Practitioner pattern · Ashley Black (Founder of Candid Consulting, an agency that runs and audits Google App Campaigns for app clients)
Spend enough to get a Google rep, then ask them for specific data
Unknownpaid-searchpartnerships
What they did
Reps are assigned by spend and by the billing country on the Google Ads account (thresholds are highest in the US, lower in smaller markets; e.g. a US founder billed via the UK gets a Dublin rep). Assignments change at quarterly 'book refreshes', so expect contact at the start of a quarter. Once assigned, make specific asks: reps can show breakouts such as google.com vs Play Store search traffic that the UI hides. Inbound support forms go to vendor teams that are rarely helpful.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · The Right (and Wrong) Way to Grow with Google App Campaigns — Ashley Black, Candid Consulting“if you have a really good Google rep, you can. They they do have the ability to see it, they have to have the right access, but they can show you the breakout.”
“ultimately, you get assigned based on your billing country that you have set up in your Google Ads account.”
“But I think that if you're smart, like ask for more. Ask for more information. Be specific.”
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More from this episode
- Start Google app ads with one campaign per country: $200-300/day Android, $500/day iPhoneExpect a readable trend within 2-3 weeks
- Raise or cut Google ad budgets by at most 20% every 2-3 daysBigger jumps sent the system haywire when the guest tried
- Split each Google app campaign into about 5 ad groups, one per app featureShows which themes Google favors; one ad group alone tells you little
- Upload Google ad videos at 6, 10-15, 20 and 30+ seconds, portrait and landscape
- Use plain stock photos for Google image ads, mostly landscape on AndroidPlain images got more volume than designed ads in her accounts
- Write your own Google ad text lines instead of taking Google's suggestions
- Check where each Google ad actually runs, and treat cheap CPMs as a warningAn audit traced poor traffic to ads running only on display sites
- Pull costly Google ad videos a few at a time over a week, not all at onceKept conversions flowing; all were removed after a week
- Refresh tired Google ads by changing a single wordGuest says even removing one word makes Google re-test the ad
- Copy a Google campaign that stopped growing to make Google test it againSometimes unlocks more spend; not a Google best practice
- Give holiday or disaster-season ads their own ad group so you can pause themEasy to switch off; new groups often get little volume
- Tell Google to find trial starts, not paid subscribers
- Try Google's return-on-ad-spend bidding for a short test, but stay skepticalWorked for about half of subscription apps