Apple Search Ads (ASA) is Apple's paid search advertising platform that places sponsored app results at the top of App Store search — a paid channel that complements organic ASO.
Apple Search Ads lets you bid to appear above the organic results for chosen keywords, paying per tap. It's the paid counterpart to organic ASO and shares the same foundation: the ad uses your real listing assets (or a custom product page), so a well-optimized listing makes ads cheaper and more effective, while a weak one wastes spend. ASA is also the most reliable source of Apple's keyword popularity scores, making it a research tool as much as an acquisition channel.
The smartest programs run ASA and organic together. Paid search can defend your brand term, test which keywords convert before you commit metadata to them, and drive the install velocity that lifts organic rankings. Because ad rank depends partly on relevance and tap-through, the conversion work you do for organic ASO directly lowers your cost per install on the paid side.
Example
Before adding "sleep sounds" to its metadata, a team runs an ASA campaign on the term — it converts well and is cheap, confirming the keyword is worth a permanent place in the listing.