Short answer: Since March 2026 Apple Ads has shown ads further down App Store search results, not only in the slot at the top. Almost 65% of App Store downloads happen directly after a search, so more paid listings on the results page mean more competition for the installs your organic rankings used to win. To protect organic growth, rank higher for your money keywords, defend your brand terms, match Custom Product Pages to your Apple Ads keyword groups, and separate paid from organic downloads in App Store Connect before you judge the impact. Admiral Media manages Apple Ads and ASO together for this reason: brand terms need defending on both sides of the results page.
Table of Contents
What changed in App Store search results
On December 17, 2025, Apple Ads announced that it would begin “running additional ads in search results” early in 2026, and that “the new ads will appear further down in search results.” Apple’s help page for the placement said in February 2026 that the new ads would roll out in phases from March 2026 and appear in all markets by the end of March.
Apple’s help page for the placement now says your ad “can appear either at the top of their search results or further down the page.” Four details matter for planning:
- You can’t pick the slot. Apple states that your ad “may be shown in any of the available ad positions, and you can’t select or bid for a particular ad position.”
- Relevance still gates the auction. If your app isn’t relevant to the search, Apple says it “won’t be displayed,” whatever you bid.
- Bidding and creative come from the same setup. Search results campaigns are billed per tap, with a target cost-per-acquisition option, and the ad is built from your default product page or from a custom product page.
- Reporting now splits by position. Apple Ads reports Impression Share (First Ad Position) next to Impression Share (All Ad Positions).
What Apple’s help pages do not state: how many ads a single search can show, or exactly where the lower ads sit. Treat any fixed slot count you hear as unconfirmed, and check your own search terms.
Why it matters for organic installs
Apple says almost 65% of downloads happen directly after a search, based on worldwide App Store data from 2022. Search is where most installs start, and it is the channel ASO is built to win. More ads on the same page have three effects:
- Fewer organic results above the fold. Every paid listing added to the results takes screen space that an organic result used to hold. An app ranking third or fourth organically can now sit lower on the screen than it did in 2025, even if its rank has not moved.
- More competition for page one. When the top slot was the only paid option, a rival that lost the auction stayed out of sight. With more positions, more advertisers can appear on the same query. Apple’s own recommended account structure includes a competitor campaign for “keywords for apps that are similar to yours,” so expect rivals on your brand and category searches.
- Organic losses hide inside paid wins. The App Store search source in App Store Connect includes downloads from search ads. If ads take installs your organic listing used to win, total search downloads can look flat while organic falls.
Brand-keyword defense checklist for Apple Ads and ASO
Admiral Media’s brand-keyword defense method treats App Store search as one shelf with two ways in: watch who appears on your brand searches every week, defend the ad slots with an exact-match Apple Ads brand campaign, defend the organic result with your app name and metadata, and measure organic downloads separately before changing brand spend.
Watch your brand searches
- Search your own name. Each week, search your brand and common misspellings in your top countries and note every app above your listing.
- Read Rank on brand terms. In the predefined Impression Share report, Rank 1 means your ads hold the most impression share on your own name. Anything lower means a rival holds more.
Defend in Apple Ads
- Run a brand campaign. Keep brand terms in their own campaign on exact match with Search Match off, as Apple recommends.
- Exclude brand from discovery. Add brand terms to your discovery campaign as exact match negative keywords.
- Mine search terms. Check the Search Terms tab for brand misspellings and variants, and add converting ones to the brand campaign on exact match.
Defend in ASO
- Keep the brand in your app name. Apple says your app is searchable by app name and company name, so don’t repeat them in the keyword field.
- Report copycats. Apple’s App Review Guidelines bar packing metadata with trademarked terms or popular app names, and Apple takes intellectual property claims by web form.
- Win the side-by-side. Apple can show your rating and up to three screenshots or previews in search results; make them beat the ads on your brand search.
Measure brand spend
- Split paid from organic. App Store search downloads in App Store Connect include Apple Ads, so subtract Apple Ads installs first (action 4 below).
- Test before you cut. Run a holdout by country or time window before pausing brand bids, and compare total installs (action 2 below).
