Google Ads Guide for Personal Finance App Growth

Most personal finance apps fail at marketing for one simple reason: they chase the wrong goal. They celebrate a low Cost Per Install (CPI) while their balance sheet bleeds out. Getting thousands of downloads for 50p a pop feels great, until you realise 99% of those users open the app once and then vanish, never to generate a single penny in revenue. You've just paid Google to acquire an audience of broke, uncommitted tyre-kickers.

The truth is, a low CPI is a vanity metric. It's a trap. Profitable user acquisition isn't about getting the cheapest installs; it's about acquiring users who will actually pay you money, stick around, and become valuable assets. It's about understanding their lifetime value (LTV) and being willing to pay a healthy, sustainable price to acquire them. This is the shift in mindset that separates the apps that scale from the ones that wither on the vine. We've seen it time and again, whether we're running campaigns for B2B SaaS or consumer apps; the principles are the same. In one of our app campaigns, we drove over 45,000 signups, but the goal was never just the signup—it was about finding engaged users who would stick around.

This isn't just theory. It's a playbook for building a user acquisition engine on Google Ads that finds you customers, not just download stats.

So, what's a good user actually worth to you?

Before you spend another pound on ads, you need to answer this question. If you don't know what a customer is worth over their lifetime, you're flying blind. You can't possibly know if your £2 CPI is a bargain or a catastrophe. This is where most founders get it wrong. They focus on the immediate cost (the install) instead of the long-term value.

Calculating your LTV isn't some dark art. It’s simple maths based on three figures you should already know:

• -> Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): How much money you make from a single user each month.
• -> Gross Margin %: Your profit margin on that revenue.
• -> Monthly Churn Rate: The percentage of users you lose each month.

The formula is straightforward: LTV = (ARPU * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate.

Once you know your LTV, you can determine your target Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). A healthy LTV:CAC ratio is at least 3:1. This means if your LTV is £300, you can afford to spend up to £100 to acquire that customer. Suddenly, paying £5 or even £10 for a high-quality install that converts into a paying subscriber doesn't seem so expensive, does it? It looks like a smart investment.

I've built a little calculator here so you can play around with your own numbers. See for yourself how small changes in churn or ARPU can drastically change how much you can afford to spend on ads. This is the maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth.

How to build a campaign that finds these valuable users

Right, so you know what a good user is worth. Now how do you find them on Google Ads? This is where you need to be strategic. Throwing up a generic App Campaign (what Google used to call UAC) from day one is a recipe for disaster. That's like giving the keys to your Ferrari to a toddler. The algorithm is powerful, but it's not a mind reader. It needs high-quality data to learn who your ideal customer is.

Your first job is to feed it that data. And the best place to find people with high intent is Google Search.

People don't go to Google to browse. They go to solve problems. "How to create a budget," "best app to track investments," "help I'm drowning in debt." These aren't just search queries; they're cries for help. By targeting these keywords, you're inserting your app as the solution at the precise moment of need. These are the people most likely to download, engage, and ultimately subscribe because they have a real, urgent pain point. This is far more effective than interrupting someone's cat video on YouTube with an ad they didn't ask for.

Your keyword stratgey needs to cover the entire journey, from someone who barely understands their problem to someone who's ready to download an app like yours.

Your ads should be a filter, not a magnet

Now that you've got your keywords, you need ad copy that speaks directly to the person searching. Most ads are terrible. They're a generic list of features that try to appeal to everyone and end up appealing to no one. Your ad's job isn't to get the most clicks; it's to get the *right* clicks. It should act as a filter, repelling the time-wasters and attracting your ideal users.

Use the Before-After-Bridge framework. Show them you understand their current pain (the Before), paint a picture of a better future (the After), and position your app as the thing that gets them there (the Bridge).

Before: Stressed about surprise bills? Overwhelmed by spreadsheets?
After: Imagine effortlessly tracking your spending and hitting your savings goals every month.
Bridge: [Your App Name] makes it simple. Download now and get your finances under control in minutes.

This approach works because it's rooted in emotion and benefits, not just features. Nobody cares that you have 'AI-powered categorisation'. They care that they can stop worrying about where their money is going. I remember one campaign for a medical job matching SaaS where we reduced their Cost Per User Acquisition from £100 down to just £7, and a critical part of that success was rewriting the ad copy to focus on the user's pain instead of the software's features.

Here’s how this could look in practice for different types of users you might target:

Your app store page is your *real* landing page

You can have the best ads in the world, but if your App Store or Google Play Store page is weak, you're just burning money. This is the most common failure point I see. The ad gets the click, but the store page fails to convert. You must treat it with the same rigor as a high-converting landing page.

Stop listing features. Start selling the outcome. Your screenshots shouldn't just be random screens from your app; they should tell a story. Show the "aha!" moment. Show the screen where the user sees their savings goal being met, or their net worth growing. Use captions on the screenshots to explain the benefit.

Your app's title and subtitle are prime real estate for keywords and benefits. Instead of just "[App Name]," try "[App Name]: Budget & Savings Tracker." This helps with App Store Optimisation (ASO) and immediately tells the user what your app does. This whole process is a core part of a successful app ad strategy focused on high-value users.

And for heaven's sake, don't launch without social proof. Even a handful of positive reviews can dramatically increase your conversion rate. Encourage your first users to leave honest feedback. A solid store listing is a fundamental piece of any comprehensive app marketing playbook.

When to unleash the algorithm: scaling with Google App Campaigns

Once you've run your Search campaigns for a while, you'll have something incredibly valuable: data. Your Google Ads account now knows what a converting user looks like. It knows which keywords drive subscriptions, not just installs. Now, and only now, are you ready to scale with Google's App Campaigns.

When you set up your App Campaign, don't make the rookie mistake of optimising for 'Installs'. You'll get exactly what you ask for: cheap, low-quality installs. Instead, you must tell the algorithm to optimise for an in-app action that signifies a high-value user. This could be 'trial_started', 'subscription_purchased', or 'first_deposit_made'.

This tells Google, "Don't just find me people who will download this app. Find me people who look like the ones who have already given me money." This is how you leverage the full power of the machine learning. You're giving it a clear target based on real business outcomes. We've seen this work for clients across the board, from acquiring 3,543 users for a software client on Google Ads to, as I mentioned earlier, driving over 45,000 signups for another app. The principle is always the same: feed the algorithm high-quality conversion data. It's the only reliable way to get app downloads with Google Ads that actually drive revenue.

Your rollout strategy should be phased. You earn the right to scale by proving your model on a smaller, more controlled channel first.

This is the advice I have for you:

Getting paid user acquisition right is a process. It requires discipline, patience, and a relentless focus on data. It’s not about finding a magic bullet; it's about building a system. Here's the playbook summarised into an actionable plan.

As you can see, this is a far cry from just "boosting" a post or running a simple install campaign. It's a deliberate, multi-stage process that requires a deep understanding of user psychology, ad platform mechanics, and business metrics. It takes time, expertise, and constant attention to get right.

This is where expert help can make all the difference. An experienced paid acquisition specialist can help you build this engine faster, avoid the costly mistakes most app founders make, and start acquiring profitable users from day one. We do this by implementing proven strategies and constantly optimising based on what the data is telling us, not on guesswork.

If you're serious about growing your finance app and want a clear path to profitable user acquisition, consider scheduling a free, no-obligation strategy session with us. We can take a look at what you're doing now and give you some actionable advice you can use right away.

Hope this helps!