Facebook Ads Cost Per App Install Benchmarks for Consulting

Introduction

The clearest story in the data is a mid‑year surge in app‑install costs, followed by a measured comedown into year‑end. Using the global benchmark as our anchor, median cost per app install opened the year low, spiked dramatically in June, then cooled and stabilized through the fall before easing in December. This pattern suggests a market that ran hot mid‑year, with auction pressure and demand pushing costs into the high teens and beyond before normalizing.

This analysis is based on $3B worth of advertising data from our dataset, which provides strong directional benchmarks. This analysis explores ad performance trends for Consulting across all countries compared to the global benchmark.

The story in the data

Across the global baseline, median cost per app install averaged about $13.37 in 2025. It started at $7.07 in January, climbed to $11.63 in February, dipped to $8.91 in March, and then pushed into the teens in April ($13.51) and May ($12.32). The standout month was June at $23.76 — the annual high and more than triple January’s level — before a swift correction to $10.77 in July.

From there, the market found a higher plateau: August ($15.99), September ($16.16), and October ($16.43) clustered tightly in the mid‑teens, with a modest pullback in November ($14.57) and a larger year‑end ease in December ($9.32). The annual low came in January ($7.07), and the range from trough to peak spanned roughly $16.69, or a 3.36x swing. Month‑to‑month volatility averaged about $4.6, driven largely by the June spike and July retracement.

Quarterly rhythm reinforces the story: Q1 averaged about $9.21, Q2 jumped to $16.53 (+80% versus Q1), Q3 cooled to $14.31 (−13% from Q2), and Q4 softened further to $13.44 (−6% from Q3). Net of all the movement, December still finished around 32% above January, showing a higher floor than the start of the year.

Seasonal and monthly dynamics

The benchmark reveals a classic arc: softer acquisition costs in early Q1, steady lift into late spring, and a pronounced mid‑year peak in June. After the July correction, costs settled into a mid‑teens band through August–October — a steadier, more predictable period — before easing into the holidays. This aligns with familiar paid‑social dynamics: competition and budgets often intensify mid‑year and into Q4, while performance typically softens through late Q4 as broader auction pressure rises, with engagement rebounding in early Q1.

Country vs. Global

For Consulting across all countries, a dedicated monthly series wasn’t available in the selected dataset, so a precise gap to the global all‑industry benchmark cannot be quantified here. Directionally, any Consulting trend this period would have been measured against a global peak of $23.76 in June and a floor of $7.07 in January, with a mid‑teens equilibrium from August to October and an annual average near $13.37. In other words, the global market set a high‑pressure mid‑year environment and a milder entry and exit to the year; whether Consulting ran above or below that curve isn’t observable in the provided series.

Closing

Understanding Facebook Ads benchmarks for cost per app install helps frame industry ad performance when country‑specific ad costs are aggregated across all markets. In 2025, the global CPI trend featured a sharp June peak, mid‑teens stabilization, and a year‑end cooldown — useful context for interpreting Consulting app‑install performance across all countries relative to broader paid‑social CPI trends, CPM analysis, CTR performance narratives, and CPC trends in adjacent metrics.