App acquisitions dropped after running ad campaign
I've recently posted this in the r/googleads sub but I haven't received a satisfactory answer yet .
I have an Android app with a reasonably stable user acquisition (around 1,500 installs daily). I ran a Google Ads campaign to promote the app and increase the number of installs. The user acquisition increased when the ad was running, as expected.
Strangely, when the campaign ended the organic Play Store user acquisition suddenly plummeted over 80% and hasn't recovered since (two weeks ago) - now around 250 installs daily. Likewise, DAU dropped 40% and ad revenue over 60% (partly because of a sudden drop in CPM, all around the same time the campaign ended).
Does anyone have any idea why this happens and what might be going on? Does anyone recognise this? I find it hard to believe that running an ad campaign somehow hurts the organic ranking of an app.
Posted Oct 18, 2023, 3:34 PM UTC