App campaigns are an automated ad type in Google Ads designed to help advertisers drive app installs and in-app conversions across all of Google’s inventory.
What are the key benefits?
1. Reach: Reach is a key feature of all Google advertising solutions. With Google App campaigns, it’s easy to promote your app across exclusive inventory such as Google Search, Play, YouTube, Discover and over 3 million sites and apps in our network. Google App campaigns have delivered more than 17 billion app installs, and Google is now the #1 network for app installs, according to AppsFlyer.
2. Relevance: Today, we can deliver relevant ads to users based on more inputs than ever before. In addition to traditional signals like age and gender, we can now include signals like app session duration, app settings, search queries, and location. With over 300 million possible signal combinations, Google App campaigns do the heavy lifting for you, delivering the right ad to the right user.
3. Simplicity: Google App campaigns simplify ad creation. Content from your Google Play and Apple App Store listings is pulled to design a variety of ad formats. All you need to do is add a few lines of text. The system then tests combinations to create ads that work best, at the right time. Data-driven systems realize your campaign goals at scale, in real time, with minimal input, which means no more time-consuming manual test-and-iterate period.
Step 3: Import your data to Google Ads
Step 2: Navigate to the vertical menu on the left and select Campaigns.
Step 3: Select the plus button, then select New campaign from the dropdown.
Step 4: Select your campaign goal. Nadia selects App promotion.
Step 5: Select the campaign subtype. There are three options for campaign subtype: App installs, App engagement, and App pre-registration. Selects App installs.
Step 6: Select the mobile app's platform.
Step 7: Search for your app in the app search field and select it from the results dropdown.
Step 8: Select Continue.
Additional campaign subtypes:
How to select campaign settings
After the initial setup page, there are some campaign-level settings (location, languages, and budget) that look similar to what she's done in other Google Ads campaigns.
Step 1: Name your campaign.
Step 2: Set location targeting. Nadia sets location targeting to United States and Canada.
Note: Targeting locations more granularly than country-level is not recommended, as the system works best when working from the largest dataset possible.
Step 3: Target all the languages that your app supports.
Note: Users will only see your ads in the language in which the campaign was created.
Step 4: Select your currency and enter your budget.
Within that focus, there are two user groups to target:
What are the key benefits?
1. Reach: Reach is a key feature of all Google advertising solutions. With Google App campaigns, it’s easy to promote your app across exclusive inventory such as Google Search, Play, YouTube, Discover and over 3 million sites and apps in our network. Google App campaigns have delivered more than 17 billion app installs, and Google is now the #1 network for app installs, according to AppsFlyer.
2. Relevance: Today, we can deliver relevant ads to users based on more inputs than ever before. In addition to traditional signals like age and gender, we can now include signals like app session duration, app settings, search queries, and location. With over 300 million possible signal combinations, Google App campaigns do the heavy lifting for you, delivering the right ad to the right user.
3. Simplicity: Google App campaigns simplify ad creation. Content from your Google Play and Apple App Store listings is pulled to design a variety of ad formats. All you need to do is add a few lines of text. The system then tests combinations to create ads that work best, at the right time. Data-driven systems realize your campaign goals at scale, in real time, with minimal input, which means no more time-consuming manual test-and-iterate period.
Implement conversion tracking in 3 steps
Step 1: Pick an analytics tool to track conversions- Google Analytics for Firebase SDK
- App attribution partners
- Codeless tracking with Google Play
Step 3: Import your data to Google Ads
How to start a new campaign
Step 1: Sign into Google Ads.Step 2: Navigate to the vertical menu on the left and select Campaigns.
Step 3: Select the plus button, then select New campaign from the dropdown.
Step 4: Select your campaign goal. Nadia selects App promotion.
Step 5: Select the campaign subtype. There are three options for campaign subtype: App installs, App engagement, and App pre-registration. Selects App installs.
Step 6: Select the mobile app's platform.
Step 7: Search for your app in the app search field and select it from the results dropdown.
Step 8: Select Continue.
