Case Study: How BetterFit's Cost Per Download Fell From $10 to $4.95

BetterFit is a fitness app, and like every app business its growth depends on one number: how much it costs to get a new person to download and open the app. When BetterFit came to MSA Digital, that cost was sitting at around $10.00 per download. The goal was simple to say and hard to do: more installs from the same budget.

Cost per download is now $4.95. That is a 50.5% reduction, and it means BetterFit gets roughly 202 downloads for every $1,000 of ad spend instead of 100. Same budget, about twice the installs, and a very happy client.

Why cost per download is the number that matters

For an app, every other metric sits downstream of acquisition cost. Subscriptions, retention and lifetime value all depend on getting people into the app in the first place, at a price the business can afford. Halving acquisition cost does not just mean more users. It changes what the business can afford to spend on growth at all.

The levers we work on in app install campaigns

Every app campaign we run is built around the same handful of levers. None of them are secrets. The difference is doing all of them properly, every week.

• Clean install and in-app event tracking. Ad platforms optimise towards the events you send them. If install and post-install events are missing or duplicated, the algorithm is guessing.
• Optimising for the right event. Cheap installs from people who never open the app are not a win. We choose the optimisation event that balances volume with quality.
• Constant creative testing. In app advertising, creative is targeting. New hooks, formats and messages are tested every week, and the ones that convert get the budget.
• Simple campaign structure. Fewer, larger ad sets give the platforms enough data to learn. Fragmented accounts starve the algorithm.
• Ruthless budget allocation. Spend moves daily towards the ads and placements producing the lowest cost per download, and away from the rest.
• The store listing. The app store page is the landing page. Screenshots, the first lines of the description and ratings all affect how many clicks become installs.

What this means for your business

You do not need to be an app to benefit from this approach. Replace “download” with “lead,” “booking” or “sale” and the levers are the same: track the right result, feed the platforms clean data, test creative relentlessly and let budget follow performance.

Our Performance Marketing Manager, with more than seven years on the performance side of social media marketing, runs this process for Perth businesses every day. If your cost per result has stalled, book a free growth audit and we will show you where the savings are. You can also see the full BetterFit results.