While you set up or monitor the performance of your App campaign, our bidding tools offer insight into how to set your bid and how it in turn may impact projected performance. The bid guidance nudge offers suggested bids that may be influenced by the apps’ historical performance and location settings, while weekly estimates and the Bid Simulator return projections on the number of conversions that may be earned given the campaign settings.
Estimates and suggested bids are based on historical information and don't reflect real time auction dynamics.
Availability
Certain App campaign types are eligible to use the bid guidance nudge and Bid Simulator.
| Feature | Campaign Type | Bid strategy | Location of feature | Timing of feature rendering |
|
Bid guidance nudge |
App campaign for installs (ACi), App campaign for engagement (ACe) | Installs (tCPI), Actions (tCPA), Value (tROAS) | Campaign Settings > Budget and Bidding > Bidding | During new campaign construction |
| Weekly estimates | ACi | tCPI |
Campaign Settings > Budget and Bidding |
During new campaign construction |
|
Bid simulator |
ACi |
tCPI, tCPA |
Campaigns tab > Budget column > Simulator icon |
After 1 week of data has accumulated |
Using the bid guidance nudge
The bid guidance nudge appears when you set your bid within the campaign construction flow for a new ACi or ACe campaign. The nudge will display a bid suggestion that may be influenced by the following factors:
- Bidding strategy
- Historical conversions for the app or app category
- Historical campaigns for the app or app category
- Conversion actions optimized for
- Location settings
You can add this suggestion directly to your campaign by selecting “Apply”.
Using weekly estimates
Weekly estimates are shown during App campaign construction and provide forecasted traffic based on the campaign's settings. At this time, the tool will only return estimates if “Install volume” is selected as the area of focus. After selecting the app ID you wish to promote, the tool will return an estimate of weekly installs and the associated cost when the following inputs have been provided:
- Location
- Language
- Bid
- Budget
The estimates provided don't represent the actual traffic your ads will get. Instead, they are estimates based on your settings and targeting options.
Using the Bid Simulator
The Bid Simulator is accessible from the “Campaigns” page after an App campaign has accumulated sufficient data over the past 7 days. Learn more about why it may not appear in certain campaigns
Accessing the Bid Simulator
- Sign in to your Google Ads account.
- Click App campaigns in the campaigns menu on the left.
- Click Campaigns in the page menu.
- Locate your campaign and click the “Bid Simulator” icon
within the "Budget" column.
within the "Budget" column.On the left hand side of the panel, you’ll notice a table containing:
- A list of target CPAs (cost per install or cost per action, depending on the campaign focus)
- The estimated number of weekly installs or in-app actions that can be attained at the related target
- The total cost of the estimated weekly performance
- Any additional daily budget that may be required if the selected target differs from the current settings
Understanding the graph and applying changes
- Graph overview: On the right hand side, the simulator shows a graph that relates an estimated number of weekly installs or in-app actions to the associated cost. You can hover over the trend line to find the particular target that is projected to yield these results.
- Current and projected targets: Your current target will show as a gray circle on the trendline, and the selected target will show as a blue circle. If you wish to manually set a target, you may do so in the lower left corner of the tool, and the blue circle will adjust automatically.
- Applying a new target: You can add a new target cost per install or action directly to your campaign by clicking the desired settings and selecting “Apply”.