Mobile User Acquisition in eCommerce: What Drives Sustainable Growth?

The mobile commerce market continues to expand, with brands increasing their investment in app user acquisition despite greater competition and rising advertising costs.

According to AppsFlyer, global app user acquisition spending reached $78 billion in 2025, representing a 13% year-over-year increase. Spending on non-gaming apps, including eCommerce platforms, grew by 18% to $53 billion.

This growth is also changing how eCommerce marketers assess campaign performance. The lowest cost per install or cheapest first purchase does not necessarily provide a complete picture of acquisition quality. Instead, brands are increasingly considering customer lifetime value, repeat purchases and long-term profitability when allocating their budgets.

Drawing on its experience in mobile and paid social user acquisition, Traffy examines how eCommerce brands can look beyond install volume and better understand user behaviour after acquisition—from product discovery and wishlist activity to checkout, repeat purchases and retention.

User Acquisition Starts With the Right Expectations

Unlike verticals with short monetization cycles, ecommerce rarely becomes profitable on the first purchase. Customer acquisition costs are often recovered only through repeat orders, cross-selling and long-term retention.

This changes the entire approach to performance marketing. Instead of optimizing purely for installs or first purchases, successful brands evaluate how users move through the funnel and how likely they are to generate future revenue.

Measure the Signals Before Revenue Arrives

Waiting 30 days to understand campaign quality is no longer practical.

Instead, advertisers increasingly rely on predictive indicators during the first days after installation.

Some of the strongest early signals can include:

• Product views and category browsing
• Wishlist additions
• Search activity
• Add-to-cart events
• Checkout initiation

These micro-conversions can help marketers estimate future LTV before the first customer cohort has fully matured. 

Attribution Windows Matter More Than Ever

The eCommerce purchase journey is not always immediate.

Depending on the product category, customers may take anywhere from one day to two weeks to complete a purchase. Using attribution windows that are too short can underreport campaign performance and make acquisition costs appear higher than they are.

Some advertisers therefore use click-through attribution windows of around 28–30 days while measuring repeat purchases over the following 30–60 days. The most suitable window will still depend on the product, purchase cycle, and available attribution data.

How eCommerce Seasonality Changes User Acquisition Budgets 

Seasonality can have a significant influence on eCommerce budget allocation. For many retailers, a substantial share of annual revenue is generated during Q4, particularly around Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas.

Experienced user acquisition teams prepare for these periods months in advance. During Q3, campaigns may focus on building larger audiences through app installs, registrations, and wishlist activity before advertising competition reaches its seasonal peak.

As acquisition costs rise in Q4, brands can shift more of their budgets from broad prospecting toward dynamic retargeting campaigns aimed at users who have already demonstrated purchase intent.

How Abandoned Cart Recovery Supports eCommerce Growth

Abandoned carts can represent one of the most valuable retargeting audiences in eCommerce.

Instead of treating every abandoned cart as a lost conversion, brands can build automated recovery journeys across multiple channels. A typical sequence may combine push notifications, dynamic product ads, and follow-up emails, helping businesses recover revenue from users who have already demonstrated purchase intent.

Creative Strategy has Changed

Automation is playing an increasingly important role in eCommerce user acquisition.

According to Traffy, Dynamic Product Ads, AI-driven product recommendations, and authentic UGC-style creatives can perform strongly compared with heavily produced advertising, depending on the product, audience, and platform.

Rather than relying on one universal message, advertisers can use recommendation algorithms to match individual products with users who are more likely to convert.

Optimize for Customer Value, Not Just Acquisition Cost 

A low CPA does not necessarily mean profitable growth.

Two users may cost exactly the same to acquire while generating very different business outcomes.

That is why more eCommerce advertisers are optimizing campaigns toward purchase value and target ROAS rather than simple conversion volume. Combining transaction value with CRM data and high-value audience modeling can help advertising platforms identify users who are more likely to generate greater lifetime value.

eCommerce Fraud Has Not Disappeared, It Has Evolved 

Although eCommerce avoids some of the compliance challenges associated with regulated industries, fraud remains a significant concern.

Beyond install fraud, advertisers may face attribution hijacking, cookie stuffing, and partner credit theft during the checkout process.

Ongoing attribution audits and anomaly detection can therefore form an important part of a mature acquisition strategy.

Final Thoughts on Sustainable eCommerce User Acquisition

As eCommerce competition continues to intensify, mobile user acquisition is no longer only about securing the cheapest installs. Sustainable growth depends on understanding customer behavior, measuring meaningful in-app signals, optimizing toward long-term value, and building acquisition strategies that extend beyond the first purchase.

Ready to Scale Your eCommerce App?

If you’re looking to grow your eCommerce app through high-quality mobile user acquisition, Traffy can assess your GEOs, offer, acquisition strategy, and funnel to identify potential growth opportunities before you commit additional advertising budget.

Visit the Traffy website or follow Traffy on LinkedIn to discuss your growth strategy with the team.

This article was prepared by Roman Arustamyan, Head of Performance at Traffy.

About Traffy

Traffy is a performance marketing agency with more than 10 years of experience in mobile and paid social user acquisition. Its end-to-end services cover media buying, creative production, anti-fraud, performance analytics, and funnel optimization. The agency delivers more than 30 million app installs annually across over 50 GEOs for eCommerce, fintech, crypto and iGaming brands.

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