Metrics glossary

Definitions for every metric surfaced in Catchbase analytics. Each row lists the metric, its formula, its underlying data source, how fresh the value is, and how it behaves across cohorts. Metric names match what you see in the dashboard.

"MMP" means the mobile measurement partner (Adjust or AppsFlyer), the source of installs and revenue. Metrics are grouped using the same sections the dashboard uses on the columns menu: Ad Performance, Conversions, Cost Metrics, Budget, Revenue, ROAS, and the per-event MMP columns.

Three categories: Apple-standard, Auction Insights, and MMP-driven

The metrics split into three groups, and the distinction matters in practice.

Apple-standard metrics are identical across every Catchbase customer. Impressions, taps, tap installs, spend, tap-through rate, conversion rate, cost-per-tap, and cost-per-install come from Apple Ads' Campaign Management reporting. Every customer pulls the same fields, on the same schedule, with the same definitions Apple uses. If two customers compare notes on "CPI", they are comparing the same thing. See References below.

Auction Insights metrics are also standard across customers, but come from a different Apple API (Impression Share) and from Catchbase's own view of keyword state. Average Share of Voice is Apple's; Total Keywords / Prioritized / Deprioritized are counts Catchbase derives from its own bidding state. See the Auction Insights table for the exact definitions, and note Apple's Impression Share API has a 30-day maximum lookback, so SOV values older than 30 days are not available.

MMP-driven metrics depend on how your MMP is configured. Revenue, cohorted revenue (D0, D1, D7, D14, D30), ROAS (total and cohorted), the per-event Count / Revenue / ROAS / CPA columns, and any CPA or ROAS target based on an event all flow from Adjust or AppsFlyer. What gets measured, how events are named, and which events carry revenue are choices made in your MMP setup. Two customers with the same MMP provider can see different custom events, different revenue attribution windows, and different event-to-revenue mappings. Standard cohort windows (D0 / D1 / D7 / D14 / D30) are normalised by Catchbase so the dashboard column shapes are stable; everything beyond that follows your MMP configuration. For the setup side, see Connect Adjust or Connect AppsFlyer; for custom events specifically, see Custom events.

Ad Performance

Metric	Formula	Source	Freshness
Impressions	Count of ad impressions	Apple Ads	Daily, Apple-fresh
Taps	Count of ad taps	Apple Ads	Daily, Apple-fresh
Tap-through Rate (TTR)	Taps divided by impressions	Computed from Apple Ads	Same-day

Conversions

Metric	Formula	Source	Freshness
Installs (Tap-Through)	Tap-attributed installs reported by Apple	Apple Ads	Daily, typical 1 to 2 day stabilisation
Conversion Rate (CVR)	Installs divided by taps	Computed from Apple Ads	Same-day

Cost Metrics

Metric	Formula	Source	Freshness
Spend	Ad spend in the campaign's local currency	Apple Ads	Daily, real-time
Cost-per-Tap (CPT)	Spend divided by taps	Computed from Apple Ads	Same-day
Cost-per-Install (CPI)	Spend divided by installs	Computed from Apple Ads	Same-day

Budget

Metric	Formula	Source	Notes
Total Budget	The daily budget configured on the campaign	Apple Ads (written by Catchbase when Budget Allocation or a manual edit applies)	Reflects the value currently set on Apple Ads
Budget Utilization	Spend as a share of the daily budget for the current day	Computed from Apple Ads	Same-day

Auction Insights

Auction Insights surface how competitive the auction is and where the bidding model is spending its attention across keywords. Average Share of Voice and Average Bid come from Apple; Total Keywords, Prioritized, and Deprioritized are counts Catchbase computes from its own bidding state. All five appear on the keyword-level Analytics views.

Metric	Formula	Source	Notes
Average Share of Voice (SOV)	Mean share of eligible auctions where your ad was shown, averaged over the selected period	Apple Ads Impression Share API	Apple's API has a 30-day maximum lookback window; values older than 30 days are not available. Shown as a percentage. Also rendered as "SOV" in the Keyword Overlap table on the Search Terms tab.
Average Bid	Mean of the max-CPT bids across the keywords in scope	Catchbase (from Apple Ads bid records)	Currency metric.
Total Keywords	Count of distinct keywords in the current scope	Catchbase	Integer.
Prioritized	Count of keywords the bidding model is actively bidding on	Catchbase	Integer.
Deprioritized	Count of keywords the bidding model has reduced bids on for performance or volume reasons	Catchbase	Integer. Low-volume or underperforming keywords typically fall into this count.

Prioritized plus Deprioritized equals Total Keywords within a given scope.

