Apps are almost on the cusp of becoming a necessity for businesses to succeed. More and more companies are starting to realize that having a mobile app makes it easy for their customers/ clients to use their products and services faster and easier. Having to open up a browser window and type in a URL just isn’t fast enough anymore — even if the mobile website is optimized and looking great.
Whether or not you’ve created an app already, are on the fence about it, or haven’t given it much thought, the latest announcement from Google can help give you more information and possibly aid in your decision (or even understanding) of apps for companies.
How the New Google Universal App Campaign Works
In the same way that you want the Google search engine to help rank your website and the Facebook search engine to help rank your account, you want the app store to help rank your app so that you can reach a targeted audience. People find apps by doing searches in the app store, watching videos, seeing app advertisements online, and more, which is where this new feature comes into play.
Google made an official announcement about what is called Google Universal App Campaigns, a new AdWords campaign type, that will help developers and advertisers connect app users across Google search, Google Play, YouTube, and the Display Network. In other words, it allows you to better promote your app across networks and therefore reach a larger audience.
Get Started with Google Universal App Campaigns
You can get started by simply visiting the Google Play Developer Console. You give AdWords your cost-per install number, tell them what audience you want to reach, and then you’re done.
The campaign type will then do everything for you including scale your reach and pull in your app images, videos, and app description directly from your Google Play store in order to create ad formats that look good on all of the different networks. Below is a screenshot from the announcement that shows how it works:
The announcement says, “From there, our systems will optimize your campaigns using dynamic learning to maximize app install volume at your target cost-per-install. By testing different versions of your ad text and app images in each of the eligible Google networks, we determine the highest-performing variations so only your best ads show.”
What It Means to You
According to a MarketingLand article, eMarketer estimates that mobile app installs are expected to increase from $1.47 billion in 2014 to $3 billion this year — 10.4 percent of total mobile ad spending. In other words, it means a lot to you.
As discussed in the introduction, this is just one more way to automate your reach and make sure that your app is getting in front of the most eyes (most relevant eyes to be exact) as possible. This naturally should help improve success rate for app developers and businesses trying to break into the app market, so now is a great time to get started if you haven’t already. If you have, then using this new campaign type is a no-brainer.
The Google Universal App Campaigns will be rolling out to developers and advertisers in the next coming months. We expect to see some great results, but let us know what you find.
Republished by permission. Original here.
Mobile Apps Photo via Shutterstock
