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Get the most out of your campaign by building compelling creative.

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1. Know the basics

You should familiarize yourself with these common terms.

Creative assets

Great campaigns rely on impactful creative assets, encompassing text, images, video, or HTML5. You can supply your own assets or automatically generate them through the App or Play Store.

Ad formats

These campaign outputs result from rendering your original creative assets into diverse ad formats, representing what your target audience sees. App campaigns are automatically generated and displayed across the Google Ads network.

Ad groups

You can create a new ad group for each campaign. These content themes or buckets help you target audience segments with more relevant creative assets. When you build different ad groups, consider what will most likely influence specific audiences.

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2. Get inspired

Watch this journey through some creative learnings to consider when building your next campaign.

Watch the video

3. Prepare your creative assets

Text

Images

Videos

Google video ads use video content to promote products, services, or brand messages across the Google Display Network, YouTube, and other partner sites. Adding a video to your App campaign can drive a 20% uplift in installs.

Steps to success:

Vary the length of your assets between 10 to 30 seconds.
You must host and store your video ads on your YouTube channel.
Showcase your in-app experience early on — ideally within the first 2-3 seconds.
Tell users why they should download your app over just purely showing them.
Include a range of portrait, landscape, and square aspect ratios to qualify across more ad channels.
Use audio and music to emphasize branding and calls to action.
If you don’t have a video ad, Google Ads may make one using assets from your App store listing.
You can include up to 20 video assets per ad group.

HTML5 / Playable assets

Google HTML5 ads are interactive display advertisements that use HTML5 technology to capture the attention of app users with engaging and dynamic visual experiences. They appear across the Google Display Network (GDN), which includes millions of websites, apps, and videos.

Steps to success:

HTML5/Playable assets may be paired with other assets such as your app icon, app description, or description text.
Use animations and transitions in moderation to avoid overwhelming or distracting users.
Ensure your ad is responsive and visually consistent across different devices and screen sizes.
Incorporate interactive elements like buttons, sliders, or hover effects to encourage user engagement.
Optimize the file size of your HTML5 ads to reduce load times and improve user experience.
You can include up to 20 HTML5 playable assets per ad group.
For detailed guidance on HTML5/Playable asset size and formats, visit the dedicated page in the Google Ads Help Center

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Top tip

While preparing multiple assets at the beginning of your campaign is important, you should tailor the strategy and focus on the right assets, orientation, and sizes as you learn which orientation works best.

Catawiki achieves lower average cost per in-app action by diversifying ad group assets

Catawiki saw significant cost savings thanks to diversified ad groups and better ad targeting.

Download case study
27%

Lower CPS

27%

Lower CPS

Voot Select gains subscriptions and 27% lower CPS with app optimization

Voot Select was able to improve ROI from App campaigns by incorporating best practices on all fronts.

Download case study

27%

Lower CPS
44%

7D ROAS

44%

7D ROAS

Product Madness uses popular IP creatives in its App campaigns; sees 44% increase in 7D ROAS

“The approach of using suitable IPs in our App campaigns helped Product Madness improve our 7D ROAS and decrease the cost of acquiring new users.”

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44%

7D ROAS
Tophatter finds high lifetime value customers with fresh video creative

Through high-performing creatives, Tophatter was able to scale its campaign while continuing to achieve its KPIs for conversions and ROAS.

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4. Assess your campaign

Vary your creative assets to optimize performance

The ad strength indicator helps you evaluate your App campaign assets to ensure they’re sufficiently diverse for achieving optimal performance. If your rating needs improvement, try crafting more creative assets like text, images, and video.

You need to monitor your campaign performance post-launch, too. The asset performance report can help you understand which creative elements resonate with customers when building new creative assets.

More information about the Ad Strength indicator.

More information about the asset report.

5. Best practices

Include clear calls-to-action in your text assets

A strong call-to-action (CTA) helps ensure your audience understands what you have to offer and how to take action. Adjust your CTAs according to your campaign goals and clearly highlight your brand and offerings in your headlines and descriptions.

Use a wide variety of assets

To increase the chance your ads will be displayed across all ad channels, provide the maximum number of text, image, video, and where relevant, HTML5 assets. You should include visuals of people interacting with your products or services to create real-life context for potential customers.

Build for smaller screens

Provide visual assets that clearly and immediately communicate your CTA. Use overlays sparingly and showcase your products and services with tight framing and bright, natural lighting.

Give your creatives time to test

Once you upload a new asset, you should wait 2-3 weeks to give the Google Ads system time to learn and optimize its strategies. You can review Ad Strength and asset reporting to better understand which assets perform best.

6. Useful resources

Use these additional resources to start creating successful campaigns.

Find a partner to help with creative assets

Our mobile-first agency partners can help maximize your ad’s impact.

Explore our creative partners directory.

Make better creative assets for App campaigns

This article provides best practices for developing creative assets that can improve your App campaign performance and reach, including text, image, video, and HTML5.

Learn about creative asset best practices.

App creative policy

Read our app creative policy to help you build App campaigns that align with Google’s advertising policies.

View our creative policies.

Well done! You’re now ready to take action.

Download our creative best practices checklist to help create campaigns with real impact.

Download checklist