How We Increased Apple Ads Spend to $110K+ and Reduced Acquisition Costs
Client: app under NDA
Platform: Apple Ads
Category: Finance
Period: May 2026
About the Project
In this case study, we show how Apple Ads helped scale user acquisition for a finance app.
The main goal for the month was to increase ad spend while maintaining efficiency at the lower stages of the funnel: registrations, paying users, acquisition cost and ROAS.
Goal
In May, the team worked according to the approved media plan. The goal was to increase Apple Ads spend and exceed the plan without worsening key performance metrics.
We evaluated the result using several metrics:
spend
registrations
paying users
cost per registration
cost per paying user
7-day and 30-day ROAS
Overall Result for May
In May, Apple Ads spend exceeded $110K. This was approximately 49% higher than in the previous period. The approved media plan was exceeded.
Registrations grew to 4K+.
The number of paying users grew to around 480.
Cost per registration decreased to $27.
Cost per paying user decreased to $229.
30-day ROAS reached 224%. 7-day ROAS remained close to 100%.
Main result: spend increased by almost 49%, while the cost per registration and cost per paying user decreased.
What We Did
The work was divided into four areas.
The first area was advertising for searches that included the app name. In May, this area was expanded to additional countries where competitors were actively bidding on branded searches.
The second area was advertising for searches that did not include the app name. This included general searches, competitor searches, search discovery and test searches.
The third area was additional App Store placements. Product pages, the Search tab and the Today tab were reviewed separately.
The fourth area was new user groups. For these groups, we separately tracked registrations, in-app target actions, paying users and ROAS.
Advertising for Searches That Included the App Name
This area showed the strongest efficiency.
Spend reached around $5.2K and grew by approximately 72%.
Registrations grew to 1.3K.
Paying users grew to around 250.
Cost per registration decreased to $4.
Cost per paying user decreased to $21.
30-day ROAS reached around 3,745%. 7-day ROAS exceeded 1,400%.
The largest country by spend in this area kept ROAS above 600%. Spend in this country was around $2.1K, with 500+ registrations and around 100 paying users. Cost per registration was around $4, and cost per paying user was around $22.
Advertising for Searches That Did Not Include the App Name
This area was responsible for scaling beyond branded demand.
Spend reached around $88K and grew by approximately 63%.
Registrations grew to 2.1K.
Paying users grew to around 150.
Cost per registration increased to $41.
Cost per paying user increased to $574.
30-day ROAS reached 27%. 7-day ROAS reached 24%.
The report states that ROAS in this area remained within the target KPI range.
Key Market Breakdown
The report separately reviewed advertising for searches that did not include the app name in the key market.
General Searches
Spend reached around $5.8K and grew by approximately 9%.
Registrations grew to 400+.
Cost per registration decreased to $14.
Paying users grew to around 30.
ROAS reached 47%.
Search Discovery
This area delivered most of the volume.
Spend reached around $42K and grew by approximately 129%.
Registrations grew to 700+.
Paying users grew to 50+.
Cost per registration was $59.
ROAS reached 27%.
Competitor Searches
Spend reached around $1.5K and remained at the previous period’s level.
Registrations grew to around 100.
Cost per registration decreased to $16.
Paying users reached around 7.
ROAS reached 239%. This was the highest result among the four groups in the key market.
Test Searches
This area was paused during the month. The best-performing keywords were transferred to advertising for general searches.
Spend reached around $0.9K and decreased by approximately 58%.
Registrations dropped to 20+.
Cost per registration was $42.
Paying users grew to 3.
ROAS reached 15%.
New User Groups
Group 1
Group 1 showed the strongest result.
Spend reached around $5.9K and grew by approximately 17%.
Registrations grew to 560.
Cost per registration decreased to $11.
In-app target actions grew to 240+.
Cost per target action decreased to $25.
Paying users grew to 75+.
ROAS reached 477%.
Group 2
Group 2 showed weak efficiency and was paused.
Spend reached around $6K.
Registrations reached 50+.
Cost per registration was $116.
Paying users reached 4.
ROAS was around 4%.
Group 3
Group 3 was also paused.
Spend reached around $4.3K.
Registrations reached 7.
Cost per registration was $620.
There were no paying users.
ROAS was 0%.
Group 4
Group 4 remained in testing.
Spend reached around $0.7K.
Registrations reached 18.
Cost per registration was $38.
In-app target actions reached 5.
There were no paying users.
ROAS was 0%.
Results
In May, Apple Ads was scaled without worsening key metrics at the overall account level.