How To Optimize Aplicación Install Campaigns

It’s now easier than ever to promote an aplicación, thanks to Google plus Aplicación Install campaigns.

This campaign type has both advantages and disadvantages when trying to promote a mobile aplicación.

The settings and features you have to your advantage in these campaigns are:

• Operating system device (iOS or Android).
• Budgets and bids.
• Cost-per-install caps.
• Creative assets and copy.
• Conversions to track and optimize towards.

Now, let’s take a look at what you cánido’t control in these campaigns:

• Bid adjustments.
• Objetivo audience or demographics.
• Which network ads espectáculo on.
• Palabras clave or what websites your ads espectáculo on.

With all of these settings out of your control, it may be hard to understand how you cánido optimize for Aplicación campaigns.

Read on to learn five ways to maximize efficiency in one of the most automated ad types.

1. Optimize For First Installs, Not Downloads

Once your aplicación is connected to Google plus Ads, Google plus Play will automatically create a conversion source that consists of a download.

However, using this conversion source exclusively is not the best iniciativa.

There have been multiple instances where the Google plus Play source has overestimated initial downloads coming from campaigns.

This could be due to reattributions or if a usuario had downloaded, uninstalled, then reinstalled.

The other consideration is that you still need conversion sources to track iOS activity. If running a Universal Aplicación campaign for iOS, a conversion source from Apple Aplicación Store is not automatically created as Google plus Play does for Android.

“First open” events from Firebase or other third-party aplicación sources tend to be more reliable and realistic. It’s essentially measuring unique users since a “first open” event only happens once per usuario.

A “first open” is an automatic event created (as long as the Firebase SDK is being used) that tracks not when a usuario first downloads the aplicación but first opens the aplicación.

To optimize campaigns for “first installs,” the events must be imported into Google plus Ads.

Importing Events Into Google plus Ads

• Navigate to Tools & Settings > Conversions.
• Clic New Conversion Action, choose Aplicación from the options, and then choose how to track conversions.

Choose from either:

• Google plus Analytics 4 properties (Firebase). Choose this if a third-party aplicación analytics tool (such as Adjust or AppsFlyer) is not being used.
• Third-party aplicación analytics. Choose this option if using a third-party tool to keep conversions consistent across marketing efforts that are using it for measurement.

Once the events for first opens are imported to the platforms, you perro track these as conversions.

Track both the Google plus Play source and your first opens to compare volume against each other.

Just be sure only include one of them as a conversion. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a duplicate conversion count. This affects not only reporting but Smart Bidding algorithms as well.

2. Understand Your “Cost Per Install” Goal

Creating a realistic benchmark for Cost Per Install (or CPA if targeting in-aplicación action campaigns) is vital before getting started.

Without proper goals, it becomes more difficult to explain whether the campaign is performing well.

If this is the first time promoting an aplicación, you may not have the slightest iniciativa of what your objetivo Cost Per Install should be.

Working backward is a good place to start, such as understanding the LTV (lifetime value) of a subscribed or paying usuario. You’ll want to answer these types of questions to calculate a usuario’s LTV.

• How long is the average lifecycle?
• How valuable (in revenue) is each usuario?

If that information is available, it’s a great first step into creating a objetivo Cost Per Install goal.

Example: Creating A “Cost Per Install” Goal

For example, say the LTV of an average usuario is $250 over the course of one year. Additionally, you’ve been given a budget of $10,000/month with the goal of generating 3,500 installs.

Here’s a fácil way to break this down if the Cost Per Install is realistic.

• $250/12 (months) = $20.83 average monthly revenue per usuario.
• $10,000/3,500 installs = $2.86 per install.

The objetivo average of $2.86 Cost Per Install is much lower than the average monthly revenue generated per usuario of $20.83. This fácil math tells you that with your given budget, you should easily be able to reach your goals.

When setting a campaign bid strategy, it’s important to note that with the ‘Install volume’ setting, you should really put a CPI cap in there to avoid unrealistic targets. Make sure to equipo an initial CPI high enough to give Google plus the data it needs to take off and serve ads.

If using the “first open” event as the conversion metric, it’s important to equipo the “Cost Per Install” objetivo higher than if just using the Google plus Play “Install” source.

There will always be a discrepancy between Google plus Play “Installs” and a “first open” event because the latter is only measured once.

3. Segment iOS & Android Campaign Budgets by Performance

It’s always important to know who your objetivo audience is.

The problem with Aplicación campaigns is that there’s not a lot of data on who is seeing the ads, let alone being able to use audience segments.

After working in Aplicación campaigns for years, I’ve found that iOS campaigns typically have a higher Cost Per Install than Android Aplicación campaigns.

