To run Google Ads for app installs, you create an App campaign with the goal "App promotion" and the subtype "App installs". You give Google your app, a daily budget, a bid strategy and text, image and video assets, and Google decides which ads to show, to whom and where, across Search, Google Play, YouTube, Display and Discover. This guide is based on Google's own App campaign documentation.
App campaigns are Google's campaign type for promoting mobile apps. You don't write individual ads or pick keywords. You supply the building blocks, and Google combines and tests them and serves the ones that perform best. The app must be published on Google Play or the Apple App Store, so both Android and iOS apps qualify.
There are three subtypes. App campaigns for installs find new users. App campaigns for engagement target people who already have your app. App campaigns for pre-registration build interest before launch, but only for Android apps.
Google can place your ads on Google Search and search partners, on Google Play (in search results, in "You might also like" and "Related to this app", and on the "Suggested for you" homepage), on YouTube, on the Display Network (Gmail, other apps and mobile websites) and in Discover. You can't choose placements one by one, though you can limit a campaign to video ads only.
These are the steps from Google's setup guide:
Your bid strategy tells Google what to optimize for. Google lists these options:
In its best practices guide, Google recommends a daily budget of at least 50 times your target cost per install for install campaigns, and at least 10 times your target CPA for in-app action campaigns. If you bid for an in-app action, pick one that at least 10 different users complete per day.
Google's guide recommends filling every asset slot: up to 10 text assets, 20 images and 20 videos per ad group. Headlines can be up to 30 characters and descriptions up to 90. Videos should be 10 to 30 seconds, in portrait, landscape and square versions. Replace assets the asset report marks as low performers.
For a content app, the best material is usually the content itself: a short clip from an episode, lesson or video series, with a line that says what the user gets. Google also draws on your store listing, so get your app store listing right before you pay to send traffic to it.
Cost per install is easy to read but can mislead. An install that never opens the app is worth nothing. For Android, Google can track installs automatically through Google Play. For iOS, Google points advertisers to Apple's SKAdNetwork and App Tracking Transparency, because Apple limits tracking across apps. Set up conversion tracking before the campaign starts.
If you build with Audiorista, its analytics show what users play and finish, and subscription data comes from RevenueCat (App Store and Google Play) and Stripe (web), with webhooks and exports for other tools. The web app supports Google Tag Manager. Ask us which events your native app can report to Google Ads before you pick a bid strategy built on in-app actions.
Paid installs make sense when you know roughly what a subscriber is worth and how many installs it takes to get one. Until then, run a small test on one platform and compare cost per install with the subscriptions that follow. First users often come cheaper from an audience you already have, through email, social channels and a pre-launch marketing plan. Once people have installed, push notifications are a direct way to bring them back before you pay for an engagement campaign.
It is an App campaign with the subtype "App installs". Google uses your assets, budget and bid to show ads to people likely to install your app.
Yes. App campaigns work for apps published on Google Play or the Apple App Store. You need one campaign per platform.
Google recommends a daily budget of at least 50 times your target cost per install.
Run a Google Ads App campaign. Google Play search results, related-app sections and the "Suggested for you" homepage are all placements it can use.
Want an app worth advertising? See the branded audio, video and text apps built with Audiorista and talk to us about launching yours on iOS, Android and the web.
