App Marketing News Update 9.2.17

Check out a few of the updates in mobile app marketing, as of September 2017:

Google Adwords Moves to UAC-Only for App Install Ads

TechCrunch, among many others heralded the end of Google's non-UAC app install campaigns (display, YouTube, search), as Google announced its intentions to kill non-UAC campaigns in November, 2017.

While Google UAC campaigns are easier to set up and run because:

1. They do not require targeting settings (i.e. keywords, interests, etc.).
2. They only require ad text suggestions, rather than full ads.
3. They have a simple, single bidding option per campaign.

Google UAC campaigns are more difficult to master for the same reasons that they are easy to run:

1. They offer less delivery, bidding, and creative control.
2. They are more integrated with your app than prior campaigns, which were self-contained ad content.

Without good creative and a solid app rating/listing, Google UAC campaigns will perform poorly and fail to scale. Prior to UAC, marketers could rely on structural/mechanical tweaks to improve performance, with less of a reliance on creative and app-based signals.

That said, several new abilities are being added to UAC campaigns to offer more optimization levers for skilled adwords marketers, including at present creative reporting (with a breakdown of how often ads are served, as indicated by "low/good/best" performance grouping labels), with more to come.

The Bottom Line: Google Adwords will now become an easier platform to manage, but a harder platform to master.

Apple Adds CPA Goal Column

Apple added a new column for ad group CPA goal to its ad group-level UI view. This makes it faster for advertisers who manage campaigns through the UI to edit the CPA goal of an ad group, as well as add a CPA to an ad group that does not have one.

The Bottom Line: Apple makes it easier to manage CPA goals for ad groups; this not only indicates more of Apple's commitment to improving the Search Ads product, but also hints at the fact that using a CPA goal is important. 

Search Ads Tools Arrive

Nearly one year later, the market for Search Ads tools has finally been established. Here are some of the current tools available:

Several ASO tools, such as Mobile Action and AppTweak have released extensions to their products to help Search Ads managers get the job done, including an estimate of the elusive search impression share data point:

Mobile Actions's impression share feature

AppTweaks's share of voice feature

Other Search Ads tools include insights tool AppBI (spotted by Thomasbcn), as well as full search ads management tools SearchAdsHQ (created by SplitMetrics) and AdAhead.

Search Ads tool, SearchAdsHQ

The Bottom Line: Several Apple Search Ads tools have been created to help ASA managers overcome Apple's platform and data deficiencies. Try several to figure out which is best for your needs.

Other News

September has arrived, and with it the impending release of iOS 11! Don't forget to check out our visual guide here.

The release of our Advanced App Store Optimization book is also coming soon – Tuesday, September 4th. We'll announce the launch via the ASO Stack Medium blog.

 

That's all for now, folks! Be sure to bookmark our blog, sign up to our email newsletter for new post updates and reach out if you're interested in working with us.

Incipia is a mobile app development and marketing agency that builds and markets apps for companies, with a specialty in high-quality, stable app development and keyword-based marketing strategy, such as App Store Optimization and Apple Search Ads. For post topics, feedback or business inquiries please contact us, or send an inquiry to hello@incipia.co.