When setting up an app install campaign, creatives play a big role, and they can actually make a real difference if you want to achieve success. Still, having good and effective creatives is not enough, and you may need different tools to work both on creative optimization and the overall app campaign optimization. This will ensure you are keeping your ads always effective and allocating your budget on the most valid ads. For this reason, having a good creative strategy is extremely important: there are different ways in which you can optimize the format used for ads, and we will now explore the main ones, in particular creative rotation and creative A/B testing.
Creative Optimization
Creatives are the first thing users see and what may drive them to the app, and therefore they are a key factor for generating conversions and driving installs: that’s why you need to use effective ads, something which can attract as many users as possible. For this reason, it is essential to choose the right kind of creatives, according to your needs and the data gathered from your campaign. In fact, monitoring the results coming from different ad formats is crucial for you to set up a successful app install campaign and work for your app campaign optimization.
Another important aspect to consider when talking about creative optimization, is the so-called Call-To-Action (CTA), those words and expressions inducing users or customers to take a given action. In the field of app install campaigns, this means encouraging them in installing the app or performing some kind of post-install event. So, for a creative to be optimized, this should include a Call-To-Action so that users will engage with the ad and perform the desired action.
Together with this, there are different strategies you can use for creative optimization, improving the overall performance of your app install campaign.
Creative Rotation
By creative rotation, we mean rotating the available creatives not to show the same ad for too long. Creative rotation is useful when working for creative optimization, as you can monitor the results brought by different ads and measure which one was the most effective in driving installs. Another reason why creative rotation is a useful strategy, is the fact that creatives have different features and best fit different purposes, so you may need to opt for creative rotation over the course of your app install campaign, according to the different stages and goals you are setting. In the field of app install campaigns, you may find videos, banners, GIFs, natives, which are unique and useful in their own way. For example, you may choose videos, which are generally more engaging for your users, or rewarded ads (especially in mobile games), or banners, the most common ad format in app install campaigns, as they can be displayed in any app or website.
Another important aspect to consider for your app campaign optimization is the fact that different ad formats have different costs for DSPs buying ad placements, so creative rotation can be a key factor to keep your budget under control, thus influencing the overall app install campaign performance and app campaign optimization. For all these reasons, creative rotation will help the overall app campaign optimization, as your creatives will always be effective and work at their best for your goals.
Creative A/B Testing
Another key strategy in creative optimization, and consequently in app campaign optimization, is creative A/B testing. Creative A/B testing means showing two different kinds of creatives to different groups in your audience, in order to identify which is the most effective in making users engage with the ad, thus driving conversions. Creative A/B testing will allow you to understand which creative is worth using and supporting financially: indeed, the main economic benefit of running creative A/B testing is that you can allocate your budget to the most effective ads, reducing unnecessary expenses and increasing your campaign ROAS — which is crucial in the strategy of app campaign optimization. Moreover, creative A/B testing is helpful given that, if you know which creatives are working best, you can always develop creatives which are similar to those in terms of effectiveness.
It is also important to run different A/B tests over time, so that you always have specific and updated data about the effectiveness of your creatives, and of your app install campaign.
As we have seen, creatives are a key part of every app install campaign and app campaign optimization and, for this reason, it is crucial to work for creative optimization. Some strategies to achieve this purpose include creative rotation and creative A/B testing: you need to consider them for creative optimization, as they will allow you to assess the performance of your creatives, to identify the most successful ones and achieve your app campaign optimization.
The last tip we want to give you for creative optimization is considering the difference between CPI and CPA campaigns, and the different Call-To-Action you may need to design. For example, in CPI campaigns you mainly want your users to install your app, so your CTA should encourage users to do so, while a Call-To-Action in CPA campaigns needs to promote a given in-app event, the one chosen as the campaign goal.