How to Know if Your App is Ready for Paid UA (2025 Guide)

Most apps start paid user acquisition too early.

The result is predictable: burned budgets, poor unit economics, and a quick decision to "pause campaigns until the product improves."

The issue isn't that paid UA doesn't work. It's that paid UA amplifies what you already have. If your retention is weak, paid traffic accelerates churn. If your app store page converts poorly, paid impressions just surface that problem faster.

Here's how to know if your app is actually ready to scale with paid acquisition.

The 7 Readiness Signals

1. Retention Meets Minimum Thresholds

Paid UA makes sense when your organic users stick around. If they don't, you're renting an audience, not building one.

Minimum benchmarks:

• Day 1 retention: 40%+
• Day 7 retention: 20%+
• Day 30 retention: 10%+

These aren't aspirational targets. They're the baseline for sustainable paid growth. Below these thresholds, CAC compounds too quickly relative to LTV.

How to validate this:

Look at your organic cohorts over the past 30-60 days. If retention curves are flat or improving, you're ready. If they're declining, fix the product before spending on acquisition.

2. Unit Economics Are Positive

You need a clear path to profitability before scaling spend.

The core metric: LTV:CAC ratio

Industry research indicates sustainable growth requires an LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1. Top-performing apps maintain ratios of 4:1 or higher.

Why this matters:

A 3:1 ratio gives you buffer for attribution uncertainty, fraud, and channel saturation as you scale. Anything below 2:1 means you're subsidizing growth with capital, which only works if you have a clear monetization unlock ahead.

How to calculate:

• LTV: Average revenue per user over their lifetime (or projected lifetime if you're early)
• CAC: Blended cost per install across channels, including creative production and platform fees

If you don't have enough historical data for accurate LTV, use 90-day or 180-day LTV projections and stress-test assumptions.

3. Attribution Infrastructure Is in Place

Paid UA without proper attribution is like driving with your eyes closed.

What you need before spending:

• Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP): AppsFlyer, Adjust, Singular, or Branch
• Event tracking: Key actions beyond install (signup, first purchase, Day 7 active, etc.)
• SKAdNetwork integration: Properly configured for iOS campaigns post-ATT
• Fraud detection: Basic anomaly detection to catch click flooding and install farms

The risk:

Without attribution, you can't distinguish high-quality channels from low-quality ones. You'll optimize for volume instead of value, which compounds costs as you scale.

4. App Store Page Converts Above 30%

Driving paid traffic to a poorly converting app store page is like pouring water into a leaky bucket.

Benchmark targets:

• Page view to install: 30%+ (App Store average is 33.7%, Google Play is 26.4%)
• Impression to install: 3-4%+

Why this comes first:

Improving app store conversion is cheaper and faster than optimizing paid campaigns. A 10-point lift in page conversion (e.g., 25% to 35%) effectively reduces your CAC by 28%.

What to optimize:

• First three screenshots communicate value within 3 seconds
• Preview video hooks users immediately
• Description clearly states who the app is for and what problem it solves

5. You Have 3-5 Validated Creative Concepts

Creative is the highest-leverage variable in paid UA. Campaigns with strong creative can achieve 50-70% lower CPIs than campaigns with weak creative.

What "validated" means:

You've tested creative concepts organically (social posts, landing pages, email) and seen engagement. You understand what messaging resonates and what doesn't.

Starting framework:

• Concept 1: Problem-focused (show the pain point)
• Concept 2: Solution-focused (show the transformation)
• Concept 3: Social proof (testimonials, reviews, usage stats)
• Concept 4: Feature-focused (show key functionality)
• Concept 5: Outcome-focused (show the end result)

You don't need to launch with 50 creatives. You need to start with a few that represent different value propositions, then iterate based on data.

6. Your Product Has Minimal Bugs and Crashes

This seems obvious, but it's worth stating: if your app crashes regularly or has major UX issues, paid UA will highlight those problems through immediate uninstalls and poor reviews.

