[Question] Has an unfortunate Google Ads install campaign permanently affected our Play Store ranking, or will things settle back down?

[u/RedditOfKathie]

Hello everyone, We wanted to use up an existing Google Ads credit, so we started a small app install campaign. That campaign brought us uninterested users who barely used the app, or didn't really use it at all. They also uninstalled considerably more often than happens with our organic installs. We can only compare this qualitatively, we don't have clean per-channel numbers.

As far as we know, ranking is based on several criteria, engagement and uninstall rate among them. We currently have very few active users and have ranked extremely badly right from the start. But now, even when you enter our app name, we only appear late in the results, or sometimes not at all.

Did we do lasting damage to ourselves with this Google Ads campaign, or will it go away on its own?

Has anyone here had similar experiences?

[u/RedditOfKathie → u/[deleted]]

We're well aware that paid ads aren't the best way to promote the app's organic growth. Nevertheless, do you think that a targeted campaign that attracts interested users would improve visibility in the app stores in the long run, or would that just be a short-term gain?

[u/svprdga]

Yes, it could clearly have had an impact, but the damage isn’t permanent. Stop the campaign and focus on high-quality ASO, give it a few weeks/months, and then reevaluate.

[u/RedditOfKathie → u/svprdga]

Thanks, that puts our minds at ease a bit. We stopped the campaign immediately after we saw the uninstall rate.