Google Ads Guide: Marketing Personal Finance Apps

Right, let's have a frank chat about marketing personal finance apps on Google Ads. I see a lot of founders burning through their funding because they're following the same tired playbook: throw a load of money at a generic app campaign, boast about a low Cost Per Install (CPI), and then wonder why 95% of those users disappear within a week. You're not just doing it wrong; you're actively paying Google to find people who will never give you a penny.

The finance app market is brutal. You're not just competing with other apps; you're competing for trust, a commodity that's in very short supply. A generic ad campaign that just shouts "Download our app!" is a guaranteed way to waste your budget. The secret isn't about getting more installs. It's about getting the right installs from users who have a genuine problem you can solve, and who will stick around long enough to become profitable. This is how you build a sustainable business, not just a flash in the pan with impressive download numbers and a terrifying churn rate.

So, What's a User Actually Worth to You?

Before you spend a single pound on an ad, you need to answer this question. If you don't know your numbers, you're flying blind. Most founders obsess over CPI, trying to get it as low as possible. It's a fool's errand. A £0.50 install from a user who deletes the app in 24 hours is infinitely more expensive than a £10 install from a user who subscribes for two years. The metric you need to live and breathe is Lifetime Value (LTV).

Calculating it isn't black magic. It's simple maths that tells you exactly how much you can afford to spend to acquire a customer. Here's the basic formula:

LTV = (Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate

Let's break that down. Your ARPU is what an average user pays you each month (from subscriptions, transaction fees, etc.). Your gross margin is your profit on that revenue. And your churn rate is the percentage of users you lose each month. That last one is the silent killer of most finance apps. A high churn rate means you have a leaky bucket, and no amount of ad spend can fix that.

Once you have your LTV, you can work out a sane Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). A healthy LTV:CAC ratio is typically around 3:1. This means for every £1 you spend acquiring a customer, you should expect to get £3 back in profit over their lifetime. This simple calculation transforms your entire marketing approach from "how cheap can we get clicks?" to "how much can we profitably invest to acquire a high-value user?".

Understanding your LTV is the first step. With this knowledge, you can move away from vanity metrics and begin to build a truly profitable user acquisition engine. One campaign we worked on for an app saw this single shift in mindset become the difference between shutting down and scaling to over 45,000 signups at a sustainable cost. It provides clarity on exactly how much you can afford to pay for each user, which is essential information for reducing your cost per install while maximising LTV.

Start with Intent: The Unsexy Power of Google Search

Everyone wants to jump straight to the flashy Performance Max for Apps (PMax) or broad display campaigns. It feels like you're reaching millions of people. But as I said, you're mostly reaching the wrong people. The algorithm, left to its own devices without proper data, will optimise for the cheapest action: an install. It has no initial concept of a 'good' user versus a 'bad' user. It just sees an install as an install.

You need to teach it. And the best way to do that is by starting with the highest-intent channel available: Google Search.

People on Google are actively telling you their problems. Someone searching for "best app to track spending" or "how to save for a house deposit" isn't passively scrolling. They have a pain point, right now, and are looking for a solution. These are your people. Your job is to show up with a compelling answer.

Your initial campaign structure should be built around capturing this intent. Forget broad keywords. Get specific:

• Problem/Solution Keywords: Think like your user. What phrases would they type when they're frustrated with their finances?
  • -> "budgeting app for couples"
  • -> "how to automatically save money"
  • -> "investment app for beginners uk"
  • -> "track subscriptions and cancel"
• Competitor Keywords: Your competitors have already spent a fortune educating the market. You can piggyback on their efforts by bidding on their brand names.
  • -> "monzo alternative"
  • -> "revolut vs yolt"
  • -> "apps like snoop"
  This can be expensive, but the users are highly qualified. They're already using a finance app and are actively looking to switch.
• Brand Keywords: You must run a campaign bidding on your own brand name. If you don't, you can be sure a competitor will, stealing users who are specifically looking for you. It's cheap, high-converting, and pure defence.

By focusing on these narrow, high-intent search campaigns first, you achieve two things. First, you start acquiring users who are much more likely to be engaged and retain. Second, you feed Google's algorithm high-quality conversion data. Every install and, more importantly, every in-app action (like linking a bank account) from these campaigns teaches the algorithm what a valuable user looks like. This data is the fuel you'll need later to scale effectively with broader campaigns. For any new app, this is the core of our Google Ads playbook for achieving growth in personal finance.

Your App Store Listing is Your Real Landing Page

You can write the best ad in the world, target the perfect keywords, and still fail miserably if your App Store or Google Play Store page is rubbish. It's the most common point of failure I see. Marketers spend weeks optimising the ad campaign and totally neglect the actual destination. Your click-through rate might be fantastic, but if your install rate is in the gutter, you're just pouring water into a sieve.

Think of your store page as the landing page. It has one job: convince the user to click "Install". Every element needs to be scrutinised and tested.

