How conversion-based pricing works

What a per-conversion plan charges for

It charges for the match. When the tool credits an install to a campaign, that install becomes a paid conversion and one unit is added to your bill. The events the same user sends later, such as a sign-up or a purchase, are normally reported without a separate charge.

The formula is short: billable conversions × unit price. Some vendors publish the unit price. Others sell a yearly volume of conversions in tiers and quote the tier through a sales team.

Which conversions are billable

This is the line to read most carefully, because vendors draw it in different places. Ask about each of these.

Two apps with the same install total can have very different billable counts once these rules are applied. Re-engagement attribution explains what a re-engagement is and why a tool counts it apart from an install.

How the bill moves

A per-conversion bill follows your acquisition activity. Raise the ad budget and installs rise, so the bill rises in the same month. Pause campaigns and it drops. A team with seasonal spend sees a seasonal invoice.

The bill does not follow how engaged your users are. An app can add events, sessions and revenue per user without paying more, as long as the number of attributed installs stays flat. That is the reverse of data point pricing, where the event is the unit and the source of an install does not change the count.

Prepaid tiers and what happens above them

When conversions are sold as a yearly volume, you commit to a tier before you know the year's installs. Three questions decide whether the tier is safe.

1. What is charged for each conversion above the tier, and is that rate in the contract?
2. Do unused conversions carry over, or are they lost at renewal?
3. Can you move down a tier mid-term if spend falls?

The mechanics of passing a plan's volume are covered in what happens when you pass a plan's included volume.

Who per-conversion pricing suits

It suits an app that buys a modest number of installs and tracks many events per user, such as a game with long sessions. It also suits a team that wants the measurement cost to appear as a clear amount per paid install next to its cost per install. It suits a high-volume, low-price install strategy less, because every install adds a full unit of cost.

What to do next

Pull last month's installs split by paid, owned and organic. With that split and a vendor's billable rules you can follow the bill estimate guide for this model. If the vendor publishes no unit price, take the price questions into the first call.