The Challenge
A regulated crypto exchange app had been running Apple Search Ads for several months with flat results. Their account consisted of a single broad match campaign targeting generic cryptocurrency terms: "buy bitcoin", "crypto app", "trading platform", with no separation by intent stage, no bid management by keyword, and no negative keyword list. CPAs were high and inconsistent, and the team had no visibility into which search terms were driving users who actually completed KYC verification and made a first trade.
The app operated in a category with strict App Store advertising policies, making creative and keyword strategy more constrained than in most verticals. Additionally, the crypto market's volatility meant that install volume and conversion rates shifted significantly during price cycles, but the team had no framework for responding to these shifts in their paid acquisition strategy. Budget was being spent uniformly regardless of market conditions, intent signals, or user quality.
The Approach
We began with a full keyword and campaign audit, pulling search term reports to identify which queries were actually triggering ads and cross-referencing install data with downstream activation events: specifically email verification, KYC completion, and first deposit. The data confirmed that broad match was driving high volumes of low-intent installs from users searching general finance and investment terms rather than crypto-specific queries.
We restructured the account into four distinct campaigns: branded defence, high-intent crypto-specific keywords (exchange names, coin tickers paired with action terms), competitor conquest, and a discovery campaign using broad match modifier, each with independent daily budgets and target CPAs calibrated to the conversion rates observed per intent tier.
Negative keyword lists were built from six months of search term data, eliminating irrelevant finance, banking, and news-related queries that had been absorbing significant budget. Bid adjustments were introduced at the keyword level within each campaign, weighted toward terms with the highest observed KYC completion rates rather than raw install volume.
We also implemented a market-responsiveness protocol: during periods of high crypto price volatility, identified via a simple price movement trigger, budgets on competitor and high-intent campaigns were temporarily increased, capitalising on the surge in App Store search volume that consistently followed major market movements. During low-volatility periods, spend was pulled back and shifted to branded defence to protect share of voice at lower cost.
The Results
Within 90 days, verified installs (users who completed KYC and made at least one trade) increased 3.1x while overall spend grew by less than 40%, yielding a 52% reduction in effective CPA. The intent-based campaign structure meant budget was no longer wasted on passive browsers. D7 retention improved 38% as the acquired user cohort became dominated by active traders rather than curiosity-driven installs.
The market-responsiveness protocol proved particularly effective: during two significant market volatility events in the campaign period, rapid budget reallocation captured a disproportionate share of high-intent search volume at CPAs well below the campaign average. The competitor campaign, initially the smallest budget tier, emerged as the highest-quality acquisition channel by KYC rate and was scaled accordingly by the end of the engagement.
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