UAC Creative Best Practices - Complete Guide & Tips

Universal App Campaigns (UAC) are now an integral part of Google Ads for Mobile Apps, and using creatives wisely has become one of the biggest game-changers when trying to optimise campaigns. Here are a few proven UAC Creative Best Practices.

💎 Overall UAC Creative Best Practise:

• UAC assets show up as a combination of text, image and video assets, with Text taking maximum priority, followed by video and then image.

(Ad groups do use assets from the Google Play Store as well so best to ensure that they too are of the highest quality possible)

• For the same reason, it is better to approach the creatives asset wise rather than in isolation.

Eg. Having the banner only for visual depiction of the product/offer since the accompanying text would be present.

• Overall, across the different formats, in a single Ad Group, it’s essential to have sharp communication, i.e. one key take-away for the consumer to understand easily.

💎 UAC Text Ads Best Practise:

• Certain aspects of the texts ads to be kept in mind is how they would appear as the final ad to the consumer.

1. Avoiding repeating the app title as it appears in Google Play (but do use top Brand terms)
2. Please do use top generic Keywords that represent how consumers are searching for that app’s category/service.
3. Ensure proper grammar, i.e. sentence construction and punctuation needs to be maintained, and leads to better click-through rates

• It’s a best practice to have the brand keywords in both headline and description, as text ads get to run across Search & display inventories.
• Using Brand keywords in both Headline and description ensures that the brand has the highest possible chance of being displayed across platforms.
• UAC supports having multiple ad groups; they can be used for running specific and generic comms separately and helps in testing what works better.
• In the case of the app having 3 USPs or different offers, it is ideal for running 3 separate ad groups talking about each.

💎 UAC Video Ads Best Practise:

• It is vital to build for a 3-inch screen – Branding/offer visible and upfront – As many users would be viewing the ad vertically.
• Using effective and correct CTA is a must.

For Eaxmple: In android, install is the term on the play store. Having an ad with the CTA as the download may cause a disconnect.

• Using VO to reinforce comms and CTA can also be useful for passive viewers who have kept their phones aside.
• In terms of aspect ratio, it is essential to use the portrait as well as landscape as it depends on the orientation of the phone the user is viewing videos on. Square is an aspect ratio that is good to have.
• Portrait assets are best for an immersive ad (best for showcasing actual app experience)
• Duration wise 11-15sec is best for action. Longer videos have also shown to work depending on how engaging or eye-catching the content is.

💎 UAC Image Ads Best Practise:

• Always include 1200×628 (a couple of different versions can be tried with heavy and light text)
• Always include 300×250 and 320×50.
• Dynamic creatives, gifs are also something that can be experimented with
• For vernacular creatives, in addition to pure English and pure Hindi, we can also look at a combination of both like using Hinglish or having keywords like Recharge or offer in English, as those terms are ubiquitous. These can again be tested by creating multiple ad groups.
• Leave download now out of the asset as the CTA button would already be present.

Read my previous post on “How to optimise UAC campaigns”

Got any questions about Universal App Campaigns, best Creative practices or User Acquisition via UAC campaigns in general, leave your questions in the comments section.

For additional information on how to put together a Google Universal App Campaign, check out the video here