Understand Google Universal App Campaigns With 5 Diagrams

Having a hard time getting UACs to work properly? Read this post to increase your understanding of how UACs operate, and which best practices are critical to success.

Definitions

• UAC — universal app campaign (Google AdWords mobile app advertising campaign type)
• tCPA — campaign optimized for a target cost per action/event
• Max installs — campaign optimized for a target cost per install only
• Max installs advanced — campaign optimized for a target cost per installs firs, but users who are likely to complete the specified event second
• Learning period — the first 7 days of a campaign’s lifetime, during which it sets an understanding of which users to target and how much to pay for their actions

UAC Pointer #1: Don’t run multiple instances of the same event targeting campaign in the same geography.

While it may be tempting to try to segment campaigns into different geographies or by different bid/budget, this act by and large is not advantageous and will actually harm performance.

By running multiple campaigns with the same objective in the same geographic area, you will cause…