So you're looking for a specialist in Google App Ads, and you reckon you need someone on the ground in Los Angeles. I get it, but let's be honest, for digital advertising, physical location means sod all. The real 'local' knowledge you need isn't about knowing the best coffee shop in Santa Monica; it's about understanding the digital behaviour of your target users, whether they're in California or Canterbury. The truth is, most app campaigns fail long before anyone even logs into a Google Ads account. They fail because the strategy is wrong, the offer is weak, or no one's actually thought about who the customer is and what problem the app solves for them. People think its just about getting cheap installs, but it's not. That's how you burn through cash faster than a tourist on Rodeo Drive.
Most agencies or so-called 'specialists' will happily take your money to run a basic App Campaign, point it at a broad audience, and report back on your cost-per-install. That’s easy. But it's also useless. You're paying to acquire users who will open your app once and then delete it. The real work, the stuff that actually grows a business, is about finding users who will stick around, perform valuable actions, and ultimately pay you. And that requires a completely different mindset.
What does a ‘good’ result even look like for an app?
Before you spend a single dollar, you need to get your head out of the "cost per install" gutter. It's a vanity metric. Who cares if you get installs for $1 if those users never do anything? I've seen countless founders get excited about low CPIs while their business is silently bleeding out. The question you should be asking is, "How much can I afford to spend to acquire a customer that is actually profitable?". This brings us to the most important metric you probably aren't tracking: Lifetime Value, or LTV.
Forget everything else for a minute. If you don't know this number, you are flying blind. Let's run through how you'd calculate it. It's not that complicated, but it's the foundation of any succesful paid growth strategy.
You need three bits of info:
-> Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): How much money does an active user bring in each month on average?
-> Gross Margin %: What's your profit on that revenue after costs of service?
-> Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of your users cancel or stop being active each month?
The maths is simple. You take your monthly profit per user and divide it by the rate at which you lose them. This is how it looks:
| Metric | Example Value | What it Means |
|---|---|---|
| Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA) | $50/month | Each user, on average, generates this much revenue. |
| Gross Margin % | 80% | Your profit margin on that revenue is 80%. So you make $40 profit per user per month. |
| Monthly Churn Rate | 5% | You lose 5% of your active users every month. |
| LTV Calculation | LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate | |
| Your LTV | LTV = ($50 * 0.80) / 0.05 = $40 / 0.05 = $800 | |
There you have it. In this scenario, every user you acquire is worth $800 in gross margin over their lifetime. Now, armed with this, you can make intelligent decisions. A common goal is to aim for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. This means you can afford to spend up to $266 to acquire a single customer and still run a very healthy business. Suddenly that $7 cost-per-trial we got for a software client doesn't look like a cost, it looks like an incredible investment.
This single peice of information changes everything. You stop chasing cheap installs and start hunting for valuable users. You can bid more aggressively, go after more competitive audiences, and confidently scale your spend because you know the economics work. Without it, you're just gambling.
How do you actually make Google App Campaigns work then?
Alright, so you know your numbers. Now how do you translate that into a campaign that works? Google App Campaigns (what they call 'AC' now) are a bit of a black box. You don't pick keywords or placements like you used to. You give Google your assets – text, images, videos – and an objective, and its machine learning goes and finds users across Search, YouTube, the Play Store, and the Display Network.
Your main job is to feed the machine the right signals. And the number one signal is your objective. If you tell Google to optimise for 'Installs', it will find people who love installing apps and do it all the time, often without much thought. These are not the people who will become your power users. It's a rookie mistake and it's why so many app campaigns have terrible retention.
You MUST optimise for in-app actions. This is non-negotiable. Pick the action that is most closely tied to your business goal. Is it a free trial start? A subscription? A first purchase? Completing a key onboarding step? Pick that. Yes, your cost-per-install will go up. Your cost-per-action will seem high at first. But you will be acquiring a completly different calibre of user. You are telling Google "don't find me installers, find me *buyers*" or "find me *active users*". We had one client, a medical job matching SaaS, and by shifting the focus from just user acquisition to quality user acquisition, we took their CPA from a staggering £100 down to just £7. This was done by focusing on the right actions and optimising the whole funnel, not just the ads.
