Installs are cheap. Real customers aren’t.
Challenge
Meta and Google delivered installs at $1.20, but only 28% finished opening an account — pushing the true cost per new customer to $4.30, almost 2× target. The ads were chasing the wrong goal.
Solution
Re-point every channel at finished accounts, add Apple Search Ads and TikTok, run follow-up ads for people who stalled, and tailor creative to each stage of the journey.
A leading retail bank was running ads to drive app installs. The cost per install looked great — but for a banking app the install is just the start; what matters is whether the person finishes opening an account. Once the ads were measured on that, everything else fell into place.
$2.05
Cost per customer — down from $4.30 (52% cheaper)
54%
Finish rate — up from 28%, almost 2×
+31%
More new customers made a first deposit within 14 days

ABOUT THE CLIENT

A retail bank optimizing for the wrong number

A leading retail bank was running ads to drive app installs. The cost per install looked great on paper. But for a banking app, the install is just the start —what matters is whether the person actually finishes opening an account. Once the ads were measured on that, everything else (which channels, which creatives, how much was paid) fell into place.

SOLVING ADVERTISING CHALLENGES TOGETHER

Cheap installs, expensive customers

Meta and Google were bringing in plenty of installs at $1.20 each — but only 28% of those installers finished opening an account. That made the real cost of a new customer $4.30, almost twice the target. A cheap install simply isn’t the same thing as a cheap customer.

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WHAT WE DID

Optimize for finished accounts, not installs

  • A new goal forevery channel — Meta, Google and the rest were told to chase finished accounts.Cost per install ticked up a little; cost per real customer dropped.
  • Apple Search Ads caught people already searching for a banking app; TikTok built trust with younger audiences.
  • Follow-up ads brought back people who installed but hadn’t finished signing up within three days.
  • Different ads per stage — trust messages for cold audiences, “open an account in 2 minutes” for warm, simple reminders for people stuck halfway.

RESULTS THAT EXCEEDED EXPECTATIONS

How the numbers moved, month by month

Cost per install went up on purpose — but the share of people who finished signing up climbed every month, and the cost of a real customer fell right alongside it.

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“We were tracking the wrong number. Once we stopped chasing cheap installs and started measuring real, funded customers, the whole picture changed.”
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— Client, Head of Digital Acquisition

Chasing installs, or chasing customers?

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