App Campaigns Are Not Google Search for Apps
With Search you control the query. With App Campaigns you define the conversion and its price, and the system finds more of it — cheaper installs are not automatically better users.
I still see App Campaigns being treated like Google Search for apps. They are not.
With Search, you can see a query, decide whether you want that traffic, exclude it, change bids, separate intent, and put more money behind what is working.
With App Campaigns, you tell Google what counts as a conversion and what you are willing to pay for it. The system then finds more of those conversions.
So if you are optimising for installs and CPI comes down, it has done what you asked it to do. It found cheaper installs. That does not automatically mean it found better users.
Search-term visibility is context, not control
Google showing some search-term information is useful context. But it does not make App Campaigns behave like Search. You still cannot look at a term that is converting into payers and decide to bid more aggressively on it. You cannot cleanly separate intent. The system still controls the levers.
A campaign can beat its CPI or event CPA target while the users coming in are weaker on retention, ad LTV, or payer behaviour. Both things can be true at the same time.
If you have enough data, optimise toward the event that’s closer to value. If you don’t, use the earlier event — but keep checking whether it is still a useful proxy as the budget moves up.