Partners Blog
What's new @ Google? Tips and tools for agencies
App promoters: Are you prepared for a surge in downloads this holiday season?
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
With
29% of shoppers planning to purchase smartphones
this holiday season, there’s no doubt that some of the shiniest new mobile devices will be wrapped up under the tree this Christmas. Little time will be wasted before happy new smartphone and tablet owners begin searching for the best apps to fill these new devices. So it’s no surprise that according to
Google Trends
, during the week following Christmas last year, searches for “best tablet apps” rose by more than 70%, while searches for “free phone apps” jumped by about 37%. The holidays are prime time for app promotion, so it’s important for marketers to make sure their app stands out from the crowd.
Maximizing reach with search and display ads
Whether you have a shopping companion app, a banking app, or a mobile gaming app, it’s important to reach the right audience to drive downloads and increase awareness. Many marketers have made mobile work for them by using search and display strategies together to raise interest and drive downloads of their app.
TripIt
, a mobile travel organizer, used click-to-download ads on Google Search and the Google Display Network to promote their app to business travelers on the road. By creating and optimizing display ads within other apps, TripIt increased downloads by more than 75% and slashed cost-per-download by more than 96%. According to Rhonda Hanson, senior director of search marketing, promoting their app with mobile ads allowed TripIt to, “redirect the dollars we've saved on app promotion to improving our app and providing a better trip-organizer service to our business travelers.” Download the full case study
here
.
Maximizing ROI with Conversion Optimizer
Savvy advertisers also know they can take app promotion to the next level with optimization tools. Leading mobile game developer
GREE
promoted their apps to gamers using Google Search click-to-download ads along with image and text ads on the Google Display Network. To make sure they were getting the best return on investment for their in-app display ads, they used
Conversion Optimizer
for apps to reach their cost-per-download targets. This automated campaign optimization helped them improve app download rates by 150%, decrease cost-per-download by 52% and improve click-through rates by 49%. Download the full case study
here
.
If you haven’t already created your holiday app strategy, it’s not too late. Here are some things you can do to win across search and display:
Make sure you’re reaching people when they search for apps like yours and help them easily download your app with
click-to-download ads
and
mobile app extensions
Reach relevant users within over 300,000 premium apps on the Google Display Network with
image and text ads
Track downloads on
Android
and
iOS
with AdWords conversion tracking and optimize ROI with the automated bidding feature, the
Conversion Optimizer
for apps
Measure in-app user activity with
Mobile App Analytics
in order to optimize
Increase app promotion campaign budgets for the holidays to account for additional ad clicks
For more on how you can drive cost-effective app downloads with Google AdWords, check out this recorded
Learn with Google webinar
.
Posted by Jessica Sapick, Product Marketing Manager, Mobile
Better bids, better ads, more downloads: New app promotion tools for advertisers
Monday, September 10, 2012
With more than one million apps currently in the Google Play and iTunes Stores, we know that those of you advertising apps are looking for ways to drive valuable installs at scale while helping your apps stand out from the crowd. We recently launched several app promotion features designed to help those of you who have created an app promotion campaign in AdWords, or are considering creating an app promotion campaign, maximize your return on investment.
CPA Bidding with Conversion Optimizer
You are constantly looking for ways to easily optimize your campaigns and attract the right customers at the right cost. Google’s
Conversion Optimizer
helps increase conversions across our search and display networks while decreasing cost per acquisition. Conversion Optimizer analyzes historical conversion data and adjusts bids on an ongoing basis to help you maximize your ROI. We're now extending the power of this automated bidding feature to app advertisers to help you drive efficient app installs at scale.
With Conversion Optimizer, instead of a traditional CPC bid, you can set a target cost per acquisition (CPA), based on your average cost per download. Conversion Optimizer will use historical conversion data and other signals to place CPC bids automatically, in order to hit the target CPA with as much volume as possible. While results vary per campaign, strong early results from our beta campaigns show a 20%+ decrease in cost per install with the addition of Conversion Optimizer. It’s important to note that Target CPA bidding does not guarantee a particular cost per install. The tool is now available to all advertisers that have created app promotion campaigns, and we’re excited to help you move beyond manual bid management to free, automated optimization.
Ad Formats
For advertisers looking to promote your apps to app users, capturing the attention of potential users and driving them to download your app is key. Many advertisers use our text ads to drive people to an Android or iOS app, and we've now optimized text ads for Android or iOS apps to include more information about what users are getting, what they have to pay for it, and how others feel about the app.
The ad rotates to display all the information when a user clicks on the ad.
The user has to click on Download to go to the app download page.
With AdWords, app advertisements are automatically updated with the latest information like reviews and ratings. You simply create a text ad that points to your app download page, and AdWords supplies the graphics and formatting. We’ve found that when app advertisers provide users with this kind of important information about their apps, many have seen their cost per conversion decrease by about 25%.
If you’d like to learn more about Google’s app promotion features and see a live demonstration of how to implement and optimize these tools in your AdWords account, tune into our webinar on September 12th at 10am PST. Register today by visiting this link:
http://goo.gl/B49ma
.
Posted by Chrix Finne, Product Manager, Mobile Ads
Hangouts can be even more interactive
Friday, July 27, 2012
We think that there are few things in life more awesome than being able to turn yourself into a unicorn and catch falling donuts on your horn. That’s one of the reasons we love
Donut Horns
, a game that
B-REEL
created using the Google+ Hangouts API.
Through the API, anyone can customize the intimacy and collaborative spontaneity of Hangouts: Custom hats, name tags, or glasses for your brand. Trivia challenges. Sing-alongs. You name it. Users can control aspects of an app with their bodies, sport custom media effects, play group games, and collaborate in real time. And you can make this easy: The Google+ Hangout button is easy to install on your site, and can launch a Hangout with your app pre-loaded.
Over 200 apps have been created so far -- from the useful ones, like
Lower Third
(which gives Hangout participants newscaster-like nameplates) to the fun ones, like the
reality show trivia game that BRAVO made
for Watch What Happens Live. (Some G+ fans have created
a great directory for them
.) Apps make Hangouts even more engaging -- one in three Hangouts now use apps, and the average duration of a Hangout increases 2.5 times when an app is used.
Sound interesting? Here’s
a one-sheeter
that we’ve made about Hangout Apps so that you have a quick guide for your colleagues and clients. But if you’re even more curious, we regularly host Google Developer Office Hours via Hangout to offer answers to questions and 1:1 advice.
Check out our schedule
and see what’s coming up.
And if you want to see some Hangout App action, here’s a video from our friends at
The Webby Awards
from the backstage Hangout at their annual awards show in May. Pirate hats and scuba masks sure make video conversations a little more interesting.
Posted by Caro McCarthy, PMM, Google+ for Business
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