Google Ads advances a business goal by letting you choose a campaign objective, such as Sales, Leads, Website traffic or App promotion, and then optimising your campaign towards the results that match it.
The objectives
- Sales: drive sales or conversions online, in an app, by phone or in store.
- Leads: get people to sign up or share contact details.
- Website traffic: bring people to your website.
- YouTube reach, views and engagements: build awareness.
- App promotion: drive installs and engagement through an automated campaign.
What App promotion covers
App campaigns come in three types: for installs, for engagement with people who already have the app, and for pre-registration before launch. Ads can show on Google Search, Google Play, YouTube, the Google Display Network and Discover.
In practice
Pick the objective that matches the result you pay for. For most apps that is installs first, then in-app actions or value once you have enough conversions. Google recommends a daily budget of at least 50 times your target cost per install for install volume, or 10 times your target cost per action for in-app actions. Measure success on cohort revenue, not clicks.
See how we run Google for apps and games on our Google Ads agency page.
Sources checked 4 October 2026
Related Google Ads questions
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