Search Ads In Google Play Store Rolling Out For All Android App Marketers

Google announced Wednesday that Search Ads on Google Play are starting to roll out to all advertisers and developers to promote Android apps in the store.

The app install ads, which Google began piloting in February, appear in the search results in the Google Play store. The inventory is now available to advertisers and developers running search app install campaigns in AdWords.

Also announced, Universal App Campaigns, a new simplified campaign type, will be rolling out in the next few weeks. Universal App Campaigns are like Adwords Express: designed to make it easy to get up and running with minimal setup. The tradeoff is less management control. App promotion ads will be eligible to display across Google properties and networks.

Google has already enabled app promotion ads in search and display across the Google Display Network, AdMob and YouTube. A new conversion tracking solution, Android first app opens, will measure when users first open an app after clicking an ad and downloading the app. This will enable developers using third-party analytics solutions to more easily align AdWords reporting with what they see in other platforms such as Tune, AppsFlyer, Kochava, Adjust and Apsalar.

App install ads are big business. Research firm eMarketer estimates the US app install ad market accounted for nearly 9 percent of mobile ad spend at $1.67 billion in 2014 and will grow by 80 percent to $3 billion by the end of 2015.