This is one of my Google Ads campaigns for a mobile app. The aim was simple: get the app installed by as many of the right people as possible, without a large budget. It reached 323K impressions and 3.8K app installs at a cost per acquisition of $0.12.
The challenge
The campaign had to drive app installs at scale while keeping spend low. On a small budget there is little room for waste: every impression shown to someone with no interest in the app costs money that could have gone towards a real install. The job was to make a modest budget work as hard as possible.
What I did
My approach came down to two things: targeting the right audience and optimising the campaign details.
In a Google Ads App campaign, targeting works differently from a Search campaign. There are no keywords to choose. Instead, you decide where the ads run through location targeting and language settings, and Google’s system looks for people likely to install the app. Getting those settings right is what keeps the ads in front of people who might actually use the app.
Optimising the campaign details, in principle, means the ongoing work inside the account: checking how the campaign is performing, adjusting settings where the numbers suggest a change, and making sure spend goes to what is producing installs. On a small budget, this steady attention matters more than any single setting.
Results
As published on my site, the campaign delivered:
- 323K impressions
- 3.8K app installs
- 3.8K conversions
- A cost per acquisition of $0.12
All of this was achieved while maintaining a low budget. The $0.12 figure is in dollars, as originally reported, not pounds.
What this shows
A well-planned campaign does not need a large budget to produce results at scale. For a UK business owner with an app, the practical lesson is to spend your effort on the settings that decide who sees the ads, and then keep watching the account rather than leaving it to run.
It is also worth knowing that costs vary from country to country, because each market is a separate auction with its own competition. A cost per acquisition from one campaign is not a forecast for a UK one. Before you set a target, work out what a new user is worth to your business, then judge the campaign against that.
If you want help running app installs through Google, my page on Google app install campaigns explains how I work, and Google Ads management covers the rest of an account. To talk it through, book a free 30-minute call.