Additional campaign subtypes:
- App engagement helps users rediscover your app by engaging them with relevant ads across Google's properties. Improve customer retention and long-term revenue for an app by increasing active users, generating sales, and reducing churn.
- App pre-registration helps drive awareness and build anticipation for apps and games prior to launch. Capture early consumer interest to accelerate launch performance.
How to select campaign settings
After the initial setup page, there are some campaign-level settings (location, languages, and budget) that look similar to what she's done in other Google Ads campaigns.
Step 1: Name your campaign.
Step 2: Set location targeting. Nadia sets location targeting to United States and Canada.
Note: Targeting locations more granularly than country-level is not recommended, as the system works best when working from the largest dataset possible.
Step 3: Target all the languages that your app supports.
Note: Users will only see your ads in the language in which the campaign was created.
Step 4: Select your currency and enter your budget.
Understand your bidding settings
1. Focus on install volume: Focusing on install volume means that the campaign will optimize for as many installs as possible.Within that focus, there are two user groups to target:
- All users: Selecting All users will optimize the bidding on this campaign toward getting the most possible installs of your app.
- Users likely to perform an in-app action: Selecting Users likely to perform a specific in-app action will optimize for high install volume among users likely to perform a designated in-app action. The overall volume of installs with this selection may be lower as compared with other bidding strategies. For these users, you must select the one action that's most important from the list of in-app actions you defined when implementing conversion tracking.
2. Focus on in-app actions: By selecting in-app actions as the focus of your campaign, you want to get users who install the app and are likely to perform the in-app actions of your choice. Upon selecting in-app actions, you'll automatically be asked, “Which actions are most important to you?" You can then pick an event from the list of conversion events you defined in your analytics tracking tool.
Bid strategy: The campaign will optimize toward a tCPA. The system will use selected in-app event outcomes of past auctions to predict the likelihood of the number of in-app events to occur and adjust bids accordingly, with the intent to acquire users completing that event at your tCPA.
How to finalize your bidding settings
Step 1: Choose a focus for your campaign. Nadia wants the most possible installs of her app, so she chooses to focus her campaign on Install volume across All users.
.
Step 2: Your bidding strategy will be automatically selected based on your campaign focus and target users.
Enter an amount for your bid. If you're already running another campaign with tCPI or tCPA, use those as a starting bid. Otherwise, think about how much the specific conversion event is worth to your business.
Step 3: Now that you've set a bid, go back to make sure your budget is high enough.
Step 4: Set the campaign's start and end dates, then select Save and Continue.
Key takeaways
Key takeaways
- Google App campaigns can drive either installs or engagement.
- When creating an App campaign for installs, you can chose to optimize based on install volume or in-app actions.
- If you already have a target CPI or CPA, use that as a starting bid for your campaign.
- Set a daily campaign budget that's at least 50x your tCPI or 10x your tCPA.
Ad group
For accurate targeting, assets are organized in ad groups around a specific theme, audience, or message. Ad creatives are only created from combinations of assets within an ad group. Here are some guidelines:- At least one ad group is required for each campaign.
- It's strongly recommended to have at least one evergreen ad group that continues to run while you explore different themes with other ad groups.
- Additional ad groups may be created after all campaign settings are complete.
- Remember that all ad groups in a campaign will target the same user location and language, as those settings are selected at the campaign level.
Note: Ad groups are groups of ads or ad assets that share common themes.
Ad assets
Ad assets are individual elements such as lines of text, individual images, or videos that are combined automatically in an App campaign to create ads.
One of the key ways that machine learning powers app campaigns is by using individually-added assets to auto-generate ads.
Uploading a diverse mix of assets allows the system to learn and improve performance. Assets can be added into Google Ads manually by advertisers or auto-generated from content within the app’s Google Play and Apple App Store listings.
Ad assets are used in different combinations to build ads and match them with users who meet the campaign goal you selected. If you upload many diverse assets, your ads will serve across more inventory and reach more users.
