Google App Campaigns are Google Ads' automated campaign type for promoting Android and iOS apps, building ads from supplied assets and serving them across Search, Google Play, YouTube, Discover and the Display Network.
An advertiser picks a subtype (installs, engagement, or pre-registration for Android), sets a budget and a bid strategy such as target cost per install, target cost per action or target ROAS, and supplies assets: up to five 30-character headlines, up to five 90-character descriptions, images, YouTube videos and, where applicable, HTML5. Google tests combinations and serves the best performers. Targeting is automated, so there are no keywords or placements to choose; the advertiser steers through bids, conversion events and creative. That makes it a very different tool from Apple Ads (formerly Apple Search Ads), whose search results campaigns run on keyword bidding.
App campaigns touch ASO in two ways. Google can pull text, images and video from the app's store listing to build ads, so the listing doubles as ad creative. For Android install campaigns, an ads-targeted custom store listing, in open beta and limited to Display Network traffic, can give campaign visitors their own version of the page. Most paid traffic lands on the same listing organic visitors see, so conversion work lowers acquisition cost, and the extra volume can feed organic momentum. Play Console folds Google Ads visits into its ads and referrals traffic source, so campaign results are read in Google Ads.
Example
A language app launches an App campaign for installs with a target cost per install, five headlines and three short videos. It links an ads-targeted custom store listing whose screenshots echo the ads, then judges cost per install in Google Ads and ads-and-referrals click-through rate in Play Console.