TL;DR. Search Match is Apple Ads’ default keyword-free targeting: it matches your ad to relevant App Store searches using your listing’s metadata, data about similar apps in your genre, and other search data — no manual keyword list required. It’s on automatically for every Manage Bids search results campaign, and it’s a requirement (not an option) for the automatic ad group inside a Maximize Conversions campaign. You can disable it per ad group in a Manage Bids campaign in a few clicks; you can’t disable it on the automatic ad group at all. Apple’s own guidance is to pair it with negative keywords once you see what it’s actually matching to.

If you’ve ever launched an Apple Ads campaign and started spending before you typed a single keyword, that’s Search Match. Most indie developers either don’t notice it’s running or don’t realize it’s reading their App Store metadata to decide what to bid on — which means changes you make for organic ASO reasons can quietly change what your ad campaigns match to as well.

What is Search Match in Apple Ads?

Search Match is a targeting feature that automatically matches your ad to relevant App Store search terms without you selecting keywords or setting individual bids. Apple’s own help documentation describes it as a default feature for Manage Bids search results campaigns, and a requirement for the automatic ad group in Maximize Conversions search results campaigns — in both cases, it exists so a campaign can start serving in a few minutes with zero keyword research.

What does Search Match actually use to decide what to match my ad to?

Apple states directly that Search Match “uses multiple resources to match your ad to relevant searches on the App Store, including the metadata from your App Store listing, information about similar apps in the same genre, and other search data.” That’s your title, subtitle, and keyword field feeding a system you didn’t explicitly configure — the same fields you’re already tuning for organic search, doing double duty for paid targeting.

Practically, this means two things worth knowing before you assume Search Match traffic is a clean signal of organic demand:

  • It leans on your existing metadata, not a separate research process. If your keyword field is vague or your subtitle doesn’t describe what the app does, Search Match has less to work with — the fix is the same fix that helps organic search, not something Apple Ads-specific.
  • “Similar apps in the same genre” means your primary category matters here too. The same primary category that shapes your organic search index also shapes which apps Apple treats as comparable when Search Match decides what queries are relevant to you.

Can I turn Search Match off?

Yes, but only in a Manage Bids campaign, and only per ad group — Apple’s help page lays out the exact path: open the campaign in your Campaigns dashboard, click into the relevant ad group, click “Edit ad group settings” in the upper right, then toggle off the Search Match switch in that section and save. Apple is explicit that this option doesn’t exist for the automatic ad group inside a Maximize Conversions campaign — there, Search Match is a requirement, not a setting.

If you’re running Maximize Conversions and want keyword-level control instead of Search Match’s automatic matching, the workaround isn’t a toggle — it’s structuring a separate Manage Bids campaign where you do have that switch.

How Apple’s own campaign structure guidance uses Search Match

Apple’s help documentation recommends building four campaign types by keyword theme — Brand, Category, Competitor, and Discovery — and Discovery is where Search Match is meant to live deliberately rather than by default. Apple’s specific recommendation is two dedicated ad groups inside a Discovery campaign: a broad-match ad group containing all your Brand/Category/Competitor keywords with Search Match off, and a separate Search Match ad group with no keywords at all and Search Match on. That split keeps your deliberate keyword bids and your automatic matching from competing against each other for the same impression.

Should I just leave Search Match on and not think about it?

If you want a Discovery campaign whose entire job is finding queries you haven’t thought of yet, yes — that’s what it’s designed for. But Apple’s own guidance pairs it with a caveat: once Search Match is running, check what it’s actually matched your ad to and add negative keywords for anything irrelevant, since an automatic match against genre-similar apps and general search data isn’t guaranteed to stay narrowly relevant to what your app does.

A short same-day checklist:

  1. Open any active search results campaign’s ad groups and check whether Search Match is on — for Manage Bids it’s on by default even if you never touched the toggle.
  2. If it’s a general campaign mixing deliberate keywords with Search Match, consider splitting it: keywords with Search Match off in one ad group, a dedicated Search Match-only ad group with no keywords, per Apple’s own Discovery campaign structure.
  3. Review whatever search terms Search Match has matched your ad to so far and add negative keywords for anything off-target.
  4. If your keyword field or subtitle is thin, tightening it helps Search Match’s matching quality the same way it helps organic — one edit, two systems.

Search Match itself has no documented effect on organic ranking — it’s a paid-placement mechanism, not a search-index one — so don’t treat ad spend as an indirect way to move your keyword field rankings.