Facebook Ads Cost Per App Install Benchmarks for Education

Introduction

Education apps saw an expensive, whipsaw year for cost per app install (CPI) across all countries, running far above the global Facebook Ads benchmarks and swinging sharply from month to month. The story starts modestly in January and builds into a steep climb with dramatic surges in June, September, and especially November before easing into December. Volatility was a defining feature, with multiple double‑digit swings that outpaced the broader market by a wide margin.

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 Education across all countries compared to the global benchmark.

The story in the data

Education CPI began the year at $24.88 in January and ended at $75.37 in December, a 203% lift across the year. The monthly median averaged $103 (median month: $80.94), highlighting heavy upside skew from a handful of spikes. The annual high landed in November at $204.72, with a secondary peak in September at $191.82. The low was January’s $24.88.

The path to those highs was turbulent. Month‑over‑month gains stacked early (+60% in February, +71% in March, +84% in April), then reversed in May (−46%) before a fresh breakout in June (+116%). Q3 ran hot—July ($82.53) to August ($130.70) to September ($191.82)—only to drop hard in October (−59% to $79.35), surge again in November (+158% to $204.72), and reset in December (−63% to $75.37). On average, monthly moves were large: Education CPI swung by about $71 per month, roughly 69% of its mean.

Seasonal and monthly dynamics

Seasonally, Education followed a step‑up pattern. Q1 was the trough (average $44), Q2 accelerated ($114) on the back of April and June spikes, Q3 was the strongest quarter ($135) with a pronounced back‑to‑school lift peaking in September, and Q4 mixed a brief October reprieve with a November surge and December cooldown (average $120). This rhythm aligns with familiar competitive windows: softer early year conditions, strong late summer demand, and intensified auction pressure into peak retail months.

Country vs. Global

Against the global benchmark (all industries, all countries), Education CPI was consistently above market—by a lot. The global average CPI was $13.37 versus Education’s $103, about 7.7x higher on the year. Volatility was also greater: average monthly swings of $70.86 in Education compared with $4.57 globally, roughly 15x more volatile in absolute terms and about 2x more volatile relative to each series’ mean.

The monthly gap never closed. The narrowest spread appeared in February, when Education CPI was still 243% above the global median. The widest spread was November, when Education CPI ran 1,305% above global levels. While the global trend edged up a modest 32% from January to December (from $7.07 to $9.32), Education’s end‑of‑year CPI remained more than triple its January mark despite the December pullback.

Closing

In short, Facebook Ads benchmarks for cost per app install in the Education industry across all countries show a high‑cost, highly volatile year with distinct seasonal surges—most notably in September and November—well above broader market CPM analysis, CPC trends, and CTR performance norms. Understanding these country‑agnostic, industry ad performance patterns helps frame Education’s country‑specific ad costs against the global baseline.