How One App Team Scaled Apple Search Ads Traffic While Lowering CAC by 18% with FoxData

Industry: Business/ Productivity

Platform: iOS

The Challenge

“How can we scale Apple Search Ads without burning budget on low-converting keywords?”

That was the question facing a mid-sized productivity app team whose campaigns had plateaued. Despite steady investment, spend kept rising while installs remained flat, and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) was creeping upward month after month.

Their goals were clear:

• Scale Apple Search Ads traffic without wasting budget on low-performing keywords.

• Improve subscription conversion from search traffic.

• Understand which keywords truly drove growth across storefronts.

The problem?

Their internal dashboard offered limited visibility. Keyword performance was based on guesses rather than actionable insights — making it impossible to scale with confidence.

The Solution

In the first two months, the growth team overhauled their entire acquisition strategy using FoxData's ASA Analysis.

 1.  Competitive Keyword Research with FoxData ASA Keywords

The team began by benchmarking their category’s top bidding competitors using FoxData's ASA Keywords Tool.

The insights revealed:

• 41,000+ competing apps bidding for similar keywords.

• 10–12% overlap among the top 10 competitors’ keyword portfolios.

• A cluster of high-intent, commercially valuable terms with scalable CPTs.

By mapping these competitive bidding clusters, the team discovered 74 new keyword opportunities with manageable costs — laying the foundation for efficient campaign expansion.

2.  Campaign Restructure Based on Intent

Using FoxData’s ASA Analysis, the team rebuilt their Apple Search Ads structure to reflect user intent, separating campaigns into:

• Brand campaigns to protect existing market share.

• Competitor campaigns to capture high-value switchers.

• Generic (Category) campaigns focused on functional queries like “invoice maker” or “receipt generator.”

This intent-driven setup allowed them to align bids, creatives, and messaging with user motivation at every stage.

As a result, CTR improved by 11% in the first 30 days, increasing both visibility and cost efficiency.

🔍 Learn More: Apple Search Ads Account Structure: The Scalable Blueprint for 2025

3.  Bid Optimization & Automation

Before using FoxData, managing hundreds of keyword bids manually was a daily challenge for the team.

With FoxData’s real-time ASA insights, the team could monitor live keyword performance — including who was bidding, impression share, category ranking, and keyword volume trends.

Example: For the keyword “invoice maker,” they could instantly see which apps were dominating visibility and adjust their bids accordingly.

This visibility helped the team balance spend and reach, preventing overspending and minimizing missed impressions.

Within four weeks, these optimizations drove an 18% reduction in CAC, even as total ASA spend increased by 42% to support campaign scaling.

4.  A/B Testing Creatives with Keyword Insights

The team also ran creative A/B tests aligned with ASO metadata optimization best practices.

By refining ad copy and screenshots around their top-converting search terms, conversion rates from impression to install rose by 9%, and early retention metrics improved — proving the synergy between ASA keyword intent and creative relevance.

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The Results

After implementing FoxData’s ASA Intelligence Suite, the app team saw a measurable lift across their entire user acquisition funnel:

Results at a Glance

+42% increase in overall ASA spend efficiency

–18% reduction in CAC

+11% higher CTR

+14% growth in organic installs

The new structure and automation allowed the team to scale confidently while maintaining CAC targets per market. More importantly, their ASA visibility directly improved ASO performance, amplifying organic rankings for priority keywords.

Lessons Learned

• Keyword transparency drives smarter spend. Knowing what your competitors bid on reveals immediate, data-backed opportunities.

• Intent segmentation matters. Structuring campaigns around user motivation simplifies optimization and scaling.

• Automation = control. Real-time data and automated bidding empower teams to scale sustainably — not reactively.

💡 Takeaway for App Teams

Whether you’re an indie developer, a growing studio, or an established publisher, every team running Apple Search Ads eventually hits the same wall — rising costs, unclear ROI, and no clear link between paid and organic growth.

FoxData helps you break that wall by giving you end-to-end visibility into your ASA funnel.

With FoxData, you can:

✅ Discover untapped, high-intent keywords your competitors are bidding on.

✅ Automate bids with AI-driven recommendations.

✅ Measure how paid campaigns lift organic rankings and installs.

Ready to Scale Your ASA Campaigns Smarter?

Start your free FoxData trial today and discover:

👉 The keywords your competitors are winning on

👉 How to lower CAC while scaling installs

👉 The ASA-to-ASO impact you’ve been missing

➡️ Try FoxData Now – Turn ASA Data into Growth