Minimum stability thresholds:

• Crash-free rate: 99%+
• Critical bugs: None that block core flows
• App store rating: 4.0+ stars

The compounding issue:

Poor ratings from paid users lower your app store conversion rate, which increases effective CAC. This creates a negative feedback loop that's expensive to fix.

7. You Have Budget for a Real Test

Paid UA tests fail not because channels don't work, but because budgets are too small to reach statistical significance.

Minimum test budget:

$5,000-$10,000 per channel over 30 days.

Why this amount:

You need enough volume to:

• Test multiple creative concepts
• Reach learning phase completion on major platforms
• Evaluate quality metrics (D7 retention, monetization) across cohorts
• Account for attribution delays and fraud

Starting with $1,000 spread across three channels doesn't give you actionable insights. It gives you noise.

What Happens When You're Not Ready

If you start paid UA before hitting these benchmarks, you'll encounter predictable failure modes:

High CPI, low retention: You acquire users who churn immediately, burning budget without improving unit economics.

Attribution blindness: You can't tell which channels work, leading to inefficient spend allocation.

Creative fatigue: Without strong concepts, performance degrades within weeks and you're stuck in a cycle of diminishing returns.

Negative feedback loops: Poor retention leads to bad reviews, which lower app store conversion, which increases effective CAC.

How to Get Ready

If you're not ready yet, here's the sequence:

1. Fix retention first. Nothing else matters if users don't stick around. Prioritize onboarding, core loop engagement, and early monetization hooks.

2. Optimize your app store page. This is the fastest, cheapest lever. A well-optimized page can improve conversion by 20-35% in weeks.

3. Set up attribution. Implement an MMP and event tracking. Test that data flows correctly before spending.

4. Validate creative concepts organically. Use social posts, organic traffic, and small organic campaigns to test messaging before scaling paid.

5. Run a small pilot. Start with $5,000-$10,000 on one channel to validate your assumptions and refine targeting.

Key Readiness Checklist

Before launching paid UA:

• Day 1 retention is above 40%
• Day 7 retention is above 20%
• LTV:CAC ratio projects to at least 3:1
• Attribution infrastructure is fully implemented and tested
• App store conversion rate is above 30%
• You have 3-5 validated creative concepts
• Crash-free rate is above 99%
• You have $5,000+ budget per channel for a real test

Current Benchmarks

Metric	Threshold
Day 1 Retention	40%+
Day 7 Retention	20%+
LTV:CAC Ratio	3:1 minimum, 4:1+ ideal
App Store CVR (page view)	30%+
Crash-Free Rate	99%+
Minimum Test Budget	$5,000-$10,000/channel/month

Source: AppSamurai, Singular, Business of Apps, Phiture (2024-2025 data)

FAQs

What retention rate do I need before starting paid UA?

Target at least 40% Day 1 retention and 20% Day 7 retention. If users don't stick around organically, paid acquisition will only amplify churn and waste budget.

What's a good LTV:CAC ratio for paid UA?

Industry research indicates sustainable growth requires an LTV:CAC ratio of at least 3:1, while top-performing app companies maintain ratios of 4:1 or higher. This gives you buffer for attribution uncertainty and channel saturation.

Should I optimize my app store page before running paid UA?

Yes. Driving paid traffic to a poorly converting app store page wastes budget. Optimize your page to achieve conversion rates above 30% before scaling paid acquisition. A 10-point lift in page conversion can reduce effective CAC by 28%.

How much budget do I need to test paid UA?

Plan for $5,000-$10,000 per channel over 30 days. Smaller budgets don't provide enough volume to reach statistical significance or complete platform learning phases.

Can I start paid UA with a new app that has no users?

Not effectively. You need organic users first to validate retention, establish baseline metrics, and test creative concepts. Start with organic channels (ASO, content, referrals) to build your initial user base.

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Paid UA is a multiplier, not a solution. Get the fundamentals right first, then scale with confidence.