Top tips for scaling your app acquisition campaigns using Facebook ads

In this era of apps, we see an ever more significant need to utilise the tools and processes aligned to digital marketing in a way that ensures the market you’re focusing on is targeted correctly and the ROI is maximised through Facebook ads.

• Here are some tips for your next app acquisition campaign through Facebook ads
• Facebook ads have great potential to maximise your app acquisitions, so make sure your social media ad strategy is working for you, not burning through the ad budget
• With practical tips on how to create Facebook app acquisition campaigns, you’ll learn the key aspects of creating successful Facebook ads

Facebook ads are the number one source of paid traffic to generate app downloads. But due to its success, Facebook can also be a highly competitive place to run campaigns and you must do so with knowledge of how to get your app noticed with the correct targeting, messaging and budgets.

In this guide, you’ll be given a full introduction to ensuring your Facebook ad campaigns are optimised to ensure your app acquisition can scale quickly and profitably. We want you to spend time focusing on ensuring maximum visibility by understanding the foundations.

Let’s get straight into it. You have an app. You have spent time designing and developing it. You’re proud of its functionality and design, but let’s be realistic – you haven’t spent all that time and money as a hobby. Here’s the step by step guide to fulfilling your app acquisitions potential.

How to Build Your App Acquisition Campaign

1. Make sure your goal is clear.

• Are you looking to raise more awareness for your brand?
• Are you trying to retarget and therefore remarket to expired users?
• Are you seeking to attract new users?
• Is there a need for you to increase engagement in your app?
• Have you got a special offer that needs to be promoted?
• Are you needing to market your app’s website URL?

When you create your campaign in Facebook Ads Manager, make sure you select ‘App Installs’ as the primary objective, as this will give you the functionality and tools you need to create the right type of campaign and allow you to add your app as your final URL, taking potential users directly to the download page.

2. Know your audience. This is by far the most important part of your ad campaign set up. Knowing your audience ensures that you can target the right people out of the over 1.5 billion users, which means that you will need to be as precise as possible in this part of the campaign setup. As you would expect, finding the correct audience reach is intricate at every level from age, location, interests, job titles etc. Spend plenty of time on this step.

A tip here would be to look at Facebook’s Audience Insights tool as this will help you narrow your targeting down.

3. You are spending good money on your ad, so it’s only right that you make it count! Your ad needs to be really good… Obvious? Not at all. It is essential. Your success is absolutely dependent on this to be successful with your campaign. Do not underestimate or race through your ad creation. The ad is your brand and your brand is the ad. They are not separate and therefore the design and content must be consistent and aligned. You have only a few seconds, not even as many as 10 seconds to grab a user’s attention, so the key is to draw the eye and the focus as quickly as possible.

A creative asset is a key aspect. Worth a thousand words, to use the old adage, so your ad needs to use the best possible storytelling picture possible for your app. Depending on the type of app you are advertising, it might be a better idea to consider a carefully thought through video to show people how your app works and what they’re going to get from downloading it. Don’t try to save money here, employ someone to make it who really knows what they are doing.

Like every single piece of literature we see on the newsstand or internet, a headline is an opportunity to convince your audience to read the whole ad. Words need to be well chosen to strike the right note. It’s a good idea to include a call to action in your headline. Tell the reader what you want them to do. Use Facebook’s preview tool, which will appear on the right hand side as you develop your advert, to make sure your headline is short enough to be seen across all devices. Don’t use the word count up for the sake of it, make it short and snappy.

Your ad copy needs to inform your audience quickly of the value your app brings or what your offer is. You don’t have a lot of room to get the key message across, so – as above – keep it short and sweet. Think impact, think what’s the point of using our app, think how can I write this and present it in a clever and creative way.

And then there’s the essential component – your Call-to-Action (CTA). If it’s not automatically set to encourage users to install or download your app, make sure you change it. The power of this tool is the key to unlocking the full potential a download of your app.

Scaling Your App Acquisitions Requires Constant Testing and Optimising

In summing up, it is essential that you test as much as you can as part of the ad creation process. Different audiences may actually yield different results, so it’s best to test these separately. Visual assets are the essential draw. If your creative assets aren’t eye catching enough, then you must be willing to change them for better alternatives. Remember, the whole purpose is to get as many people as possible to take your desired campaign action, and your Facebook ad campaign cost has one function – a higher return on the investment you’ve made.

Key Takeaways

• Use the ‘App installs’ campaign objective during the Facebook Ads Manager campaign set up phase
• Knowing your audience ensures that you can target the right people out of the over 1.5 billion users
• A creative asset is a key ingredient to a good app acquisition campaign
• A headline is an opportunity to convince your audience to read the whole ad – make it count
• Your ad copy needs to inform the audience quickly of the value your app brings
• Don’t forget your Call-to-Action