Is Pay Per Install still working?

I’ve been reading about PPI and it sounds interesting but I’m not sure how well it still works these days. Is anyone here still using it or has it slowed down?

It does, it really depends whats your goal.

Utakata said:

It does, it really depends whats your goal.

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Got it, so it’s more about how you approach it than the method itself?

Yeah, exactly. PPI's reputation took a hit years ago because of low-quality bundling practices, but the core model (paying for an install or down-funnel action) still works fine when the offer and traffic source actually match.


What's changed: raw "pay per install with no quality check" basically doesn't get accepted by good networks anymore, browsers and OS-level security flag sketchy installers faster than they used to, and the money's shifted toward mobile app install campaigns with event-based payouts (signup, trial, first purchase) rather than old-school desktop software bundling.


So if you're getting into it now, the play is picking networks/offers that already require some kind of post-install action rather than chasing raw install volume. That filters out a lot of the junk traffic problem before it starts

Pretty much what @amenhot said. The one thing i'd add is that on the mobile side the networks scrub hard now... they're not just counting installs, they look at retention and whether the event actually fires. So if your traffic installs and bounces in 5 secs you don't get paid, and worse you can get capped or banned for low quality.

Had a campaign last year that looked great on raw installs but the postback events were like 4%, advertiser pulled it within a week. Lesson was the source needs real intent or the whole thing falls apart down funnel.

So yeah @Danielcross it's less "is PPI dead" and more which model you're running. Old desktop bundle stuff is basically gone but event based CPI is alive, just way less forgiving than it used to be.

Still works, just the easy money part is mostly gone. If you're buying random cheap traffic and hoping installs alone carry it, you'll get scrubbed hard or capped pretty quick. The guys still making it work usually treat it more like CPA now... warm traffic, pre-sell, offer match, and watching events after install not just the install count. Desktop PPI is kinda dusty unless you have a very specific angle, mobile CPI/event stuff is where most of it moved.

I find that PPI still works well today. While it may not be as powerful as it was a few years ago, it can still generate a solid and consistent income when done correctly.

PPI is still there, but you have to look at it like a quality game now, not just volume. Before scaling anything I’d ask the network what they actually judge on... D1 retention, signup, trial, first open after 24h, whatever. A lot of people burn money because EPC looks ok for 2 days then scrub/caps come in and the math changes fast. If your traffic has some intent and the offer isn’t a total mismatch, it can still be steady, just not the lazy installer days anymore.

honestly the part nobody really hits on is the offer side itself. you can send perfect warm traffic and still get scrubbed if the app onboarding is garbage... like if signup is buried 4 screens deep and asks for a card before first open, your events tank no matter how clean the source is. i usually test 2-3 offers in the same vertical before pushing anything cause traffic is only half of it, the funnel they built is the other half and you have zero control over that.

desktop ppi i wouldnt waste time on unless you stumbled into some weird niche angle. mobile event based is where it actually pays now, just go in expecting the first week to look better than the math ends up being once caps and scrub catch up.

Yeah @Danielcross, the method isn’t dead, the lazy version is. If you can’t show decent post-install quality then the network will just shave, cap, or quietly stop sending approvals. Best thing is ask upfront what the advertiser is really paying for, not what the offer title says... install, open, reg, trial, D1 retention etc. Then test small and watch the delayed numbers, because day 1 EPC on PPI/CPI can lie pretty hard.

Yeah @CloudMerchant hit the nail on the head with the onboarding funnel. One thing to watch is how the traffic is preconditioned before they even redirect to the store. If you're buying cheaper traffic like pop or push and sending them straight to a play store link, they might download it but they'll never trigger the event because they have zero context.

Using a simple bridge page that basically tells them exactly what to do after installing... like "download, open, and run the first scan" helps a lot. The raw install rate drops a bit doing this but the actual postback event rate goes way up, which is the only way to keep the network from shaving the payout anyway.

one thing people forget to mention is the cash flow side of this. even if your tracker shows green on day 3, a lot of these mobile networks will hold your first payout for net 30 or longer just to watch the retention curve. if you're running on tight margins and get hit with a late scrub on week 3, it hurts. always try to negotiate shorter payment terms or a small daily cap early on so you don't burn your whole budget before seeing actual cash in your bank.

I believe PPI is still effective today. Although it isn't as powerful as it was a few years ago, it can still generate a steady and reliable income when implemented correctly.

I think PPI isn't dead, but it's definitely not the same business it was 5-10 years ago.

Years ago, almost everyone involved made good money — advertisers, networks, and publishers. Over time the market became much harder because traffic quality declined. More duplicate installs, incentivized users, recycled traffic, bots, and other low-quality sources started appearing. At the same time, browsers, operating systems, and security software became much stricter, making desktop campaigns much harder to scale.

Today, in my opinion, quality matters far more than volume.

I'd rather buy 300 installs from a publisher with a genuine audience than 10,000 cheap installs that generate no retention or post-install activity.

If a publisher is confident in their traffic source, I'm always open to testing it. I usually start with a small test (100-200 installs), analyze the audience quality, retention, and overall performance. If the traffic performs well, I'll gladly pay for the test and continue buying larger volumes on a long-term basis.

I'm mainly interested in traffic from real users with genuine intent, not generic download traffic. Business, productivity, education, finance, or other high-intent audiences are much more valuable for me than pure consumer download traffic.

I think this approach benefits both sides. Publishers with quality traffic get a long-term buyer, and buyers reduce the risk of scaling poor-quality sources.

If anyone here has a quality traffic source and is looking for a long-term buyer rather than a one-time deal, feel free to send me a PM.

I usually start with a small test (100-200 installs). If the quality is there, I'm happy to pay for the test and move to larger volumes.