Google Ads Universal App Campaign Setting is Not Universally Good

I know it's been a while since I've posted. I've been very distracted lately and when ideas pop into my head for a post, if I don't act on them it's usually too late. So, this is a post I thought about making a year ago but didn't act fast enough. So here goes...

Google Ads Universal App Campaign Settings is really not that great and I think it's a necessary evil if you have want to promote your app. It needs an upgrade badly but I'm afraid that Google's move into more automated campaign management means more of the same and less customizations rather than more. My biggest issue (and I'm not alone) is that you really can't optimize the campaign. You basically hand the keys over to Google to promote your app, hoping Google can deliver at your CPA. It's basically a magic box where you input basics like a link to your app, link to a YT video and some ad images. Yes I do believe after some time Google can deliver app downloads at your allowable cost but I want more control and I want it faster. I want more visibility but it's not there. What can you change? Not a whole heck of a lot.

SETTING UP A GOOGLE UNIVERSAL APP CAMPAIGN

When you set up a Universal App campaign, you can choose the following:

1. Which App Store you want to promote downloads from
2. Location options including exclusions. Note, when you do set this up Google automatically defaults to an option that infers location interest which I can't stand. Yes it works for restaurants and stores but when you are trying to specifically target people in an area you need to adjust this.
3. Target CPA
4. Budget, language, start and end dates
5. Creative Assets where you can specify a YouTube video, 5 lines of text, and images to upload

What else can you do? Well you need to make sure you set up your app conversions. If you don't have that then you are just throwing your money away with a Universal App Campaign setting. Here's what that looks like: Notice the grey text below the setting you typically could change; all of that "Not Editable" language. Yes that means you can't edit how Google counts App installs. Now, for me most of the settings are what I recommend except for one. That's the conversion window of 30 days. That means if someone clicks on a Google ad and installs the app within 30 days Google will attribute it back to the campaign. I'd shorten it to 2 days but can't. I've seen other clients want to change the attribution model but I usually go with last click too.

UNIVERSAL APP RESULTS

So after you get going you'll have to look in a few spots to see how you are doing. First if you want to see the creative results you click the Ad Assets tab and you can see results by the assets you've uploaded. Think your video should get served more because it performs the best? Guess again, you can't do that. 

Next you can click on overview and you get some pretty charts. You'll see a tab for devices but can you shut off any? No. Right below that is a tab for Network? Want to shut off say the display network? No can do. Next box over is time of day/ day of week targeting. Want to change that? Sorry, not available. Finally right above that you get a box for location results? Want to change that. Actually you can. That one is allowed (whew). How about adding some negative keywords? Nope.

When you dig around looking for help from Google you get basic platitudes about how to find the right user and how to optimize your universal app campaign. What does Google recommend? Add in more creative assets and adjust your bids slowly. That's nice. Looking for more tips? Well don't call their help line because after explaining your problem, you'll get no more answers than what's on those links. So what can you do? 

ERIC'S TIPS FOR OPTIMIZING YOUR UNIVERSAL APP CAMPAIGN

1. Follow Google's advice and just make tweaks to the creative and adjust your bids.
2. Maybe setup separate campaigns on your own breaking up search, display, and YouTube. That can work but you run into a few issues. The first is, you need to send your clicks somewhere. Your choices are the app store link or your website or perhaps a landing page hanging off your website. You will most likely run into some Quality Score issues sending into the app store link because it isn't your domain while the website/landing page adds extra steps. Sending them into your domain can help your QS issues but now you added at least one step to your user downloading the app.
3. My favorite option --> The Hybrid Option. If your results look anything like mine, maybe you can run both. Maybe you run Universal App Campaign settings for search and video and a separate campaign for the Display Network clicking through to a landing page. GDN campaigns use relevancy but I've found the penalty a lot less severe than search.

I get that Google wants to move to more programmatic optimizations. I'm willing to give Google some control but not letting me opt out of networks, optimize ads, etc is a bit much. Google will say, we can do it better but as of right now, I don't see it. There are differences between apps and the users of those apps; not being able to make changes is a problem. There are good work arounds that give you control and I suggest you do them. Good luck.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric