The five numbers that run every consumer app
Funnel
Impressions → installs (~1–3% of impressions) → paying users (1–5% of installs). Each stage in the 3D funnel is drawn to scale — notice how thin the bottom is.
CAC — cost to acquire
ad spend ÷ new paying users. Paid social for fitness apps commonly lands at $30–80 per paying subscriber.
LTV — lifetime value
price ÷ monthly churn. At $6/mo and 12% churn, LTV = $50. Churn is the quiet killer: halving it doubles LTV.
The 3:1 rule
Healthy subscription businesses target LTV ≥ 3× CAC. Below 1:1 you lose money on every "growth" milestone you tweet about.
Why hire UGC creators?
User-generated-content creators make native-feeling videos brands then run as ads or organic posts. The economics: a $150 UGC video that produces 300k impressions at a 1.2% install rate outperforms a $3,000 studio ad with the same reach — CPMs drop from ~$12 to ~$3–6, and authenticity lifts conversion 20–50% in many A/B tests.
So "we're hiring UGC creators" translates to: our CAC on polished ads is too high; we're buying cheaper, more trusted impressions. Try the channel buttons above — UGC cuts cost per impression and nudges conversion; organic zeroes spend but caps volume.
Reality-check: the launch-tweet numbers
10,000 customers with $2,300 in 28-day revenue means ARPU ≈ $0.23/month — most users are free. That's normal for freemium: the game is converting 2–5% to paid and keeping churn under ~8%. Run those targets through the sliders and watch the LTV:CAC badge flip green. Growth tweets are marketing; unit economics are the business.