CAC, LTV and ROAS apply to every app, but they are not the number each vertical should steer by. A marketplace lives or dies on liquidity, a dating app on match rate, a travel app on bookings that do not cancel. Judge them all on the same generic dashboard and you will scale the channels that look cheap rather than the ones that build the business.
This page is the index for our metrics series. Each row below links to a full guide for one vertical.
What is a north-star metric?
A north-star metric is the single number that best captures the value an app delivers to users and to the business. The key metrics around it are the inputs and guardrails that explain why it moved. For EdTech, our guide suggests weekly active learners, course completions or learning minutes per user. Other verticals land somewhere quite different.
The common thread is attribution. Every metric in the table below is only useful once you can split it by acquisition source, which means connecting ad spend, installs, in-app events and revenue in one place.
Metrics that matter by vertical
| Vertical | North-star metric | Key metrics | Full guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces | Liquidity score by category and city | Separate buyer and seller CAC, take rate after discounts, repeat transaction rate | Marketplace apps edition |
| D2C brands | Repeat purchase rate by acquisition source | CAC net of returns, contribution margin, CAC to LTV ratio | D2C brands edition |
| Dating and community | Match rate (and time to first match) | Engaged-user CAC, gender balance, message response rate | Dating and community edition |
| Travel and hospitality | Booking conversion rate | CAC per confirmed booking, search-to-book ratio, cancellation rate | Travel and hospitality edition |
| OTT and streaming | Subscriber LTV against CAC | Churn rate, free-trial-to-paid conversion, install-to-subscription rate by channel | OTT and streaming edition |
| Mobile gaming | ROAS over time, by cohort | CPI by channel, install-to-purchase rate, Day 1, 7 and 30 retention | Mobile gaming edition |
| eCommerce | CAC to LTV ratio | ROAS by channel, retention rate, cart abandonment rate | eCommerce edition |
| EdTech | Weekly active learners or course completions | Course completion rate, cohort retention, LTV to CAC ratio | EdTech edition |
| Fintech | Activation rate (install to first transaction) | Day 7 retention by source, KYC completion rate, transaction success rate | Fintech edition |
Why one generic dashboard fails
The guides share CAC, LTV and ROAS, but each vertical bends them differently.
- CAC needs a vertical-specific denominator. Travel teams should divide by confirmed bookings, not installs. Dating teams should divide by engaged users. Marketplaces need separate figures for buyers and sellers, because blending them hides which side is starving.
- Some revenue is not real yet. Travel bookings can cancel, D2C orders can be returned, and OTT trials can end before the first payment. The guides count revenue after those events, not before.
- Churn means different things. A dating user who leaves because they found a partner is a success, not a loss. Streaming apps lose a large share of subscribers to involuntary churn, when payments fail rather than users cancel.
- Network effects change the maths. Dating apps and marketplaces depend on density in each city. Users spread thinly across many cities form lots of weak networks where people cannot find a match or a seller, so they churn.
Where the guides do agree is on the floor for unit economics: the fintech, gaming and EdTech editions all treat an LTV to CAC ratio of 3:1 or higher as healthy.
How to use these metrics together
- Choose the north star for your vertical from the table, then confirm it against your own retention and revenue data.
- Split every key metric by channel. ROAS and CAC averaged across all sources hide your best and worst campaigns. Measure retention by channel too.
- Read metrics as cohorts, not monthly totals. Group users by install week and acquisition source with cohort analysis, so a strong month of organic installs does not mask a weak paid cohort.
- Set a review rhythm. The guides suggest daily checks for spend and ROAS, weekly for retention and engagement, and monthly for LTV and unit economics.
- Work back to events. Every metric here is calculated from in-app events. If a metric cannot be split by source, the event behind it is usually missing or not attributed.
Metrics need events: the companion hub
Metrics are only as good as the events underneath them. A fintech activation rate needs first deposit and first transaction events. A game's install-to-purchase rate needs a first in-app purchase event. A dating match rate needs a first match event, attributed to the campaign that drove the install.
Our companion page, Critical App Events to Track, by Vertical, lists the must-track events and the activation event for each vertical. Each metrics guide also links to its matching events guide.
FAQ
What is the most important metric for a mobile app? It depends on the vertical. Across the series, the metrics that matter most tie acquisition cost to the moment a user creates value: a first transaction in fintech, a confirmed booking in travel, a match in dating, or a repeat purchase in D2C.
Is LTV to CAC the same in every vertical? The formula is the same, but the inputs are not. Travel LTV should net out cancellations, D2C LTV should net out returns, and marketplace LTV should be calculated separately for buyers and sellers.
How often should we review these metrics? Daily for spend, CAC and ROAS, weekly for retention and engagement cohorts, and monthly for LTV and unit economics.
Why do our metrics disagree with what ad networks report? Each network credits itself, so totals across Meta, Google and others usually add up to more conversions than you had. An MMP attributes each install and event once, which is what lets you split these metrics by channel without double counting.
How quickly can we start measuring these metrics with Linkrunner? Integration is the same day for most teams, fully live within a week. Linkrunner starts at $0.012 per attributed install up to 50k installs a month, falling to $0.007 above 500k.