Apple Search Ads Made Easy! - Introducing Duplicate Keywords Feature

Veterans of Apple Search Ads will know that the first few steps to get started may seem daunting. However, those steps are actually the easiest part. When you want to take your Apple Search Ads efforts to the next level, which is scaling the campaigns, you will have to deal with thousands of keywords, many ad groups, and different campaigns. And at some point, like all human beings, you will have issues in keeping track of the keywords you have added before.

Say you’re about to add a keyword to a campaign and you’ve been running ads on 10k+ keywords. Can you recall whether you have tested that keyword before? Are you sure you haven’t added it into the same campaign with a different match type or bid? Maybe you added it to the same campaign as a negative keyword ages ago. Who knows?

Of course, like many experienced Apple Search Ads Managers, you probably have built your own Apple Search Ads database and have all the information about the updated situation of your keywords, ad groups, and campaigns. Keeping a record of the keywords is especially crucial, but doing it manually is also a great hassle! How much time do you think UA Managers spend each week (or day) to update that database? Hours? Well… that amount of time can definitely be better utilized in strategizing, don’t you think so? :)

Do these situations sound familiar?

1. You’re adding new keywords but getting no impression.
2. After delving into the spreadsheets (your database), you realize that in some campaigns, you’re competing with your own bid for the same keyword.
3. You try to test a keyword again although you’re negating it in another campaign (or vice versa).

If you said yes to any of the above, let me say this to make you feel slightly better: You’re not alone! Although many UA Managers put a great effort into tracking the keywords with detailed spreadsheets, they are still bound to face those situations. But do you really have to waste your time on such hard-core labor work like tracking your keywords and updating your keyword database? What if there was an alert mechanism that immediately notifies you about the duplicated keywords while you are adding them - and even better: presents you the options to fix these situations?

SearchAds.com’s Duplicate Keywords feature provides you with that alert mechanism.

When the keyword you’re about to add already exists in the ad group or campaign, Duplicate Keywords feature notifies you immediately on the dashboard and offers you some immediate solutions as “actions”. So, you won’t need to double-check every single keyword before adding them to a campaign anymore!

Suppose that you have a shopping app and would like to add a keyword to an ad group of a campaign. If you have the same keyword added as an exact or broad match or have the same negative keyword in the same campaign, you’re most likely to experience one or more of the above issues.

Let’s dive into the different cases and see what happens normally and how SearchAds.com’s Duplicate Keywords prevents the possible bad outcomes for you.

Case-1: Adding a keyword as an exact match to an ad group

Let’s say you would like to add the keyword “wish” to an ad group of a campaign. We’ll examine two occurrences that you might possibly encounter in a situation like this:

When the same keyword exists as a negative keyword

Suppose that a couple of months ago, you (or your colleague in your team) actually tested “wish” and realized that your ROAS is very low for that keyword, and users who come from this keyword immediately delete your app. A natural response to such an outcome would be adding this keyword as a negative one with Exact Match to prevent any waste of ad budget.

Now, let’s say that without knowing the above situation, you are about to add this same keyword to the same add group while it already exists as an Exact Match negative keyword. Normally, in this case, Apple Search Ads lets you add “wish” to that ad group. However, you won’t be getting any impressions as it will be negated by the negative version that was added before. When you try to take this action in SearchAds.com, this is what you’ll see:

SearchAds.com tells you what is going to happen as a warning if you go ahead and add the keyword. In a situation like this, you’ll have 3 options:

1. Ignore: Add the keyword anyway by clicking on “Save” (but you’re warned).
2. Drop a new keyword from the list: You’ll be prompted to add a different keyword through the “Actions” for that keyword.
3. Remove negative keyword: SearchAds.com will remove the previously added negative keyword when you click on the action button for the negative keyword.

With Duplicate Keywords, you can decide your course of action on the spot and easily speed up the campaign management process. Now, let’s take a look at another situation which most of us encounter very often.

When the same keyword exists with a different bid

Let’s suppose that the “wish” keyword has already been added as a broad match but with a different bid. And of course, you’re unaware of this situation. Again, in Apple Search Ads, your keyword will be added automatically. But, as it exists with a different bid, you’ll get in an unnecessary bid war with yourself. In SearchAds.com, you’ll see the following warning and suggestions:

Again, you’ll have the option to ignore the warning or choose a new keyword to solve this issue. Another suggested action is pausing the old keyword as you’ll be re-adding it with a different bid now.

How about if you want to add a negative keyword? Will there be conflicting situations such as the ones above? Most definitely! Let’s examine one example.

Case - 2: Adding a negative keyword as an exact match to an ad group

We always negate the keywords we don’t want to waste our money on. Yet, oftentimes we forget that it exists with different match types in the same ad group we’re about to add it to.

Now, suppose that you’re totally unsatisfied with the keyword “wish” and will negate it in an ad group. Here is an example of a situation you may face:

When the same keyword exists as a negative Broad Match

When dealing with too many keywords and doing experiments continuously, one may easily forget that he/she already added it as a negative keyword.

If your campaign already has “wish” as a negative Broad Match keyword, you will still be able to add the same keyword as a negative Exact Match to the same campaign in Apple Search Ads. It doesn’t really hurt to add it unlike the cases above, but this would be a futile effort as your Broad Match negative keyword already covers the Exact Match search terms as well. When you try to do this in SearchAds.com, you will be warned that this action will not change the scope.

As in other cases, you will have 3 options. This time, you can also change the scope of the previous keyword from broad to exact as an alternative.

In none of these cases, you have to go back to your campaign/ad group and check whether the same keyword has already been added with a different bid or match type. SearchAds.com will do a quick check for you as you’re adding the keyword and warn you about the possible outcome before you complete the action.

Here is a quick summary of the perks of Duplicate Keywords:

• You won’t need to check your ad groups or campaigns before you add a keyword each time.
• SearchAds.com will warn you about the possible outcome when you’re adding a keyword.
• Suggested actions will enable you to quickly change the match type or the bid of the previous keywords.
• Overall, you’ll be preventing any waste in your ad budget and saving tons of time every day.

Please note that the above cases are just a few examples of many possible scenarios. As the number of keywords that you deal with increases, you’re more likely to face these types of issues. Duplicate Keywords feature of SearchAds.com has been created with all the possible scenarios in mind to make your day-to-day Apple Search Ads efforts easier and more efficient.

Hope you’ll like this feature as much as we do! Let us know your comments through the chat below.

Can’t wait to save time and maximize your ROAS in Apple Search Ads? Sign up for SearchAds.com for free and get started to optimize your campaigns with many more features! If you need any help in campaign creation or the features of SearchAds.com, schedule a demo with us! We would be happy to guide you through the product and answer your questions about Apple Search Ads!