Liftoff Releases Q1 2015 Mobile App Engagement Index; Details CPA Trends Across Category, Platform and Gender
Today we’re excited to release the latest Liftoff Mobile App Engagement Index. The Index examines mobile CPA and engagement rates for Q1 2015, providing benchmarks for app install campaigns seeking to boost post-install events and answering questions on engagement across categories, platforms and – for the first time in our Index – gender.
With the advertising rush of Q4 firmly in the rear-view mirror, the Q1 Index reveals the state of mobile engagement across platforms, confirming widely-held beliefs on iOS and Android users while revealing differences in engagement by gender.
In the Index we examined the costs and conversion rates of first time mobile events a user completes after viewing an app install ad and and downloading an app. Post-install events tracked include registering, sharing content, making a reservation, making a purchase and subscribing to a paid service. The index is based on an analysis of 22.5 million app installs and 550 million post-install events across six different categories: Dating, Finance, Shopping, Social, Travel and Utilities.
Some Key Findings:
- The average cost to acquire a mobile user that subscribes to a paid service can easily range over the $200 mark.
- Mobile advertisers spent an average $9.54 to acquire a new registered user, consistent with the prior 3 months.
- Social apps convert 76.3% of all installs into registered users, followed by ecommerce apps (72.5%) and financial apps (43.8%).
- Non-transactional events cost less on Android than iOS, including registering (42.2% less) and sharing content (24.2% less).
- Of users who install a dating app, 52% of men create an account, whereas only 41% of women do. And yet 31.6% more women pay for a dating app subscription than men.
- Women installed a social app and shared content nearly 40% more than men, and a lower cost per first-time share ($7.74 vs. $10.52).