FAQ

What is cpi in mobile marketing?

CPI stands for Cost Per Install — the price an advertiser pays each time a user downloads their app from a paid ad campaign.

Formula: Total Ad Spend ÷ Number of Installs.

Example: $1,000 spent on ads that generate 500 installs = $2.00 CPI.

CPI is exclusively a mobile metric and is the starting point for measuring whether your user acquisition is profitable (Adjust, 2024).

How is cpi calculated?

CPI = Total Ad Spend ÷ Total Installs. Only count installs directly attributed to the campaign, not organic downloads.

A related metric is eCPI (effective CPI), which divides total marketing spend by all installs (paid + organic) to give a broader view of acquisition efficiency.

In 2024, the global average CPI across all platforms was approximately $2.24 (Sturppy).

What is a good cpi for mobile apps?

There's no universal "good" CPI — it depends on your LTV. A $5.00 CPI is excellent if your LTV is $25, and a $0.50 CPI is terrible if your LTV is $0.30.

Benchmarks:

• iOS (North America): $3.50-5.28
• Android (North America): $1.20-3.40
• Latin America: $0.34-2.00 (cheapest)
• Gaming apps: $1.15 (Android) to $4.30 (iOS)

Always evaluate CPI against what each user generates in lifetime revenue (BusinessOfApps, PubScale 2024).

What's the difference between cpi and CPA?

CPI (Cost Per Install) charges per download — any download counts.

CPA (Cost Per Action) charges only when a user completes a specific action after install, like registration, purchase, or reaching a level.

CPA rates are higher because they measure deeper engagement. Use CPI for volume-focused user acquisition, CPA when you need quality-assured users who actually convert (Adjust, AppsFlyer).

Why is ios cpi higher than android?

iOS users historically have higher Lifetime Value — they spend more on in-app purchases and subscriptions. This makes iOS users more valuable to advertisers, who bid higher to acquire them, driving up CPI.

In 2024, iOS global average CPI was $3.60 vs Android's $1.22 (PubScale).

iOS also has a smaller addressable market, increasing competition. However, iOS retention is also 10-20% higher, so the higher CPI often pays for itself.

Why is mobile app retention important?

Because acquiring users without retaining them is wasting money:

• It costs 5-7× more to acquire a new user than to retain an existing one
• High retention directly increases LTV and improves app store rankings
• Apps that retain 10%+ at Day 30 significantly outperform in revenue
• Every 5% retention improvement can boost LTV by 20-30%
• Retention is the one metric that separates profitable apps from the 99% that fail

How to improve mobile app retention?

Proven strategies from industry data:

• Simplify onboarding — apps that activate users within 3 minutes see nearly double Day 7 retention (Enable3, 2024)
• Personalized in-app messages can boost retention by 30% (BusinessOfApps)
• Push notifications on Day 1 improve return rates by 3-5%
• Gamification (streaks, rewards, progress bars) creates habit loops
• Fix performance — keep crash rate below 1%, load times under 2 seconds
• Delay monetization — apps that push ads or purchases before the user experiences value lose 30-50% more users by Day 7

What factors affect cpi?

Five main factors:

• Platform — iOS is 2-3× more expensive than Android
• Region — North America is the most expensive ($2.50-5.28), Latin America the cheapest ($0.34-2.00)
• App category — gaming and finance have the highest CPIs due to competition
• Ad channel — Apple Search Ads ($1.80-3.00) targets high-intent users, TikTok ($0.50-2.88) is cheapest for Gen Z
• Creative quality — video ads outperform static by 20-40% in conversion rate, directly lowering CPI

What is a good retention rate for mobile apps?

A good Day 1 retention rate is 25-35% depending on category — e-commerce apps average 33.7%, gaming apps 28-33%, social apps 26-29% (Plotline, 2024).

For Day 7, 12-18% is solid.

For Day 30, the all-app average is only 6-7%, so anything above 10% puts you in the top tier.

Always benchmark against your specific category, not all-app averages.

Is 30% audience retention good?

If 30% is your Day 1 retention — yes, that's good to excellent for most categories. It means you're keeping nearly a third of new users past the first session.

If 30% is your Day 30 retention — that's exceptional. The average Day 30 retention across all apps is just 6-7% (Adjust, 2024). A 30% Day 30 rate puts you in the top 1% of all mobile apps.

What is retention in apps?

Retention measures the percentage of users who return to your app after installing it. It's tracked in cohorts: Day 1 (how many come back within 24 hours), Day 7 (after one week), and Day 30 (after one month).

In 2024, the global average was 28% Day 1, 18% Day 7, and 8% Day 30 (OneSignal).

Retention is the strongest predictor of long-term app success — apps with high retention generate more revenue, rank higher in app stores, and have lower effective CPI.

How hard is it to get 1,000 users on an app?

Very hard without a strategy. The average app gets fewer than 1,000 organic downloads in its first month. The main barrier isn't CPI — it's discovery.

With 5+ million apps in each store, visibility is the bottleneck. Paid channels can deliver 1,000 installs for $1,200-4,700 depending on platform and region, but those users won't stick without strong retention.

Most apps never reach 1,000 active users — they hit 1,000 downloads but retention drops them to under 100 DAU within 30 days.

How do i get my first 1,000 app users?

Start before you launch:

• Pre-launch: Build an email list via a landing page, join communities where your target users already hang out (Reddit, Discord, niche Facebook groups), and share behind-the-scenes content
• At launch: Optimize your App Store listing (ASO) — 65% of installs come from app store search. Use compelling screenshots, a clear title with keywords, and encourage early reviews
• Post-launch: Start a referral program (incentivized invites), run small targeted ad campaigns on Meta or TikTok ($500-1,000 budget to test), and partner with micro-influencers in your niche

For your first 1,000 users, "do things that don't scale" — direct outreach, personal onboarding, and manual community building work better than broad ad campaigns. — Y Combinator

How do you track retention for mobile apps?

Use cohort analysis — group users by install date and track what % returns on Day 1, 7, 14, and 30.

Tools

• Firebase Analytics — free, built-in retention cohorts, integrates with Google Ads
• Adjust — best for attribution + retention by acquisition source
• AppsFlyer — campaign-level retention tracking with industry benchmarks
• Mixpanel — advanced event funnels + retention curves

Key metrics to track alongside retention

DAU/MAU stickiness ratio (20%+ is good, 25%+ is exceptional), session length, session interval, and churn rate.

Always segment by acquisition channel — organic users retain 2-3× better than paid.