Impressions are the first step of your acquisition journey; the number of impressions means how many people saw your ads. At the advent of the internet, ads were sold & bought by the number of impressions mimicking the offline world.
As the internet progressed and tracking capabilities developed, the model switched to a payment per click which in the mobile world translates into taps. Hence the concepts of Tap Through Rate (TTR) and Cost per Tap (CPT).
As the name indicates, the TTR is the number of people who “tap” on your ad to the people who see it. The total money spent on ads, divided by the number of users who tap on your ad gives the CPT. Make sure to check out this article to improve the performance of your ads.
Today, there are a multitude of ad channels that propose different pricing strategies: some are based on CPT, some are based on CPI and some are even based on CAC. However, the deeper the subscriber you go, the more difficult it is to track the user, especially after the introduction of Apple’s ATT. So make sure you compare your various channels with the same metrics and beware of how they self-report their performance: always double-check your numbers with Apple’s.
Search results on the App Store are also a main driver of traffic to your app page and just like Google you can optimize (App Store Optimization: ASO) or bid to appear in results (Apple Search Ads: ASA).
ASO became a huge industry by itself and some companies specialize in this specific activity are AsoDesk and Key App Top.
ASA also has its own rules & tricks and should be done well to optimize your budget.
