Three pylons — Social, Search, Influencer — fire install particles into a shared tank at a rate proportional to that channel's installs/day. Effective cost-per-install (CPI) inflates with spend, like real auction pressure: pour too much into one pylon and its particles get more expensive per unit. The tank's liquid level tracks cumulative installed users; its color drifts from red toward green as blended LTV pulls ahead of blended CAC.
effective CPI(channel) = base CPI × (1 + spend / saturation)
installs(channel) = spend / effective CPI(channel)
blended CAC = total spend / total installs
blended LTV = Σ(installs × channel LTV) / total installs
LTV:CAC = blended LTV / blended CAC (industry rule of thumb: healthy ≥ 3)
daily profit = Σ(installs × channel LTV) − total spend
- Social pylon — cheapest CPI, lowest LTV, saturates fastest (short pylon-to-tank stream).
- Search pylon — mid CPI, highest LTV — usually the best return if you don't overload it.
- Influencer pylon — priciest CPI, mid LTV, but slow to saturate — a release valve once the others cap out.
- Paid budget allocation, not organic ranking: this tank never touches App Store search-rank or listing conversion — every drop that lands here was bought.