Traffic Cannibalization in ASO and Apple Search Ads.
In the ever-evolving landscape of mobile app marketing, app store optimization (ASO) and Apple Search Ads (ASA) optimization are two pivotal strategies that often go hand in hand.
ASO involves optimizing app store presence, while ASA targets users actively looking for your type of app. While both aim to increase app visibility and drive user acquisition, they can sometimes counteract each other, leading to a phenomenon known as traffic cannibalization and wasted ad spend on keywords users would have converted on organically in the App Store anyway.
So, how do you avoid shooting yourself in the foot while optimizing your app growth strategy and managing your budgets cost-effectively? In this article, the ConsultMyApp team has pulled together the most important insights into keyword cannibalization and recommendations on how you can avoid cannibalization in your marketing strategy based on our many years of experience in successfully marketing apps both in the UK and worldwide.
Article glossary for ASO cannibalization
What is app store optimization (ASO)?
App store optimization (ASO) is a systematic process aimed at improving an app store ranking within the app stores and driving an increase in organic downloads. ASO covers various techniques, such as keyword optimization, compelling visuals, and user reviews.
What is Apple Search Ads (ASA)?
Apple Search Ads (ASA) is a mobile advertising platform that allows app developers to use paid advertising at the top of App Store search results. ASA directly targets users who are actively searching for similar apps.
What is cannibalization of traffic?
Traffic cannibalization refers to the situation where multiple marketing channels or strategies compete against each other, leading to lower effectiveness from each channel. Even worse, there can be situations where they cancel each other out, nullifying your efforts.
Why cannibalization occurs in Apple Search Ads
As you now know, ASA traffic cannibalization happens when a user downloads an app from an ad instead of the organic result. For instance, a user searches for the app “Angry Birds,” likely finding it as the first organic result. But if they click the Angry Birds ad, that budget cannibalizes the organic discovery. The user could have converted for free, but the paid ad diverted them unnecessarily. While this obviously affects your budget and may cause unnecessary expenditure, cannibalization provides certain benefits and should be considered in your app growth strategy.
Protecting your own brand
Apple’s search ads are used to not only get more users but also gather all important data. In the era of Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency framework, many app developers considered shifting more advertising budget to Apple’s ad platform because of ASA exemption from ATT. Apart from getting insights, app marketers can run ASA for their brand terms. This raises their share of the brand keywords to the maximum possible, helping to maximize the audience and prevent competitors from taking advantage of targeting their brand name.
Protecting generic searches
Protecting generic search terms is recommended when your app already ranks organically for the first position in the app store for a specific keyword. At this point, you can initiate a paid advertisement for that same keyword to monopolize the entire first page of search results.
For instance, let’s say your music teaching app ranks first for the term “learn guitar.” You recognize the high search volume for this term and decide to deploy paid ads to target it. This strategic alignment between ASA and ASO (paid ad placement coupled with your top organic search ranking) maximizes your app’s visibility and prevents competitors from stealing your organic traffic.
At CMA, considering how UA and ASO work in harmony is a core aspect of our acquisition.
How do I manage cannibalization costs in my app growth strategy?
Divide your search terms
Do your homework before you start: categorize your keywords into branded and non-branded terms, and make distinct decisions for each query type across different countries. Brand search terms contain the name of your app. Users entering these are already showing clear intent to download and are more than likely to convert to an install pretty quickly. The more users have downloaded your app, the better the conversion rate from generic terms, the more likely the app will rank high organically and help you to stay ahead of the competition.
Targeting generic search terms requires more thinking and testing, as the user isn’t focused on a specific brand yet.
Estimate competitors’ conversion rates
Since Apple does not disclose organic-only conversion (impression-to-install) rate data from your competition, you may need to explore alternative methods to obtain this information.
The first metric to consider is your standing in organic search results. Within the ASO community, it’s generally agreed that the apps with the highest conversion rates for specific search queries primarily influence top positions in search rankings. Therefore, if your app ranks first organically, it’s reasonable to assume you have the best conversion rate. If several competitors have similar rankings, you can try to reverse engineer their relative performance.
