Does it cost money to open an Apple Search Ads account?
No — creating an Apple Search Ads account is free, and you only pay under a cost-per-tap model when someone actually taps your ad, not for impressions or for having the account itself.
This is a different question from ASOGrade's own pricing, which has no free tier — Apple Search Ads (the ad platform itself) and ASOGrade (a third-party keyword research tool) are separate products with separate cost structures.
Apple's Advanced tier, the full self-serve platform with manual bidding and all four campaign types, has no account-opening fee and no fixed minimum spend to get started, though your actual spend scales with however much bidding activity you choose to run.
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More quick answers
- Does keyword order matter in the App Store keyword field?No. Apple's search algorithm treats the 100-character keyword field as an unordered set of terms separated by commas, not a ranked or read left-to-right list.Read the answer
- How many keywords should I target in one App Store update?Most apps fit 10-20 distinct keyword terms across title, subtitle, and the 100-character keyword field once you account for character limits — there's no fixed 'right number' beyond what those three fields can physically hold.Read the answer
- Does changing my App Store keywords reset my ranking?No. There's no ranking 'reset' penalty for updating keywords — your app simply stops ranking for terms it no longer targets and becomes eligible to rank for the new ones once Apple re-indexes the update.Read the answer
- Can I use a competitor's app name as a keyword?Apple generally allows a competitor's name in your keyword field (not your title or subtitle), though Apple can and does reject specific cases, and it carries real trademark risk you should weigh before doing it.Read the answer
- Should I include both plural and singular versions of the same keyword?Usually no — Apple's search matches singular and plural forms of common English words to each other, so including both in a 100-character field just wastes characters you could spend on a different term.Read the answer
- Does running Apple Search Ads improve my organic App Store ranking?Indirectly, yes — a 2026 academic study found paid installs produce a real positive spillover to organic installs, estimated around 2.2 organic installs per $100 of ad spend, operating through a ranking mechanism rather than direct favoritism.Read the answer
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