Hello! I wanted to ask if anyone is seeing strange behaviour in the app store related to ads?
We’ve been running Shopify ads for years, and whenever we searched on the Shopify App Store for a related keyword to check if we were showing, we always saw our own ad, or a competitor’s ad, which is the expected behavior.
For some days now (+15 days!), every time we search for a specific keyword related to our business (personalization), the ad results are nonsensical. They are showing apps that have NOTHING to do with the keyword that is being used.
Example: keyword used “product personalizer”
Ads showing: Loyalty wallet, bulk order, SEO, backup (???)
Why on earth would a merchant wanting to find a product personalizer app want to see these recommendations on ads??? Is anyone experiencing something similar with their own ads?
Seems like the Shopify ads system is broken, and it doesn’t make sense to invest money there anymore.
I’ve noticed this occasionally as well. My explanation is that some of those apps are running broad keywords. In your example, an app might be bidding on a broad keyword like “product”, so when someone searches for “product personalizer”, that app can still enter the auction. If the bid is high enough to win, the ad will be displayed.
Over time, if those apps keep appearing for keywords that aren’t relevant, merchants are less likely to click or install them, which can lead to lower CTR and install rates. As a result, the keyword relevance may become Low or Very Low, making it more expensive for those apps to continue winning placements for those keywords.
Of course, it’s also possible that something isn’t working as intended at that moment.
Recently, I’ve also experienced some strange behavior myself. One of our apps has a main keyword with a suggested bid range of $15-$75+. We ran it for a while at around $5-$7, but impressions were very very low. Last Friday, we tested increasing the bid and even set it to $30. Then we manually checked the first 4 pages of search results (the pages where Shopify displays ads), but we still couldn’t find our app, even though we had available budget. We assumed other apps might simply be bidding very aggressively, so we lowered the bid back to $7 since we couldn’t afford to maintain such a high bid.
What’s interesting is that today we noticed our app appearing in the 1st ad position with a $7 bid on my colleague’s browser, while I still couldn’t see it on mine. Neither of us was logged in.
Based on my understanding of how Shopify Ads works, I can’t really explain this behavior. I’m curious whether anyone else has experienced something similar recently.
Thanks for your input @Linh_Luong !
I understand what you explain about the broad keywords, that could be a reason, yes, but Shopify should have a system to give priority to related apps. I think that’s how it worked before, because this strange behavior is recent… and I’m sure apps have been using broad keywords for years, but I’ve never seen something like this, where all 4 displayed ads have nothing to do with the keyword you’re searching for.
I’m pretty sure something is not working as it should; hopefully, they can fix it soon. For sellers, I’m sure it’s annoying to search for something and get random apps as suggestions. @KyleG-Shopify is looking at this, so maybe we have news soon.
On the other hand, our keyword bid ranges have gone wild, too. What a couple of years were 1-5$ per click, now it’s +50$. Shopify ads are becoming impossible to use; there’s no ROI like this. I think they have to do something about it soon, or people will stop investing money there.
Hey @Ceci_R and @Linh_Luong, we really appreciate the feedback you have shared here.
I can confirm that the ads are working as expected, currently. That said, this is something we are continually working at improving for all developers.
I have shared your thread here with our app store team as your experience as long time partners and advertisers is important. This can help inform future improvements as well.
Hi @KyleG-Shopify, thanks for the feedback, though honestly not what I expected. I honestly thought there was something wrong, I can’t understand why all those apps would bid for keywords that have nothing to do with what they offer, but well..
I hope you can work to make the ads smarter and suggest apps that are actually a solution for what merchants are looking for, as it’s working now, ads make no sense anymore. That’s a shame.
@KyleG-Shopify also, I’ve been talking with other app founders on a Facebook community and several apps are experiencing the same issue: random apps appearing for their main keywords, their ads not showing even if they increase the bids. So it’s not just us, many founders are frustrated about this. Maybe you should tell the team to really pay attention to this and make ads useful again.
