User Acquisition: Latest App Store Updates and Features of Q3 2024

As the app landscape evolves, staying on top of platform updates is essential for optimizing user acquisition strategies. In Q3 2024, both Apple and Google introduced new features and metrics that app marketers can leverage to improve performance and drive user engagement. These updates, ranging from new install metrics for Apple Search Ads to Google's custom audience targeting, provide powerful tools to refine acquisition efforts and track campaign effectiveness.

Apple has introduced new dimensions for tracking installs in Apple Search Ads (ASA), providing deeper insights into campaign performance. The new metrics are broken down as follows:

• Tap-Through Installs: Installs generated from users who directly tap on ads.
• View-Through Installs: Installs that occur within 24 hours after users view an ad but don’t tap on it.
• Total Installs: The combined number of Tap-Through and View-Through installs.

• Awareness Inventories (Today Tab, Search Tab, Product Tab): Although these placements aren't primarily designed for direct installs, adding a metric for View-Through installs allows marketers to quantify how awareness campaigns contribute to overall installs.
• Non-Brand Search Results: These metrics offer more granular data on how Apple Search Ads impact organic search installs, enabling marketers to better assess campaign influence.
• Brand Defense: View-through metrics provide insights into brand defense campaigns, showing how they drive installs. However, marketers need to be cautious, as these metrics may blur the line between organic installs and paid ones, potentially leading to miscalculations in cost analysis.

With the release of iOS 18 and tvOS 18, Apple is set to increase the size limit for apps and games from 2GB to 4GB. This update, expected in September, will allow developers to create more advanced and feature-rich apps without relying heavily on additional downloads. The change is especially significant for games and apps requiring large assets, offering more flexibility for developers to deliver seamless experiences to users.

Google is reportedly testing a feature to boost app engagement by reminding users to open an app after installing it. If a user downloads an app but doesn’t open it within 24 hours, the Google Play Store will send a notification, reminding the user that the app is ready for use. This feature is designed to address app retention issues by encouraging immediate interaction after installation, which can enhance overall user engagement and retention rates.

Google Play has rolled out a new feature allowing app marketers to create custom audiences for targeted promotional campaigns. This feature offers a personalized approach to re-engaging users and boosting conversions by targeting specific user segments, such as churned users or those who didn't complete a purchase after starting a trial.

• Targeting churned users: Re-engaging users who have stopped using the app by offering them a discount or special promotion.
• Converting trial users: Offering promotions to users who initiated a free trial but didn’t complete a purchase, thereby increasing conversion potential.

This new capability allows for more precise targeting, leading to improved engagement and higher conversion rates for promotional campaigns.

In summary, the App Store update features launched by both Apple and Google in Q3 2024 will provide app marketers with improved tools to optimize acquisition and engagement. Apple's new install metrics for Search Ads offer deeper insights into campaign performance, particularly in brand defense and awareness campaigns. This is especially true for brand protection and awareness campaigns. With iOS 18 and tvOS 18, increasing the app size limit gives developers more creative freedom. Especially complex apps and games. Meanwhile, Google's new notification feature aims to improve app retention. While custom audiences for Google Play promotions enable highly targeted campaigns. Together, these updates help marketers refine their strategies, drive user engagement, and boost overall app performance in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.