Your other main lever is creative. Since you can't control the targeting much, your ad assets have to do all the heavy lifting. You should be constantly testing.
-> Video: Test different lengths. A quick 15-second vertical video for YouTube Shorts, a longer 60-second one that explains the value prop for in-stream placements.
-> Images: Don't just use screenshots of your app. Show the outcome. Show a lifestyle image that represents the feeling your app gives users.
-> Text: Your headlines and descriptions need to speak directly to the user's pain point. Use the Before-After-Bridge framework. "Before: Wasting hours manually tracking expenses. After: Tax season is a breeze with one-click reports. Our app is the bridge."
You need to treat creative testing like a science. Run structured experiments. Keep the things that work, kill the things that don't. It's a relentless process of optimisation.
Is Google the only game in town for apps?
Absolutely not. Putting all your budget into Google is a massive mistake. A good strategy means using the right platform for the right job. Each one has a different role to play.
I remember one app growth campaign where we got over 45,000 signups at under £2 per signup. We couldn't have done that with just one platform. We used a mix of Meta Ads, TikTok, Apple Search Ads, and Google Ads, each playing to its strengths.
| Platform | Best For | Why It Works |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Search Ads (ASA) | Capturing High Intent | This is your bread and butter. People are literally in the App Store searching for a solution like yours. You're catching them at the exact moment of need. It's the digital equivalent of being the only tool shop open when someone's pipe has burst. The volume might be lower, but the quality is often the highest. |
| Google App Campaigns | Massive Scale & Discovery | Once you have your in-app events firing properly, Google is unmatched for finding users at scale across its huge network. It's great for reaching people who might not know they need you yet, but whose behaviour suggests they're a good fit. It’s about creating demand. |
| Meta (Facebook/Instagram) | Interest & Lookalike Targeting | Meta's strength is its data on people's interests and connections. You can target users who like competing apps, follow industry leaders, or fit a certain demographic profile. Even better, once you have a list of your best users, you can create a lookalike audience to find millions of similar people. As I mentioned earlier, we got 5,082 software trials for a client at just $7 a pop using Meta's targeting. |
| TikTok Ads | Reaching a Younger Audience | If your audience is under 30, you have to be here. The key is to make ads that don't look like ads. They need to be native to the platform – authentic, fast-paced, often using user-generated content (UGC) styles. It requires a different creative approach but can deliver huge volume at a low cost if you get it right. |
A smart advertiser doesn't pick a favourite. They build a system where these platforms work together. You might use Meta to build initial awareness, retarget those users on Google, and capture the highest-intent ones on Apple Search Ads. It's a portfolio approach, and it protects you from being too reliant on any single source of traffic.
Why are my ads working but my app is failing?
This is the big one. I've seen it time and time again. The ads are getting clicks, the installs are coming in, but the business isn't growing. People are churning out as fast as they come in. The problem, ninety-nine percent of the time, is not your advertising. It's your product's onboarding experience.
I've observed that many apps struggle with their ads due to issues with their onboarding. Often, you're asking a user to go from a 15-second video ad to installing an app, opening it, creating an account, maybe even adding a credit card, all before they've received any real value. That's a huge amount of friction. Every single step is a place where you will lose people.
You have to deliver an "aha!" moment as fast as humanly possible. That's the moment the user truly understands the value your app provides. If that moment is buried behind three setup screens, a mandatory tutorial, and a paywall, you've already lost. Most B2B SaaS campaigns I've worked on show that a completely free trial works best to get people in the door. The same logic applies to apps. Let them use the thing! Let them experience the magic.
Think about the offer. Why would someone bother signing up? "Sign Up Now" is not an offer, it's a demand. You need something more compelling. A freemium plan. A free trial (without a credit card, for god's sake). Some sort of free tool or immediate value they can get in the first 30 seconds. If your app is for accounting, dont just ask them to connect their bank. Let them use a free invoice template first. Give them a win. Earn the right to ask for their commitment.
