Should I always enable Search Match?

No. Enable Search Match on dedicated Discovery campaigns to find new keyword opportunities; disable it on Brand, Category, and Competitor campaigns where you want exact control over which queries you bid on. Search Match has no per-keyword bid override, so it can produce expensive irrelevant taps on tightly-managed campaigns.

How is Search Match different from Broad match?

Search Match uses Apple algorithm to match your ad to any relevant search based on app metadata and historical performance. Broad match operates on keywords you explicitly add and matches close variants (plurals, synonyms, typos). Broad match gives you visibility into which keyword parent produced each tap; Search Match does not.

How do I find which queries Search Match matched on?

Use the Search Term Report and filter for Search Match as the source. From there, promote high-converting search terms to Exact match in a dedicated ad group with their own bid, and add zero-conversion terms as negatives.

What is Search Match in Apple Search Ads?

What is Search Match?

Search Match is an automatic keyword targeting feature in Apple Search Ads. When enabled on an ad group, Apple’s matching algorithm exposes your ad to App Store searches it deems relevant based on:

Your app’s metadata (name, subtitle, keywords field, description)
The categories your app is listed in
Historical performance of similar apps
The user’s search query and context

You do not explicitly add the keywords Search Match acts on. There is also no per-keyword bid — Search Match uses the ad group’s default bid for every match it produces.

How Search Match differs from explicit keyword targeting

Aspect	Search Match	Explicit Keywords
Setup	Toggle on / off at ad-group level	Add each keyword + bid
Bid control	Single ad-group default bid	Per-keyword bid
Match scope	Apple’s algorithm decides	Exact, Broad, or Negative
Visibility	Search Term Report only	Keyword Report + Search Term
Risk	High — can match weak relevance	Lower — you set the scope
Use case	Discovery / exploration	Production / optimization

When to use Search Match

Search Match shines in two specific situations:

1. Keyword discovery on new apps or markets

When you launch a new app, you don’t yet know which keywords will convert. Setting up a dedicated Discovery campaign with Search Match enabled lets Apple’s algorithm find candidates faster than manual keyword research. After 2-4 weeks you mine the Search Term Report and promote winners to dedicated Exact match ad groups.

2. Long-tail capture

Even mature accounts miss long-tail keywords — typos, regional slang, new category trends. A low-budget Search Match ad group running 24/7 catches these without bloating your active keyword list.

When to disable Search Match

Always disable Search Match on:

Brand campaigns (your own app name) — you already capture all brand intent
Competitor campaigns — you want exact control over which competitor names you bid on
Category campaigns with mature keyword lists — Search Match can poach high-intent traffic at higher CPTs than your structured ad groups

A common failure mode: leaving Search Match on a Brand campaign causes Apple to match your ad against generic queries unrelated to your brand, often at high CPT and low conversion. We have seen this account for 40-60% of “unexplained” spend in poorly-structured accounts.

How ASAPilot helps manage Search Match

ASAPilot’s Account Health Audit specifically checks:

Which campaigns have Search Match enabled
Whether the Search Term Report shows expanding waste from Search Match sources
Whether high-converting Search Match terms have been promoted to dedicated Exact ad groups
Whether negative keywords have been added for known Search Match leaks

See the keyword research playbook for a full workflow on moving discovered terms into production ad groups.

Apple Search Ads — the platform
CPI — the install cost metric Search Match impacts directly
SKAdNetwork — the attribution layer