-strategy-for-stable-growth-and-higher-roi/