Running App Install Campaigns on Facebook Ads
App install objective campaigns are one of the campaign options available on Facebook ads. However unlike some other campaign types, it require prior tracking setup if you are going to be able to optimise for installs or in app events. You will need to do the following:
- Set up app installation tracking by installing a mobile SDK.
- Create a Facebook app.
- Connect your Facebook app to your MMP.
Setting Up App Install Tracking on Facebook Ads
There are two major ways of setting up app install tracking on Meta ads. You can choose either one that works best for you, depending on your budget and preferences.
1. Using a mobile measurement partner (MMP)
A mobile measurement partner is a platform that makes it possible for advertisers to track the impact of their app promotion efforts. It makes it possible to attribute the sources that drive installs and other in-app events to a campaign. There are a lot of MMPs, but not all of them are supported by Facebook ads.
Below are the MMPs currently supported by Facebook ads:
- Appsflyer
- Adjust
- Singular
- Kochava
- Mparticle
- Branch
- Segment
Of all the above MMPs, my preferred choice is Appsflyer. It works well with other platforms like Google, Twitter, and Snapchat as well. It also has a great user interface and is easy to integrate. In short, it is one of the best MMPs out there.
There is a free trial you can take advantage of that offers you 12,000 attributed installs for free for the first year.
You will need to get a mobile engineer to install the Appsflyer SDK on the mobile app.
The below links show the documentation on how it is done.
How to install Appsflyer Android SDK
How to install Appsflyer iOS SDK
There are also documentations for React and Flutter if your app is built on either of those.
2. Using Facebook's Default SDK
MMPs are usually not free. Most of them offer a free trial, but there are instances where your brand may have used the trial in the past and you are not eligible anymore. If you can't afford an MMP, an alternative is to use the Facebook SDK. The Facebook SDK is Meta's default way of tracking app installs and app events.
It is available for both Android and iOS. You can check out the documentation on how to install it at the below links.
How to install Facebook android SDK
How to install Facebook IOS SDK
Once your SDK is installed (either via MMP or Facebook SDK), the next step is to create a Facebook app via developers.facebook.com.
Creating a Facebook App
A Facebook app is needed before you can run an app install campaign. You will need to link your Facebook app ID to your SDK of choice (MMP or the default SDK). To create your Meta app, follow the below steps:
1. Go to developers.facebook.com.
2. Click on the Create App button
3. Select a use case for your app. For this purpose, you can choose other.
5. Fill in your app details. Name, email and business account (If you want to link it to a business manager)
6. Go to app settings and click basic.
7. Fill in your privacy policy url, terms of service url, contact email and app category.
8. Scroll down, click add platforms and select Android. You will be prompted to select an Android store. Choose Google play.
9. Enter your app package name and Class Name. To locate your app package name. Go to the Playstore page for your app and copy the last part of the web url. It is the value of id = in the below sample link. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app package name. It usually starts with com.
Use Main.Activity as your class name.
10. To add the iOS store if your app is on iOS, click on add platform button again and select iOS. Fill in your iOS bundle id and iPhone store/iPad ID. You can get the values from the mobile developer.
The iPhone/iPad id is usually the id value at the end of the iOS store url of the mobile app.
11. Save your changes
12. Click on the App mode toggle at the top to make your app live.
Connect Your Facebook App To Your Mobile Measurement Partner
If you are integrating your app via a MMP, which is the preferred method, the next step for you will be to connect your newly created Facebook app to the MMP.
Assuming you are using Appsflyer as your MMP:
1. Login to your Appsflyer dashboard and click on Collaborate, then Partner Marketplace in the left navigation pane.
2. Search for Meta ads and click on it.
3. Copy your Facebook app id from developers.facebook.com and input it in the Appsflyer- Meta ads integration screen.
4. If you have in app events setup in your Appsflyer dashboard, you can map them to Facebook standard events.
5. Save your changes and click on the activate partner button at the top.
Once you have done all this, you have successfully setup mobile app tracking for Facebook, the next step is to setup your ad campaign
To do that:
1. Go to your Facebook ads manager dashboard
2. Click create campaign and select app install objective. For app campaign type, you can choose either of automated or manual app install, I generally prefer automated app install.
3. You will be asked to select your mobile app store and app you want to promote. If you have done step 1 (Creating Facebook app), your facebook app will show up here and you just need to select it
4. Make sure you choose either app install or in app events as your optimization goal.
5. Go ahead and fill the remaining info the normal way you setup Facebook ad campaigns.
I hope the above guide was helpful and useful to you. Feel free to ask your questions below.