Solved: iOS App Install Campaign Conversion Issues

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! It sounds like you've hit the infamous iOS 14.5 wall that's tripped up a lot of advertisers. It’s a common story: Android campaigns ticking along nicely, while the iOS side of things looks like a total dead zone. You're right to suspect that the update is the culprit, but it’s not that conversions aren't happening, it's that the way you track them has fundamentally changed.

I'm happy to give you some initial thoughts on this. The good news is that it’s absolutely possible to get great results from iOS app install campaigns, you just can't use the old playbook anymore. The direct "App Install" objective is basically a trap now for iOS traffic. We’ll need to get a bit more creative and build a more robust funnel that works with Apple’s new privacy rules, not against them.

Let's first look at why your iOS campaigns are failing...

Before we get into the solution, it's worth quickly understanding the problem. When Apple rolled out iOS 14.5, they introduced the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework. In simple terms, it means apps now have to ask users for permission to track their activity across other companies' apps and websites. Unsurprisingly, most people say no.

This completely broke the old way of doing things, where the Meta pixel could follow a user from seeing an ad, to the App Store, to installing and opening the app. That seamless data trail is gone for users who opt out. Instead, we have Apple’s replacement: the SKAdNetwork (or SKAN). Without getting too technical, SKAN is Apple's privacy-friendly way of attributing app installs. The key things to know about it are:

• It's Delayed: Data can take 24-72 hours (sometimes longer) to come back to the ad platform. So you can't see in real-time if an ad is working.
• It's Aggregated: The data is anonymised and bundled together. You can't see which specific person installed the app from which specific ad. You just get a general count.
• It's Limited: There's a cap on how many campaigns you can run and how many conversion events you can track. It’s a massive step down from the rich data we used to have.

When you run an "App Install" campaign objective on Meta for iOS users, you're telling the algorithm to optimise using this messy, delayed, and incomplete SKAN data. The algorithm struggles to learn who your best customers are, so it can't efficiently find more of them. The result is what you're seeing: high spend, erratic delivery, and seemingly zero conversions being reported. You're effectively flying blind, and so is Meta's algorithm. It's a recipe for burning cash.

The myth is that advertising to iOS users is dead. The reality is that advertising directly for an app install using the old methods is dead. The solution is to create a new path for the user that gives us back some of the control and data we lost.

I'd say you need to ditch the direct App Install objective...

This is probably the single biggest shift you need to make. Stop running 'App Install' objective campaigns for your iOS audience. It's a losing game because you're trying to optimise with terrible data.

The better approach, which we've used to get great results for app clients, is to switch to a Website Conversions campaign objective. I know it sounds counter-intuitive—you want app installs, not website traffic—but hear me out. The strategy involves creating a simple "bridge" or pre-sell landing page.

The new user journey looks like this:

1. A user on Facebook or Instagram sees your ad.
2. They click the ad and are taken to your dedicated, mobile-optimised landing page (NOT the App Store).
3. This landing page is where you sell them on the app. You have full control here. You can use compelling copy, videos, testimonials, GIFs of the app in action—way more than the App Store page allows. The Meta Pixel is on this page, tracking everything.
4. The user, now convinced, clicks a clear "Download on the App Store" button on your landing page.
5. They are then taken to your App Store page to complete the download.

Why is this so much better? Because you’ve shifted the optimisation event. You're no longer asking Meta to optimise for a blind app install via SKAN. Instead, you're asking it to optimise for a 'Lead' or 'ViewContent' event on your landing page—an event the Meta Pixel can track perfectly well. The algorithm now has clear, real-time data to work with. It can identify the types of people who visit your landing page and show interest, and then it can go and find more of them. You get better-quality traffic hitting your App Store page because they've already been warmed up and pre-qualified by your landing page content. It's a much more robust and reliable system in this new privacy-first world.

I remember one campaign we worked on for a sports events app where they faced the exact same issue. Their iOS campaigns were a black hole for budget. We switched them to this landing page model and within weeks, we were generating thousands of signups at under £2 each because we could finally optimise properly. The installs were just a natural consequence of getting the right, pre-sold people to the App Store page. It completely changed the economics for them.

You'll need a landing page that does the heavy lifting...

This bridge page is the heart of the new strategy, so it needs to be good. Its only job is to get a person so excited about your app that clicking the 'Download' button is the only logical next step. It doesn't need to be complex—in fact, simpler is better. It should be a single page with no navigation or other distractions.

