Google Play Promotional content (formerly LiveOps): a practical guide for small teams
Promotional content puts your offers, events and major updates on your listing and across Google Play. Who can use it, what gets approved, the four-day rule, and how to plan a year of it without a marketing team.
Key takeaways
- Promotional content (formerly LiveOps) showcases new events, time-limited offers and major updates on your listing and across Google Play surfaces.
- All games can use it. Apps must meet Google’s eligibility thresholds for premium growth tools and be in a supported category.
- Submit at least four days before your start date. Review usually takes less than 24 hours.
- Content must be genuinely new. Evergreen “we have great features” promotions don’t qualify.
Google’s metadata policy bans prices and promotions in your title, icon and screenshots. So where do you tell people about your Diwali sale or your big new feature? Promotional content is Google’s answer: a dedicated, reviewed format that can appear on your store listing and on Google Play’s Apps, Games and Offers surfaces.
Who can use it
According to Google, all games have access to promotional content, including new game titles. Apps must meet metric thresholds and be in a supported category, as part of what Google calls premium growth tools. If you don’t see it in Play Console under Grow users › Store presence › Promotional content, your app isn’t eligible yet.
What you can promote
| Type | What it is | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Offers | Time-limited discounts or extra value | 30% off annual plans for Diwali, a free month of premium, a bonus pack |
| Events | In-app moments with new content or features | A 30-day fitness challenge, a seasonal tournament, a limited-time theme |
| Major updates | Significant new features or content | Offline mode, a redesigned editor, 50 new levels |
Writing content that gets approved
- Tagline: say exactly what is on offer and why it’s worth it. Avoid generic phrases like “Big news!”.
- Description: clear details about the in-app moment and the benefit to the user, in sentences. Google’s guidelines ask for no bullet points.
- Images: no text overlays such as logos or slogans, no UI elements, and keep important parts away from the edges where they might be cropped.
- Video (optional): landscape, localised, with monetisation turned off.
“Huge sale on now!”
“Diwali offer: 40% off Premium for a year”
Timing rules
- Submit at least four days before the start date.
- Review typically takes less than 24 hours, but leave room to fix and resubmit.
- If you resubmit, the content can only go live 24 hours or more after the new submission.
A simple yearly plan for a small team
You don’t need a live-ops team. Four to six well-timed pieces of promotional content a year is plenty for most apps:
- Your biggest update of the year, as a major update.
- One or two offers around the shopping moments that matter in your top countries: New Year, Diwali, Black Friday, back to school.
- A seasonal event that fits your app: a January habit challenge for fitness, exam season for education, festival budgeting for finance.
- Your app’s anniversary, if you have something new to show for it.
Plan the dates a month ahead, submit a week ahead, and track your keyword rankings and installs across the promotion so you know which ones are worth repeating.
+Is Google Play LiveOps the same as Promotional content?
Yes. Google renamed LiveOps to Promotional content.
+Can I put a discount in my app icon instead?
No. Price and promotional claims are banned in metadata, including your icon. Use Promotional content for offers.
+How far ahead should I submit?
At least four days before the start date, according to Google. A week gives you time to fix anything the review flags.
+Where do I see results?
In Play Console under Grow users › Store presence › Promotional content.
Sources
- Play Console Help: Promotional content
- Google Play promotional content guidelines (PDF)
- Google Play Console: Premium growth tools
- Play Console Help: Metadata policy
Specifications and figures are as published by Google and the listed sources at the time of writing; check Play Console for the latest.
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