Advertising your gaming app with Google. Tips, tricks and best practices (White Nights Moscow 2015)

1. Confidential & ProprietaryConfidential & Proprietary
App Promotion for Gaming
Ekaterina Makarova, EMEA App Promotion Specialist, Dublin
Amgalan Bazarov, App Strategist, Dublin

2. Confidential & Proprietary
Source: VentureBeat Mobile User Acquisition Study, 2014
However
1 in 6
users never
spend in apps
of installed
apps are
used once
80%
App Economics Today
< avg LTVavg CPI
Not all installs (or users) have the same value

3. Confidential & Proprietary
Measure & Action
Use Conversion
Optimizer
$
Bid
Smarter
Remarket to
Valuable
Customers

4. Confidential & Proprietary
Search
on Google.com
Watch
on YouTube
Engage
with Apps
Surf
the Web
Discover
on Play
Google can help reach users in the right mindset
to install your app while they...

5. Confidential & Proprietary
Source: Google/Ipsos, Mobile App Marketing Insights: How Consumers Really Find and Use Your Apps (U.S.), May 2015,
Base: Average among those in each vertical who downloaded an app based on ads seen on a smartphone, Google/Ipsos Survey
Q.14 Which of the following types of online advertisements have prompted you to download a/an [...] app? Select all that apply.
Types of ads that prompted app downloads among app users whose
download was influenced by ads on a smartphone
search ads
banner / graphical ads in apps
banner / graphical ads in websites
video ads
47%
45%
43%
50%
Challenge: User behavior

6. Confidential & Proprietary
Search

7. Proprietary & Confidential
Reach the Right Users Across Mindsets
By running ads on Google.
com, the Google Search
Network and Google Play, you
reach users at the moment
they are searching for new
apps.
1
Google Search includes the Google Search Network

8. Confidential & Proprietary
Google Play Ads
Google.com Google Play

9. Confidential & Proprietary
Google Play Ads
Can I only target the Play Store or see performance specific to Play
Store?
No
Is Google Play a targeting option via Search Partners (AFS)?
No
How can my ads quality be optimized?
Focus on optimizing CTR, landing page (Play store page) quality, ad text
relevancy

10. Confidential & Proprietary
Display

11. Confidential & Proprietary
App Promo Ads: Simplicity and Automation
Confirmed clicks will prevent
accidental clicks by confirming the
user’s intention before driving to the
download page.
Ads will be automatically excluded
from showing to users who have
already downloaded the app.
The App Promotion text template ad
will automatically expand to become an
interstitial ad when you win an eligible
auction.

12. Confidential & Proprietary
A new UI for App Install Interstitials
Only clickable on the round ‘INSTALL’ button
OLD UI NEW UI
Pulls in cover photo from respective
App Store when available
More Images button expands
to scrollable screenshot carrousel
Material Design: auto-color matching for
footer and install button to match the
dominant color in your cover photo

13. Confidential & Proprietary
#1: Extend to mSites
+28%

14. Confidential & Proprietary
#2: Conversion Optimizer
Turn CO on from the very first day of a campaign to
immediately start optimizing towards your target CPI.
Android will automatically work at campaign start, iOS will
wait to confirm one IDFA ping from third party.
Give the campaign 2 weeks or ~150 conversions to
stabilize before making changes to the campaign. The best
campaigns wait 4-6 weeks before evaluating performance,
because the machine learning algorithm takes time to ‘learn’
where to find conversions at your target CPI.

15. Confidential & Proprietary
Delivers high conversion rates and user quality due to the
‘pre-qualification’ of a video view.
Pull video directly from YouTube or the Google Play store,
no uploads necessary. Auto-plays immediately when
phones are in portrait mode, and after 1.5 seconds when
phones are in landscape mode.
App store data is automatically pulled into the interstitial,
including the app name, price, ratings, and icon. You
customize your desired headline and two lines of text
#3: Video App Promo Ads on In-App Inventory

16. Confidential & Proprietary
INSTALLED APP TARGETING Reach users who love apps like yours,
mapped to the Play and/or Apple Store app categories
APP CATEGORY TARGETING Show in apps in a given Play and/or App Store app category
(ie. Strategy Games etc)
PAID USERS Reach users based on their purchasing behaviour
NEW DEVICES TARGETING Reach users who have purchased their mobile phones in the
last
7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days.
PLACEMENT TARGETING Isolate high-value App placements
#4: Powerful Targeting - Reach the right user

17. Confidential & Proprietary
#5: Bring users back into your app with deep linking

18. Confidential & Proprietary
YouTube

19. Confidential & ProprietaryConfidential & Proprietary
of viewing on
Source: YouTube UK, Media Pack 2014
happens on a mobile device
50%

20. Confidential & Proprietary
Use sight, sound and motion to showcase an app and
drive high quality installs
With TrueView, you only pay when a user watches your
video. Keyword, category, placement and demographic
targeting maximizes relevance for optimal engagement
Note: The companion will slide under the video once the ad finishes, or is skipped. However,
the user can pull it down again.
Engage 1B+ YouTube users using TrueView for App
Install

21. Confidential & Proprietary
A YouTube built for gamers

22. Confidential & Proprietary
Link your Google Play account to your AdWords
account to enable this targeting feature.
The system uses both the user’s activity on
YouTube and the apps they have installed to
refine the predictive algorithm.
Improve CPI by up to ~50%
Tip: Similar User Targeting on YouTube

23. Confidential & Proprietary
Key Takeaways
Search Paid Users Youtube

24. Confidential & Proprietary
To do:
Search
YouTube
Text Ads + RON + CO for max volume
Add campaigns with higher bids to
reflect higher LTV of:
Video Ads + CO for In-App Buyers +
Other high-value user segments
App Install Ads on Google
Search and Play Store + App-
Specific Keywords + CO
Expand to all relevant
keywords
Use Remarketing List
for Search Ads
TrueView App Promo ads
targeting Similar Lists
Expand targeting as
much as possible
while maintaining
relevance
Evaluate cross-product
performance and optimize
budget allocation
Display
Set up
conversion
tracking
IMPLEMENT WEEK 2 WEEK 4
Measurement
SET UP
Monitor LTV at keyword level
- allocate more budget +
higher bids to keywords
driving higher LTV

25. Confidential & Proprietary
Спасибо!