Click to install rate, and when to worry
A low click-to-install ratio can have several causes, including audience fit, store conversion and a failed transition. Compare the data and test the route before changing the campaign.
19 October 2026 ยท PAD team
Rough expectations
Ranges vary wildly by category and geography, so treat these as orientation rather than benchmarks.
| Channel | Click to install, roughly |
|---|---|
| App install campaigns, store sheet | 25 to 40% |
| Traffic campaigns via landing page | 5 to 15% |
| Organic social, bio links | 3 to 10% |
| Broad display | 1 to 5% |
The gap between the first two rows is mostly friction: an install sheet inside the feed versus a browser, a page, and a store visit.
The failure that mimics a bad creative
If a share of your taps ends on a blank page, your click count is unaffected and your install count drops. That reads as a conversion problem, so teams change the creative, then the landing page, then the store screenshots, and the ratio never moves.
The tell is the shape of it: install campaigns look normal while traffic campaigns look broken, and the difference between them is precisely whether a browser is involved.
How to check in ten minutes
- Compare click to install on an install objective against a traffic objective for the same app
- Tap your own ad from inside the app on a real iPhone, not from Safari
- Compare iOS against Android, since Android rarely suffers this
- Look for a store link at the end of the chain that nobody has tested in situ
The arithmetic
At $0.40 a click and 10,000 clicks, a fifth of taps failing is $800 spent on nothing, while the dashboard reports full delivery and a healthy CTR. That is the same money as a mediocre creative, without the visible symptom.
Create a GoToApp link with your destinations, then test it on the devices and channels you plan to use. Free includes up to three projects.