Troubleshoot performance fluctuations and changes in App campaigns
This article explains different reasons for App campaign fluctuations and changes, why they may cause changes in campaign performance over time, and how you can use the tools in your Google Ads account to understand what’s driving these changes.
Keep in mind: It’s normal for your campaign performance to vary.
Before you begin
Use Explanations to identify reasons for performance changes in a single click
Explanations give you insights into large changes in your App Campaign’s performance and help you quickly find out why they happened. By default, you’ll have explanations that compare the date range you selected with the previous period of the same length:
- Go to your campaign or ad groups page.
- Hover over values in your data table that are colored in blue with a dotted line.
- Review how this value has changed since the last period.
- Click View explanation to identify what caused the change.
Assess performance based on your bid strategy and optimization goal
Before you reach conclusions about your campaign performance, check if your campaign settings match the metrics your campaign is optimizing towards. If not, setup a new App campaign if you’d like to start optimization for a different goal. A new campaign will be better at optimization of your bids and ads for an audience who can meet each goal. This will help to ensure that you focus on the relevant metrics when analyzing campaign performance and understand what drove fluctuations in Google Ads.
For example, Target CPA helps you get as many conversions as possible at or below the target cost-per-action (CPA) you set. In campaigns using Target CPA, cost-per-conversion and other conversion-related metrics may be better indicators of performance than cost-per-click and impressions.
10 common reasons why your performance fluctuates
1. Recent changes to account or campaign settings
Changes to settings such as bid strategy, budget, or targets can trigger a new machine learning period. Don't make frequent or major changes to minimize volatility. Allow a 7-14 days stability period after each adjustment. If you must adjust your budget, keep changes within a 10-20% range.
Learn more about App campaign performance fluctuations: Changes to account or campaign settings.
2. Conversion tracking setup and conversion delay
If there’s a sudden drop in global pings for a conversion your App campaign is optimized for, this can result in a drop in delivery and cost as Google Ads targets your set conversion action.
Learn more about App campaign performance fluctuations: Conversion tracking setup and conversion delay.
3. Bids and bid targets
Bid targets set too far from historical performance may cause fluctuations. Review your actual values from the last 30 days and set targets close to those levels to provide the system with enough headroom to win auctions.
Learn more about App campaign performance fluctuations: Bids and bid targets.
4. Budget settings
A limited budget may cause campaign fluctuations.
Learn more about App campaign performance fluctuations: Budget settings.
5. Low creative coverage and diversity
It’s important to ensure you have a diverse set of creatives across ad formats. Don't remove high-performing assets or audience segments, as this disrupts predictive models. Use high-quality videos, images, and headlines to achieve a "Good" or "Excellent" Ad Strength. Review the Change History to identify the cause if performance drops after asset updates.
Learn more about App campaign performance fluctuations: Low creative coverage and diversity.
6. Targeting settings and overlaps
If your campaign targets a smaller group of users with a very specific audience, location, or language settings, it may also be more likely to have performance fluctuations. You may have multiple campaigns or ad groups in your account that are eligible to enter overlapping auctions due to similar targeting.
Learn more about App campaign performance fluctuations: Targeting.
7. Policy and ad review status
Changes to the review status of your ads or keywords can affect your performance.
Learn more about App campaign performance fluctuations: Policy and review status.
8. App status
Your app's store (Google Play or Apple App Store) status impacts ad delivery. Check Android vitals in the Google Play Console for technical issues such as high crash rates or Application Not Responding (ANRs). Technical stability issues may disqualify your app from premium Play Store inventory because the system reviews eligibility based on quality signals.
Learn more about App campaign performance fluctuations: App status.
9. Other account issues
Issues with your payments, billing transfers or other account level issues can affect the performance of your account and the performance of your campaigns.
Learn more about App campaign performance fluctuations: Account issues.
10. Auction dynamics
Your campaign performance is influenced by the choices of other advertisers in the same auctions. To accurately assess these impacts, monitor competitive trends over a 30-day window instead of daily shifts.
Learn more about App campaign performance fluctuations: Auction dynamics.