An advertiser wants to drive cost-effective in-app purchases from existing app users. Which bidding solution is recommended for this demand gen objective?
Correct Answer
CPA (cost-per-action)
Why is this the correct answer?
The recommended solution is CPA (cost-per-action) bidding. The objective is a specific action with a value attached — in-app purchases from people who already have the app — so bidding should optimise towards completed actions at a controlled cost, which is what CPA does. It requires the in-app purchase event to be tracked properly, through Firebase or an app attribution partner, so the system knows which impressions led to purchases and can bid accordingly. The alternatives optimise for the wrong things: Target CPM buys impressions, cost-per-view buys video views, and viewability measures whether an ad had the chance to be seen. All three are legitimate for awareness or engagement goals, but none of them pursues a purchase, which is what makes CPA the fit here.
Why are the other options wrong?
Target CPM
Target CPM optimises the cost of a thousand impressions, suitable for awareness rather than driving purchases.
tCPV (cost-per-view)
Cost-per-view optimises for video views, which measures engagement rather than in-app transactions.
Viewability with Active View
Viewability with Active View reports whether ads had the opportunity to be seen. It is a measurement standard, not a bidding solution for purchases.
Real-world example
A mobile game runs Demand Gen to existing players with CPA bidding on the in-app purchase event, tracked through Firebase. Spend concentrates on players whose session patterns resemble past spenders, and revenue per pound of ad spend more than doubles against the previous CPM campaign.
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