Last year at Google I/O, the company shared its mission to make app growth easier with the launch of Universal App Campaigns – one simple campaign that surfaces apps to billions of consumers who use Google Play, Search, YouTube, and more. It’s working, and more people are discovering apps on Google than ever before. Over the past year — and thanks to Universal App Campaigns – Google has more than doubled the volume of app installs driven by ads, and to date it has delivered more than 2 billion downloads to developers.
But Google is not stopping there, and today at Google I/O, the company announced new ads and insights to make it easy for developers and marketers to find more of the right users for their apps. In a Google Hangout session with select media members, Sissie Hsiao, Director of Product Management, Mobile App Advertising and Francis Ma, Senior Product Manager. Developer Product Group elaborated on Universal App Campaigns as well as on Firebase Analytics.
Making app growth simple for iOS developers
Universal App Campaigns are expanding beyond Android to help developers grow their iOS apps. Now, all app developers can tap into the simplicity and power of Universal App Campaigns to reach billions of Android and iOS users on YouTube, the Google Search App, and the Google Display Network. Universal App Campaigns for iOS are available in beta today and will roll out to all developers in the near future.
Finding more valuable users with less effort
A recent study showed that 17% of users drive 85% of app revenue, which is why successful app developers are shifting their focus from driving volume to finding more of the right users. For app developers who want to find those users most likely to take meaningful actions, like reach level ten of their game, purchase that new camera, or book a vacation we’re making it easier than ever.
Moving forward, Universal App Campaigns will automate targeting and bidding to find your most valuable users based on your in app conversions, moving past the target CPI model Google offers today. Just tell Google the in app events that are valuable to you, and they will do the rest.
Google models evaluate countless signals and unique insights into intent, and constantly learn and adjust, meaning every single optimization is based on the freshest, most relevant data. The best thing for app developers is that the company does all the hard work in the background, predicting which users will be valuable and acquiring them at the right price. Universal App Campaigns now offer advertisers more high quality app users, with less effort. These innovations are in testing and will roll out in the coming months.
Pocket Gems has already been leaning on the automation of Universal App Campaigns to find quality users at scale, as David Rose, Director of Performance Marketing said: “Universal App Campaigns have helped us acquire users with a higher LTV compared to other acquisition channels. We’re particularly excited about how the next generation of Universal App Campaigns will enable us to iterate quickly and optimize for the actions that matter most to our business. This is an app marketer’s dream – more valuable users, less effort.”
Screenshots of mobile users discovering the Pocket Gems War Dragons app on Google Play and Google.com, powered by Universal App Campaigns
More ways to reach your most valuable customers
That’s not all. Google is creating more chances for developers to show ads where users go to watch, discover, and communicate. Universal App Campaigns will soon reach more users on YouTube, as well as introduce a new opportunity to reach users on top of tabs in Gmail.
Insights made for apps
Finally, Google knows app developers need the best user insights to build better apps and power their marketing campaigns, so they are particularly excited about Firebase Analytics, their new analytics platform designed for apps from the ground-up that was announced at Google I/O earlier today. It provides prebuilt engagement and in-app actions that will help manage your conversions and lifetime value for AdWords campaigns and over 20 third-party ad networks. If you’re an AdWords user you can funnel these conversions into AdWords so it’s even easier to optimize campaigns to the things you care about.
SparkPeople, one of Google’s early testers in the health and fitness sector, is already gaining more insights and taking a longer term view of app audience growth by linking AdWords accounts to Firebase.
“AdWords is a crucial part of my customer acquisition strategy,” notes Joe Robb, Digital Marketing Director, SparkPeople. “Linking my AdWords account to Firebase was incredibly easy, and now I can see total lifetime value for all users I’ve brought in from AdWords, broken down by campaign. The ability to sync my AdWords data to Firebase Analytics has simplified my daily management and optimization from hours to minutes, so I can spend more time building an app my users will love.”
Google looks forward to helping many more developers build and grow successful businesses. At Google I/O, the company will be sharing essential insights and best practices on how to drive growth with Google tools. You can take part too by viewing the live streamed and recorded sessions here.
In photos are Sissie Hsiao, Director of Product Management, Mobile App Advertising for Google and Francis Ma, Senior Product Manager, Developer Product Group for Google
