App marketing metrics comparison

CPL is a metric that shows the price an advertiser pays for each sales lead. Leads are potential customers who have expressed interest in the product, for example by completing an online registration form.

CAC shows how much you spend to win a single new customer.

Advertisers and publishers

App owners, marketers, and product managers

• Demonstrates the effectiveness of your lead-generation strategy
• Shines a light further down the funnel, by focusing on prospects who have already shown strong intent
• Helps you optimize campaigns and allocate budget to focus on high-quality leads

• Shows the effectiveness of your acquisition efforts
• Guides decisions on where to allocate budget for best results (and where you’re wasting your money)
• Helps you assess business profitability when compared against LTV

• Improve your ad quality score by making your search ads more engaging, helpful, and relevant
• Refine your keywords
• Adjust your bids to get maximum value from your ad spend
• Constantly test, monitor, and refine your campaigns to attract and engage the most profitable leads

• Make the most of your owned media to keep acquisition costs down
• Implement a referral program to bring in more customers for free
• Re-engage existing customers to boost retention
• Review your audiences and channels, and allocate budget where it’s most effective

Cost per lead (CPL)

Customer acquisition cost (CAC)