Can I Run Apple Search Ads While Running a PPO Test?

Yes, you can run both. First distinguish the default product-page experiment from the ad creative and the page an ad opens.

Start with the destination, not the traffic label

PPO randomly shows eligible users different versions of your default product page. Apple explicitly excludes custom product pages from PPO. In Apple Ads, a search-results ad variation can use a custom product page, and a tap opens that selected page. Those visits are not visits to the default-page PPO experiment. A default ad instead uses screenshots and previews from the default product page. Do not assume starting PPO automatically turns your ads into a randomized creative test. [1][2]

Does paid traffic enter the PPO results?

Check the actual destination, placement and test eligibility before answering. The cited documentation does not establish a universal inclusion rule for every Apple Ads visit. Neither “PPO is always organic-only” nor “every ad tap joins PPO” follows from it. Review the active ad and page assignment in Apple Ads alongside the PPO configuration in App Store Connect. Icon tests can also affect what you see: Apple warns that the icon in an ad preview may differ during an icon test. Keep paid campaign reporting and PPO variant reporting separate. [1][2]

Keep the experiment interpretable

Record the tested asset, localizations, traffic allocation and campaign settings before launch. Keep bids, targeting, budgets and other listing changes stable where practical; document unavoidable changes. A new keyword campaign can change your audience, so a better overall conversion rate is not proof that the treatment caused it. Compare treatment against its concurrent control, not last month’s ad conversion rate. Apple says tests can run for up to 90 days and results appear after five first-time downloads; that reporting threshold is not evidence of a winner. [3]

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