Adore Me, a women’s intimates e-retailer, saw Valentine’s Day as the perfect opportunity to grow its user base and increase sales. By implementing a Search app install campaign with relevant keywords, the company successfully reached users on Google Search and Google Play, drove significantly higher install volumes, and increased sales by 30%—all while achieving cost per installs (CPIs) 60% lower than those of other channels.

Adore Me was launched in 2012 to help women find designer-quality garments without the designer price tag. It was one of the fastest-growing private retail companies in 2013. Having no physical stores and selling products only through its website and mobile app, Adore Me was constantly testing out new ways to acquire new users and increase membership subscriptions. With a large proportion of its highest-quality users using its mobile app, Adore Me decided to find more of them by investing in Search app install campaigns at an opportune time—just before Valentine’s Day.

With the holiday on the horizon, Adore Me wanted to be present in the right moments. The company wanted to be there when users were searching for Adore Me or its products. Through Google’s conversion tracking capabilities, it also found that many of its quality app users were coming from Search, so the company decided to invest in finding new app users through that channel.

To find these quality users, Adore Me worked with Google to create a relevant keyword list and to build a Search app install campaign to drive installs at high volumes. After setting their ads to reach customers searching for relevant products before Valentine’s day, the search campaign was up, and Adore Me’s ads began showing up in Google Search and Google Play.

The campaign delivered quick results. Within four months, its install volume ballooned, and its average CPI was 60% lower than that of other channels. The users acquired through the Search app install campaign also proved to be engaged users. From this new cohort of app users, Adore Me saw an in-app conversion rate 4X higher than those of other channels and a 30% increase in sales. The company’s attempt to find quality users in time for Valentine’s Day was a success.