Facebook Ads Cost Per App Install Benchmarks for Legal

Introduction

Global cost-per-app-install for Legal showed a year defined by a deep Q1 trough, a dramatic mid-year spike, and a firming late-year finish. The market opened near $15.83 in November, fell to a low of $7.13 in January, then surged to a $27.90 peak in June before settling into a higher plateau through early Q4 at $19.14 in October. Volatility clustered in the middle of the year, with June and July delivering the sharpest swings. 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 Legal in all countries compared to the global benchmark.

The story in the data

Across the 12-month window, global CPI for app installs averaged $15.10, ranging from $7.13 in January to $27.90 in June. The period began at $15.83 in November, dipped to $11.30 in December, and bottomed in January — the lowest point of the year and nearly 3x below the June high. From there, momentum was choppy: a 76% lift into February ($12.52), a March cooldown to $8.83, a rebound in April ($12.59), and a mild softening in May ($11.77).

June broke pattern with a step-change to $27.90 — up 137% month over month — before unwinding to $12.69 in July, a 55% drop. Late Q3 and early Q4 ran elevated: August at $18.24, September rising a further 28% to $23.31, and October easing to $19.14. On net, the market finished 21% above the November starting point, with five months (Nov, Jun, Aug, Sep, Oct) above the full-period average.

Day-to-day consistency wasn’t the story here: average month-to-month movement was $6.23, about 41% of the overall average cost. Two months alone (June’s spike and July’s retrace) accounted for nearly 46% of all absolute movement during the year.

Seasonal and monthly dynamics

Seasonality followed a familiar arc for Facebook Ads benchmarks: softer in early Q1, tightening into mid-year, and holding elevated levels into late Q3 and early Q4. Q1 averaged $9.49, nearly half of Q3’s $18.08. The June peak stood out as the clear outlier, followed by a rapid correction in July and a steady climb through August and September before a modest October pullback. While December often carries higher auction pressure in many markets, this series showed December as a relatively light month at $11.30, with the real intensity arriving mid-year and persisting into the fall.

Country vs. Global

Because the view aggregates all countries, the series aligns with the global benchmark by definition. The gap to “market” is effectively zero across the period, making this the reference line for Legal app-install costs worldwide. What differentiates the year is not regional divergence but the timing and scale of swings: a low in January, a sudden June surge, and a late-year run that kept CPI well above the annual average.

Closing

In sum, Facebook Ads cost-per-app-install benchmarks for the Legal industry across all countries averaged $15.10, with a $7.13 low in January, a $27.90 high in June, and a late-year level of $19.14. This CPI trend line provides a clear read on global industry ad performance, complementing CPC trends, CPM analysis, and CTR performance discussions with a concrete view of country-agnostic ad costs for app installs in Legal.