performetra

App growth

App users you pay for after they arrive

Installs are easy to buy and easy to fake. We price app campaigns on the event that proves a real person is using the product, and we let your MMP do the counting.

Overview

Mobile app user acquisition on Performetra

App growth on Performetra means buying app users at a fixed price per install, registration or in-app event — CPI, CPR, CPA or CPE — across Android and iOS. Attribution runs inside your own mobile measurement partner (AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch, Singular, Airbridge or Kochava), so the numbers you scale on are the numbers your MMP reports, not a network dashboard.

Install fraud — click injection, click flooding, device farms — is screened out before billing using CTIT analysis, device intelligence and post-install behaviour, with every install carrying a sub-publisher ID. Retention cohorts at day 1, 7 and 30 are read against your blended baseline, which is what separates buying installs from buying users. Start with the full user acquisition strategy guide, the tracking stack and the fraud patterns we screen for.

At a glance

Billable events
Install, registration, KYC, deposit, purchase, day-N return
Pricing
CPI · CPR · CPA · CPE
Attribution
Your MMP — AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch, Singular
Platforms
Android (deep-funnel) · iOS (SKAN-aware)
Fraud control
CTIT, device dedupe, emulator & DC-IP screening
Quality read
D1 / D7 / D30 retention vs your baseline

The approach

The install is a milestone, not the goal

Any network can move install volume. The question is what happens on day 7. We structure app campaigns so the payout sits on registration, first session depth or a post-install action, which changes what publishers optimise for on day one.

  • Attribution inside your MMP. AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch, Singular, Airbridge or Kochava — we are a partner in your account, not a parallel source of truth.
  • Sub-publisher transparency. Every install carries a sub-ID, so a bad traffic source is removable without pausing the whole campaign.
  • Install fraud screening. Click-to-install-time outliers, click flooding, install hijacking, emulators and datacentre origins are flagged before the conversion becomes billable.
  • Cohort reporting. Day 1, 7 and 30 retention for network-sourced users, compared with your blended baseline.

Pricing models

CPI
Install and first open. Best for scaling reach where the product converts well on its own.
CPR
Registration or account creation, usually with OTP verification. Filters out most low-intent installs.
CPA
A post-install event you define — first deposit, first order, KYC completed, subscription started.
CPE
Engagement milestones such as level completed or day-3 return, used mainly in gaming.

What we need

To quote you a payout, we need five things

None of them take long to gather, and having them ready is the difference between a quote today and a quote next week.

  • MMP partner access (or a server-to-server postback if attribution is in-house)
  • The event schema — what counts as a registration, and where it fires
  • Store listing, creative assets and any brand safety restrictions
  • Daily and monthly install caps you are comfortable with
  • Target geos, OS split and minimum OS versions

Guardrails

Incent policy
Incentivised traffic is blocked by default and only enabled where you explicitly want it, on a separate payout.
CTIT monitoring
Click-to-install-time distributions are reviewed daily; clusters under ten seconds indicate injection and get cut.
Device dedupe
Repeat installs from the same device identifier inside the dedupe window are never billable.
iOS reality
On iOS we work within your SKAdNetwork and aggregated measurement setup and price on what is genuinely observable.

App growth — questions

CPI — cost per install — is a pricing model where the advertiser pays a fixed fee each time the app is installed and opened, as attributed by their mobile measurement partner. It is the entry model for user acquisition; most advertisers graduate to CPR or CPA pricing so the payout sits on a user action rather than the install itself.

Practically, yes — AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch, Singular, Airbridge or Kochava. The MMP keeps attribution in your hands and makes our numbers auditable against yours. If attribution is in-house, a server-to-server postback works the same way.

Click-to-install time — the gap between the attributed click and the first open. Real installs take time to download and open; a CTIT distribution spiking under ten seconds is the signature of click injection, and one stretched over days suggests click flooding. We monitor it per sub-publisher and reject outliers before billing.

Yes, but with honest caveats. Post-ATT, deterministic attribution on iOS is limited and we price accordingly — usually on install or an early SKAN-visible event rather than a deep funnel action. Android carries the deeper-funnel pricing.

Incentivised traffic rewards the user for installing — points, coins, unlocks. It is cheap, converts to almost nothing, and is blocked by default on our campaigns. It is enabled only where you explicitly want volume for rankings or events, on a separate, honest payout.

Inside your MMP: cohort reports for network-sourced users at day 1, 7 and 30, compared against your blended baseline. Sub-publishers whose cohorts fall below the agreed band are removed before the next payout cycle — that comparison is the real quality control.

Yes. Pre-registration and soft-launch campaigns are priced per registration with a defined conversion window into the launch, so the partners who built the waitlist are paid for the users who actually activate.

Where the MMP partner link is approved on the same day, a campaign can be live within 48 hours of the insertion order. MMP approval on your side is usually the longest step.

We commit to a retention band agreed against your existing blended baseline, reviewed weekly, with sub-publishers that fall below it removed. We do not quote a universal number, because a hyper-casual game and a lending app do not share one.

Fintech and lending apps, gaming, e-commerce and quick-commerce, OTT and streaming, and utility apps — the categories where we hold live publisher supply in India, the Gulf and Southeast Asia. If yours is outside that list, we say so before taking the brief.

Next step

Price this campaign properly.

Send the conversion event, the geos and the volume. You get a written payout, an expected volume band and the guardrails that come with it.