Create an App campaign for pre-registration

You can create an App campaign that promotes pre-registration for apps or games before they release on Google Play. App campaigns for pre-registration allow you to gauge interest before your app or game is available to install. After your app launches, the pre-registration campaign stops serving ads automatically in the locations where the app is released.

This article covers how to set up an App campaign for pre-registration in Google Ads. Learn more about App campaigns for pre-registration

Before you begin

• Before you can run an App campaign for pre-registration, you need to set up your app or game for pre-registration in your Play Console. Your app or game APK needs to be uploaded to at least one release track in the Play Console, and you need to launch the app or game within 90 days after you make it available for pre-registration in the Play Console.
• People can only pre-register for apps and games in the Google Play store on Android devices.

Instructions

1. Sign in to Google Ads.
2. In the page menu on the left, click Campaigns.
3. Click the plus button , then select New campaign.
4. Click App promotion, then click App for your campaign type.
5. Click App pre-registration (Android only) for your campaign sub-type.

6. Look up the app name, package name, or publisher to verify if the app is eligible for pre-registration, then click Continue.

   Note: If you didn’t enable pre-registration for your app in the Play Console and the app is already available in one country or more, it isn’t eligible for the campaign.
7. In the “Campaign name” field, enter a campaign name.
8. Select your location and language settings for the campaign. Your campaign only shows in countries where your app is available for pre-registration.
9. In the “Budget” section, enter the average budget you want to spend each day.
10. In the “Bidding” section, enter the Target cost-per-pre-registration, which is the average you’d like to spend each time someone pre-registers for your app.
11. Click Save and continue.
12. In the “Ad group name” field, enter an ad group name.
13. In the “Ad assets” section, enter multiple text ideas, images, videos, and other assets for your App campaign. You can add:
    • Up to 5 headline ideas (minimum of 2 headlines required)
    • Up to 5 description ideas
    • Up to 20 images
    • Up to 20 videos

14. Click Save and continue.
15. Review your campaign summary, then click Continue.

Conversion actions

After you create your App campaign for pre-registration, you can see how many people pre-register for your app or game on the “Conversion actions” page in Google Ads. To do this, click the “Tools” icon, then click “Conversions.” Pre-registration is the only conversion action that is tracked for pre-registration campaigns, and they are auto-added to campaigns as soon as the first user pre-registers. Conversion actions for pre-registration campaigns can’t be edited or removed.