Community-driven install quality vs paid social: a labelled synthetic lab
AppsFlyer separates organic from non-organic installs. A illustrative worksheet compares D1/D7 quality for community-tagged versus paid-social cohorts without inventing industry averages.
AppsFlyer documents that organic installs have no attributed media source, while non-organic installs are credited to a media source under last-click rules. Community invites only become comparable when tagged as owned media—or they land in organic.
Define the calculation before using it
Enter install counts and retained / paying counts for community-tagged and paid social cohorts. Compute D1 retention, D7 retention and D7 payer rate. Inputs below are illustrative assumptions.
Work through the synthetic example
| Cohort | Installs | D1 retained | D7 retained | D7 payers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community-tagged (synthetic) | 2,000 | 900 | 520 | 80 |
| Paid social (synthetic) | 10,000 | 3,800 | 1,900 | 220 |
| Output | Community | Paid social |
|---|---|---|
| D1 retention | 0.4500 | 0.3800 |
| D7 retention | 0.2600 | 0.1900 |
| D7 payer rate | 0.0400 | 0.0220 |
Evidence and limits
About organic and non-organic installs (updated 5 April 2025 on the page we opened). Attribution window documents configurable windows.
| Field | Evidence or limit |
|---|---|
| Organic vs non-organic | AppsFlyer primary |
| Industry D1/D7 averages | Not asserted |
| Incrementality | Not measured |
