Google’s Universal App Campaigns Now Available To All Advertisers In AdWords

Google’s all-in-one campaign type for Android app developers is rolling out globally.

Universal App Campaigns enable app marketers to reach users across search, YouTube, the Google Display Network, and Google’s in-app advertising network AdMob. The idea is to make campaign creation, execution and management as simple as possible while offering access to the scale Google can offer.

Ad bids are based on cost-per-install targets set by app marketers, and all of the creative assets are automatically pulled from the Google Play store.

Advertisers enter four lines of ad copy that can be used in varying dynamic formats across Google’s advertising properties and networks. App developers can also set location and language targets, budget.

“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,” writes Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior Vice President, Ads and Commerce at Google, in a blog post.

Google first introduced Universal App Campaigns at its annual I/O developer conference in May. Monday’s roll-out coincides with the kick-off of Advertising Week in New York City where Ramaswamy will discuss this new campaign type as well as the company’s decision to enable advertisers to upload customer email lists into AdWords for targeting.

Mobile app install advertising has grown exponentially in the past couple of years. Spending to promote app installs is expected to increase from $1.47 billion in 2014 to $3 billion this year — 10.4 percent of total mobile ad spending — according to eMarketer estimates.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

As Third Door Media’s paid media reporter, Ginny Marvin writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land and Marketing Land. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, Ginny has held both in-house and agency management positions. She provides search marketing and demand generation advice for ecommerce companies and can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.

(Some images used under license from Shutterstock.com.)