To start, click the plus sign ➕ > Create campaign on any dashboard. The Create Campaign page will appear.

1. Select an app to promote. Start typing the name of your app, and the auto-complete will show the list of your apps. Click the one you would like to promote.

2. Select the necessary ad account.

❗Remember, ad account in SplitMetrics Acquire = campaign group in Apple Ads.

3. Specify ad placement:

4. Select your campaign type: Brand, Competitor, Discovery, Generic, or Custom.

The selected type will appear in the new Campaign Type column in Ads Manager, allowing you to easily organize, filter, and sort your campaigns by type for precise optimization and streamlined analysis.

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5. Set your campaign storefront.

Use the search bar to quickly find and select the storefronts for promotion. 🔗Learn more about managing storefronts

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6. Choose how bids will be set and optimized for your campaign. Select one of the following options: Bid Optimization Strategy, Manual Bid Management, or Apple Ads Bid Management.

Bid Optimization Strategy

With this option, SplitMetrics Acquire optimizes bids based on campaign performance and your selected optimization goal.

- Set an optimization goal. Select the target metric and value you want to achieve.

- Choose a bid strategy intent. Define how you want to optimize campaign performance.

- Select a bid adjustment mode:

- Set the daily budget. 🔗Learn more about Managing Expenses with Daily Budget

Manual Bid Management

Choose this option to set and adjust keyword bids manually. It corresponds to the Manage Bids strategy in Apple Ads and gives you direct control over your bids.

- Set a campaign optimization goal. Select the target metric and value. The goal is saved to the campaign and added to Goals in Optimization Hub, where you can use it across supported bid strategies and automated rules. If you update the goal later, the new value applies to all linked optimizations.

- Set the daily budget.
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Apple Ads Bid Management

​Select this option to let Apple Ads automatically manage bids using its Maximize Conversions strategy, which optimizes campaigns toward a target CPA (Cost per Acquisition). Search Match must be enabled to use this strategy.

- Set the Target CPA. Specify your target average cost per tap-through install. Allow at least two weeks for the auto-bidder to learn before adjusting your target.

- Set the daily budget. Define how much you want to spend on the campaign each day.

To learn more, see Managing Apple Ads Maximize Conversions campaigns in SplitMetrics Acquire.
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Once you've configured your bidding and budget settings, continue to the ad group settings or select Create campaign to finish 🚀

The next step of the campaign creation flow is creating and configuring an ad group:
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If you're ready, you can create your first ad group immediately as part of the campaign setup. Alternatively, you can skip this step and create one later from campaigns/ad groups dashboard using the standard ad group creation flow.
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You can also create an ad group, by clicking the plus sign on any dashboard > Create ad group.

1. Select your app.

2. Select the App and Campaign where the new ad group will be placed.

3. Enter the name of the new ad group. Remember that an ad group is the target group within your campaign. Name it respectively.

4. Enter the default max bid value.

💡 Default max bid is the maximum amount of money you are willing to pay per tap on your ad. It applies to the keywords you add to a certain ad group. If there is no specified bid for a particular keyword in the group, the system will use the default maximum bid.

To calculate the default max bid, define the worth of one average customer. Figure out how much you can afford to spend to acquire this customer. Consider the average conversion rate (the percent of people who download the app from the number of people who tapped on the ad).

5. Define the CPA Cap (if you already know it).

Search match uses multiple resources to automatically match your ad to the relevant searches in the App Store, including the metadata from your App Store listing, information about similar apps of your genre, and other search data.

💡 Tip. Keeping this in mind helps you optimize your metadata and images. Search Ads prioritizes relevance when determining which ad to show; hence, it is crucial to work on the app name, images, description, and keywords to ensure they are highly relevant and appealing to your audience.

Toggle Search match on if this is a Discovery campaign. Read more about the correct structure of your account here to make sure you’re making the most of your campaigns and ad groups.

Select Device, Customer Type, Gender, Age Range, Location, and Ad Scheduling in the Audience section.

1. Select device. You can show your ads to users on any device or specify iPhone or iPad. We recommend having separate groups for devices as the performance will be different for them.

2. Define customer type, gender, and age range of your audience. Mind that different storefronts have a different minimum age allowed to show the ads.

Make sure to link the Apple Ads campaign group to App Store Connect. Without linking to an App Store Connect account, promoting an app with Apple Ads will not be possible and your ad group will display a Sync error status.

3. Choose location. Location is an optional feature that limits your ad impressions to searches on devices located in specified geographic areas. You can use this option if your app serves certain states or cities.

4. Set up ads scheduling (similar to Apple Ads). Specify the start date and time, end time (if necessary), and dayparting if you need a specific schedule for your ads.

5. Click Create Ad Group.

To save your time creating multiple campaigns, you can duplicate campaigns and ad groups.

When creating an ad group in the campaign wizard, select the SKAG tab to automatically create one ad group per keyword. You can add up to 2,000 keywords.

1. Ad group name: customize the naming template using macros, e.g. {campaign_name}_{keyword}. {keyword} is a mandatory, non-removable part of the template.

2. Specify Search Match and Audience settings (device, customer type, gender, age range, location).

3. Set the CPT bid and CPA cap to apply in bulk to all SKAG ad groups. To configure values per keyword, select the Set CPT bid and CPA Cap for each word manually checkbox.

4. In the keywords list, add keywords by typing them separated by commas or on new lines. You can also change the match type, assign labels individually or in bulk, and remove keywords.

5. Toggle on Cross-negate SKAG keywords to maintain the SKAG structure automatically:

6. Specify Ad Scheduling and Dayparting in the Ad Scheduling section.

During campaign creation, you can select a Custom Product Page (CPP) for your ad. The resulting ad is enabled automatically and named {campaign_name}_{cpp_name}.

CPP availability depends on the selected campaign placement:

Click + Change CPP to browse all CPPs available for your app. You can search by name or sort by name or creation date.