A Google app campaign promotes an Android or iOS app across Google Search, Google Play, YouTube, Discover and the apps and sites in Google’s partner network, all from one campaign. You supply text, images and video, tell Google what you want more of (installs, or a particular action inside the app) and set the cost you are prepared to pay; Google decides where each ad runs and how the pieces are combined. I set up and run app campaigns for UK businesses that have an app, and I judge them on what people do after they install rather than on the install count.
What changes when an app campaign is run properly
App campaigns give you very few levers compared with a search campaign. There are no keywords to choose and no placements to pick, so nearly all the control sits in three places: what you tell Google to optimise for, the data it receives back from the app, and the creative it has to work with. Getting those right is most of the job.
- Installs from people who use the app. When the campaign is trained on a meaningful in-app action, such as a completed sign-up, a first order or a subscription, Google looks for people likely to take that action rather than people who install and forget.
- A cost you can set against what a user is worth. With the right events coming back, you see a cost per active user or per paying customer, which you can compare with revenue per user and payback period.
- Measurement you can stand behind. Events are recorded once, from the right source, and only in line with the consent each user has given inside the app.
Who app campaigns suit, and who they do not
They suit businesses where the app is the product or the main way customers buy: a booking or ordering app, a subscription service, a marketplace, a money or budgeting app, a fitness or learning app. They work best when there is an action inside the app that clearly signals a valuable user, and enough budget for Google to see that action happen regularly.
They are a weaker fit when the app is a companion to a website where most customers actually buy, because paying to move people into the app may not add any sales. A new app with no ratings and a thin store page also struggles, since everyone who clicks an ad lands on that page before deciding. Apps in regulated sectors need extra care: a finance app’s ads and store listing fall under the FCA’s financial promotion rules, which I cover on the page about Google Ads for fintech and payments companies.
What the work covers
Measurement and consent
Google Ads needs to know about installs and in-app events, which means a software development kit (SDK) in the app: Google’s own Firebase, or a mobile measurement partner such as AppsFlyer, Adjust or Branch. I check which events the app sends, which of them are imported into Google Ads as conversions, and that nothing is counted twice through two routes.
Consent is part of the same check. PECR covers storing or reading information on a user’s device, and that applies to SDKs inside an app as much as to cookies on a website. Analytics and advertising SDKs should respect the choice made in the app’s consent prompt, with the consent status passed to Google through Consent Mode so that measurement is modelled for people who decline rather than simply lost. On iOS, Apple’s App Tracking Transparency prompt adds a second layer, and Apple’s own attribution framework reports installs in a delayed, aggregated form.
Goal and bidding
Every app campaign has one main aim. An install campaign bids towards a target cost per install or simply tries to win as many installs as the budget allows. An in-app action campaign bids towards a target cost per action, and where the app passes purchase or subscription values, a target return on ad spend becomes possible. Google’s guidance is that the daily budget should be a generous multiple of the target cost, so that the system sees enough conversions each day to learn from; if the budget cannot support the event you want, I choose an earlier event that still predicts value.
Creative assets
Google builds the ads from the headlines, descriptions, images and videos you provide, so the variety of the material decides where the campaign can show. Without your own video it may generate one from the store listing, which is rarely flattering. I plan short videos in portrait, landscape and square formats, images in the main sizes, and text lines that each make a different point, then replace the weakest pieces based on Google’s asset ratings.
Campaign and ad group structure
Android and iOS run as separate campaigns because each points to its own store listing, and the two report very differently. Within a campaign, ad groups hold sets of assets around one theme, for example a feature, a type of customer or a seasonal offer, which tells you which message is working.
Store listing
The Google Play or App Store page is where the install is won or lost. I review the screenshots, short description, ratings and the first lines people see, and suggest changes alongside the campaigns; deeper work on rankings inside the stores is app store optimisation, which is a separate discipline. Custom store listings let different ad groups land on pages that match their message.
Engagement and pre-registration
Engagement campaigns aim at people who already have the app, bringing them back to a specific screen through deep links, and are only worth running once the app has a sizeable base of lapsed users. Pre-registration campaigns build a list of Android users before launch on Google Play.
How I run it
- Agree what a valuable user is. We decide which in-app action matters, what a user is worth over a sensible period and how quickly the spend needs to pay back. My lifetime value and acquisition cost calculator is a quick way to rough out those numbers.
- Test the measurement. I check the SDK set-up and the link between Firebase or your measurement partner and Google Ads, then run real test events from a device and confirm they arrive once, with consent applied.
- Build the campaigns. Campaigns per platform and goal, ad groups by theme, the full asset set and starting targets set from your own economics.
- Leave the learning period alone. New app campaigns need time and conversions before results settle. Frequent edits to targets, budgets or assets during that stretch reset the learning, so changes are made in modest steps.
- Read results by install cohort. I compare groups of users by the week they installed: how many reached the key action, how many came back after a week and after a month. Cohort analysis shows whether cheaper installs are really cheaper users.
- Report and adjust. A monthly written report covers spend, cost per install and per in-app action, cohort quality and what I plan to change next.
Problems I see most often in UK app accounts
- Optimising for installs indefinitely. Install campaigns are a reasonable start for a new app, but left running they find people who install cheaply and never open the app again.
- The same event counted twice. A purchase imported from Firebase and again from a measurement partner tells bidding it is doing twice as well as it is.
- An event too rare to learn from. Bidding on annual subscriptions when only a handful happen each week starves the campaign of data. An earlier step that predicts the subscription usually trains it better.
- SDKs that ignore the consent prompt. Advertising SDKs that start collecting before the user has chosen are a compliance problem, and blocking them with no consent signal passed on leaves conversions unmeasured.
- Creative left unchanged for months. One landscape video and a few images limit where the ads can appear, and tired assets lose effect over time.
- iOS judged on the same figures as Android. Attribution on iOS is delayed and partly modelled, so the reported cost per action usually looks worse than reality. Cohort data from the app itself gives a fairer view.
App campaigns alongside other channels
Many apps also advertise on Facebook and Instagram, where people are reached by interest rather than by what they search or watch; I run Facebook and Instagram app install ads as well, and comparing the two by install cohort shows which channel brings users who stay. If you also run search or Performance Max campaigns for your website, monthly PPC management keeps the whole account under one plan and one report.
What you receive
- A written plan: the in-app event to optimise for, starting targets, budget, campaign structure and creative brief, with the reasoning.
- A measurement check covering SDK events, conversion import, duplicate counting and consent, with fixes listed for your developers.
- Campaigns built in a Google Ads account your business owns, which I work in through manager access.
- Store listing recommendations matched to each ad group’s message.
- A monthly report with cohort quality, not just installs.
What it costs and how to start
Ad spend is paid directly to Google on your card or invoice. My fee covers the planning, set-up and ongoing running, and depends on the number of platforms and campaigns, the state of the measurement and how much creative needs producing. You have it in writing before any work starts.
To find out whether app campaigns fit your app, send me the store links and what you currently spend to acquire a user. I will tell you which event I would optimise for and what I would check first.