Types of assets:
1. Text
What is it: Text assets are short lines of text about your app that appear in ads across Google Search, Play, and YouTube, and in the more than three million sites and apps in our network. There are two types of text lines in App campaigns: headlines and description lines.
Headlines: Headlines are not app titles, but text that highlights the key feature of the app. Headlines should be standalone sentences that end with punctuation. To learn more, check out our advertising policies.
Max count: Each ad group can have two to five headlines, with up to 30 characters in each.
Description lines: Description lines are longer text, with more in-depth detail about your app. Description text ideas should educate, inform, avoid generic language, and take full advantage of character lengths.
Max count: Each ad group may have one to five description lines, with up to 90 characters in each.
2. Image
What is it: Image assets are images used in ads to represent your app on over three million sites and apps in our network.
Max count: Each ad group can have up to 20 images.
Details:
Types of assets:
1. Text
What is it: Text assets are short lines of text about your app that appear in ads across Google Search, Play, and YouTube, and in the more than three million sites and apps in our network. There are two types of text lines in App campaigns: headlines and description lines.
Headlines: Headlines are not app titles, but text that highlights the key feature of the app. Headlines should be standalone sentences that end with punctuation. To learn more, check out our advertising policies.
Max count: Each ad group can have two to five headlines, with up to 30 characters in each.
Description lines: Description lines are longer text, with more in-depth detail about your app. Description text ideas should educate, inform, avoid generic language, and take full advantage of character lengths.
Max count: Each ad group may have one to five description lines, with up to 90 characters in each.
2. Image
What is it: Image assets are images used in ads to represent your app on over three million sites and apps in our network.
Max count: Each ad group can have up to 20 images.
Details:
- Images can be .jpg or .png, with a maximum size of 150KB.
- Image assets can be either landscape (1.91:1) or square (1:1).
3. Video
What is it: Video assets are video clips that appear in ads across YouTube and over three million sites and apps in our network.
Max count: Each ad group can have up to 20 videos.
Details:
- Videos must be hosted on YouTube.
- Orientation can be landscape, portrait, or square.
- Videos of varying length and aspect ratios will reach users in different formats.
- If no video is uploaded, Google Ads may use assets from your app store listing to make a video ad for your campaign.
4. HTML5
What is it: HTML5 assets are snippets of code used to create interactive ads. The HTML5 ad is typically a full screen ad, or interstitial, and may be paired with other assets from your app store listing page to create ads on over three million sites and apps in our network. Consider uploading the maximum number of other asset types before building for HTML5.
Max count: Each ad group may have up to 20 HTML5 assets.
Details:
- Use the HTML5 Validator tool to validate HTML5 assets before uploading.
- HTML5 sizes currently accepted include:
- 300x250 (fixed size)
- 320x50 (fixed size)
- 480x320 (landscape interstitial, variable size)
- 320x480 (portrait interstitial, variable size)
The importance of asset coverage and quality
1. Asset coverage: Having assets of all types and sizes helps increase ad coverage, meaning your ads have a better chance of showing up across the broad inventory of Google’s properties.
Asset variety allows machine learning to optimize for user preferences, picking the right ad for the right user.
2. Asset quality: Of course, ad coverage and variety are only effective if the creatives themselves are strong. Provide high-quality assets so that your ads resonate with your audience. If you need help, Google’s directory of preferred creative partners provide professional asset development services.
3. Achieve excellence with your creative assets:
a) Text assets:
1. Asset coverage: Having assets of all types and sizes helps increase ad coverage, meaning your ads have a better chance of showing up across the broad inventory of Google’s properties.
Asset variety allows machine learning to optimize for user preferences, picking the right ad for the right user.
2. Asset quality: Of course, ad coverage and variety are only effective if the creatives themselves are strong. Provide high-quality assets so that your ads resonate with your audience. If you need help, Google’s directory of preferred creative partners provide professional asset development services.
