Discovery Campaign
A Discovery campaign is an Apple Search Ads campaign type built to surface new, unknown keywords by running Broad Match and Search Match against a wide audience rather than a fixed keyword list.
Apple recommends four campaign types for a mature Search Ads account: Brand, Category, Competitor, and Discovery. The first three run on Exact Match against terms you already know you want. Discovery runs on Broad Match and Search Match specifically to find terms you don't.
Because Discovery campaigns aren't trying to defend a known position, they tolerate a lower, exploratory budget. The output that matters is the search terms report, not the install volume — every new query that shows up and converts is a candidate for your organic keyword field and for its own Exact Match campaign.
This makes a Discovery campaign useful even for research-first teams that mainly care about organic ASO. Running one for a few weeks before a metadata update gives you real user search phrasing to score, rather than guessing at phrasing yourself.
Frequently asked questions
- How long should a Discovery campaign run before I check results?
- One to two weeks is typically enough to accumulate a meaningful search terms report for most categories. Higher-volume categories can produce a usable list faster; niche categories may need longer.
- What do I do with the keywords a Discovery campaign finds?
- Score each one for popularity and difficulty like any other candidate, then decide whether it earns a spot in your organic keyword field, its own Exact Match campaign, or both.
Related terms
- Search MatchSearch Match is an Apple Search Ads feature that automatically matches your ad to relevant user searches based on your app's existing metadata, without you entering any keywords.
- Keyword Match Types (Exact vs. Broad)Exact Match and Broad Match are the two ways Apple Search Ads ties a keyword you enter to the searches your ad actually appears for — Exact targets close variations of the term, Broad expands to related phrases and synonyms.
- Category Campaign (Apple Search Ads)A Category campaign is an Apple Search Ads campaign that bids Exact Match on the non-branded genre terms describing what your app does, aimed at users actively searching for that type of app.
Browse the glossary
Put this into practice
Score App Store keywords by popularity and difficulty across 109 storefronts — the numbers behind discovery campaign.
Start keyword research