💎 Growth Gems #115 - Paid UA (Google UAC)

Aug 06, 2024

Fellow growth practitioners!

I’ve been down in the growth mine quite a lot these last few weeks, and I'm excited to be back and share more gems 💎!

This week, I’m sharing Ashley Black's insights on Google Ads App Campaigns (Google UAC).

Mined from the depths, I hope these hard-dug gems prove useful.

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If you’ve been involved in mobile growth for some time, you’re most likely familiar with the ASO Conference.

I’ve mined many gems on ASO and ASA from previous editions (cf. here, here, and here). I’m excited about one BIG difference this year: the ASO conference “Goes Growth!”.

It covers topics across the growth loop: organic and paid acquisition, customer engagement and retention, and monetization.

And guess what? With the promo code “growthgems” at checkout, you can get an exclusive 25% off your ticket!

GET YOUR TICKET (25% OFF)

You’ll hear from some of my favorite mobile growth experts like Andy, Thomas, and Marcus, as well as many other exciting speakers like:

Paid Acquisition: Google app campaigns budget, measurement and reporting, creatives

Gems from Ashley Black (Ex-Google, now Founder at Candid Consulting) in An ex-Googler’s guide to winning on iOS for Google UAC campaigns (The Mobile User Acquisition Show), Do you need a Google-specific creative strategy? (Growth Masterminds Podcast) and An Ex-Googler’s Guide to Google UAC for iOS (App Masters Podcast)

Much has been said about Google UAC (yes - I still call it UAC), but it’s interesting to hear more about it from an ex-Google!

Ashley has been sharing insights in several places, and here I’m combining gems from three different podcast episodes she's been on.

I’m also using this opportunity to update my must-read LinkedIn carousel: “Google UAC gems you CAN’T ignore.”

Read on LinkedIn

Budget

💎 On Google UAC, you can’t go “too small” and spend only $100/day. You need to get enough impressions that you're testing a campaign correctly and have enough information. For a specific ad, 2000-5000 impressions are usually enough to know if it’s working and decide on changes.
(16:55) in An Ex-Googler’s Guide to Google UAC for iOS

After Steve pushed a bit, here is some guidance in terms of testing budgets:

iOS: $500/day
Android: $200-$300/day

You probably know this already, but she emphasized the importance of always having a bid. Otherwise, you’ll be asking Google to waste your money.

When setting a targetROAS (if that’s what you’re going for on Android), initially set it lower than what you’re looking for (e.g., 40% if your actual target is 50%).

💎 A way to scale a UAC campaign without changing the bids too much is to add a new ad group, because new ad groups perform well initially. You can try taking an asset that is performing well in an ad group and launching a new ad group with it.
(27:45) in An Ex-Googler’s Guide to Google UAC for iOS

This was quite a new take for me.

My experience of adding new ad groups after the campaign has launched is indeed that it gets a lot of impressions, and cannibalizes the other “stable” ones. This was also Nat’s take I shared in Growth Gems #33.

So, something to test…Maybe being careful of “theme overlap”?

💎 Having your campaigns “limited by budget” might serve ads to crappy traffic because in order for Google to keep your campaigns live throughout the day, they have to toggle your bids. Calculate your average CPM throughout the day to determine if that’s the case.
(37:25) in An Ex-Googler’s Guide to Google UAC for iOS

Ashley shared two examples in her post How “Limited by Budget” Google App Campaigns impact traffic quality. The first one shows a highly fluctuating Avg. CPM (indicating low-quality inventory), and the second one a pretty stable Avg. CPM.

The low Avg. CPM 4→11 indicates lower-quality traffic

To calculate your Avg. CPM throughout the day, go to Campaigns → Insights and Reports → When and where ads showed.

