Match types
Every keyword in Apple Ads carries a match type. It is the dial between reach and control: broad match finds searches you did not think of, exact match spends only on the searches you chose.
Updated
When you add a keyword to an Apple Ads ad group, you choose whether it runs as broad match or exact match. The same keyword can behave very differently under each, so match type is as much a part of the bidding decision as the bid itself.
Broad match vs exact match
| Broad match | Exact match | |
|---|---|---|
| What it matches | The keyword plus related searches, such as close variants, synonyms and related phrases | The keyword and its close variants, such as plurals and common misspellings |
| Reach | Wide | Narrow |
| Control over spend | Lower: some matched searches will be irrelevant | High: you pay only for searches you chose |
| Typical use | Discovering new search terms | Scaling proven search terms with precise bids |
Broad match is the default for new keywords in Apple Ads. It is useful for finding what users actually type, but a broad keyword such as “budget planner” can also match searches that have little to do with your app. Exact match removes most of that noise at the price of volume.
Search Match is a separate ad group setting rather than a match type. When it is on, Apple can match your ad to searches based on your app’s metadata and category, with no keyword from you at all. It behaves like the broadest possible discovery setting.
Match types for negative keywords
Negative keywords also come in broad and exact forms, and they work in the opposite direction: they stop the ad from showing.
- Exact negative. Blocks the specific search and its close variants. Use it to keep a discovery group from bidding on a term that already has its own exact keyword elsewhere.
- Broad negative. Blocks any search that contains the negative keyword’s words. Use it for terms that are never relevant, such as “free” for an app without a free tier, knowing it can block more than you intended.
How match type affects cost and control
Match type shapes cost indirectly. Broad keywords enter more auctions, including ones where your app is a weak fit; those taps convert to downloads less often, and the downloads convert to trials and subscribers less often, so cost per trial and cost per subscriber tend to be higher even when cost per tap looks similar.
Exact keywords give you one search term per keyword, which means one clean line of data. That is what makes precise bidding possible: you can raise the bid on an exact term that brings paying subscribers without also raising it on every loosely related search.
Related terms
Match types sit at ad group level alongside negative keywords, bids and audience settings. The search terms report shows which actual searches your broad keywords matched, and it is the main input for deciding what to promote to exact match.