Search tab ads Benchmarks 2021

In May 2021 the App Store was enriched with a great addition – Search tab campaigns. This is a new ad placement on the Search tab that enables mobile developers and marketers to reach out to their target users before they even start to search. On the other hand, ads on the Search tab also help users to quickly discover new apps or games. 

We at SearchAdsHQ seamlessly integrated Search tab ads into our platform, and have supported it since day one. To help the mobile app industry players get insights into the new ad placement’s performance and costs, we analyzed how Search tab ads have performed since its introduction in May 2021 across various categories and markets, and introduced the data in an insightful benchmarks report. 

Search tab ads Benchmarks Report 2021 provides:

• Average Tap-through Rate (TTR): overall, by categories, by countries and regions;
• Average Conversion Rate (CR): overall, by categories, by countries and regions;
• Average Cost per Tap (CPT): overall, by categories, by countries and regions;
• Average Cost per Acquisition (CPA): overall, by categories, by countries and regions;
• Average Cost per Mille (CPM): overall, by categories, by countries and regions;
• Cost trends: CPT, CPA & CPM overall trends, trends for top App Store categories and most popular Apple Search Ads countries and regions;
• Month-over-month (M/M) change in CPM, CPT and CPA from May 2021 until August 2021.

The report is based on the aggregate data from apps that optimize Search tab campaigns using SearchAdsHQ, but we left out those clients whose policy states that their user data shall not be used in our reports.

The period under review: May – August 2021.

• 160M impressions 
• 1M taps
• 316K downloads
• 11 categories
• 60 markets

Methodology

The report draws on internal data and industry insights to help mobile developers and marketers better understand current trends in their niche.

Here you’ll find the average TTR and CR, as well as CPT, CPA and CPM for Search tab ads by categories and markets for 2021.

Insights on Search tab ads

1. Lifestyle, Health & Fitness, Utilities, Productivity, Games and Business categories saw the highest TTRs in May-August 2021.

2. Lifestyle apps in Search tab ads reached a CR of 52.75%, which is higher than the average in Apple Search Ads.

3. The average CPM in Search tab ads amounted to $7.73.

4. Of all markets, Spain got the highest CR of 52.07%.

5. The United States, Great Britain and Japan had the highest CPTs and CPAs.

To find more insights, discover new opportunities and attract users to your app, download Search tab ads Benchmarks Report 2021. Inside you will also find the comments of industry leaders: Thomas Petit, Johannes von Cramon, Co-Founder of Growfirst and Thomas Kriebernegg, CEO at App Radar.