Google recently rolled out two exciting new features for account mangers working with Google App campaigns.  Ad groups and expanded ad fields are now available in Google App campaigns.  These updates allow account managers to expand creative testing and gain clearer creative performance insights with improved ad segmentation and expanded ad fields.

What’s new?

Ad Groups available within Google App campaigns allow multiple creative themes to be tested in unison.  This feature allows creative tests to be much closer to A/B testing, since it eliminates factors like seasonality that impact results when only one group of headlines is live at a time.

Expanded ad text fields are also now available within Google App campaigns. Account managers can now upload up to five 30 character Headlines and five 90 character descriptions. There is a minimum of two headlines and two descriptions. Previously, there was a maximum of two headlines and two description lines.

Account managers working with Google App campaigns should be stoked to see these updates, since app campaigns have such a limited number of variables and controls to optimize performance.

How to use new features

Ad groups can be used to test new text field lines against current low performing text fields. They can also be used to segment display creative.

Our team has leveraged this feature to test seasonal display creative in a new ad group, while keeping the top performing evergreen display creative live. The goal is to understand if seasonal creative delivers higher performance without pausing creative that is performing well

Expanded headline and description should be tested identify where creative opportunities exist. Our team has found that the newly expanded 90 character description field delivers much less frequently than 30 character headlines. New Headline ad copy variations will make the highest impact on creative testing.

Takeaways & Recommendations

These features are a significant step forward for Google App campaigns since they have historically offered few variables that allow for performance optimizations. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come, and Google will continue to invest resources into expanding Google App campaign features.

Any account managers working with Google App campaigns should prioritize testing new creative with ad groups and expand text fields. If display assets are not available, simply test additional headlines and descriptions and segment variations by ad group.

If you’re looking for additional tips to drive app installs and engagement check out Hanapin’s infographic: 6 Tips to Drive App Installs & Supercharge Engagement.