Here’s what it must include:

• A Killer Headline: Don't talk about the app, talk about the user's problem. Use the Before-After-Bridge formula. "Before: Wasting hours trying to find new recipes. After: Cooking exciting new meals every night in under 30 minutes. The Bridge: Our app is the bridge that gets you there." It should speak directly to the pain point your app solves.
• Compelling Visuals: Don't just show screenshots. Show short videos or GIFs of the app in action. Show a real person using it and benefiting from it. This makes the value tangible.
• Clear Benefits, Not Features: Nobody cares that your app uses "AI-powered algorithms". They care that it "automatically plans your week's meals so you save time and money." Translate every feature into a direct benefit for the user.
• Social Proof: This is huge. Include quotes from your 5-star reviews. Add logos of any publications you've been featured in. Show how many thousands of users you already have. This builds trust and reduces the perceived risk of downloading something new.
• A Single, Unmistakable Call-to-Action (CTA): There should be one big, obvious button on the page. It should say something like "Download for Free on the App Store" and include the official App Store badge. Remove any other links or buttons that could distract the user from this one action.

And of course, this page needs to be lightning-fast on mobile, with your Meta Pixel installed correctly. You’ll want to set up a custom conversion event for when someone clicks the App Store button. This click becomes your new optimisation goal in Meta Ads Manager. Your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) is now the cost to get someone to click that button—a metric you can actually track reliably.

You might be thinking this adds an extra step, and it does. But it's a necessary one. You'll likely see a drop-off between people who visit the landing page and those who go on to the App Store. But the ones who do make it will be far more qualified and much more likely to actually install. You're trading a wide net for a sharp spear.

You probably should rethink your creative and targeting...

Because the targeting data for iOS users is so much weaker now, your creative has to work much harder. In the past, you could rely on Meta's algorithm to find the perfect audience for a mediocre ad. Now, you need a great ad to help the algorithm find the right audience.

Your creative needs to do the sorting for you. It must instantly grab the attention of your ideal customer and repel everyone else. This means being super specific about the problem you solve. For example, instead of a generic ad showing your app's interface, test a User-Generated Content (UGC) style video. This could be a simple phone video of someone talking to the camera, explaining how the app solved a specific problem for them. These feel authentic and cut through the noise far better than slick, corporate-looking ads. We've seen this work for numerous clients, especially in the B2C app space.

On the targeting side, this might also seem backwards, but you should probably test broader audiences. Since detailed targeting like interests and behaviours are less reliable for iOS users, trying to get too narrow can backfire. Sometimes, the best approach is to go with a very broad audience (e.g., just country, age, and gender) and let your powerful, specific creative do the work of attracting the right people. Meta's algorithm is still incredibly powerful, and if you feed it a clear conversion signal from your landing page, it can work wonders even with a broad starting audience.

We'll also need to look at other platforms...

Finally, it's worth remembering that Meta isn't the only game in town, especially for app installs. One of the most powerful platforms for this is Apple Search Ads (ASA). It’s often overlooked but can be incredibly effective.

The beauty of ASA is intent. You're not interrupting someone scrolling through their social feed; you're reaching them at the exact moment they are in the App Store actively searching for an app like yours. If someone searches for "meal planning app," your app can appear at the top of the results. The quality of these users is unmatched because their need is immediate.

We ran a campaign for an app in the eLearning space and while Meta drove the volume, Apple Search Ads consistently brought in their most engaged and highest value users. The cost per install might be a bit higher, but the long-term value of the user often makes it worthwhile. A healthy app growth strategy should be diversified, and for iOS, ASA should absolutely be part of your mix. It provides a steady stream of high-intent installs that can balance out the volatility you might see on other platforms.

Combining the robust web conversion funnel on Meta with a high-intent campaign on Apple Search Ads creates a powerful, two-pronged attack for acquiring iOS users in a post-ATT world.

This is the main advice I have for you:

To pull all this together, here’s a summary of the strategic shift I'm recommending. It’s about moving away from an old, broken model and embracing a new one that’s built for the current landscape.

Navigating the post-iOS 14.5 landscape can be tricky, and it's where having an expert perspective can make a huge difference. It's not just about knowing which buttons to press, but understanding the underlying strategy of how to get results when the old rules no longer apply. Getting this funnel set up correctly, writing the copy for the landing page, and producing the right creative all require specialist skills.

If you'd like to chat through how we could apply this strategy specifically to your app and get your iOS campaigns delivering results, we offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation. We can take a proper look at your setup and give you a more detailed plan of action.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh