Google App Campaigns tuned to iROAS or tCPA — not to Google's default.
Universal App Campaigns rotate assets on our cadence, bid to your economic target, and map each ad group to a Play Store Listing Experiment so paid traffic never lands on stale creative.
What we actually run on this channel.
Every structure below maps to a decision your finance team should have a view on — not a template we run because the platform recommends it.
Install (iROAS)
For subscription and in-app-purchase apps — bid to a return target on Day 7 or Day 30 events.
Install (tCPA)
For utility and free apps where install-quality proxies for revenue. Event schema tuned around meaningful actions.
In-app action
Post-install optimisation — trial start, subscription, purchase. Requires a clean event schema before we launch.
Pre-registration
Pre-launch demand capture — mapped to a launch-day metadata plan, not a standalone tactic.
How we take this channel from zero to compound.
Same four-beat wave as our organic practice. Nothing about paid earns a different rhythm.
Event schema
Audit and rebuild your post-install event schema so the bid model has meaningful signal on day one.
Asset build
20+ assets per group — headlines, descriptions, portrait/landscape video, HTML5 where relevant.
Learn phase
Explicit learn-budget scoped. No optimisation actions during learn — we watch it, not steer it.
Compound
Winning assets promoted to Store Listing Experiments; losing assets killed at 14 days regardless of Google's recommendation.
- Portrait video + landscape video + at least 5 image variants per ad group at launch.
- Asset rotation on a 14-day review cadence — Google's 'learning' status is not an excuse to keep dead creative alive.
- Store Listing Experiments run in parallel — winning UAC creative becomes the new organic control.
- iROAS or tCPA reported against your written target, not against Google's recommended bid.
- Firebase / GA4 event schema documented and re-audited quarterly.
- Monthly board-ready deck with a written note on which decisions are safe from the data.
- We optimise to your economic target, not Google's tCPI recommendation.
- Every ad group maps to a Play Store Listing Experiment. Paid never lands on stale organic creative.
- Media spend billed to you directly by Google — we never touch client cash.
Questions we get about this channel.
Why not just optimise for installs?+
Because tCPI optimises for the cheapest install, not the most valuable one. For any app monetising on subscription, IAP, or ads, tCPI leaves 30–60% of value on the table within 90 days.
Do you handle Firebase setup?+
Yes — event schema, conversion linking, and audience audits. We treat the tracking stack as scope, not a prerequisite the client has to solve.
What about Play Store Listing Experiments?+
Included. Winning UAC creative gets promoted to a Listing Experiment; winning experiments push back into the default listing. Paid feeds organic.
Can you run Google Ads only?+
See Apple Search Ads FAQ — same rule. Paid without ASO burns cash. We scope with a written economic forecast.
Want us to scope paid UA on this channel?
45-minute audit. You leave with a written unit-economics read on whether this channel is worth your next dollar of spend.