As of December 2017, Google App store was placed to have 3.5 million Apps on its Listings. Apple store follows close second to it, followed by Microsoft and Amazon. The sheer bulk of Apps floating in the Digital space has created the need for targeted marketing. The most efficient solution came in the form of Google’s Universal App Campaign (UAP) feature.Universal App Campaign is part of Google AdWords. Like AdWords, it is an online advertising service with Google Ad network and web users, but solely catering to Mobile App Developers. UPA was launched in 2015 and managed to completely replace all other App campaign options from AdWords in 2017.
How Does Universal App Campaign work?
For starters, a user would need to create an AdWords account and link it to their Google Play. Then from your Dashboard, you can select to launch a UAP Campaign. AdWords would use information provided by the user on Google Play to make sample Layouts for the Ads. These Ads based on cookies and keywords would be shown to likely users as top results in google searches. Also, as part of display ads, these advertisements will appear on YouTube and as a recommendation on Google Play.
How can I customize my Universal App Campaign?
You can give four Text Copies to run with your Ad and Google would use them in a rotation and figure out which one works the best. Similarly, you can add promotional videos and multiple visuals to your campaign. Google gives you control over putting in your best marketing copy and these are automatically fitted into ad templates. Also, your customizations are tried and tested by Google to narrow your campaign down to what generates an effective response.
How much would it cost to run an App campaign?
When it comes to running an App campaign we deal with something that is called Cost per Install (CPI) and Cost per Action (CPA). Under this, you are charged a fixed or bided amount by the Ad service (in this case Google) when someone downloads the App or completes an in-app Action. Now under our Universal App Campaign, we can set our objective as to either bring in first time users or to incentivize in-app actions. We set our daily budget and select our target CPI or CPA, which will tell Google how much money I am willing to spend in one day, for one unique conversion. Now UPA optimizes itself automatically and tries to lower the cost per install while ensuring the maximum reach.
How to bid my Target Cost per Install?
To project your most efficient Target CPI, you need to know the engagement of your App. An Intuitive way to do this is to use Firebase. It is a mobile and web application development service that was acquired by Google in 2014. It could analyze your Apps daily engagement. Once you link your Firebase account to your Google AdWords, you will be able to access the bid simulator. It will be presented with a chart that graphs your total cost per install, against the numbers of installs. The chart will show shaded regions which are called Confidence Intervals, these will indicate the most efficient Bid rate for your App. Also, initially your projected CPI will be high, but once Google starts to learn about the people who are likely to be the consumers of your App, the placement will become more targeted and more cost-efficient. To learn more about using the bid stimulator you can go to Google Support Tab.
Conclusion
For any Mobile App Developer, Google’s Universal App Campaign has become the all-in-one tool to reach maximum visibility. By November 15th of last year,“Adjust” forum reported that UAP was responsible for a total of 6 billion downloads. This is approximately half the share of downloads facilitated through App Advertisements.So if you are someone who has an efficient app and trying to reach the “it” audience for your product, do check out Google AdWords’ Universal App Campaign.
