Mobile & app · also called User acquisition campaign, UA campaign, CPI campaign
App install campaign
An app install campaign is advertising designed to get people to download and install a mobile app, usually optimised and often paid per install or per post-install action.
App developers compete for attention in stores with millions of apps. Install campaigns, often called user acquisition (UA), buy ads that lead directly to an app store page. They run on social platforms, search, app networks, in-app ad networks and retail and CTV channels, frequently using playables and rewarded video.
Pricing is commonly cost per install (CPI), or cost per action after install, such as registration, purchase or reaching a game level. Success is judged on the value of acquired users, like retention and LTV compared with acquisition cost, not just install volume. MMPs attribute installs to networks, and on iOS, SKAdNetwork/AdAttributionKit supplies aggregated data.
Because advertisers pay per result, install campaigns are a major target of install fraud, including click injection, click spamming, SDK spoofing and device farm installs. Good practice includes fraud tools, short attribution windows, paying on deeper events, incrementality tests and monitoring retention by source.
Think of it like this
An app install campaign is like a gym running adverts to get people through the door to sign up, then judging success by who is still coming three months later.
An example
A language-learning app in Brazil spends $500,000 on install campaigns at a blended CPI of $1.80; Day-30 retention is 22% overall but only 5% from one network, which it cuts.
Related terms
MMP (mobile measurement partner)
An MMP (mobile measurement partner) is an independent company that attributes app installs and in-app events to the ads and ad networks that drove them, and detects mobile install fraud.
Install fraud
Install fraud is faking app installs, or stealing credit for real ones, so that advertisers pay cost-per-install fees for users who do not exist or would have installed anyway.
LTV (lifetime value)
LTV (lifetime value) is the total revenue or profit a business expects from a customer over their whole relationship, used to decide how much it can pay to acquire them.
SKAdNetwork / AdAttributionKit
SKAdNetwork and its successor AdAttributionKit are Apple's privacy-preserving frameworks that tell advertisers which ad network drove an iOS app install, without revealing user-level identity.
Playable ad
A playable ad is an interactive ad, usually for a mobile game, that lets users try a short, simplified version of the game inside the ad before deciding to install it.
Sources: Apple Developer: SKAdNetwork, AppsFlyer glossary: click injection