How Entertainment Apps Can Drive Real Value From Every Install

When it comes to mobile apps, installs are often the first measure of success, but they’re also just the starting line. A download alone doesn’t guarantee that a user will ever even open your app, let alone subscribe, make a purchase, or become a loyal customer. 

For many entertainment apps, the challenge isn’t getting new users. It’s the customer lifetime value (CLV). On average, only 28.4% of users remain one day after install, dropping to just 8.5% by day 30. First-month retention across entertainment apps averages only 3%. These numbers make it clear: while installs are easy to track, they rarely reflect long-term value.

To scale your acquisition efforts, it’s critical to align spend with the channels that deliver your most qualified post-install events. Users with genuine intent are far more likely to engage, subscribe, and make in-app purchases, which directly impacts revenue and long-term app health.

Leveraging High-Quality Traffic Channels to Reach The Right Users

Marketers know the risks of relying on a single source, yet it happens more often than you might expect. One channel may be thriving now, but if that channel stops performing due to market shifts, policy changes, or ad fatigue, your growth pipeline could crumble overnight.

The solution is diversification. By testing new high-quality performance channels, you reach users who are more likely to engage, convert, and stick around for the long haul.

So, what makes a channel high-quality?

Pre-Install Intent Signals

• Search queries:
  • Users are actively searching for keywords that align with your app – for sports betting apps, some common ones include “odds,” “live scores,” or “watch [title] now.”
• Referral context:
  • Traffic coming from relevant score apps, review pages, or listicles.

Early In-App Behaviors

• First session length:
  • Are users exploring the app beyond the first open? Have they made an account?
• Registration initiation/completion:
  • Are they taking steps toward becoming active users? Did they connect their bank account and place a first bet? Did they reach a certain level in a game?
• Feature exploration:
  • Are they trying key monetizable features? Did they make a First Time Deposit (FTD)

Channels That are Hot With Partners Today

While there are countless ways for entertainment apps to drive high-intent users, three channels are currently leading the way for post-install performance:

Mobile In-App

Mobile in-app campaigns remain a cornerstone for scalable CPI acquisition, offering built-in quality controls. Rewarded ads across gaming, sports, and news apps are particularly effective, as they capture users when they’re already immersed in content, giving entertainment app marketers natural, context-driven relevance at a highly receptive moment.

We’ve seen strong performance from in-app placements when campaigns run through SDK-based exchanges with advanced fraud protection and real-time event tracking. Rewarded in-app video stands out for its high opt-in rates and ability to drive qualified post-install actions, while interstitial and native placements expand reach and add efficient scale among high-intent audiences.

Video

CTV (Connected TV) offers premium placements around new content or live events. By pairing ads with mobile/video retargeting, push notifications, QR codes, or promo codes, marketers can maximize conversions. One entertainment app, for example, tested push notifications as a new traffic source through CTV campaigns and achieved a 7% install-to-free-trial rate in just one week by directly engaging high-intent users.

Cross-platform video reaches audiences across multiple video environments, promoting new releases or live events to drive awareness and action. FanDuel leveraged this approach, testing new traffic sources across video and in-app placements, and achieved a 25% install-to-registration rate, exceeding first-time deposit goals by 120%.

Mobile Web Display

Mobile web display is evolving rapidly, with listicles, native placements, and niche app integrations helping marketers reach highly targeted audiences. Testing new display partners is key to uncovering untapped segments that deliver post-install value. For instance, a sports betting marketer might experiment with a partner focused on helping athletes maximize NIL earnings, while a gaming app marketer could test partners targeting casual gamers or esports enthusiasts.

1 in 5 U.S. adults actively place online sports bets, making it more important than ever to target users showing strong intent signals, like odds checks or live-score views. Diversifying across mobile web sources ensures marketers capture not just volume, but users with the highest potential for long-term engagement.

How The Outcome Engine Maximizes Your Budgets

Perform^[cb]s Outcome Engine is designed to maximize the value of every install. It helps marketers:

• Score users in real time across channels based on pre-install intent and early in-app behavior
• Automatically shift budget toward sources delivering higher post-install conversion rates
• Ensure compliance with regulations (age gating, responsible gaming, state-specific rules)

Using this approach, a sports betting marketer uncovered previously untapped performance channels with high-value user segments, resulting in 57% of users converting to first-time deposits, with 89% of those becoming active players.

Exploring New Traffic Sources Without Overextending Risk or Budget

Testing new traffic sources is crucial, but it must be done strategically to avoid wasting budget. There are different outcome-based pricing models you should consider if not already:

• CPI (Cost-Per-Install): Pay only when a user installs your app. Ideal for launching, as you can test creative and audience fit quickly.
• CPE (Cost-Per-Engagement): Pay only when a user completes a valuable post-install event (trial start, first purchase). This reduces the potential waste associated with install-only campaigns. 
• Look-Alike Modeling: Allows partners to replicate success by targeting audiences similar to your best-performing users.

A smart approach? Start with CPI to identify high-performing sources, then shift to CPE once you have clear intent signals. This balances experimentation with budget efficiency.

Ready for Performance that Pays?

High-quality traffic, targeting, and alignment to post-install events are what turn installs into loyal, paying users.

Driving an average of more than 750K monthly installs and leads for entertainment apps, the Outcome Engine demonstrates how strategic diversification, intent scoring, and post-install optimization can transform acquisition performance.

Reach out today to turn your installs into sustainable subscription growth, finding the users who truly matter and optimizing spend toward the outcomes that drive real business results.