Why your competitors can outspend you on every single ad

May 09, 2026

Hey there,

Your competitors are running 50 ads at the same time and you're stuck running five.

You see their ads everywhere. On every TikTok, Instagram reel, Facebook feed.

Meanwhile your campaigns die after a few hundred dollars because the math doesn't work.

The reason isn't a better product or a smarter team.

It's one number they figured out before starting ads: LTV per install.

Lifetime value per install is the average amount of money each download eventually spends in your app.

If your LTV is $0.50 per install, that's your ceiling on ad spend before you're losing money.

If your LTV is $2, you can spend $2 per install profitably and outscale every founder running ads at half that.

The bigger apps earn more per user, so they spend more per install and outscale everyone every single day.

For a long time at PuffCount I was capping my ad spend without even knowing why.

I'd run a campaign at $0.50 per install, pause it the moment costs crept higher, and convince myself I was being disciplined.

Discipline had nothing to do with it. I was guessing at non-existing ceiling.

Then I checked my LTV in RevenueCat. PuffCount was generating $1 to $1.50 per install on average.

I'd been refusing to spend more than a third of what each install was actually worth.

The moment I unlocked my ad budget to match my real LTV, the scaling curve changed completely.

Most founders run ads on gut feel and pause campaigns when the spend feels uncomfortable, long before the math actually breaks.

Open RevenueCat or your subscription analytics tool today.

Find your LTV per install. Then look at what you're actually paying per install on your campaigns.

If LTV beats CAC, you're nowhere near your ceiling.

Peace,
Steven