Solved: More App Downloads in Madrid (Step-by-Step Guide)

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts and guidance on your situation with Google Ads in Madrid. It's a common problem to hit a wall when trying to drive app downloads, especially in a specific city. The good news is there's usually a clear path forward, it just involves stepping back and looking at the entire strategy, not just tweaking bids.

From what you've said, it sounds like you're struggling to connect your ads with the right users who will actually install your app. We'll need to go beyond just the ads themselves and look at your offer, your campaign structure, and how you're measuring success. Let's get into it.

We'll need to look at your core offer first...

Before we even touch your Google Ads account, we have to be brutally honest about the offer. This is the number one reason I see campaigns fail, time and time again. People spend a fortune on ads trying to push a product that nobody has an urgent need for. You can have the most perfectly optimised campaign in the world, but if the app doesn't solve a real, pressing problem for people in Madrid, you're just paying to be ignored.

Forget demographics for a second. Your Ideal Customer Profile isn't "people aged 25-40 in Madrid." That's useless. Your ICP is a *problem state*. What nightmare are they living through that your app is the cure for? For instance:

• -> Is your app for local transport? The nightmare isn't "needing to get from A to B." It's "missing the last Metro and being stranded after a night out in Malasaña."
• -> Is it a food delivery app? The nightmare isn't "being hungry." It's "getting home exhausted at 9 PM after a long day at the office in AZCA, with nothing in the fridge and zero energy to cook."
• -> Is it a language learning app? The nightmare isn't "wanting to learn English." It's "being passed over for a promotion because your English isn't good enough for international clients."

You need to get this specific. Once you've identified that acute pain point, your entire advertising message changes. You're no longer selling features; you're selling relief. This is non-negotiable. If you can't articulate the specific, urgent problem your app solves for a Madrid resident, you have no business spending another euro on ads. A lot of founders build what they think is a great idea, but they never properly validate the demand. They build a solution for a problem that doesn't really exist, or isn't painful enough for someone to bother downloading a new app to fix it.

I remember one campaign we worked on for an events app. They weren't just selling "find events near you." They were selling the solution to the "it's Friday night and all my friends are busy" problem. The messaging was all about escaping boredom and discovering hidden gems in your city. That's what drove over 45,000 signups at a very low cost. They understood the pain.

I'd say you need to completely rethink your Google Ads campaign structure...

Okay, assuming you've nailed down the problem your app solves, let's talk about the machinery of Google Ads. If you're trying to get app downloads by just running standard Search campaigns targeting a few keywords, you're doing it wrong. That approach is outdated and inefficient for this specific goal.

Google has a purpose-built campaign type for this: Performance Max for App campaigns (this used to be called Universal App Campaigns or UAC, and you'll still see people call it that). This should be your absolute first port of call. It's not optional; it's the default starting point for any serious app install strategy on Google.

Why? Because it's designed to do one thing: find users who are most likely to install your app (and, if you set it up right, take specific actions within it). It takes the guesswork out of placements. Instead of you trying to figure out if you should be on Search, YouTube, the Display Network, or Google Play, PMax does it for you. You provide the raw materials—the "assets"—and Google's machine learning engine figures out the best combination and placement to achieve your goal.

You give it:

• -> Headlines: Short, punchy text about your app.
• -> Descriptions: Longer text explaining the benefits.
• -> Images: High-quality screenshots and lifestyle images.
• -> Videos: Short, engaging videos (vertical and horizontal).

Google then mixes and matches these assets to create ads automatically and shows them across its entire inventory. It's a realy powerful system because it learns over time. It finds patterns you'd never spot manually. For instance, it might discover that users who watch certain types of YouTube videos in Madrid are incredibly likely to install your app, and it will shift budget there automatically. You can't replicate that level of optimisation manually. It's just not possible.

You probably should optimise for more than just installs...

Just getting an install isn't the real goal, is it? You want users who actually *do something* in your app – make a purchase, complete a level, subscribe. This is where you can get a lot more sophisticated. Once your app has the necessary tracking set up (using Firebase SDK or another analytics partner), you can tell your PMax campaign to optimise for these in-app actions.

So, instead of a "Target Cost Per Install" (tCPI) bid strategy, you can use a "Target Cost Per Action" (tCPA) strategy. This is a massive leap in efficiency. You're telling Google, "Don't just find me people who will install the app; find me people in Madrid who will install the app AND are likely to subscribe to my premium plan, and I'm willing to pay X amount for each one."

This filters out the low-quality users who install an app, open it once, and then forget about it. Your total install numbers might even go down, but the quality of the users you acquire will go way up. This is how you build a profitable user base, not just a big one. I've seen this firsthand with a medical job matching SaaS client. They were paying £100 per user acquisition with broad campaigns. By shifting to optimising for a key in-app action (a completed profile), we brought that cost down to just £7. That's the power of optimising for what actually matters to the business.

You'll need to get your creative and messaging right for Madrid...

This is a big one. You can't just take your global ad assets, translate them into Spanish, and expect them to work in Madrid. The city has its own unique culture, landmarks, and slang. Effective advertising feels local and relevant.