Reviewed by Kevin Dosanjh, Admiral Media, 9 Nov 2026
Six actions for app teams in 2026
1. Rank higher for your money keywords
The organic top three matter more when ads can appear further down the page. Start with the keywords that drive trial starts, subscribers or payers, not just downloads. Apple says search results depend on text relevance and user behavior: matches in your title, subtitle, keywords and primary category, plus downloads, ratings and reviews.
Most apps still leave text relevance on the table. In our State of App Store Listings 2026 study of 1,000 top US App Store apps (data collected 29 Sep 2026), 41.8% use fewer than 22 of their 30 title characters, 10.5% have no subtitle, and 24.3% repeat words between title and subtitle. Repeated words waste characters that could cover another search term. Run your listing through our ASO Checker to see where yours stands.
2. Defend your brand terms
Brand searches carry the highest intent you will get, and more ad positions make them easier for others to reach. Run a dedicated brand campaign on exact match with Search Match off, the setup Apple recommends for brand keywords. Then track Impression Share (First Ad Position) on your brand terms every week. If it drops, a rival is taking the top slot on your own name. If All Ad Positions stays high while First Ad Position falls, you are being pushed into lower slots.
Before you pause brand spend to save budget, test it with a clean holdout by country or time window. Paid and organic overlap heavily on brand searches, and only a holdout shows how many installs the ad actually adds.
3. Align Custom Product Pages with Apple Ads keyword groups
You can publish up to 70 custom product pages per app. In search results campaigns, each ad group can have one active custom ad, so the clean structure is one ad group per keyword theme and one page per theme.
Since October 2025 you can also assign keywords to a custom product page so it appears in organic search results for those terms instead of your default page. Apple only lets you assign keywords from your latest approved app version, and each keyword combination should be unique to a single page. The result: one page can serve both the paid ad and the organic listing for the same intent. Someone searching “sleep sounds” sees sleep screenshots whether they tap the ad or the organic result.
The paid half of this approach has a track record. For ImmoScout24 we matched custom product pages to Apple Ads search terms: −43% cost per acquisition with a custom product page against the default page, same Apple Ads ad groups, 4 weeks (August 2022). To run this across many apps and markets, our guide to keyword-linked custom product pages across markets covers the theme map, page budgets per market tier, naming and how to keep pages aligned with Apple Ads ad groups.
4. Separate paid from organic in the App Store search source
Apple counts Apple Ads activity inside the App Store search source. Its definition reads: “Includes views and downloads from ads that appear in App Store search results.” Apple’s search guidance repeats the point: “Keep in mind that your Apple Ads performance shows up here as well.”
To estimate organic search downloads, take first-time downloads from the App Store search source and subtract Apple Ads tap-through installs for the same dates and countries. Treat the result as an estimate rather than an exact count, and read the trend over weeks rather than single days.
5. Measure impression share by position
Apple Ads defines Impression Share (All Ad Positions) as “the number of times your ad was shown in any ad position for a specific search term, out of the total number of searches on that search term.” Impression Share (First Ad Position) does the same for the top slot, and Rank compares you with other apps from 1 to 5, or above 5. Values show as an exact percentage up to 90%, then as 91 to 100%.
These metrics live in predefined Impression Share reports and on the Recommendations page, and predefined reports only show the last 12 weeks. Export them weekly to build your own history. Read the two shares together: if All Ad Positions rises while First Ad Position falls, more of your impressions come from lower slots, so check conversion rate and CPA before you raise bids.
6. Make your first screenshots work as ads
Apple notes that your rating and up to three screenshots or app previews may display in search results, depending on platform and orientation. Those same assets make up your organic listing and your default ad, and they now sit next to more paid listings. Put the core promise in the first three frames, tailor them per custom product page, and refresh them when a keyword theme’s conversion rate drops.
Apple Ads also announced on June 8, 2026 that advertisers will be able to design and upload their own creative assets for Today tab and search results ads. On the organic side, creative assets went live on October 5, 2026 in product page headers and search results on iOS 27 and iPadOS 27. For ads, Apple’s help page says, as of 4 Nov 2026, that you can upload them in App Store Connect now and use them in Today tab and search results ads at a later date. Plan one creative workflow that can feed paid and organic from the same source.