The second metric worth examining is your conversion rate within ASA. For example, in brand defense campaigns, these rates can provide an upper limit to what any competitor might achieve. If you are bidding on competitors’ brand terms, your conversion rates for these terms can serve as a baseline for hypotheses concerning how effectively competitors are converting for your own brand.
Another option is to consult open-source benchmarks, such as those provided by Business of Apps. It’s important to consider not just your app’s primary category but also any relevant sub-categories, as average metrics can vary significantly.
Control your paid/organic ratio
Carefully track the ratio of organic to paid downloads to ensure sustainable growth. Closely monitor brand term performance - if organic installs decrease when you activate brand campaigns, you may be overspending to attract users who would have converted anyway. Analyzing the organic to paid dynamics for brand keywords is key to maximizing efficiency.
Check keyword performance
Apple determines its auction through bids and the percentage of taps the specific keyword receives for assigning its search relevancy. This implies that a competitor could potentially outrank you for your own brand keywords if their ads attract more taps than yours. While the App Store prohibits the inclusion of competitor names in your metadata, there are no rules against bidding on them. Note that you are free to bid on any generic terms you choose. Therefore, vigilant monitoring of keywords where you have high rankings is crucial, especially for popular terms.
Simply bidding on relevant keywords is not enough in today’s digital climate. After you identify the keywords you aim to target, it’s essential to monitor their performance over time. Regularly tracking keyword metrics will enable you to discern which keywords are converting well, which are facing excessive competition, which may be subject to cannibalization, and which require optimization.
Track your competitors’ ads
To succeed in the highly competitive mobile app market, you must closely monitor your competitors. Third-party tools can provide insights into the rivals targeting your keywords and vying for rankings in the App Store. After identifying your top competitors, analyze how aggressively they bid on your branded keywords. You can estimate this by tracking each keyword’s share of voice and search popularity. For example, if your share of voice for a relevant, high-search volume keyword is only 10% to 15%, it likely signals high competition from other apps bidding on that keyword.
Calculate the cost of protection vs. cannibalization
Conduct a test by pausing your Apple Search Ads campaign for at least one week to assess its organic impact. The goal is to pause ads and quantify the volume of downloads without the campaign. This reveals the true incremental value of your ads in driving additional downloads beyond organic discovery.
1. Isolate organic downloads
After exporting the relevant data, subtract the paid traffic (new downloads) from the total number of first-time downloads originating from search queries. This will yield the overall number of organic downloads during the campaign period.
Overall organic downloads = First-time downloads from search traffic source from App Store Connect − New downloads from ASA
2. Calculate cannibalized downloads
To find the number of cannibalized downloads, subtract the overall organic downloads during the ASA campaign from the organic downloads in the period preceding the ASA campaign.
Cannibalized downloads = Overall organic downloads − Organic downloads from the search traffic source from the previous period
3. Determine incremental downloads
To calculate incremental downloads, subtract the cannibalized downloads from the new downloads generated through ASA.
Incremental downloads = Cannibalized downloads − New downloads from ASA
4. Calculate the incremental rate
To find the incremental rate, divide the incremental downloads by the total new downloads from ASA and multiply by 100.
Incremental rate = Incremental downloads ÷ New downloads from ASA × 100
5. Assess cannibalization risk
Utilize the above metrics to gauge the level of cannibalization risk. A lower-than-expected or negative organic uplift could signify cannibalization, meaning that paid promotions attract users who would have otherwise found your app organically, reducing organic installs. Conversely, a high incremental rate indicates a low risk of cannibalization.
How to get more specific with cannibalization
As we mentioned, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to how cannibalization and promotion of your app (via both organic and paid marketing methods) work in relation to your overall business strategy. If you think you might need some more detail on your individual situation, then contact us here at ConsultMyApp with your question, or check out our ASO page.
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