Report: Apple Search Ads are driving installs with high retention rates

A few weeks into Apple debuting search ads in the App Store, mobile analytics firm AppsFlyer has released some early results. The App Store is the primary way consumers discover apps, according to comScore, and developers have jumped at the opportunity to improve visibility for their apps there.

Spend roughly doubled in the initial weeks of the program as developers have seen retention rates outperform other acquisition sources.

Apple search ads ranked fifth among media sources used by apps for driving the highest number of installs.

The study, which ran from October 5–25, analyzed over 50 apps running Apple search ads throughout the study period. The ads generated over 100,000 installs driven by some 40,000 keywords. Just 28 percent of those keywords were exact match brand terms.