Click-to-Install Rate (CTI)

Click-to-install rate (CTI rate or CTIR) is the percentage of users who click an ad and then complete the install. Formula: CTI rate = (installs ÷ clicks) × 100. A 30% CTI rate means 30 of every 100 ad clicks resulted in an install. It's the conversion metric between two distinct funnel stages — ad engagement (click) and App Store conversion (install).

Typical 2026 benchmarks (US iOS, varies by category and traffic source):

• High-intent traffic (search-driven, retargetingGlossaryRetargetingPaid advertising targeted at users who already installed your app — typically aimed at re-engaging lapsed users or driving specific in-app actions., branded search): 40-60%.
• Standard paid traffic (broad targeting, Meta / TikTok cold acquisition): 25-40%.
• Low-intent traffic (mass-reach impressions, programmatic): 10-25%.
• Brand-search traffic (Apple Search AdsGlossaryApple Search Ads (ASA)Apple's ad platform for promoting apps in App Store search results and other App Store placements. The highest-intent paid acquisition channel on iOS. on brand name): 50-70%.

Variance is large — the same ad creativeGlossaryAd CreativeThe visual and audio content of an ad — video, image, copy, sound. The single most important variable in modern mobile UA, lifting IPM and lowering effective CPI. can have a 50% CTI on one audience and 20% on another based purely on intent.

What low CTI tells you

If CTI is low (under 20% for normal traffic), there's a problem at one of two specific points:

1. 01Ad creative promised more than the App Store page delivers — the user clicked, landed on the product page, didn't see what was promised, bounced. Fix: align ad creative messaging with App Store listing visuals and value props.
2. 02App Store product page underperforms — even good-fit clicks aren't converting because the product page itself is weak (poor screenshotsGlossaryScreenshotsThe images shown on your product page on the App Store and Google Play — the single biggest driver of browse-to-install conversion rate., low rating, confusing description). Fix: optimize App Store assets ([[conversion-rate]] entry covers this in detail).

Diagnostic split: send the same campaign to your default product page vs a Custom Product Page (iOS)GlossaryCustom Product Page (iOS)An iOS App Store feature that lets you publish up to 35 alternate product-page variants — each with its own screenshots, preview video, and promotional text — addres... tuned for the specific creative. CTI difference between the two reveals whether the product page or the creative-product alignment is the issue.

CTI rate vs related metrics

• CTR (click-through rate)GlossaryCTR (Click-Through Rate)The percentage of ad impressions that resulted in a click — a creative-quality metric and one of the inputs to ad-platform bidding optimization.: clicks ÷ impressions. Measures ad attention.
• CTI rate: installs ÷ clicks. Measures click-to-install conversion.
• Install rate from impressions (IPMGlossaryInstalls Per Mille (IPM)The number of installs generated per 1,000 ad impressions — a creative-quality metric ad networks use to decide which ads to show more often.-style): installs ÷ (impressions ÷ 1,000). Measures full ad-to-install efficiency.
• CPIGlossaryCost Per Install (CPI)The average amount an advertiser pays for a single install attributed to a campaign — total spend divided by attributed installs.: cost ÷ installs. Measures unit cost.

CTR × CTI rate ≈ install rate per impressionGlossaryAd ImpressionA single instance of an ad being served to a user — the atomic unit of ad inventory. What counts as "served" vs "viewable" vs "verified" matters enormously for pricing. (ignoring throwaway impressions). Optimizing each separately reveals where the bottleneck is. A campaign with great CTR but poor CTI has a product-page or ad-product-match problem; a campaign with great CTI but poor CTR has a creative-attention problem.