Overview

AppLovin Cost per Acquisition (AppLovin CPA) measures the total AppLovin advertising cost required to acquire one paying customer.

📘

AppLovin CPA = AppLovin Ad Spend / AppLovin-Reported Conversions

The calculation is based on data from the Ads table.

Detailed breakdown

The formula above is derived from the following components:

Ad Spend = SUM(spend) --> Ads table
Channel-Reported Conversions (Purchases) = SUM(conversions) --> Ads table AppLovin Ads = where channel = 'applovin'

Insights and Actions

AppLovin Cost per Acquisition (CPA) indicates how much you’re spending on AppLovin ads to secure a single paying customer, guiding budget efficiency:

• Evaluate Cost Efficiency: Track CPA over time to ensure acquisition costs remain sustainable. A rising CPA may signal the need for better targeting or creative optimization.
• Identify High-Potential Segments: Compare CPA across different audiences or campaigns to discover which segments produce the most cost-effective acquisitions.
• Optimize Campaign Strategy: Use CPA alongside ROI metrics to inform bidding, creative testing, and audience refinement, focusing on high-return areas.

Related Metrics

• AppLovin Conversions: Helps calculate CPA by showing how many purchases come from your AppLovin ads.
• AppLovin Ad Spend: Reveals the total cost of your AppLovin campaigns, providing the spending data used in the CPA formula.
• AppLovin ROAS: Complements CPA by indicating the revenue return per dollar spent, offering a broader view of campaign profitability.

Example Use

Prompt

What's my AppLovin-reported CPA for the last 30 days?

Response

Query

SELECT
  pjt.channel AS channel,
  COALESCE(
    SUM(pjt.spend) / NULLIF(SUM(pjt.channel_reported_conversions), 0),
    0
  ) AS channel_reported_cpa
FROM
  pixel_joined_tvf () AS pjt
WHERE
  pjt.channel = 'applovin'
  AND pjt.model = 'Triple Attribution'
  AND pjt.event_date BETWEEN CURRENT_DATE() - 30 AND CURRENT_DATE()  - 1
GROUP BY
  pjt.channel;