Wise drives global expansion, gains market insights, and scales efficiency.

To drive reach with distinct audiences, the Wise team structured search results campaigns by keyword theme (brand, category, competitive, and discovery). High-performing search terms were systematically moved from discovery into exact match keyword campaigns to better scale performance and efficiency. “Apple Ads search results campaigns gave us visibility into how users in different markets searched for relevant financial solutions, helping us identify high-intent search terms that were not fully captured in our initial keyword set. These valuable insights allowed us to refine and expand keyword coverage globally in a more data-led way,” says Wise Senior Paid Search Manager Kawtar El Ghazali.

Search Match surfaced new, relevant keywords across both mature markets and new high-priority markets, uncovering local search behaviors and language nuances. “With Apple Ads, we learned the importance of basing localization decisions on real-time search behavior rather than relying on direct translation alone,” says El Ghazali. “Insights from Apple Ads highlighted differences in how users express intent in different markets, which informed our paid keyword strategy in each market as well as our App Store metadata and organic optimization.”

The team also leveraged post-install, keyword-level data to better inform bidding decisions and ensure efficiency. By integrating third-party automation tools, the Wise team was able to adjust bids dynamically based on a strict customer acquisition cost target. “Automation of campaign management increased the frequency and precision of our optimization, allowing us to focus budget on high-converting keywords that drove meaningful business growth and valuable acquisition,” says El Ghazali.

To reach additional audiences at different points in the customer journey, the team at Wise also invested in display ads across the App Store. A multi-placement playbook was validated in many key markets and then tailored with a localized strategy for countries like Malaysia, Brazil, Japan, and the Philippines. Prominent ads on the Today tab reached millions on the front page of the App Store, helping the Wise team connect with users earlier in their decision-making journey.

The Wise team found that Today tab ads drove incremental top-of-funnel awareness while also making search ads more cost-effective. In addition to driving direct installs, Today tab ads resulted in a measurable lift in organic and branded search volume, while also maintaining a healthy cost-per-acquisition. This validated the theory that a high-visibility placement fueled the top of the funnel, capturing new users who may not have clicked immediately but returned later to search for Wise.

“With Today tab ads, we wanted to understand the true ‘halo effect’ of high-impact ad placements on acquisition volume, looking beyond directly attributed conversions and measuring the lift in nontracked downloads and account registrations. This allowed Wise to unlock growth from users who are typically harder to attribute,” says El Ghazali. “By evaluating performance more holistically and comparing it against established baselines, we confirmed that the Today tab drove incremental new user acquisition beyond the standard tracked attribution model, driving a meaningful impact on overall business growth that typical attribution would have missed.”

With Search tab ads, the team at Wise was able to engage users who were exploring financial apps, capturing the attention of relevant audiences in the research phase of the customer journey. Ads on product pages also helped position their app prominently alongside competitors at the exact moment that potential customers were evaluating other financial providers. By running search results campaigns in tandem with multiple placements across the App Store, the team drove full-funnel impact that delivered lower blended cost-per-acquisition (CPA) than when running campaigns in isolation.

In Malaysia, specifically, 90 percent of impressions were driven by non–search results campaigns. That market saw 400 percent growth in user acquisition year over year across nonbrand campaigns. Efficiency was also 34 percent higher year over year.

To engage different audiences with a variety of interests, the Wise team created ad variations based on custom product pages set up in App Store Connect. They tailored value proposition messaging and creative visuals to meet the maturity and product demands of each region. For example, custom product pages highlighted “travel” and “card” use cases to align with keyword themes reflecting strong demand for international debit card functionality in certain markets.

The team also embedded a deep link in custom product pages, connecting people directly to a landing page where they could access the financial product offering they were interested in — creating a fast and frictionless customer experience. “Custom product pages gave us greater creative flexibility in each market to highlight our multiple product offerings to the most relevant audiences,” says El Ghazali. “By aligning top-performing keywords with localized creative and a deep link, we were able to surface the right product offering to the right audience in the right market.”