The implementation of iOS 14.5 has had a huge impact on mobile user acquisition. Mobile marketers were anticipating many of those changes, but others were unexpected. One of the most interesting insights we’ve observed post-IDFA is the rise of the customer acquisition cost (CAC) and the trend toward alternative pricing models outside of traditional cost per install (CPI). 

The reason for rising CAC is simple. “As users who still share IDFA became more valuable, competition for them heated up, and CAC increased accordingly,” says Gabe de la Cruz, Director of Operations and Strategy at FeedMob. “CPI typically requires an identifier to measure. As such, we anticipated a shift to higher funnel metrics, such as CPM or CPC, as an alternative. You can use these metrics — with a little finesse and algebra — to still understand your CPI.”

Across our book of clients, iOS 14.5+ adoption has resulted in a need to shift to a CPM model for mobile user acquisition, even though this pricing continues to climb. As outlined by Adam Lovallo, we saw an 80% YoY increase in CPM during his analysis on over $100 million in annual spending. We believe as iOS 14.6 adoption rises, this number could get even higher and lead to clients wanting to acquire more efficient supply sources and test budgets outside of Facebook and others.