I don't know if there is a way to really calculate this properly but is there a way to calculate what an iOS or Andoid user is worth?

I was thinking just to divide number of downloads with revenue earned, but don't you have to also calculate in other factors such as extra exposure for each user etc?

The reason I am trying to find this out is because I am trying to see how aquiring users by paying for adverts can be profitable.

So far it seems the lowest price I have seen on services where you pay for user installs with ads are about $0.2 for every user. But when calculating what users are worth (for me with downloads/profit) they are worth about half that. So by aquiring users I would actually lose money, but maybe in the long run it will still be worth more per user because you get extra exposure?

Very hard to calculate that.

The RPU you have calculated is what you know you will get back. (statistically)

Then what L.Spiro says comes in, what can you use the visibility for.

Then you have the (possibly not insignificant) number of people who mostly install what their friends have installed, which you only reach through another user.

How big this factor is depends on your game (how cool is it to show off to your friends, or is it possibly even multiplayer?) and demographic (how likely are your users to talk about games with their peers).

Then you have the top charts in the app stores, getting enough downloads in a short enough time to be visible on these lists is extremely important. Although, probably pretty expensive to straight up "buy". (For anyone else reading this, this is not the same thing as faking ratings, we are just talking normal ads here, which give the guy displaying the ad a cut for each successful install)

Then you have to weigh in the "quality" of the users you get through ads like these. I have no proof for this, but my feeling is that the RPU for users found through incentive ads are lower.

I can't answer how to calculate this, but you're right it might be very hard to get back the ad money just counting RPU...

Very hard to calculate that.

The RPU you have calculated is what you know you will get back. (statistically)

Then what L.Spiro says comes in, what can you use the visibility for.

Then you have the (possibly not insignificant) number of people who mostly install what their friends have installed, which you only reach through another user.

How big this factor is depends on your game (how cool is it to show off to your friends, or is it possibly even multiplayer?) and demographic (how likely are your users to talk about games with their peers).

Then you have the top charts in the app stores, getting enough downloads in a short enough time to be visible on these lists is extremely important. Although, probably pretty expensive to straight up "buy". (For anyone else reading this, this is not the same thing as faking ratings, we are just talking normal ads here, which give the guy displaying the ad a cut for each successful install)

Then you have to weigh in the "quality" of the users you get through ads like these. I have no proof for this, but my feeling is that the RPU for users found through incentive ads are lower.

I can't answer how to calculate this, but you're right it might be very hard to get back the ad money just counting RPU...

Yes, it seems it would cost me $0.1 per user gained. Because marketing is so big it must be profitable somehow, it just looks like a loss affair when I look at it..

I wish there was a pay for installs ads network for paid apps. Then you could actually know you would get back your money. For example (if we don't account for google or ios shares for a moment) you would sell your app for 0.99 and you could buy ads that only charge you for installs and it would charge you 0.89 for every install you would still earn 0.10 for every install. So it would be a win-win for everybody? Why is there no such ad service? I only find pay for installs for free games.

It would be great, you might not be earning much, but it would be a good way to grow your audiance while at the same time not actually losing money while doing it.

This article where interesting but the numbers sounds almost to good to be true even though there seems no hard facts backing it up: http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Do-Paid-App-Install-Ads-Pay-Off/1011675

I decided to try to put in $100 for marketing installs for my latest app. Another thing that I noticed when creating the campaign was that I could select what countries to run the campaign in. I choose: United States, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Netherlands, Austria, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, Qatar, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Denmark. I tried to choose countries where I think the people might be richer and more willing to maybe spend some money on inapps. (Is there any countries I should include or remove from the list?)

Because I could choose countries I am thinking maybe the user worth should go up a bit if it where to be calculated since they all will come from rich countries?

I know it "sounds wrong", but for you as a developer it must be worth much more to get 1000 users from USA then 1000 users from China?

So it would be a win-win for everybody? Why is there no such ad service?

So it would be a win-win for everybody? Why is there no such ad service?

Probably because the advertising companies make more money if they charge you every time your ad is displayed and not only if you sell something because of this ad.

But they only charge you for times installs now also, but it has to be free game installs. If I pay $0.2 now for every free install I would gladly pay $0.8 instead for paid installs. And I would be willing to put a lot more money into it since I know I won't just lose money. Is there not a single service out there that have this?

Sorry I can't find the link to back it up but I remember reading something that it averaged out that for a large free to play game each player was worth around $14.

I think it might have been a report by King or Supercell.