Apple Ads TTR & CVR Benchmark

For search results ads, tap-through rates commonly land around 6–8% across categories — the ad occupies the top slot for a query the user just typed, which is about as high-intent as advertising placement gets. Conversion rates for well-matched keywords typically run high by broader advertising standards: on brand terms, roughly 50–60% of taps become installs, because the user was searching for you specifically. On generic and category keywords CVR is much lower — the user is comparison shopping, and your product page has to win the argument rather than confirm a decision.

These are orientation ranges, not laws. Category, country, price model, and how competitive the query is all shift the bands: a free casual game on a long-tail keyword can convert far above a $60/year subscription app on a contested generic term. The most reliable benchmark is always your own history — the ranges tell you whether a brand-new campaign is in normal territory, and your trendline tells you whether it is improving.

TTR and CVR fail for different reasons, which is why benchmarking them separately matters. A low TTR means users saw your ad and scrolled past: the keyword may be poorly matched to your app, your icon and title may not signal relevance for that query, or a competitor’s ad simply looks like a better answer. Fixes live in keyword selection and in the creative users see in the search results card.

A low CVR means the tap happened but the product page lost the sale: screenshots that lead with the wrong feature for this keyword’s intent, a rating that undercuts trust, or a price surprise. The highest-leverage fix for keyword-specific CVR problems is a custom product page matched to the search intent — showing “sleep tracker” searchers a sleep-first page rather than your generic default. A high TTR paired with a low CVR is the classic signature of an ad that over-promises what the page delivers.