Deciding on the right optimization model that aligns with your marketing goal is crucial for your ad campaign's success. This article will help you choose the most suitable option depending on your use case and needs.
Campaign goal options
There are 2 campaign types in Moloco Ads — User acquisition and Re-engagement. Depending on the campaign type, you can choose the following optimization goals:
- User acquisition type campaign: Install, In-app event, and ROAS
- Re-engagement type campaign: Click, Open, In-app event, and ROAS
User acquisition campaign goals
If you select “User Acquisition” as your campaign type, you can create an ad campaign to acquire new users to install your app.
| Optimization Goal | Description and additional options | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Install | Install optimization focuses on lowering the CPI and maximizing the install volume. | ||||
| In-app event | User acquisition campaigns with an in-app event optimization goal focus on acquiring new app users who are likely to perform a certain in-app action event that you set as a goal. Select the in-app event most relevant to your KPI. To select an event in the drop-down menu, the event postbacks must be passed from MMP to Moloco. | ||||
| ROAS |
User acquisition campaigns with ROAS optimization goal(s) target users who are likely to make larger purchases to maximize the return on ad spend(ROAS) within the given budget. To select the ROAS optimization goal(s), the purchase postbacks, including revenue data, must be passed from MMP to Moloco.
|
Re-engagement campaign goals
Re-engagement campaigns target users who have previously installed the app.
| Optimization Goal | Description and additional options |
|---|---|
| Click | Click optimization focuses on increasing CTR and maximizing user clicks on your ads. |
| App Open | App open optimization goal focuses on maximizing app opens to increase active app users. If a user performs any of the events that the MMP has sent to Moloco via postback, the user's unique action is considered Open. |
| In-app event | Re-engagement campaign with an in-app event optimization goal focuses on maximizing the desired in-app actions from your existing users within the given budget. Select the in-app event most relevant to your KPI. To select the event in the drop-down menu, your MMP must pass the event postbacks to Moloco. |
| ROAS | ROAS optimization goal maximizes the return on ad spending within the given budget. To select the ROAS optimization goal, your MMP must pass the purchase postbacks, including revenue data, to Moloco. |
Choose the right goal for your campaign
1. Understand your marketing goal
Events that occur relatively earlier in the entire user's journey, such as install and app open, are called upper funnel events. On the other hand, events that occur at the last stage of the user's journey, such as purchase and subscription, are called lower funnel events. The lower the funnel event, the higher the cost(CPI/CPA) because we need to target and bid aggressively on high-value users to achieve the lower funnel event. In addition, since the lower funnel event has a relatively low probability of occurrence, it takes more time to optimize with sufficient data.
2. Decide your priority
Depending on the business situation, there may be various goals, such as CPI and ROAS, and you may want to achieve multiple goals simultaneously. To choose the right campaign goal option, it's important to prioritize and clarify what you need most based on your situation.
If you're not sure of the appropriate market CPI of the app, but want to maximize the app download with the given budget, you can try the settings below to know your app's appropriate CPI.
- Type: User Acquisition
- Optimization goal: Install
- Bid control priority: Daily Budget
3. Check prerequisites
User acquisition campaign
- Install: You need to configure MMP postback to send install events.
- In-app event: You need to configure MMP postback to send install and the in-app event you want to optimize.
- ROAS: You must configure MMP postback to send install and purchase events, including revenue data.
Re-engagement campaign
Important: Below are prerequisites to select each goal for a re-engagement campaign. If you have specific in-app events to use for retargeting purposes, configure MMP postback to send those events. Learn more about target settings
- Click: You can use click optimization without MMP Postback integration.
- App Open: You must configure MMP postback to send install and app open(session) events.
- In-app event: You need to configure MMP postback to send install and app open(session) events as well as the in-app event you want to optimize with.
- ROAS: You must configure MMP postback to send install and app open(session) events and purchase events, including revenue data.
4. Run fewer broader campaigns
We recommend running fewer campaigns per app, each with few targeting constraints
to provide Moloco’s compound AI system (CARA) cleaner data and broader supply
access so it can find your best-performing users faster. Focusing your budget
on a few high-performing campaigns is better than spreading it across multiple
overlapping campaigns. The following are key advantages.
- Better data signal: Moloco's systems perform best when they have more data concentrated in fewer campaigns, which helps find the right customers for your app.
- Avoid self-competition: Fewer campaigns mean your own ads are less likely to compete against each other for the same audience.
