Question 1

Add and verify your app in App Manager

Accepted Answer

Before you begin your campaign, make sure you’ve added and verified your app in App Manager, integrated with a Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) and Apple’s SKAdNetwork, and signed up for our Advanced Mobile Measurement Program.

Question 2

Learning Period

Accepted Answer

For the first 5 days after you launch a new app campaign, our systems will test and find the best users for your ads. We call this initial exploration phase the “Learning Period”.
During the Learning Period you will likely see fluctuations in performance. Avoid making changes so the system can learn and calibrate as efficiently as possible. After the Learning Period, performance typically stabilizes.
If you are still not seeing good performance after 5 days, we recommend:
Increasing your daily budget gradually
Keeping Optimize Targeting enabled
Widening your audience (whole countries, all ages and genders, all operating systems and placements)
Refreshing your creative

Question 3

Ad formats

Accepted Answer

For app install campaigns, we recommend these top-performing ad formats:
Image App Card
Video App Card
Carousel App Card
You can also generate media with AI directly in Ads Manager.

Question 4

Creative and copy

Accepted Answer

With Cards and Carousels, your mobile audience can easily transition from X to the app store. Include eye-catching images or videos and clear supporting copy. Your creatives should reflect real in-app experiences. Keep post text short and benefit-focused (approximately 40–60 characters).
Creative best practices:
Videos under 15 seconds with a strong hook in the first 3 seconds
Captions on all video ads (most viewing happens on mute)
Clear CTAs even on awareness-style creatives
Include numbers or pricing when relevant
Test still/image ads alongside video
Avoid hashtags, emojis, excessive capitalization, and over-using mentions

Question 5

Bidding strategy

Accepted Answer

At the ad-group level, choose your Optimization goal:
App installs (recommended) – optimizes for people most likely to install; default Pay by is Impressions (CPM)
App clicks – optimizes for clicks into the App Store or Google Play; Pay by is App clicks
Start new campaigns on Auto bid. Auto bid automatically maximizes results at the lowest price within your budget and gives the system the room it needs to learn.
Set your daily budget around 20× your target cost-per-install (or cost-per-action). Example: if your target CPI is $25, aim for a daily budget of approximately $500. This provides enough signal and volume for healthy learning and scale.
Once you have stable performance data you can tighten control with Maximum bid if desired. Note that the Optimization goal cannot be changed after the campaign is created or saved as a draft.

Question 6

Targeting recommendations

Accepted Answer

Start broad so the system has maximum signal to learn and scale. For new app-install campaigns we recommend:
Optimize Targeting ON
Whole countries only
All ages, both genders, all operating systems
All placements and Standard pacing
No language, carrier, or frequency-cap restrictions at launch
Avoid keyword exclusions, interest / follower look-alike inclusions, and custom-audience exclusions unless there is a strong business reason
Device-model and carrier targeting remain available under Advanced options when needed. You can layer more precise targeting later as an optimization lever.

Question 7

Measuring results

Accepted Answer

Once your campaign is live, track real-time results in Ads Manager: total spend, results, cost-per-result, and result rate. Your result will be either app installs or app clicks, depending on the Optimization goal you chose.
Installs include both MACT and SKAdNetwork (SKAN) attributions. SKAN measurement is now available across upper-funnel objectives as well, giving you full-funnel visibility into how your entire media mix drives app results.
Set up third-party mobile app conversion tracking via your MMP to measure post-install actions. Campaign Health scores and suggestions also appear in Ads Manager to help you maintain performance.
You can also run measurement studies depending on the goals you want to achieve including brand lift, mobile app measurement, and buy-through rate.
More on Analytics, More on Measurements

App installs campaign

Drive downloads of your mobile app

Best practices

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