How to measure the impact honestly
More ad slots will move your numbers. The hard part is proving by how much. Four rules keep the analysis honest:
- Set a clean baseline. Use the 8 to 12 weeks before the new slots reached your markets, and compare the same number of weeks after. Log every metadata release, custom product page launch, featuring and bid change on the same timeline, so you do not blame the ad change for your own moves.
- Split paid from organic every week. Report estimated organic search downloads as their own line, next to Apple Ads installs and total App Store search downloads.
- Keep view-through separate. Apple Ads can add view-through metrics that show the potential impact of your ads on organic downloads within 24 hours of an ad impression. Track them as an overlap signal. Do not subtract them from organic.
- Control for seasonality. Compare the same weeks year over year as well as before and after. Subscription apps often swing around New Year, and games around live events and holidays. A dip that also shows up in last year’s data is seasonality, not the new ads.
| Metric to track weekly | Where to find it | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Estimated organic search downloads | App Store Connect (App Store search source) minus Apple Ads installs | Whether organic search is shrinking |
| Search conversion rate | App Store Connect, filtered to App Store search (includes ads) | Whether your listing still wins the tap |
| Impression Share (First Ad Position), brand terms | Apple Ads predefined Impression Share report | Whether rivals take the top slot on your name |
| Impression Share (All Ad Positions), money keywords | Apple Ads predefined Impression Share report | How much of the paid inventory you hold |
| Organic rank for your top 20 money keywords | Your keyword rank tracking | Whether ASO work offsets the lost screen space |
If you run both ASO and Apple Ads, treat App Store search as one shelf with two ways in. Our App Store Optimization agency team and our Apple Ads agency team plan them together: one keyword map, one set of custom product pages, one measurement view.
Frequently asked questions
Does Apple Ads now show more than one ad in App Store search results?
Yes. On December 17, 2025, Apple Ads announced it would begin running additional ads in search results early in 2026, and that the new ads would appear further down in search results. Apple’s help page now says a search results ad can appear at the top of the results or further down the page, and that you can’t select or bid for a particular position. Source: Apple Ads.
Will more search ads reduce my organic App Store downloads?
They can. Paid listings take screen space on the results page, and more advertisers can now appear on the same query, including on your brand and category terms. Whether your organic downloads actually fall depends on your keywords and competitors, so measure it: compare organic search downloads against a baseline from before the change, split paid from organic, and control for seasonality.
Are Apple Ads downloads counted in the App Store search source in App Store Connect?
Yes. Apple defines the App Store search source as users who viewed or downloaded your app from search, and adds that it “includes views and downloads from ads that appear in App Store search results.” To estimate organic search downloads, subtract Apple Ads installs for the same dates and countries from App Store search first-time downloads. Source: Apple.
Can Custom Product Pages appear in organic App Store search results?
Yes. Since October 2025 you can assign keywords to a custom product page, and it can then appear in search results for those keywords instead of your default page. Keywords must come from your latest approved app version, each keyword combination should be unique to one page, and the page is searchable only once approved and visible. Our Custom Product Pages guide covers setup. Source: Apple.
How do I measure impression share for the new Apple Ads positions?
Use the predefined Impression Share reports in Apple Ads or the Recommendations page. Apple reports Impression Share (First Ad Position) for the top slot and Impression Share (All Ad Positions) for any slot, plus Rank against other apps. Values show as an exact percentage up to 90%, then as 91 to 100%, and predefined reports only cover the last 12 weeks, so export them weekly. Source: Apple Ads.
How do I protect my app’s brand keywords in the App Store?
Defend both halves of the results page. In Apple Ads, run an exact-match brand campaign and exclude brand terms from discovery. In ASO, keep the brand in your app name and report copycats to Apple. Check Impression Share and Rank weekly. Admiral Media runs this as one 10-point checklist. Source: Apple Ads.
Can other apps bid on my brand name in Apple Ads?
Yes. Apple’s keyword guidance suggests adding other popular brand names that offer similar services, and its recommended structure includes a competitor campaign. Apple’s advertising policies still bar ad content that violates anyone’s intellectual property rights. Source: Apple Ads.
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