Understand promotional content

Promotional content is a self-serve merchandising unit on Google Play that features fresh and timely content, such as special offers, time-limited events and major updates for features or content. There are different kinds of promotional content available, all of which help you to do the following:

• Engage with your users outside your app.
• Drive users to open or reinstall your app.
• Encourage users to partake in an offer such as a discount on an item, a store-wide sale or a first-time special deal.
• Help incite the curiosity of new users to download your title.

Promotional content appears across the Google Play Store. This includes the Apps or Games tab, the Events tab under the Games tab, search results, the store-listing page and in the case of offers, the special Offers tab in selected geographies. Most surfaces are available globally, except for the Events tab, which is only available for games in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Taiwan, Türkiye, the UK and the US.

Types of promotional content

Read the following before creating your promotional-content card, and choose the correct type. Selecting the correct promotional-content type is part of our content guidelines. Therefore, promotional content that is misclassified will have limited reach and impact.

• Offers: These are discounts, value-adds, $0 items (free rewards) or subscription trials that your users might be interested in. These can be digital goods administered through Google Play's billing system, fully $0 digital items administered through your own systems or physical goods and services. For more information, see Offer eligibility guidelines. Examples include:
  • Discounts: Discounts can be applied to individual items, categories or your entire shop. You can offer a percentage discount or a flat-rate discount. For example, you could offer '20% off your first order' or '$5 off all shoes'.
  • Value-adds: Value-adds are incremental value-adds or bundles. For example, you could offer '50 gems for the price of 20', '5 lives included with any purchase', Starter pack bundle for $4.99, normally worth $20'.
  • $0 items or free-of-charge rewards: You can offer $0 items, such as claiming a limited-time costume for playing this weekend. This is a great way to get people to try your product or service before they commit to paying for it.
  • Subscription trials: Subscription trials are a great way to get people to sign up for a subscription service. You can offer a free-of-charge trial period or a discounted introductory price. For example, you could offer a free-of-charge 7-day trial of your subscription service or 50% off your first month's subscription.
     
• Time-limited events: Non-offer, time-limited moments happening in your app or game, such as real-time events, competitions and special events. Types of time-limited events are as follows:
  • Real-time: These events occur in real time, and all users can experience them simultaneously. For example, you could host a live streaming of a sporting event or award show.
  • Competitions or challenges: These events allow users to compete for rewards and rankings or achieve a specific goal. For example, you could host a contest for the best user-generated content or a tournament to determine the best player in your game.
  • Special: These are events that don't fit into the other categories. For example, you could host a crossover event with another game or app, or you could release a limited-time item or feature.
     
• Major updates: These updates include significant new features or content. For example, a major update for a game might add a new game mode or a new level.
  • New features and announcements: These updates include new capabilities or functionality, as well as major announcements. For example, an update for a social media app might add a new way to share content or announce a new partnership.
  • New content: These updates include new content that is either newly created or newly available within the app. For example, an update for a streaming app might add new movies or TV shows, or a gaming app may add new levels, characters or battle passes.
  • Pre-registration announcements: These updates are sent to users who have pre-registered for a game. They inform users of new content, instant app demos, milestone rewards progress or global release announcements.