Deprecated: Meta has confirmed that since July 2022, no new Automated App Ads + Dynamic Creative Optimization can be created. Regular Automated App Ads still work.

For advertisers that are looking to streamline their app advertising efforts—while still maintaining high performance and creative variation—Automated App Ads is an ideal solution. Automated App Ads offers several benefits:

• Simplified campaign setup with built-in Dynamic Creative Optimization and automatic placements
• A machine learning backed optimization model which balances performance between Cost Per Install and Cost Per Purchase
• Built to scale; as budget increases, the optimization and delivery model maintain high performance 

Automated App Ads is for advertisers who are looking to setup effortless, broad-targeted campaigns that can hold their own performance-wise without the constant tweaking.

If you plan on using the dynamic creative optimization with a maximum of 50 assets, see instructions below on how create a regular campaign.

If you want to use a dynamic ads creative promoting catalog items, see how to create a dynamic ads campaign for Automated App Ads.

Creating a regular Automated App Ads campaign

In the Campaigns view, click Create > New campaign and select to create a regular campaign.

When creating a regular Automated App Ads campaign, note the following settings and limitations:

• In the campaign settings:
  • Select App Installs as the campaign objective.
  • Select Automated App Ads as the promotion type.
  • iOS 14/SKAN campaigns are supported.
• In the audience settings:
  • You can select App Store, Country, and Language as the targeting.
    • Further targeting options are currently not allowed by Facebook. If you have setup custom audience exclusions, age restrictions, or any other targeting specifications in the Business Manager in App Settings, all your Automated App Ads campaigns take those into account without any further selection during campaign creation. See the FAQ section below for more information.
  • You can only create one ad set in an Automated App Ads campaign.
• In the creative settings:
  
  • In a regular campaign, you can upload a maximum of 50 unique images or videos, a maximum of 5 primary text options, and a maximum of 5 headlines. This ad type is similar to a Dynamic Creative Optimization ad: Facebook dynamically tests and delivers the best performing combination of assets.
  • You can create one ad per ad for the ad set in an Automated App Ads campaign.

About Automated App Ads campaigns

Automated App Ads have distinct characteristics that marketers should know before creating campaigns.

• Automated App Ads use a 1-1-1 structure: one campaign, with one ad set, with one ad. 
  • Please note, but you can't add a new ad set or a new ad even if the previous ad set has been archived. Instead, clone and start a new Automated App Ads campaign.
• For every app, app store, country and language, you can have active only one campaign per optimization type. 
• Automated App Ads has four available optimization types for the ad set: App install, App install with app events, App events, Value.
  • App install with app events is a special optimization type available in Automated App Ads campaigns. The only available app event is Purchase. This optimization choice balances between CPI and CPA/ROAS.

Ways to automate creative assets with Automated App Ads campaigns

Automated App Ads are not available in Smartly.io Automated Ads currently, but you can still leverage Smartly.io's Creative Solutions. You can use Video Templates and Image Templates to produce beautifully effective ads at scale, and using the templates, you can either export the assets or add them directly to your asset library in Smartly.io. When creating an Automated App Ads campaign, you can use those assets from your Smartly.io library. You can also use Image Templates in the catalog items' images.

If you have a set of creative assets, such as images, CTAs, and frames, you can use the Modular Creative method in the Creative Editor to combine them into unique variations based on all the distinct combinations of assets.

FAQ

What exclusions are available for advertisers?

• Minimum Age targeting: This feature will enable an advertiser to set minimum age targeting at the app level (in settings of respective Facebook page) and it will auto-apply to all their Automated App Ads campaigns for that app.

  • Why? The Automated App Ads default age targeting is 13+ because this drives the best performance. However many apps have age targeting restrictions of 18+ or 21+ based on app store or advertising policies (weight loss apps, dating apps, gambling apps, and so on).

• Custom Audience exclusion targeting: This feature will allow advertisers to upload and apply custom audience exclusion lists at the app level and it will auto-apply to all their Automated App Ads campaigns for that app.

  • Why? The App Install product leverages a default, non-adjustable exclusion window to ensure people who already have an app installed, do not receive an app install ad unless they haven’t opened the app within a certain window of time: if a user has installed or opened an app in the last 90 days, then those users will not receive an app install ad from that app. If they have not installed or opened the app in the last 90 days, then they become eligible to receive app install ads from that app again. For various reasons, many app advertisers have additional requirements outside the default window to exclude additional users from seeing their app install ads and in the normal app ads product they apply these constraints via custom audience exclusion targeting.

How do I set up Minimum Age targeting and Custom Audience exclusion targeting at App level?

You need to set them up in your App Settings in Business Manager. Read more:

• About App Advertising Settings in Business Manager
• Permissions Required to View and Edit App Advertising Settings

For more information, see Facebook's documentation on Automated App Ads.

How can I A/B test Automated App Ads + Dynamic Ads vs. Automated App Ads + DCO? 

First, create both campaigns as paused (same targeting and same mobile OS). Then, add them to different Facebook A/B test cells. Finally, unpause them. If you try to first activate the campaigns, Facebook might prevent one campaign from being published or active with an error message saying you have a duplicate campaign—you can only have one campaign per country, language and optimization goal for each app you promote.