How do I stop targeting everyone and find my actual customers?
This is where we get to the heart of good marketing. Most people define their audience with lazy demographics. "We're targeting millennials in urban areas who are interested in fitness." That tells you nothing. It’s so broad its meaningless. You'll end up with generic ads that speak to no one.
You need to forget demographics and define your ideal customer by their PAIN. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) isn't a person; it's a problem state. It's a nightmare that keeps them up at night.
Let's say your app helps freelance graphic designers manage their projects. Your ICP isn't "freelancers aged 25-40". It's a designer who just spent her entire weekend chasing an unpaid invoice instead of working on a new project. It's the panic of realising you've double-booked two major clients and might lose them both. That is a nightmare. It's urgent, it's expensive, and it's emotionally charged.
Once you understand that nightmare, your entire strategy changes.
-> Your ad copy writes itself: "Tired of chasing invoices? Get paid on time, every time."
-> Your targeting gets specific: You stop targeting 'graphic design' as an interest on Facebook. Instead, you target members of the 'Freelance Heroes' group, people who follow specific design influencers known for giving business advice, people who use software like Adobe Creative Suite.
-> Your app's value is clear: You're not selling a project management tool. You're selling peace of mind. You're selling the ability to be a creative again, not an admin.
Do this work first. Interview your best existing users. What was the specific, painful situation that led them to look for a solution like yours? What were the exact words they used to describe it? That is your gold. Build your entire campaign around that, and you'll have no business wasting a single pound on ads that don't connect.
This is the main advice I have for you:
This all might seem like a lot to take in, so I've broken down the key actions you need to take to build a proper, scalable app advertising strategy.
| Action | Why It's a Priority | How to Do It |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Calculate Your LTV | This is your north star. It tells you what you can actually afford to spend per user, freeing you from chasing cheap, low-quality installs. | Use the formula: (Average Revenue Per User * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate. Be brutally honest with your numbers. |
| 2. Define Your ICP by Their 'Nightmare' | Demographics are useless. Pain is what drives action. This is the key to creating messaging that actually works. | Talk to your best customers. Identify the specific, urgent, expensive problem your app solved for them. Use their exact language. |
| 3. Fix Your Onboarding Funnel | Your ads can be perfect, but if your app's first impression is poor, you're burning money. High churn starts here. | Deliver an "aha!" moment instantly. Offer a freemium plan or a no-card-required free trial. Remove every ounce of friction. Give value before you ask for it. |
| 4. Optimise for In-App Actions, Not Installs | You need to tell the ad platforms to find you valuable users, not just any user. This is the most important setting in your campaigns. | In your Google and Meta campaigns, set your conversion goal to a valuable action like 'start_trial', 'subscribe', or 'first_purchase'. |
| 5. Build a Multi-Platform Strategy | Relying on one platform is risky and inefficient. Each platform has unique strengths for finding different types of users. | Start with high-intent platforms like Apple Search Ads. Once you have a baseline, expand to Google for scale and Meta/TikTok for discovery and interest-based targeting. |
As you can see, successfully promoting an app isn't just about finding a "specialist" in a certain city. It's about a deep, strategic understanding of your business economics, your customer's psychology, and the entire digital ecosystem. It's about building a robust system, not just running a few ads and hoping for the best.
It's not just about setting up a campaign and hoping for the best. It's about understanding your audience, optimising your targeting, creating compelling ads, and fine-tuning your app's onboarding experience. This is a complex process that requires expertise and relentless testing.
That's where a professional consultancy like us can make a huge difference. With years of experience and a deep understanding of the advertising landscape across multiple platforms, we can help you identify the best strategies to acquire high-value users, not just cheap installs. We can provide insights that you might not have thought of and take over implementation of the entire optimisation process for you, ensuring that every dollar you spend is working to grow your business. If you'd like to see how this approach could apply to your app, we offer a free 20-minute strategy session where we can audit your current approach and give you some actionable advice.
