A two-phase push traffic campaign to install the Shopee app in Vietnam: source discovery at $0.54 CPA, then whitelist scaling down to $0.34 CPA — a $0.40 blended CPA overall, $500 under budget.
The task
The advertiser came to us with a funnel that already worked but had hit a volume ceiling. Needed to deliver Shopee app installs in Vietnam within a $3,000 budget, without diluting volume onto low-converting sources.
We worked the "App Install" vertical in the Vietnam market. Payment model — CPA per app install, main sources — Push traffic, Mobile targeting.
How we did it
We built the buy around four decisions.
- Phase one was pure source discovery: $1,000/week on mobile targeting, one impression per user per day, leading to a pre-lander with "Electronics" and "Beauty" category products, a countdown timer, and a "Flash sale active" CTA.
- From 1M clicks and 1,850 installs in phase one, a clean whitelist of the 20 best-converting sources was built.
- Phase two ran exclusively on that whitelist — $1,500/week, a $220 daily cap.
What went wrong
Not everything went according to plan. Phase one landed at $0.54 CPA — above target. On its own, out of context, it would have looked like a failure.
Instead of optimizing a single always-on campaign on the fly, buying was split into two distinct stages from the start: a broad-traffic test for data, then scaling only on the confirmed whitelist.
The result
Once stabilized, the campaign held the following numbers. Over the two weeks: installs — 6 250, blended cpa — $0.40, spent of $3,000 — $2 500.
Phase two delivered 2.5M impressions, 4,400 installs, and $0.34 CPA — a 50% conversion uplift. Over the two weeks: 6,250 installs, $2,500 spent out of a $3,000 plan, $0.40 blended CPA.
What we took away
- A disciplined two-phase "test, then whitelist" approach consistently beats trying to optimize a single campaign on the fly.
- A poor CPA during source discovery isn't a failure if it's budgeted in advance as the cost of whitelist data.
These numbers belong to one specific setup, geo, and buying period. Economics will differ on another offer or in another season — we always recalculate them before launch.