Sign up as a developer on Facebook for your mobile app before we start using Facebook Ads Manager and setting up our first mobile app install campaign. Share this instructional link with your developer if you are not a developer so that they can help you set up the App Dashboard.
You will learn how to register your app, install the iOS Software Development Kit (SDK) or Android Software Development Kit (SDK), add any app events that may be crucial to your business and goals, and more in this section. Although installing the SDK is optional, we strongly encourage our clients to do so because it can provide more insights and a higher level of tracking and ad targeting. As advertisers, the more information we can collect, the better because we can use it to make informed decisions, develop individualized audiences, and enhance our app campaigns. Although adding app events (such as app install, app launch, add to cart, in-app purchase, etc.) is optional, we recommend setting these up in accordance with your company’s needs. Using this information, you can better target your ads to people who are most likely to act and build custom audiences.
I’m not sure if you’ve done this before. Do you want to verify your registration? By entering your Facebook App ID into Facebook’s App Ads Helper, you can quickly determine whether your app is registered and ready to participate in campaigns.
Set your mobile app campaign goals after completing the initial steps. Now let’s get started setting up the campaign. You should use these two primary Facebook campaign objectives: Conversions and app installations.
App Install campaigns When creating a new campaign, select the “App Installs” campaign objective if your objective is to increase mobile app installs.
Screen for the Facebook ads app install campaign This campaign objective will assist in serving ads for installing mobile apps to members of your target audience—more on this later—who are most likely to perform this action. The campaign will work best toward this objective.
Campaigns aimed at conversions If you want to reach more affluent users who have already downloaded your app in order to entice them to re-engage with it, you might want to test out other campaign goals like “Conversions.” At the ad set level, select a conversion event location—your app—for this campaign objective. Select your app, the app store it is in for this campaign and ad set (iTunes or Google Play), and an app event you want to optimize for, like in-app purchases, as shown here.
Selecting a conversion campaign objective screen Now that our campaign has been selected, go to the ad set level to select your audience targeting. Who do you want to reach? Who is most likely to use your app and install it? Examine and learn!
There are a number of ways to reach people at various stages of your funnel, although the possibilities for targeting may be endless depending on your business objectives and target market. You must test strategies to determine which of these possibilities works for you and your audience, whether you’re targeting a cold audience with an awareness campaign to increase installs or a warmer audience with a re-engagement campaign to increase continued use of your app. Try out these Facebook targeting options!
Broad targeting: If you’re just starting out, don’t know who to target, and have money to spend on these ads, broaden your targeting. To determine which of these demographics performs best, you can select age, gender, and location. Scale backwards to eliminate segments that aren’t performing well after determining which demographics work best for you.
Detailed targeting If you are just starting out and have a smaller budget, we often suggest starting with a smaller audience that might be more interested in your app, especially if it is for a specific niche market. Start typing some relevant keywords by going to the Detailed Targeting section of the ad set level. Try looking into the interests of your users if you don’t know where to start. If you’re a food delivery app, for instance, you should target people who are interested in food, pizza (if you offer it), dining out, and so on. Targeting individuals who are interested in your rival could be an additional option.
Create a lookalike custom audience in the Audiences tab of Facebook Ads Manager to find relevant new users. This is another excellent option.
Facebook ads manager custom audience Here, you can upload email lists like leads, newsletter subscribers, or customers to create custom audiences. Alternately, you can create custom audiences using your website pixel, such as website visitors. Or, since we’re talking about mobile apps, you can make custom audiences based on app events like installs, add-to-cart, in-app purchases, and other things. You can create a lookalike audience after creating these and other custom audiences with at least 100 individuals.
An audience that is similar to another audience is called a lookalike audience. Facebook will use these to take an audience you’ve already created and create a new audience of people with similar interests and behaviors for you to target. For instance, Facebook will give you a new audience to target for your app install campaigns if you create a lookalike of your in-app purchase custom audience. We highly recommend trying these out because they work very well.
Select a custom audience that you have created, then select “Create Lookalike” from the drop-down menu as shown below.
Select the “create a lookalike” screen next. In a new window, you’ll need to choose the size and location of the audience. Since this audience will be closely related to your initial custom audience, we recommend that you use the automatic prompt for 1% lookalike as soon as you begin. Lookalike targeting will be broader the higher the percentage. Start with one percent, and if you want to reach new, larger audiences, increase that percentage over time to see how it works for you.