As of today, Google’s app promotion ads, first launched on the Display Network in June, are now available across the Google Search and YouTube networks.

It’s great news for app promoters, particularly those interested in the YouTube network, where users are 2.2x more likely to download apps. Promoting an app on YouTube is as simple as linking the app’s ID to an active TrueView campaign.

TrueView Mobile App Promotion Ads

On YouTube, app promotion ads improve TrueView ads by directing users straight to the right app store for downloading. You can select an ad format designed for app promotion that shows the app’s name, icon, price, and ratings next to the video ad and in the ad preview.

Advertisers can target YouTube audience members based on whether they’ve viewed content relevant to the app, have interests relevant to the app or view videos on specific topics.

Though Google’s official announcement doesn’t mention it, the Help resource they link to says app promotion ads will only run on mobile, not desktop.

Google’s app promotion ads are designed to get apps in front of the right audience when the information a person is searching for lives inside an app.

Your ads won’t display to people who already have the app.

Google is encouraging advertisers to use app promotion ads in search for both new installs and to encourage reengagement.

Mobile app re-engagement campaigns are currently in beta (you can sign up to try it here). These are the ads that will deeplink into specific pages in an already installed app when a user searches for information relevant to an app they already have installed.

app promotion ads

Advertisers can use remarketing lists to reach specific groups of users based on their interactions with the app. This includes people who haven’t used the app in a while, those on certain versions, and those who performed specific actions in the app. Since 80% of ads are only seen once, this feature will be appreciated by app advertisers.

Google is offering a training webinar on September 18 to go over campaign set-up and management. Sign up for Promoting Your App on Google Search here.

Measurement for AdWords App Ads

With the announcement came a number of new insights for search ads advertisers, including:

  • App download conversions – and if it’s an Android app from the Play store, installs display as conversions in AdWords without any extra set-up.
  • The ability to integrate third-party app tracking analytics information with AdWords and see installs counted as conversions by enabling auto-tagging.
  • Automated bidding using Target CPA when creating the app campaign to find the optimal bid without waiting for conversion history to accumulate.

Who Can Use These App Promotion Ads?

Any company with an app should go over the different options Google has just introduced and see if there’s an opportunity to get in front of a new audience or boost engagement. As they pointed out in their announcement, Google Search processes over a billion queries a day and sometimes, the information people are looking for lives inside an app.

Specific use cases in the release included Retale, an app that helps people find deals in their city, who said their new app installs using Google Search app promotion ads have cost about $2 each. Another was MachineZone, a mobile game developer that used YouTube app promotion ads to find new users.

A rep from children’s story time app FarFaria, an early user of the Search app promotion ads, said, “Google’s mobile search campaigns allow us to connect instantly with users the moment they are searching for our app. Using the enhanced keyword tool to expand our campaign we were able to unlock 30% more downloads of our app than before on Google.com while maintaining an excellent CTR of 3%.”

Basically, if you have an app, you’re going to want to at least try out Google Search and YouTube app promotion ads. You simply can’t ignore an audience that massive.

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