# Apple Search Ads cost for an indie app: how to set a ceiling

Sam · Published November 4, 2026 · Canonical: https://rankaso.app/blog/apple-search-ads-cost/


Apple Search Ads costs whatever the auction for your terms costs, which varies by term, country and month, so the number to know before you start is not the price of a tap but the most you can pay for an install and still come out ahead. That ceiling comes from your own numbers: what a download earns you, on average, over the time you are willing to wait. Set it per country, bid under it, and the campaign cannot lose money by design. Here is the arithmetic with illustrative numbers, and how a daily rank tracker tells you whether the ads are also moving the organic ranks.

![The Today screen in RankASO with the visibility score and goals](https://rankaso.app/assets/device-05.png)

## The one number: proceeds per download

Take a recent month in App Store Connect. Divide proceeds by downloads for the same country. That is what an average download earned you after the store's share, including the people who never paid. For a subscription app it rises over time as renewals land, so pick the horizon you can wait for: the first month is cautious, three months is realistic for a subscription with decent retention.

Illustration: an app with 1,000 downloads and 5,000 in proceeds over three months in one country earns 5 per download. A cost per install under 5 is a profit over that horizon; under 3 leaves room for the downloads the ad does not get credit for.

## Set the ceiling per country

Proceeds per download differ by country more than most developers expect, because prices, conversion and renewal rates differ. A country with a lower price tier and the same costs needs a lower ceiling. Run the division per country and give each campaign its own cap. For our own app [Escape](https://escapethegrip.com/), that split is why the Canadian and British campaigns have different ceilings from the US one, and why some countries are not advertised at all.

## From ceiling to bid

Cost per install is cost per tap divided by the tap-to-install rate. If your page converts a quarter of taps, a ceiling of 3 per install means a maximum of 0.75 per tap. Start bids below that and let the first two weeks of data correct you. A term whose taps cost more than that is a term you cannot afford at your current conversion, however relevant.

## The two levers that lower the cost

Conversion and relevance. Conversion is the product page: screenshots that show what the searcher wanted, in the first frame. Relevance is the keyword list: terms your app already ranks for organically convert better from ads too, because the page already matches them. [The first keyword list.](/blog/apple-ads-keywords-first-campaign/) Both levers are cheaper than a higher bid.

## Read the organic side as well

An ad on a term you are organically close to often lifts the organic rank, because installs from the term tell the store the page is relevant to it. That lift is free installs the campaign report will never show. A daily tracker shows it: the organic rank on the advertised terms, the week before and the weeks after. If the organic rank climbs into the top 10, the campaign can be cut back on that term and the budget moved to the next one.

RankASO on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6830350753?ct=blog-en-23&mt=8 (Free to start. No account. Data Not Collected.)

## Questions

### How much does Apple Search Ads cost per install?

It depends on the term, the country and your page's conversion. The number to fix first is your ceiling: proceeds per download over the horizon you can wait, per country. Bid under it.

### What is a good cost per install for an indie app?

One below what a download earns you in that country. For many paid and subscription apps that is a few dollars; for a free app with ads it may be cents. There is no universal figure.

### Should I run Apple Ads in every country?

No. Run them where proceeds per download support a ceiling you can bid under. Some countries do not, and a daily rank tracker shows which ones you already rank well in organically without paying.