App Store Connect has gained new telemetry fields that let developers see funnel data from impression through to install at the individual keyword and campaign level for Apple Search Ads, alongside an AI-driven “Maximize Conversions” bidding option. Previously, keyword-level reporting mostly stopped at taps and conversions in aggregate — enough to tell you a campaign was performing, but not enough to tell you which specific keywords were driving quality installs versus which were burning budget on impressions that never converted. With impression-to-install broken out per keyword, teams can finally see the full path rather than inferring it from tap-through rate alone.
The reason this is worth instrumenting properly rather than just reading in the App Store Connect dashboard: keyword performance data is only useful if it’s joined against what happens after the install. A keyword with a strong impression-to-install rate but poor day-1 retention or low paywall conversion is not actually a good keyword — it’s attracting installs that don’t turn into value. Without connecting Apple’s new keyword-level funnel data to in-app behaviour, teams risk optimising bids toward the keywords that look best at the ad-platform level while missing which ones actually bring in the users worth having.
Data Points to Track
- Impressions, taps, and installs per keyword and campaign, pulled from the new App Store Connect telemetry, to compute a true keyword-level conversion rate rather than an account-wide average
- Post-install activation events (first key action completed, onboarding finished) segmented by acquisition keyword, so install volume can be checked against install quality
- Day-1 and day-7 retention by keyword, to catch keywords that convert well on impression-to-install but attract users who churn immediately
- “Maximize Conversions” bidding periods flagged as a changepoint, so any shift in keyword mix or install volume can be attributed to the new AI bidding option rather than mistaken for organic demand change
- Cost per install and cost per activated user, by keyword, since the cheaper metric (install) and the meaningful one (activation) can diverge sharply between keywords
Setup Steps
- Pull the new keyword-level impression-to-install fields from App Store Connect on a regular cadence and store them alongside your existing attribution data rather than only viewing them in the dashboard.
- Tag installs with the originating keyword and campaign in your attribution or MMP layer, so post-install events can be joined back to keyword-level ad data.
- Build a funnel view per keyword covering impression, tap, install, activation, and (where relevant) first purchase, instead of stopping the funnel at install.
- Mark the date you enable “Maximize Conversions” as a changepoint in keyword-performance dashboards, so bidding-driven shifts don’t get misread as organic keyword trends.
- Set a minimum activation-rate threshold per keyword below which spend gets flagged for review, rather than judging keywords on install volume or cost-per-install alone.
Actionable Insights
With impression-to-install data joined to post-install behaviour, keyword-level bidding decisions can shift from “which keywords get the most installs for the least spend” to “which keywords bring in users who actually activate and stick around.” That reallocation typically moves budget away from broad, high-volume keywords with weak downstream quality and toward narrower ones that convert well end-to-end — a decision that was effectively invisible before this level of Apple Search Ads reporting existed. It also gives a concrete way to evaluate the new AI-driven bidding option: if “Maximize Conversions” increases installs but doesn’t move activation rate, it’s optimising for the wrong side of the funnel for your app.
Related Resources
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