App assets allow you to link to your mobile or tablet app from your text ads. People click either on your ad headline to go to your site or on the link to your app. App assets are a great way to provide access to your website and your app from a single ad.
This article explains how app assets work and some of the reasons why they're helpful.
Before you begin
Before you set up an app asset, confirm that you have the following:
- A mobile app that's live within Google Play or the Apple App Store
- The Package Name (Android) or App ID (iOS) for your mobile app
- The URL of the page within the app store where users can learn more about the app or click to install the app
If you have all the above items, you can add an app asset to the ads in your account, campaign or ad group.
How it works
App assets showcase your mobile or tablet app by showing a link to your app below your ad. Clicking this link leads you to your app’s description in the app store (Google Play or the Apple App Store). Clicking on your ad’s headline will still lead to your website.
Key benefits of app assets
- Flexibility: You can add app assets to accounts, campaigns and ad groups.
- Detailed reporting: Find out how many clicks you receive on each part of your ad when an app asset appeared, such as clicks to your ad's headline compared to clicks on the app asset. Break these statistics down by campaign, ad group or ad.
- 'Smart' detection of app store and device: If you create an asset for each app store, we'll show the store link that corresponds to the customer's device. As a result, users on an iOS device will view your Apple App Store link. We'll also show the app asset link that corresponds to a customer's device type, so if your app only runs on tablets, we won't display that app asset link to a customer using a mobile phone.
- In-place editing: Edit your app asset without resetting its performance statistics.
Bear in mind that only 1 app asset can be displayed per text ad (unlike sitelinks, with which you can add multiple links to different pages of your site). You can still create multiple app assets, one for each app or app store.
Account levels
You can add app assets at the account, campaign, ad group or ad level. If you create app assets at different levels (account, campaign or ad group), the most specific will be used. So when you add an app asset to an ad group, that asset shows instead of your campaign-level or account-level app assets. Likewise, campaign-level assets override account-level assets.What app assets cost
App assets are free to add, and you're only charged for clicks. Clicks on an app asset of an ad cost the same as clicks on the headline of that ad. In other words, you'll be charged the same amount no matter which link is clicked on the same ad.
Instructions
Create app assets
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- Click Ads & assets in the page menu on the left, then click Assets from the drop-down menu.
- You'll now find a table with all your assets. Click the plus button
.
- Select App from the drop-down menu.
- Choose whether you’d like your app asset to run on the 'Account', 'Campaign' or 'Ad group' level from the drop-down menu.
- Select 'Create new' app asset or 'Use existing' app assets.
- Enter the name of your app in the search field. You can choose between the 'Android' and 'iOS' version of this app.
- Enter the 'link text' that you’d like to appear as your call-to-action.
- Add any custom tracking parameters, or set start and end dates for your app asset.
- Click Save.