3. Achieve excellence with your creative assets:
a) Text assets:
- Use the maximum number of allowed headlines and descriptions
- Empower users to take action
- Experiment with variety
- Match your text to its ad group
b) Image assets:
- Upload high-quality images
- Keep it simple
- Use text minimally and selectively
- Provide many image assets of different ratios
c) Video assets:
- Focus on the app experience
- Provide video assets of different ratios and durations
- Customize videos for mobile experience
- Use clear, crisp, and engaging audio
d) HTML5 assets:
- Make it short, engaging and accurate
- Use high-quality images to create HTML5 assets in different aspect ratios
- Provide clear instructions on how to interact with the ad
- Include persistent call-to-action
Understand Your App Campaign Results
Focus 1: Understand the importance of view-through conversions: App campaign reporting is similar to that of other Google Ad campaigns, but there’s one specific metric that deserves a closer look: view-through conversions, or VTCs.
What are they?
- A VTC occurs when a user sees an ad and doesn’t click on it, but completes a conversion on the advertiser’s app within 24 hours.
- VTCs are measured for all ad formats except Search. They are reported separately from click-through conversions.
Where are they?
- “View-through conversions” isn’t a default reporting column in Google Ads. To see view-through conversions in its own column, start in the campaign performance report and go to Columns at the top right. Select Conversions, check the View-through conversions box, and select Apply.
- If you’re using an app attribution partner, ask about how to enable VTC reporting.
Focus 2: Assign value to events : Find out which customers are the most valuable to your business by assigning different values to specific events.
a) Associate values with individual events: Assign a value to each in-app event and process the data in your analytics platform to help you understand how users generate value within your app. Different events have different values — some purchases are worth more than others, and certain actions, like referring a friend, are valuable even if they don't immediately generate revenue.
b) Understand lifetime value (LTV): Not all customers bring equal value to your business. Consider two users who each make a $5 purchase one day after downloading your app. They might look the same to you if you're using a seven-day lookback window. But what if the first user never makes another purchase, while the second user makes a new purchase every week? This is a difference you'll want to be able to measure.
Focus 3: Measure across app and web: Users want what they want, when they want it — and they move across apps and web to find it. So building a seamless user experience is key to customer retention and business growth. The ability to measure user behavior cross-platform is just as critical. Unfortunately, measuring across app and web remains challenging for a few reasons:
- Users often have multiple touchpoints across multiple channels prior to conversion.
- Advertisers often have limited insight into user journeys across platforms because app and web engagement are commonly measured by different teams, making them difficult to unify.
- Web attribution is fairly advanced, while app attribution is mostly still “last click.”
Google offers two solutions to help bridge the measurement gap between app and web: (1) deep linking and (2) App + Web properties in Google Analytics.
Solution 1: Deep linking: Send your most valuable users directly to your app when they click an ad in their browser.
With deep linking, when a user who already has your app installed clicks on your Search, Display, or Shopping ad on their device, they'll be taken directly to the relevant page in your mobile app.
Solution 2: App + Web properties in Google Analytics: App + Web is a new property type in Google Analytics that allows advertisers to measure across their apps and websites. By measuring app and website engagement in one place, you'll be able to explore cross-platform user insights, measure the impact of ad campaigns across app and web, and measure app-to-web conversions.
2. Improve your app: The visibility of your app in the app store is also impacted by the quality of the app itself. In fact, the majority of positive, five-star reviews specifically praise app speed, design, and usability.
3. Technical performance:
Step 2: Localize your app
Step 3: Test, launch, and measure to scale
Optimize the App Experience
1. Improve your app store listing: Create a compelling first time user experience that begins in the app store, before the download. Make sure your app title, description, icon, feature graphic, screenshots, and video provide a clear and accurate representation of your app experience.2. Improve your app: The visibility of your app in the app store is also impacted by the quality of the app itself. In fact, the majority of positive, five-star reviews specifically praise app speed, design, and usability.
3. Technical performance:
- Speak with your app developer team about their plans for improving technical performance.
- Smaller app file sizes correlate with higher install conversion rates, particularly in emerging markets.
Expand App Reach Across Markets
Step 1: Choose the right marketsStep 2: Localize your app
Step 3: Test, launch, and measure to scale