- Easier Management: It is much simpler to track and adjust one or two campaigns than it is to manage a long list of different goals.
5. [Target ROAS only] Manage your tROAS target after launch
Adjust your target and budget cap
Once the exploration period ends, you can adjust both the tROAS target and the budget cap directly in Moloco Ads Manager. Leverage the following features to guide your adjustments.
Spend simulator
Drag a slider to preview candidate tROAS values against expected daily spend, budget utilization %, and a health zone (Low Volume / Healthy / Budget Capped) in real time. A simulation table also shows your current tROAS value up and/or down 2 steps, with estimated spend, utilization, and risk zone (Early Budget Exhaustion / Low Budget Spend) for each. Note that results are based on historical data and aren't a guarantee of future performance.
Recommended range
Moloco Ads Manager shows a minimum-to-maximum recommended range based on your campaign's historical performance and scale. You can select a value outside this range, but you will see a warning about increased risk of under-spend and higher target-attainment variability.
Adjustment guardrails
| Condition | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Another change within 72 hours of last change | A warning is shown but change isn't blocked. We strongly recommend leaving at least 3 days between changes. |
| Lowering the budget cap | A warning flagging early budget exhaustion risk is shown but change isn't blocked. |
Frequently asked questions
Tip
The recommendations below for the campaign optimization may not be suitable for all cases. Reach out to your Moloco representative to consult the best strategy for your campaign.
How long does it take for Moloco to optimize a campaign?
That depends on what kind of event you're targeting. If you're targeting a lower-funnel event, our machine learning engine will need more time to gather and analyze data.
For example, the install optimization process usually takes 1–2 weeks, whereas a ROAS optimization campaign will take longer. We usually recommend 4–8 weeks to fully optimize ROAS campaigns.
Is it recommended to select an In-App Event or ROAS optimization goal without running an Install optimization campaign?
If the postback integration period of the app is less than 1 week, we recommend starting with an install optimization campaign. That will let you quickly check the performance of Moloco’s machine learning models.
In-app events and ROAS optimization campaigns are best if you're not heavily constrained by CPI unit prices. You'll need a postback integration period of 1–2 weeks before the campaign starts, and then need to wait for optimization after the campaign launches.
What is the difference between In-App Event optimization based on Purchase events and ROAS optimization?
If you want to improve your campaign's ROAS, use the ROAS optimization goal.
For an in-app event optimization campaign based on purchase events, we'll target users with a high probability of purchasing, regardless of the revenue from that purchase. In a ROAS campaign, you'll be optimizing for purchases' revenue.
Here's an example. For an in-app event campaign, users who make a $1 purchase are valued the same as users who purchase $5. For a ROAS campaign, users who make a $5 purchase are valued more.
Important: Revenue data must be sent via MMP postbacks to run a ROAS optimization campaign.
What are the requirements to run a ROAS Optimization Campaign?
ROAS optimization campaigns require full postbacks (i.e., both attributed and unattributed postback data) for in-app purchase events with revenue value.
To maximize revenues, our ROAS model needs to gather the revenue value from each purchase. You can send revenue data to Moloco through MMP postbacks. If we don't get the revenue data, you can't run ROAS optimization campaigns.
My campaign keeps hitting its budget cap. What should I do?
Try the following in order.
- Increase the budget cap. Always try this first.
- If that's not an option, raise the tROAS target slightly to slow spend and ease off the cap.
My tROAS campaign's spend or volume is too low. What should I do?
This usually means conversion volume is near or below the minimum needed for learning (for example, fewer than 100 attributed D7 actions per day, or fewer than 10 attributed D7 payers per day). Left unaddressed, this can lead to prolonged underperformance from insufficient learning signal.
Lower the tROAS target, as your current target is likely too aggressive for current market conditions. Lowering it opens up more auction opportunities. Check for external factors like creative fatigue, geo restrictions, and seasonality, too.
Do NOT lower the budget cap to fix this. Doing so doesn't address the root cause, and can trigger early budget exhaustion once spend recovers.
How do I get better ROAS from a tROAS campaign?
Raise the tROAS target gradually, in increments of around 10%. Spend and volume will decrease as a result.
How do I get more spend or volume from a tROAS campaign?
If you're already hitting your budget cap, raise the budget cap (this is the preferred solution). If you aren't yet hitting your cap, lower the tROAS target; but this isn't recommended, as doing so will reduce performance.