Sales case · Influencer + Performance
We cut the app install cost by 300%. Here is what we changed!
One of our clients - a brand whose product is a mobile app and whose main business goal is scaling the number of installs - came to us with a problem that affects many marketers today.
The challenge
The client regularly invested in influencer activity. Quickly, however, they began to evaluate those investments through the lens of real conversions. Key questions emerged: how do you effectively run and measure such campaigns, reliably forecast the number of app downloads, and then scale the activity?
The brand faced a natural dilemma about how creator collaborations compare with classic, predictable performance activity. On one hand, influencers were excellent at building reach and trust in the app itself. On the other, the swings in their organic viewership made it hard for the client to estimate results. What is more, some of the views reached audiences outside the target group and did not translate into installs.
The solution: Synergy of influencer and performance marketing
In response, we combined the power of creator recommendations with the precision and full control of paid campaigns. Unique video assets, recorded by the influencers, were published directly on their profiles and then supported with media budget. As a result, viewers perceived these materials as native to the platform rather than as purely advertising content. At the same time, thanks to the media support, we eliminated the problem of views leaking outside the target group - the message reached exactly the right audience, and the activity was optimized toward the main conversion goal, i.e. app installs.
To verify the market effectiveness of this model, we ran a direct A/B test*. We compared our solution against other performance activity run in parallel by the client - a campaign distributed from the brand’s own ad account, using video assets prepared by content creators. We analyzed the following metrics: CPM, CTR, CPC, CPI and 2s watch time (viewership during the first two seconds).
Results
To ensure the comparison was as reliable as possible, we analyzed the 10 best publications from each type of activity and then averaged their results. The conclusions are clear: creator authenticity combined with performance optimization proved better across every analyzed metric:
CPM
2,26 zł
3,01 zł
CTR
0,66%
0,24%
CPC
0,38 zł
1,25 zł
CPI
3,45 zł
10,15 zł
2s Watch Time
29,91%
13,48%
What do these numbers mean in practice?
Reach ~25% cheaper (lower CPM): The native format is favored by video platform algorithms. Ads coming directly from creators are skipped less often, so the platform allows cheaper distribution. As a result, the same budget reaches a far wider group of potential users.
Over 2x better attention retention (2s Watch Time): Creators know exactly how to build an effective hook. Capturing the user’s attention in the crucial first seconds gives the advertising message any chance to land and prompt action at all.
Almost 3x higher click-through rate (CTR): Users are far more willing to engage with content that does not look like classic, invasive advertising, which generates real interest in the product.
Over 3x lower cost per click (CPC): High engagement and cheaper reach drastically lower the cost of bringing a user to the app page. This translates into enormous budget optimization - the client generates much more traffic for the same spend.
Almost 3x lower cost per install (CPI): This is the most important metric from a ROAS perspective. We proved that authentic creator content does not generate "empty" reach but converts in a real and effective way. For the client this means acquiring nearly three new users for the price that previously covered just one.
As a result, working with online creators became a fully measurable, predictable and scalable tool for the client. The client gained the hard data needed to precisely allocate budgets across individual performance activities, along with full confidence in the profitability of investing in influencer marketing.
Try this model in your campaigns if...
You expect sales from influencers. You want creator activity to stop being measured solely by reach or brand awareness and start delivering measurable conversion.
You are looking for a sales mechanism that scales easily. Standard collaborations rely on a one-off spike in reach right after publishing, which is hard to repeat. In this model we use a predictable engine: as soon as we identify the video assets that generate the best results, we increase their media budget.
Your current campaigns have hit a glass ceiling. You already run sales activity on video platforms and social media, but you are hitting ad blindness and looking for a way to step-change their effectiveness.
You want to optimize marketing costs wisely. You care about allocating budget effectively. Instead of paying twice - once for the influencer publication and once for video production on the brand account - you get a 2-in-1 solution.
Regardless of the scale of your influencer activity, a campaign with no performance support is a budget working below its potential. Want to see how this model compares with your activity so far? Reach out.
* Analyzed period: 01.04.2025 – 31.03.2026 | Android | TikTok
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Your contact at Rokmates
Katarzyna Kowalewska
katarzyna.kowalewska@rokmates.com · +48 798 896 090