CPI is the headline unit cost of paid user acquisition: total spend divided by attributed installs. A $10,000 campaign that drove 1,000 installs has a $10 CPI. It's the metric every UA dashboard surfaces first, and the metric most easily misread on its own — because the only thing that determines whether a CPI is "good" or "bad" is the LTV that follows it.
CPI varies enormously by geo, platform, and vertical
- Casual games, India / Brazil Android: $1-3.
- Casual games, US iOS: $8-15.
- Subscription productivity, US iOS: $15-40.
- Finance / fintech, US iOS: $40-100+.
- Hyper-casual games, Tier-1: $0.40-2.00 (low CPI is the entire business model).
iOS CPIs typically run 2-4× the Android CPI in the same geo. The premium is usually justified by higher payment intent and ARPU, but verify with your own cohort data.
CPI is meaningless without LTV. A $10 CPI is great if LTV is $30, disastrous if LTV is $4. The ratio LTV:CPI (or its refined form LTV:CAC, which accounts for non-ad acquisition costs) is the north-star UA efficiency metric. Targets vary by stage and capital structure, but a 3:1 floor is industry standard. Below 2:1, the program is usually losing money after Apple / Google commission, ad-network fees, and overhead.
CPI varies with campaign type. Broad-reach campaigns ("any user who might want this app") yield lower CPI but lower quality. Lookalike and retargeting campaigns ("users similar to those who already converted") yield higher CPI but higher-intent users with longer retention and higher LTV. Always evaluate cohort quality — retention, conversion to paid, observed LTV — not just install volume when comparing campaigns. A 30% lower CPI on a campaign that retains 40% less is worse, not better.
A common mistake: judging campaigns on day-1 CPI without weighting for downstream behavior. Modern UA optimization uses pLTV (predicted LTV) signals fed back to Meta / TikTok so the network bids harder for high-pLTV-scored users. The cost per install rises, but the cost per dollar-of-eventual-revenue drops.
CPI ranges by category and geo (US iOS, 2026)
| Category | US iOS | US Android | India / Brazil Android |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hyper-casual game | $0.40-2.00 | $0.20-1.00 | $0.05-0.30 |
| Casual game | $8-15 | $3-8 | $1-3 |
| Subscription productivity | $15-40 | $8-20 | $2-8 |
| Finance / fintech | $40-100+ | $15-50 | $3-15 |
| Streaming / media | $10-25 | $4-12 | $1-5 |
Wide spread within categories — high-intent traffic (lookalikes, retargeting, brand search) sits at the upper end; broad-reach campaigns at the lower. Always evaluate against your LTV before reading absolute CPI levels.