What do marketing, automation and app development help cost, and how do I judge payback?
There's no single price. These are the parts and how to judge them.
- What should we spend?
- Why do quotes vary?
- How do we judge payback?
Costs fall into ad spend, store page and creative work, analytics, attribution and messaging tools, development for features, onboarding and integrations, and support. Judge marketing on cost per paying user and payback period, and development on activation, retention and conversion changes. Agree the measure before you start.
The parts
| Part | Judge it on |
|---|---|
| Ad spend | Cost per paying user |
| Store and creative | Page-to-install rate |
| Tools | Data you use |
| Development | Activation and retention |
| Support | Ratings and response times |
How we look at it at ShoutEx
We scope in writing, agree measures and start with the highest-return piece.
- Quotes without scope.
- Installs as the measure.
- Long contracts upfront.
- Provider-owned accounts.
- Written scope.
- Payback measures.
- Small first project.
- Your accounts and code.
What developers and the app stores say
Here is what founders say.
Community summaries describe recurring themes in public threads, not individual posts. Vendor pages describe vendor claims, so test them on your own calls.
Read next
Go deeper in the ShoutEx guides, or check the sources behind this answer.
We'll scope the work and agree how to measure it.
Book a call →Follow-up questions
Should ad spend be separate?
Yes, paid directly by you.
Are tools priced in USD?
Most are.
Do you work on fixed scopes?
Yes, after scoping.