While you set up or monitor the performance of your App campaign, our bidding tools offer insight into how to set your bid and how it in turn may impact projected performance. The bid guidance nudge offers suggested bids that may be influenced by the apps’ historical performance and location settings, while the Bid Simulator returns projections on the number of conversions that may be earned given the campaign settings.
Estimates and suggested bids are based on historical information and don't reflect real time auction dynamics.
Availability
Certain App campaign types are eligible to use the bid guidance nudge and Bid Simulator.
| Feature | Campaign Type | Bid strategy | Location of feature | Timing of feature rendering |
| Bid guidance nudge | App campaign for installs (ACi), App campaign for engagement (ACe) | Installs (tCPI), Actions (tCPA), Value (tROAS) | Campaign Settings > Budget and Bidding > Bidding | During new campaign construction |
| Bid simulator | ACi | tCPI, tCPA, tROAS | Campaigns tab > Budget column > Simulator icon | After 1 week of data has accumulated |
Using the bid guidance nudge
The bid guidance nudge appears when you set your bid within the campaign construction flow for a new ACi or ACe campaign. The nudge will display a bid suggestion that may be influenced by the following factors:
- Bidding strategy
- Historical conversions for the app or app category
- Historical campaigns for the app or app category
- Conversion actions optimized for
- Location settings
You can add this suggestion directly to your campaign by selecting “Apply”.
Using the Bid Simulator
The Bid Simulator is accessible from the “Campaigns” page after an App campaign has accumulated sufficient data over the past 7 days. Learn more about why it may not appear in certain campaigns.
Accessing the Bid Simulator
- In your Google Ads account, click the Campaigns icon
.
- Click the Campaigns drop down in the section menu, then click Campaigns.
- On the "Budget" column, hover over the simulator icon
for your campaign.
for your campaign.On the left hand side of the panel, you’ll notice a table containing:
- A list of targets (cost per install, cost per action, or return on ad spend (ROAS), depending on the campaign focus)
- The estimated number of weekly installs, in-app actions, or conversion values that can be attained at the related target
- The total cost of the estimated weekly performance
- Any additional daily budget that may be required if the selected target differs from the current settings
Understanding the graph and applying changes
- Graph overview: On the right hand side, the simulator shows a graph that relates an estimated number of weekly installs, in-app actions, or conversion values to the associated cost. You can hover over the trend line to find the particular target that is projected to yield these results.
- Current and projected targets: Your current target will show as a gray circle on the trendline, and the selected target will show as a blue circle. If you wish to manually set a target, you may do so in the lower left corner of the tool, and the blue circle will adjust automatically.
- Applying a new target: You can add a new target cost per install, cost per action, or ROAS directly to your campaign by clicking the desired settings and selecting “Apply”.
