The QUESTION
As you know that google simplified the setting for device targeting. Now there are only:
1. Computer
2. Mobile Phone
3. Tablet
How to avoid display ads on mobile apps as per your video (section 11, video 54).
I believe google has a method to do it, but I want to know from you to make sure we are correct.
Thanks in advance, your help is so much appreciated.
The ANSWER
Mobile apps were always a sneaky problem for all of us.
Google wanted our ads on Mobile apps; we didn’t.
Google wanted to make developers richer to make them stick to Google play and leave App Store, and we had to pay that through our ads.
Ads in Mobile apps are not always a winner. Of course, if you target the right audience, it’s good to be even in his mobile when he opens an app or plays a game.
But when using broader audiences, the ad inside an app is not always the right solution because it appears in places with little or not “action intent”.
They see our ad, ok, but they cannot do the action we want them to do because they are using an app, play a game.
Who would leave the game to buy some shoes? Or close the map to buy a marketing course?
So Mobile App ads are great for branding, but I am not sure they fit our Performance Strategy.
Google always made it difficult to exclude Mobile apps from our advertising campaigns.
In the beginning, we used a negative placement to exclude all of them.
The negative placement adsenseformobileapps.com was known only to experts of those who were searching for a solution online. It was not an obvious setting in a visible location.
Then Google gave us a more prominent option, we could deselect Mobile Apps and Mobile App Interstitials inside the settings of our campaigns.
It was not in the first row, but if you selected the Advanced Settings, it was easy to find it and uncheck the choice to get rid of the mobile apps.
And now everything changed, and these options are not available.
Google Ads lately stopped a lot of control options we had including Manual Payments (now everything is automatic, and you cannot control the exact spending), Overspending (allows google to spend X2 our daily budget, so daily budget is not a strict control option) and of course Mobile Apps ads (the Mobile Apps and Mobile Apps Interstitial disappeared from the settings).
What is the solution today?
Google will not provide an easy solution to this. But there is one and below we have a step by step guide.
And of course, the solution is not inside Google Ads platform and not an obvious one.
You have to use Google Ads Editor to solve that problem.
Google Ads Editor is an app that you need to download online (it’s free) and connect to your Google Ads account.
This app allows you to make offline edits to your ad.
I love Google Ads editor for other functions that you cannot normally do through online Google Ads like copy-paste between accounts. Or mass edits in ads. I love it also when I have to copy-paste more than 40 locations between campaigns too.
Inside Google Ads Editor there is an option to exclude apps by category.
So you can exclude them all with one click. There are 140 different categories of Google Mobile Apps, and you can exclude them following the steps below.
Step by Step Guide on How to Do it
1. Download Google Ads Editor from here (it’s free): https://ads.google.com/home/tools/ads-editor/
2. Connect your account to Google Ads Editor
3. Download your recent changes by clicking “Get Recent Changes” button.
4. Select all your Display Campaigns or the ones that you want to exclude Mobile Apps.
5. Select from “Manage” -> Mobile app categories, Negative
6. Click on +Add negative mobile app category and then “Campaign Level Negative mobile app category”.
7. Select “All Apps” and press ok.
8. Publish all your changes – Click Post.
You are done!
by Simon Koss – Google Partner Premier, SEM & Analytics Business Trainer
