Glossary
The mobile UA glossary, without the fluff.
32 terms. Each one gets a definition you can quote, the formula where there is one, and the mistake people make with it.
Unit economics
- ARPPUARPPU (average revenue per paying user) is revenue divided by the number of users who paid in the period.
- ARPUARPU (average revenue per user) is revenue in a period divided by the number of users active in that period.
- Blended ROASBlended ROAS is total business revenue divided by total ad spend across every channel, measured against revenue you actually recorded rather than what each platform claims.
- Break-even ROASBreak-even ROAS is the return on ad spend at which a campaign neither makes nor loses money after costs.
- CACCAC (customer acquisition cost) is total acquisition spend divided by the number of customers acquired in the same period.
- CPICPI (cost per install) is ad spend divided by the number of installs the ads produced.
- D7 ROASD7 ROAS is the revenue generated by a cohort of users within seven days of installing, divided by the ad spend that acquired that cohort.
- eCPIeCPI (effective cost per install) is total ad spend divided by all installs in the period, including organic ones.
- LTVLTV (lifetime value) is the total revenue a user is expected to generate over their relationship with an app.
- LTV:CAC ratioThe LTV:CAC ratio compares the revenue a customer generates over time to the cost of acquiring them.
- MERMER (marketing efficiency ratio) is total revenue divided by total marketing spend for a period, treating the whole marketing budget as one input.
- Payback periodPayback period is the number of days until a cohort's cumulative revenue equals the spend that acquired it — the point where cohort ROAS crosses 1.0x.
- ProceedsProceeds are app revenue after the app store's commission and applicable taxes are deducted — the amount that actually reaches the developer.
- Realized LTVRealized LTV is the revenue a cohort has actually generated as of a given day since install, per user.
- ROASROAS (return on ad spend) is revenue generated by advertising divided by the amount spent on it.
Retention & cohorts
- Churn rateChurn rate is the share of customers who stop using or paying for a product in a period.
- Cohort analysisCohort analysis groups users by when they were acquired and tracks each group's behavior — retention, revenue, LTV — by days since install.
- Retention rateRetention rate is the share of a cohort still active N days after install.
- Trial conversion rateTrial conversion rate is the share of free-trial starts that become paid subscriptions.
Attribution & privacy
- AdAttributionKitAdAttributionKit is Apple's successor to SKAdNetwork, introduced in 2024.
- AdServices attributionAdServices attribution is Apple's deterministic attribution framework for its own Apple Ads (Search Ads) campaigns.
- ATTATT (App Tracking Transparency) is the iOS permission prompt, introduced in iOS 14.5, that apps must show before accessing the device advertising identifier (IDFA) for cross-app tracking.
- Attribution windowAn attribution window is the period after an ad click or impression during which a conversion is credited to that ad.
- Crowd anonymityCrowd anonymity is the mechanism in SKAdNetwork 4 and AdAttributionKit that scales how much detail a postback contains to how many installs a campaign generates.
- IncrementalityIncrementality is the number of conversions that happened because of an ad campaign and would not have happened without it.
- MMPAn MMP (mobile measurement partner) is a third-party service that attributes app installs and in-app events to the ad that caused them across every network.
- Over-attributionOver-attribution is when the sum of conversions or revenue claimed by all ad platforms exceeds what the business actually recorded, because overlapping attribution windows let several platforms credit the same conversion..
- SKAdNetworkSKAdNetwork (SKAN) is Apple's privacy-preserving framework for attributing iOS app installs to ads without user-level identifiers.
- View-through attributionView-through attribution credits a conversion to an ad the user saw but did not click, typically within a one-day window.
Platforms & bidding
- AEOAEO (app event optimization) is a Meta campaign optimization mode that delivers ads to users predicted to complete a specific in-app event — a purchase, a trial start, a level completion — rather than simply to install..
- Google App CampaignsGoogle App Campaigns (formerly Universal App Campaigns, UAC) are Google's automated campaign type for app installs and in-app actions, delivering across Search, Google Play, YouTube, Discover, and the Display Network from a single campaign..
- Value optimizationValue optimization is a bidding mode in which the ad platform targets users predicted to generate the highest purchase value, rather than the most conversions.