Practitioner pattern · Ashley Black (Founder of Candid Consulting, an agency that runs and audits Google App Campaigns for app clients)
Upload Google ad videos at 6, 10-15, 20 and 30+ seconds, portrait and landscape
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What they did
YouTube has several hidden inventory pockets, so supply: a 6-second video (its own YouTube format), 10-15 seconds, ~20 seconds (YouTube Shorts), and 30+ seconds (skippable in-stream). Default to portrait, especially on iOS, but on Android include landscape since many people watch YouTube in landscape.
In their words
Sub Club by RevenueCat · The Right (and Wrong) Way to Grow with Google App Campaigns — Ashley Black, Candid Consulting“So when you're creating videos, I always tell people, probably want a 6-second video, because that's one ad format in YouTube. You want like a 10- to 15-second video because, you know, we just want to test out that duration. 20-second, around 20 seconds, is great for YouTube Shorts.”
“But on Android, you can't overlook the landscape orientation because a lot of people still do watch their YouTube videos, you know, in landscape mode.”
Related topics
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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
- 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
- Spend enough to get a Google rep, then ask them for specific data