Definition
Apple Search Ads is Apple's advertising system for placing an app at the top of App Store search results for chosen keywords, paid per tap. App Store search is a major app-discovery channel - many installs come from users searching a category or a brand - so bidding on relevant terms puts an app in front of high-intent users at the moment they are looking.
Google Play has an equivalent through its app campaign products.
Because the placement is inside the store, attribution is cleaner than for off-store channels: the tap-to-install path is short and measured by Apple's own attribution, though downstream in-app events are still subject to the platform's privacy framework. Bidding on a competitor's brand term is allowed and common, which makes brand-term defence a standard part of running the channel.
In context
For iGaming, App Store search ads are a licensed-market channel and are governed both by the store's own gambling policies (real-money gambling apps are allowed only in approved countries, only for licensed operators, and only via the store's review) and by the local advertising code. Where an operator's app is permitted, search ads are an efficient acquisition route because they capture users already searching for a casino or betting app, and brand-term bidding is important both to capture the operator's own brand searches cheaply and to defend against competitors bidding on them.
The compliance points: the app itself must be approved for the market and carry age gating and responsible-gambling features; keywords must not target minors or use prohibited framing; and creative and metadata must meet the advertising rules. Attribution and optimisation are constrained by the platform privacy framework, so measuring true cost per FTD requires a mobile measurement partner and modelled or aggregated post-install data.
For affiliates, this is mostly an operator-side channel, but an affiliate promoting an operator's app should understand that store search is where a lot of app installs originate, that the app must be officially available in the user's market, and that directing users to "sideload" or install a gambling app outside the official store - a pattern for apps not approved for a market - is unsafe and outside the compliance perimeter.
Worked example
An operator with an approved casino app in two markets runs App Store search ads bidding on its own brand terms (cheap, high intent) and on category terms, defends against a competitor bidding on its brand, and measures cost per FTD via a mobile measurement partner with modelled post-install data. An affiliate promoting the app links only to the official store listing in permitted markets.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Browse more iGaming terms in our glossary.
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