Google has a new mobile app download ad format aimed at making it easier for people to download advertisers’ apps. It works with iTunes or the Google Play Store.
The format is only available for those who have upgraded to enhanced campaign settings.
“With enhanced campaigns, click-to-download ads will no longer trigger the app icon, so once you upgrade to enhanced campaign settings we recommend also creating new app promotion ads to replace your click-to-download ads,” Google notes.
To create the ads, open the campaign in AdWords, select the Ads tab, click “new ad,” and pick “App / digital content ad” as your template. Then, select the “App promotion ad.”
From there, you can choose your platform (Android/iOS), and enter the app package name or app ID.
Google says that new apps might take up to 24 hours to appear in its search results, and that the app promotion ads will only show on the devices upon which the apps can be installed.
Larry Kim, CTO of Worstream, who was an early partner on Google’s Enhanced Capaigns, tells WebProNews of the new format, “It’s a huge improvement in terms of ease of use and ad intelligence over the previous way of doing this.”
“The app Market is huge,” he says. “A $30 billion market in 2012 that didn’t even exist 5 years ago.” He notes that there are over 700,000 apps in both iTunes/Google Play stores, 40 Billion app Downloads on iTunes, etc.
“This new ad format is smart,” says Kim. “It just works. If your app works only on iOS tablets, then it will only show up to users that are using iOS tablets. The advertiser doesn’t have to fiddle around with dumb settings or anything. As a result, the ROI is better. Driving downloads and reviews to your mobile app is the key to getting good rankings in the app marketplace, and this is a very easy/cost effective way to do that.”
Kim shares more of his thoughts about the offering in his own post.