• App Icon: Does it stand out? Is it clean and professional? This is your brand's face. A poorly designed icon screams "amateur".
• Screenshots: This is your biggest opportunity. Don't just show random screens from your app. Each screenshot should be a mini-advertisement, highlighting a key benefit with a clear headline. Show the "after" state. Instead of a screenshot of a blank dashboard, show a dashboard full of data with a caption like "See exactly where your money goes".
• Promo Video: A short, snappy video (15-30 seconds) showing the app in action is incredibly powerful. It should be fast-paced and focus on the top 3 benefits, not every single feature. Assume the user has the sound off and use text overlays.
• Title & Description: Your app title should be your brand name, but your subtitle (on iOS) or short description (on Android) should be packed with your most important keywords and your core value proposition. E.g., "Budget Planner & Spending Tracker".
• Reviews and Ratings: This is huge for finance apps. Nobody wants to trust their financial data to an app with 2.5 stars. Actively encourage happy users to leave reviews. Respond to all reviews, especially the negative ones. It shows you care and are actively improving the product. Definately a major trust signal.

You should be A/B testing these elements just as you A/B test your ad copy. Google Play has built-in A/B testing functionality, and for the App Store, you can use product page optimisation. Small tweaks here can lead to massive improvements in your install rate, which directly lowers your effective CPI without you even touching your ad campaigns. Many founders overlook this, but it is a critical piece of the puzzle for scaling user acquisition profitably.

When and How to Unleash Performance Max

Once you have a steady stream of high-quality conversions coming from your Search campaigns for a few weeks (at least 30-50 key in-app actions per month), it's time to consider scaling. This is where Performance Max for Apps (PMax) comes in. You've done the hard work of teaching the algorithm what a good user looks like. Now you can let it use that intelligence to find more of them across all of Google's properties—YouTube, Display, Discover, and more.

But you don't just turn it on and hope for the best. Success with PMax is all about the quality of the ingredients you provide:

• Asset Groups: Don't just dump all your creative into one group. Structure your asset groups by theme or user benefit. For a finance app, you might have one asset group focused on 'Budgeting', with images, videos, and headlines all about tracking spending. Another could be focused on 'Investing', with creative that speaks to growing wealth. This allows you to tailor your message and see which angles resonate most.
• Creative is Everything: PMax is a creative-hungry beast. You need a constant supply of new assets. Static images, short videos in different aspect ratios (vertical for Shorts/Reels, horizontal for YouTube), and HTML5 ads. I remember several software clients seeing really good results with User-Generated Content (UGC) style videos—they feel more authentic and less like a slick corporate ad. Think about a simple video of a user explaining how your app helped them save for a holiday. It's relatable and powerful.
• Audience Signals: This is your chance to guide the algorithm. Don't leave it blank. Give it your best data as a starting point. This should include remarketing lists (all your app users, users who completed a key action) and a custom segment built around people who have searched for your high-intent keywords. This doesn't restrict your targeting; it just gives the machine a strong hint about where to start looking. It's particularly effective for acquiring high-value customers in the competitive fintech space.

Remember, PMax is an amplifier. It will amplify good results, but it will also amplify bad ones. If you feed it poor creative and vague audience signals, it will efficiently spend your money finding you more low-quality users. If you feed it sharp creative and high-quality conversion data from your initial search campaigns, it can become an incredible engine for scale. There are also some interesting approaches for when you operate in a niche without specific locations, which our guide on Google Ads without location targeting covers in more detail.

The Metrics That Actually Matter (and a Final Calculation)

As you scale, it's easy to get lost in a sea of data. Clicks, impressions, click-through-rate... most of it is noise. You need to be ruthless in focusing on the metrics that directly impact your profitability.

1. Cost Per Key Action (CPA): Forget Cost Per Install. What does it cost to get a user to take the *first step* toward becoming valuable? This could be linking a bank account, setting up their first budget, or creating a savings goal. This is a much better indicator of user quality than a simple install.
2. Retention Rate: How many of your users are still active after Day 1, Day 7, and Day 30? This tells you if you have a product problem. If your Day 7 retention is below 20%, you have a leaky bucket. No amount of marketing can fix an app that people don't want to use. Improving this is paramount, and our guide on app retention offers some specific strategies for this.
3. LTV:CAC Ratio: This is the ultimate health check. Are you making more money from a user than you're spending to get them? As we calculated earlier, a 3:1 ratio is a great target. If it drops below that, you need to either lower your CAC (by improving campaigns and conversion rates) or increase your LTV (by improving your product and monetisation).

Let's put it all together. You know your LTV, and you know what you're spending to acquire a customer (your CAC). Now you can see if you actually have a viable business model for paid acquisition.

Finally, it's worth a quick mention that when comparing channels, Apple Search Ads often perform very well for finance apps due to high user intent directly within the App Store, and can be a brilliant complement to your Google Ads efforts.

Your Action Plan

Right, that's a lot of information. Let's boil it down to a clear, actionable plan. Trying to do everything at once is a recipe for disaster. Follow these phases in order.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below:

Marketing a finance app is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires discipline, a deep understanding of your numbers, and a ruthless focus on user value, not just install volume. It might seem like more work upfront than just throwing money at a broad campaign, but this is the only way to build a profitable, long-term user acquisition strategy that doesn't rely on guesswork.

Getting this right can be complex, and the difference between a successful campaign and a failed one often comes down to experience. If you're feeling overwhelmed or your current campaigns just aren't delivering, it might be worth getting a second pair of eyes on your strategy. We offer a free, no-obligation consultation where we can review your existing setup and identify your biggest opportunities for growth. Sometimes a small tweak based on years of experience is all it takes to turn things around.