The funny thing? This is typically the opposite of what is reported in other platforms such as Misión Ads.

At the end of the day, it comes down to what aplicación is being promoted and who the objetivo audience is.

If you’ve got strict goals for your campaigns, it’s wise to segment campaign budgets accordingly based on performance.

Example: Segmenting Budgets By Performance

If the blended objetivo “Cost Per Install” is $2, you may see Android campaigns performing more efficiently at $1.50 or less. On the other hand, you may see iOS campaigns performing over $5 CPI.

In the scenario above, more budget would then be allocated to Android campaigns due to lower CPI, with a smaller budget and higher CPI objetivo for iOS.

A good starting point to test both operating systems for Aplicación Install campaigns would be:

• 65% budget to Android.
• 35% budget to iOS.

The percentages perro (and should) fluctuate based on performance.

It’s important not to equipo the iOS campaign budget too low in correlation to its respective CPI objetivo. Otherwise, the campaign may not be competitive enough to serve ads.

In the example below, this iOS campaign had to equipo a objetivo CPI of $15 due to the nature of the aplicación, as well as that a “first open” event is necessary to measure installs.

With a $15 CPI, the campaign budget required a minimum daily budget of $150 to start serving. Remember, every campaign is different depending on the aplicación being promoted.

As a reminder, Apple Aplicación Store does not send an automatically created conversion of “Downloads” because the two platforms do not talk to each other.

4. Objetivo Users More Willing To Perform In-Aplicación Actions

Imagine this scenario.

You successfully launch your first Universal Aplicación campaigns, and the install volume and “Cost Per Install’ goals are performing well above your expectations!

A few months go by with regular reporting meetings with clients, and then they hit you with an unexpected remark:

“We’re getting a lot of installs, but an uninstall rate of over 60%. Why is the quality so bad?”

Because of the advanced automation of these campaigns, that puts you in a tough position to answer!

Many factors result in high uninstall rates that are out of your control; however, as an advertiser, it’s not a good look to say, “We don’t have control over many factors.”

But if the Aplicación Install campaigns are driving the majority of installs for an aplicación, it’s time to take action.

If choosing Install volume as the conversion goal for new usuario campaigns, there is another setting that is often overlooked: All users vs. Users likely to perform an in-aplicación action.

Changing the type of users you want to objetivo to Users likely to perform an in-aplicación action may drastically improve the quality of aplicación installs.

While the quality of downloads, hopefully correlating with a decreased uninstall rate, this setting may disminuye the overall volume of installs and potentially increase Cost Per Install.

It is imperative to monitor performance and make adjustments accordingly. Communicating this setting change proactively cánido also help mitigate any questions if performance becomes volatile while back in the learning phase.

5. Create Clear, Compelling Assets & Content

This may be the most important recommendation of all.

With Universal Aplicación campaigns, advertisers provide Google plus with a mixture of these elementos to create an Aplicación Install ad:

• Headlines.
• Descriptions.
• Logotipos.
• Images.
• Vídeos.
• Assets from the aplicación store listing.

From there, Google plus’s algorithm pieces together effective ad formats based on what network the ad is shown on.

Sometimes, an image doesn’t espectáculo at all, and a usuario sees a basic text ad. Other times, an image takes up the majority of the ad, with little information coming from the text itself.

Aplicación Install ads are eligible to espectáculo on the following networks:

• Search.
• Google plus Play.
• YouTube.
• Display Network.
• Discover on Google plus Search.

Because assets and content are within the company’s control, it cannot be stressed enough how important it is to develop assets that have the following:

• Strong call-to-actions.
• Strong brand recognition.
• A clear understanding of what your aplicación does. (What pain points does it solve for a usuario? Identify these in your messaging!)

The point is to make it clear to a usuario what exactly the aplicación cánido do for them and then deliver that promise once they install the aplicación.

Having clear content will also likely weed out any potential irrelevant customers who may download the aplicación and then uninstall it right away.

Speaking of content, there’s a brand-new feature that gives marketers a bit more control from a palabras clave standpoint.

While usuario targeting is still automated, account-level negative palabras clave perro now be used for Aplicación Install campaigns.

This means that you cánido now exclude search terms from your campaigns to ensure the aplicación ad is not shown for irrelevant searches.

Summary

Depending on the advertiser, performance metrics may be judged on the quantity of installs vs. the quality of installs.

Targeting and optimization settings for Aplicación campaigns should be based on your company goals.

By focusing on what you perro control, you’ll come armed and prepared to execute effective Aplicación campaigns and recommendations based on data.

More resources: 

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