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How to Tame the Black Box: Google App Campaigns (GAC) for Mobile App Growth in 2025

Hello, colleagues!

In 2025, Google App Campaigns (GAC), despite its automation, remains the main force for the growth of mobile applications. These artificial intelligence (AI)-based campaigns automatically place your ads across the entire Google ecosystem: in Search, Play Store, YouTube, Display Network, and Discover. This makes life easier, but it also creates a "black box" that is not so easy to control.

Why is the GAC a "black box"?

  • Full automation: Google's algorithms solve everything from creatives and audience to bids and placements. We cannot manually select keywords or websites. Google believes that AI will do a better job.
  • Hidden data: We don't see detailed reports on each creative, exact audience segments, or a complete list of places where ads are displayed. This is done to "protect" the algorithm from manual edits, but it leaves us blind.
  • "Just trust AI": Google wants us to trust machine learning, which optimizes the result, not explains it. And it can be very annoying.

Let's figure out how to get the most out of this monster!

Before launching a campaign, ask yourself these questions:

  • Goal: Do you just need installations or valuable users? Campaigns optimized for purchases or subscriptions almost always produce better results than those aimed at installations.
  • Events: Do you have enough data? The algorithm needs at least 30-50 conversions per day (for example, "purchases" or "registrations") in order to learn effectively.
  • Technique: Make sure that your application uses Firebase or reliable MMP (Appsflyer, Adjust) to transmit event data to Google. Bad data = waste of budget.

Why is event tracking critical?

The GAC learns from your data. If you don't provide him with information about valuable activities (purchases, subscriptions), he won't be able to find "good" users and will attract low-quality traffic.

Firebase is your best friend. It gives you full control over your data, instantly syncs events with Google Ads, and opens access to beta features. If you are serious about growth, this is a must-have tool.

Don't throw everything in one pile! Create a clear structure:

  • Keep the platforms separate: Android and iOS should be in separate campaigns. They have different user behavior and technical features (for example, SKAdNetwork).
  • Share goals: Create different campaigns for installations, purchases, and retargeting. For example: GAC - Android - Purchases and GAC - iOS - Installs.
  • Test creatives: Use one "group of objects" for one creative idea (for example, "Advantages" or "Emotions"). This will help you understand what works best.

The GAC collects ads from your facilities by itself. To give him more options, download:

  • Text: Short and long headings, descriptions.
  • The images are Square (1:1), horizontal (1.91:1) and vertical (9:16).
  • Videos: Vertical (9:16) for YouTube Shorts, Horizontal (16:9) for classic YouTube. The optimal length is 10-30 seconds.

Tip: Update your creatives every 2-3 weeks to avoid burnout. Monitor their effectiveness in the map item report and disable those that show poor results.

  • Data quality is most important: If you have poor tracking, even the best algorithm won't help you.
  • Don't scale too fast.: First, achieve a stable conversion cost, and then increase your budget by no more than 20% every 2-3 days.
  • Focus on the result, not the installations: The volume of installations is a "vanity metric." ROAS, retention, and LTV (lifetime customer value) are important.

GAC may seem complicated, but if you master signal management, creatives, and the discipline to set up, it will become one of the most powerful tools for growth.

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Contact Smak

July 2, 2025 22:50

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