Your ad creative needs to reflect this. Instead of a generic stock photo of someone on a phone, show someone using your app while waiting for the Metro at Sol, or sitting in El Retiro Park. If your app is for ordering food, use images of popular local dishes like *cocido madrileño* or *bocadillos de calamares*, not just generic burgers and pizzas. These small cultural cues make a huge difference. They signal to the user, "This app is for me, for my city."

Your ad copy needs to be localised too, not just translated. Work with a native Spanish speaker from Madrid if you can. They'll know the right turns of phrase to use. The tone needs to match the audience. Are you targeting students? The language can be more informal and playful. Are you targeting business professionals? It needs to be more direct and benefit-driven.

I like using the Before-After-Bridge framework for app ad copy:

• -> Before: Describe the pain point, the "nightmare" we talked about earlier. "Cansado de perder el último tren a casa?" (Tired of missing the last train home?)
• -> After: Paint a picture of the ideal solution. "Imagina saber siempre la ruta más rápida, incluso a las 3 de la mañana." (Imagine always knowing the fastest route, even at 3 in the morning.)
• -> Bridge: Introduce your app as the way to get there. "Nuestra app te conecta con opciones de transporte 24/7. Descárgala ahora." (Our app connects you with 24/7 transport options. Download it now.)

This structure is powerful because it focuses on the transformation your app provides, which is much more compelling than a list of features. It speaks directly to the user's problem and offers a clear, immediate solution. This is far more effective than just saying "Best transport app with real-time tracking". That's a feature, not a benefit. People dont care about features, they care about what those features can do for them.

We'll need to look at what you can afford to pay...

"What should my cost per install be?" is a question I get all the time. The honest answer is: it depends. It depends entirely on what a user is worth to you over their lifetime. This is your Lifetime Value (LTV). Without knowing your LTV, you're just guessing. A £2 CPI might seem great, but if those users never spend a penny and churn after a week, you've wasted your money. A £15 CPI might seem terrifying, but if that user goes on to generate £100 in revenue, it's an incredible bargain.

Calculating your LTV is the maths that unlocks intelligent ad spending. It transforms you from a cost-cutter into a strategic investor in growth. Here’s a simplified formula for an app with a subscription model:

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

Let's break it down:

• -> ARPU: How much revenue you make per user, per month.
• -> Gross Margin: Your profit margin on that revenue (after app store fees, etc.).
• -> Monthly Churn Rate: The percentage of users who cancel or stop using the app each month.

Once you know your LTV, you can set a sensible target for your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), which in this case is your Cost Per Install or Cost Per Action. A healthy ratio is often 3:1 (LTV:CAC). So if your LTV is £90, you can afford to spend up to £30 to acquire a customer and still have a very healthy business model. Suddenly, you're not scared of a high CPI; you're empowered by it, because you know the user is worth it. Use the calculator below to get a feel for your own numbers.

I'd say you need a structured testing plan...

Right, so you have a solid offer, you're using PMax campaigns optimised for in-app actions, your creative is localised for Madrid, and you know what you can afford to pay for a user. Now what? Now you test and optimise. This isn't a "set it and forget it" process.

The key to PMax is feeding the algorithm a variety of high-quality, distinct assets. Don't just give it ten headlines that all say the same thing. You need to test different angles. This is where your understanding of the customer's "nightmare" comes in.

Create separate "Asset Groups" within your PMax campaign to test different hypotheses. For example:

• -> Asset Group 1 (The "Convenience" Angle): All headlines, descriptions, and creative focus on how your app saves time and effort. The videos show someone effortlessly solving a problem in seconds.
• -> Asset Group 2 (The "Social" Angle): Creative focuses on using the app with friends. The copy talks about sharing, connecting, and discovering things together.
• -> Asset Group 3 (The "Value" Angle): All messaging is about saving money, getting the best deal, or accessing exclusive offers through the app.

By structuring your tests this way, you'll get clear data on which core message resonates most with users in Madrid. Google's reporting will show you which asset groups are performing best, and even give you ratings on individual assets (headlines, images, etc.). Your job is to systematically replace the low-performing assets with new variations based on your best-performing ones. This iterative process of testing and refining is how you bring down your CPI over time and scale your campaign profitably. The compatition probably isn't doing this, so it gives you an edge.

You also have to be patient. Machine learning campaigns need time and data to learn. Don't make drastic changes every day. Let the campaign run for at least a week or two after making a significant change to see the real impact. Constant tinkering will just reset the learning phase and you'll never get reliable data. I know it's tempting to jump in and change things when perfomance dips for a day, but you have to resist.

This is the main advice I have for you:

To pull this all together, here is a summary of the actionable steps I'd recommend you take. This isn't just a random checklist; it's a strategic sequence designed to build a scalable and profitable app install campaign specifically for the Madrid market.

I know this is a lot to take in, and it's a significant shift from just "running some ads". But this strategic approach is what separates the campaigns that fail from the ones that scale successfully. It requires more work up front, but the payoff in terms of efficiency and profitability is massive.

Getting this right, especially the nuances of campaign setup, tracking, and ongoing optimisation, can be challenging. It's not just about knowing which buttons to click; it's about understanding the underlying strategy and interpreting the data correctly to make informed decisions. This is where expert help can make a real difference, saving you a lot of time and wasted ad spend by implementing a proven process from day one.

If you'd like to go over your specific app and goals in more detail, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can take a look at your current setup together and give you some more tailored advice on how to implement this strategy effectively.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh