Case Studies

Two layers bought reach against the artist and two bought outcomes under the app brand. Each layer keeps its color in the table below. The total is the one the document prints on its total row; the four layer rows carry their own spend figures beside them.

• Half one, the driver.

  Bought the cheapest reach in the program against the artist, and let it pull an audience toward the app rather than asking it to convert.

• Half two, the conversion.

  Ran install campaigns on Google, TikTok and Meta and TikTok share-purchase campaigns under the Musicow brand, and judged them on cost per install and cost per purchase.

• Measured past the install.

  Built the AppsFlyer funnel from install to registration, KYC, bank link, deposit and first purchase, with cost per outcome at every step, and reconciled AppsFlyer's "organic" bucket (2,155 installs that were under-attributed Google Ads) against the platform-reported installs.

• Audited the instrumentation.

  Found that AppsFlyer's retention, ROAS and revenue columns existed in the export and returned zero, and corrected a standing recommendation from "re-pull the report" to "fire the events from the app".

Paid installs

2,632 at a $2.99 blended CPI (Android $1.50 across 2,174 installs; iOS $10.10 across 458); Google app campaigns at $2.10

Against fintech benchmarks

Blended CPI 70% below the $10+ fintech average; Android 60% below $3.70; iOS at the low end of the $10 to $35 range

Install to registration

50.4% (finance activation norm 30% to 40%); $11.72 per registration against roughly $30

Post-install funnel

2,946 installs, 1,484 registered (50.4%), 565 KYC submitted (38.1%), 86 bank accounts linked (15.2%), 56 deposits (65.1%), 38 first purchases (67.9%)

Cost per funded user

$457.75 against a typical fintech CAC near $1,450

Revenue floor

38 first purchases of Blaq Tuxedo shares at $20; repeat purchases and deposits are not reported in the export

Engagement depth

5.93 sessions per logging user, the closest thing to retention in the dataset

Owned-channel quality

The web hub, email and Laylo converted installs to accounts at 89% to 100%, far above the paid sources

App metrics are graded against fintech benchmarks, not general-app benchmarks, because Musicow asks users to complete KYC and link a bank account. Each bar is the scorecard multiple against its own median, on a log axis, with the median named beside our result and the scorecard's read underneath.

• One step limits everything.

  Half of installs register, and deposit-to-purchase already converts at 65% to 68%. The funnel collapses at KYC to bank link, at 15.2%. Lifting that step to a modest 30% roughly doubles funded users (38 to about 75) at zero additional media spend and cuts effective CAC from $458 to about $232. No media optimization comes close to that one product fix.

• Retention and revenue are missing from the app, not the report.

  The AppsFlyer columns are there and return zero. Until the app fires retention and session events and attaches a value to the purchase event, there is no LTV, ROAS or cohort view, and the $458 CAC has nothing to compare against. That is now the highest-value data request in the program.

• Owned surfaces send better users.

  The volumes are small, but installs arriving from the web hub, email and Laylo create accounts at 89% to 100% because those users came already intending to sign up. App acquisition should lean on owned surfaces before paid.

• Blaq Tuxedo's zero installs were the funnel working.

  Reach and conversion were bought and measured separately, and each was judged on its own job.