Measurement and reporting

💎 A significant portion of the traffic to Google App Campaigns on iOS originates from searches conducted within a mobile browser. SKAN 4 now tracks those conversions, even if it’s only from Safari for now (still the most used browser on iOS). Some advertisers have already made changes to their campaigns after seeing the newly measured data.
(14:45) in An ex-Googler’s guide to winning on iOS for Google UAC campaigns

Since there is no Play Store inventory, the YouTube inventory is the most important on iOS. However, Google search tends to convert well for apps, so being able to measurs those conversions with SKAN is a big deal.

Also, because YouTube is mainly used via a mobile app, SKAN measurement was already considered reasonably good for that inventory. Privacy thresholds still apply, though.

The options for iOS campaigns if you’ve made the switch to SKAN 4:

Optimize/Bid for a Firebase event (e.g., a post-install event like “start trial”), measure with Google’s modeled conversions and SKAN
Optimize/Bid for SKAN installs, measure with Google’s modeled conversions and SKAN (beware of optimizing for installs)
[Requires being in a beta] Optimize/Bid for a SKAN conversion value (e.g., a post-install event like “start trial” - ⚠️ it needs to happen within the first 24 hours!), measure with Google’s modeled conversions and SKAN

Here is a LinkedIn post from David Vargas when he tried a SKAN 4.0 Campaign in Google Ads, where he optimized for SKAN installs.

💎 Ramping up Google App Campaigns on iOS is still challenging and expensive. However, YouTube will now start asking for the ATT opt-in, so there is hope that measurement will improve.
(19:30) in Do you need a Google-specific creative strategy?

John mentioned that YouTube might get good ATT opt-in rates because it is a trusted brand. This should improve Google’s conversion model, making Option 1 above better than it was before. Of course, people will still need to opt into ATT through the advertised app.

💎 On Android, bidding on Firebase events is a must: it will increase performance because some of the data collected is related to device ID. On iOS, you might not see an increase in performance, but there is no harm in bidding for Firebase events. For both platforms, Firebase will be the gatekeeper for any new features and products (e.g., on-device measurement for iOS).
(17:30) in An ex-Googler’s guide to winning on iOS for Google UAC campaigns

On-device measurement for iOS works for apps that collect email addresses and/or phone numbers and is Google’s way of mapping users with actions happening on Google’s ad networks (in what is supposed to be an Apple-privacy-compliant way).

I have not tried this yet.

💎 Dig deep in the Google UI to find hidden features/data like viewing ad placements to identify underperforming areas or high-traffic sources; you can then ask your rep to block certain apps to optimize ad performance or leverage the insights for outside-of-google initiatives.
(17:28) in Do you need a Google-specific creative strategy?

I believe Ashley is referring to the not-so-well-known App campaigns placement Report. It’s worth looking at it, but:

There are no details for “Google Owned & Operated,” which usually represents the most significant share of Impressions by far
You can only get Impressions data, nothing about Clicks and conversions 😢

Still, you can understand more about the apps and videos where your ads are displayed. Use Filter → “App campaigns placement type” to visualize Impressions by type of placement.

💎 Explore the “Columns” options of your Google App Campaigns reporting to find data advertisers rarely know about. Example: you can get the “View rate” of your YouTube video for In-stream, In-feed, and Shorts videos.
(14:15) in Do you need a Google-specific creative strategy?

Below is the kind of data you can get on view rates, which informs you to some extent about video placements.

If you want actual performance per video, I also recommend:

Looking at each video asset performance in Google Ads
Looking at video analytics directly on YouTube for your different assets (if you use “unlisted” videos, you know the data is only from your App Campaign)

When using the ad group reporting UI, here are some more basic recommendations from me:

Make sure you have the “All conv.” column: when you segment by “Conversions → Conversion action”, this allows you to see all the different conversions (even for the events you’re not optimizing for)
Frequently segment by “Network (with search partners)” so you can understand where your ads are placed (Search vs. Display vs. YouTube)

Two less-known Segments:

1/ Top vs. Other - understand where your Google search ads display

2/ Ad destination - for Android, you can better understand the performance of just the Play Store inventory (“App store”)

💎 You can see the “Devices” breakdown in Insights -> “Where and When ads are shown” → “Devices”. You can define a bid adjustment; however, it’s not clear if it actually goes into effect.
(32:40) in An Ex-Googler’s Guide to Google UAC for iOS

This gives you some insights on the type of device you’re reaching users on and how they perform.

