Apple Ads account structure — the two starter campaigns

TL;DR

• Launch two Search Results campaigns per country: Max Conversion (“MaxCon”) for discovery and SKAG (single keyword ad groups) for exact-match control.¹²
• Run them in parallel and let Apple’s algorithm pick which one serves; don’t force it.³
• Name campaigns <type>_<country>_<yyyy-mm> (e.g. maxcon_US_2026-06, SCAG_US_2026-06) to remember launch dates.¹⁴
• Start in the US; in App Masters’ largest account nearly all of the ~$85K/month is US.⁵
• Target new users only, no demographic targeting, both campaigns.⁶

Details

The two campaigns.

	Max Conversion	SKAG
Bidding	target cost-per-acquisition (CPA) goal	Manual max CPT bid per keyword
Keywords	a few top-traffic terms, broad, search match on	1 keyword per ad group, exact, search match off
Purpose	discovery	control + keyword-level data
Setup	How to set up an Apple Ads Max Conversion campaign	Apple Ads single keyword ad groups (SKAG)

Steve has seen better results from MaxCon because he tells it his target CPI (~$3.50), but keeps SKAG running alongside.³ One client also runs App Masters’ private “Basic Plus” campaign (similar to MaxCon, shared only in their paid community) alongside MaxCon.⁷

Reported results with this setup (May 2026, Steve’s accounts):

• Client spending ~$85K/month, ROAS positive.⁵
• Client at ~$12K/month on the same structure.⁵
• Own app: ~$7K/month spend, ~$40K MRR per RevenueCat; another owned app ($6K spend in May) runs SKAG only — inherited from the previous owner — at ~$6 revenue per install.⁵⁸
• A UK client’s MaxCon went ROAS-negative once CPI rose from ~$3 to $3.50; the fix is lowering CPI toward ~$3 or finding the spend level (maybe ~$15K) where it breaks even.⁹

Simplest tracking: if you only run ASO + Apple Ads, compare weekly spend against weekly revenue and adjust spend — that’s all Steve does for his own app (see Measuring Apple Ads revenue without an MMP).¹⁰

Disagreements / caveats

• Results are from App Masters’ own and client accounts (small, self-selected sample).
• Keep SKAG small (5–10 keywords) — more becomes hard to manage.¹¹

See also

• Break-even CPI, revenue per install and LTV per install — how to set the CPA goal and bids
• Why start paid acquisition with Apple Ads

Footnotes

1. Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy @ 08:11 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩²

2. Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy @ 13:25 — Steve P. Young ↩

3. Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy @ 15:42 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩²

4. Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy @ 14:54 — Steve P. Young ↩

5. Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy @ 05:24 — Steve P. Young ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy @ 11:12 — Steve P. Young ↩

7. Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy @ 06:24 — Steve P. Young ↩

8. Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy @ 13:25 — Steve P. Young ↩

9. Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy @ 07:20 — Steve P. Young ↩

10. Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy @ 12:20 — Steve P. Young ↩

11. Copy Our $85,000/Month Apple Ads Strategy @ 18:04 — Steve P. Young ↩