Concepts
Apple Ads vocabulary
The metrics, entities, and enums that differ from Google Ads — and the features Apple Search Ads simply doesn't have.
Apple Search Ads uses its own vocabulary. If you're coming from Google Ads, these differences are the source of most confusion — and a few silent bugs.
Metrics
| Term | Meaning | Google analogue |
|---|---|---|
| Taps | Engagements with an ad | Clicks |
| Installs | App installs (totalInstalls, with tap-through / view-through splits) | Conversions |
| TTR | Tap-through rate | CTR |
| CPT | Cost per tap — the bid unit | CPC |
| CPA | Cost per install — derived by the app | CPA |
| CR | Install rate — derived by the app | Conversion rate |
| Spend | localSpend, stored as micros | Cost |
Apple returns no average-CPA or conversion-rate field — the app derives CPA and CR from spend and installs. All warehouse money is in micros: 1,000,000 micros = 1 unit of the account currency. Values are parsed exactly, never floated.
Entities and status
- A storefront is a country. International growth means adding storefronts, not audiences.
- Keyword match types are EXACT | BROAD only — there is no PHRASE.
- Status enums split by entity. Campaigns, ad groups, and ads are ENABLED | PAUSED.
Keywords are ACTIVE | PAUSED — the one exception, and an easy silent bug: a query filtering
keywords on
ENABLEDreturns zero rows with no error. - New campaigns and ad groups default to PAUSED.
- Targeting is set-membership on the ad group (device, gender, age, daypart, geo). There are no bid modifiers — to bid differently on a segment, split it into its own ad group or campaign.
cpaGoalis an ad-group field;targetCpais a campaign field.
What Apple Search Ads does not have
Modeling the account honestly means not inventing Google concepts. Apple Search Ads has no:
- ROAS or revenue signal
- Quality score or ad strength
- Responsive text ads / ad copy
- Audiences or experiments
- Bid modifiers
- Impression share (out of scope)
- Change-history API or webhooks (see How sync works)