💎 Having a Google Ads representative can provide access to advanced reporting insights not available in the front-end UI. Example: data going beyond the “Network” Segment (Search, YouTube, Display), like % of ads going to Shorts, Play Browse vs. Play Search, etc.
(13:20) in Do you need a Google-specific creative strategy?

There are also other benefits to having a Google rep:

Adding negative keywords at the campaign level (not just the account level)
Running video-only campaigns
Participating in betas like the one to bid on a SKAN conversion value
Getting occasional ad credit to try beta/features
Getting data shared from data.ai

However:

💎 The Google Ads product team doesn’t always relay all the information to the sales/account representatives(e.g., ATT-related changes); those are the only people available to app developers/advertisers. This can create ambiguity.
(24:10) in Do you need a Google-specific creative strategy?

There are also different levels of support from Google Ads reps, and not all betas are available depending on your support level.

Creatives

💎 In Conversion settings, you can opt-in for 6-second bumper ads. These perform well for some advertisers.
(14:50) in Do you need a Google-specific creative strategy?

Here is more about bumper ads for App campaigns, measured with “engaged-view” conversions. On 6-second videos, I’m thinking this might lead to some over-attribution…

💎 If you’re not running video in a substantial way in Google Ads App Campaigns, you’re really limiting the amount of traffic and coverage you have on Google’s inventory. This is particularly true on iOS because Android has the Play Store inventory.
(21:05) in An ex-Googler’s guide to winning on iOS for Google UAC campaigns

💎 You need a strong video strategy if you’re running Google UAC. On Android, the video inventory is about 30%. On iOS, it’s closer to 60%.
(04:15) in An Ex-Googler’s Guide to Google UAC for iOS

💎 You need different creatives for Google’s different inventory types, even for YouTube itself. Advertisers often make the mistake of testing creatives on platforms like Meta and then directly applying them to Google without considering the different content types and audience behaviors. On YouTube itself, you have:
In-stream 16:9
Bumper (6s) 16:9
Shorts (where Meta/TikTok creatives might perform well)
Homepage 16:9
(07:35) in Do you need a Google-specific creative strategy?

Ashley insisted that only having UGC content on YouTube limits performance. She shared the example of someone about to watch an SNL clip on YouTube, where there are probably better formats than a UGC-style video to advertise within pre-roll.

In the App Masters episode, she also mentioned you need to make sure you have these ads in various durations (15-second spot, 30-second spot).

💎 Consider your app type when deciding where to invest creative effort because your category significantly influences the traffic it receives from Google. Therefore, fitness or fintech apps receive higher search traffic and need to spend more time on their text assets. Mobile games primarily rely on AdMob and YouTube inventories and might want to spend more time on their videos.
(16:01) in Do you need a Google-specific creative strategy?

The one placement she mentioned she wouldn’t invest in was banner ads.

💎 You can use a metric like IPM to compare similar assets (e.g., headline vs. headline), but you can not use it to compare different kinds of assets (e.g., headline vs. banner).
(26:30) in An Ex-Googler’s Guide to Google UAC for iOS

I hope these were useful. Make sure you also read Ashley’s post How to run iOS campaigns with Google.

Before I leave, here is a quote from outside of the mobile growth world that still applies very well (beware of proxies!):

“When a metric becomes a goal, it ceases to be a good metric” - Aaron Dignan (Founder of The Ready)

See you next time.

Stay curious!

⛏️ Sylvain

🔗 Sources:

Do you need a Google-specific creative strategy? on the Growth Masterminds Podcast
An ex-Googler’s guide to winning on iOS for Google UAC campaigns on The Mobile User Acquisition Show
An Ex-Googler’s Guide to Google UAC for iOS on the App Masters Podcast