Revenue

All values come from your MMP (Adjust or AppsFlyer). Cohort maturity rules are explained in full on Data freshness.

Metric	Formula	Source	Cohort behaviour
Revenue (also shown as "Total Revenue")	Sum of all revenue attributed to installs in the date range, regardless of how long after install it arrived	MMP	Lifetime; recent cohorts always incomplete
Revenue D0	Revenue on install day only	MMP	Mature after 0 days
Revenue D1	Revenue within 1 day post-install	MMP	Matures after 1 day; the most recent 1 day is trimmed
Revenue D7	Revenue within 7 days post-install	MMP	Matures after 7 days; the most recent 7 days are trimmed
Revenue D14	Revenue within 14 days post-install	MMP	Matures after 14 days; the most recent 14 days are trimmed
Revenue D30	Revenue within 30 days post-install	MMP	Matures after 30 days; the most recent 30 days are trimmed

Adjust reports the cohorted windows natively. AppsFlyer does not, so Catchbase synthesises them from raw event records using the install time and event time. The user-facing labels and values are the same either way.

ROAS

All ROAS values are computed as MMP revenue divided by Apple Ads spend. Adjust reports its own pre-computed ROAS, but Catchbase ignores it and divides revenue by spend itself so figures are comparable across Adjust and AppsFlyer tenants.

Metric	Formula	Source	Cohort behaviour
ROAS (also shown as "Total ROAS")	Revenue divided by spend	Computed from MMP and Apple Ads	Matches lifetime revenue
ROAS D0	Revenue D0 divided by spend	Computed	Matches Revenue D0
ROAS D1	Revenue D1 divided by spend	Computed	Matches Revenue D1
ROAS D7	Revenue D7 divided by spend	Computed	Matches Revenue D7
ROAS D14	Revenue D14 divided by spend	Computed	Matches Revenue D14
ROAS D30	Revenue D30 divided by spend	Computed	Matches Revenue D30

Per-event MMP columns

Each event configured in your MMP produces up to four columns in the analytics tables. The event name is whatever you named it in your MMP (for example, "Purchase", "Signup", "Level Complete"). These columns are tenant-specific by definition.

Column pattern	What it shows	Source
`<Event> (Count)`	Count of the named event	MMP
`<Event> (Revenue)`	Sum of revenue attached to the named event	MMP
`<Event> (ROAS)`	Event revenue divided by spend	Computed from MMP and Apple Ads
`<Event> (CPA)`	Spend divided by count of the named event	Computed from MMP and Apple Ads

Per-event columns appear in the column selector only for events that are actively tracked in your MMP and selected for Catchbase. The custom events page covers how an event becomes selectable in the dropdown.

Notes on specific metrics

CPA is event-scoped. There is no single CPA metric. Every CPA is scoped to a named MMP event and appears in the UI as <Event> (CPA). A campaign optimising for a cost-per-acquisition target is optimising against a specific event's CPA.

ROAS is always MMP revenue over Apple Ads spend. Adjust reports its own pre-computed ROAS, but Catchbase ignores that and divides revenue by spend itself. Ratios are computed once at the correct level of aggregation, and figures are comparable between Adjust-connected tenants and AppsFlyer-connected tenants.

Lifetime revenue is never fully mature. Unlike the dated cohorts, there is no fixed window after which lifetime revenue stops growing. Recent install cohorts will always understate true lifetime revenue because later events have not yet happened. See Data freshness.

References

External documentation that defines the underlying metrics and events. Every definition Catchbase uses is consistent with these sources.

Apple Ads (Apple-sourced metrics and Auction Insights)

Apple Ads product site: https://searchads.apple.com/
Apple Ads reporting documentation (definitions for impressions, taps, tap installs, spend, and the campaign / ad group / keyword objects): https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_search_ads
Apple Ads Impression Share documentation (the source of Share of Voice; 30-day maximum lookback): https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_search_ads
Apple App Analytics (install and event terminology): https://developer.apple.com/app-store-connect/analytics/

Adjust (MMP-driven metrics)

Adjust Help Center: https://help.adjust.com/
Adjust Developer docs (event reporting, revenue fields, cohort exports): https://dev.adjust.com/

AppsFlyer (MMP-driven metrics)

AppsFlyer Help Center: https://support.appsflyer.com/
AppsFlyer Developer docs (raw data export and cohort analysis): https://dev.appsflyer.com/
AppsFlyer cohorts documentation: https://support.appsflyer.com/hc/en-us/articles/207032126

Methodology references (used elsewhere in the docs, relevant here)

CausalImpact (Brodersen et al. 2015), the method behind the Incrementality section, is not used for these metrics directly but consumes them as its inputs.