Liftoff’s Annual Dating Apps Report: Seasonal User Engagement Trends

Mobile app marketing and retargeting firm Liftoff has released its 2018 report on the dating industry.

Drawing from an analysis of nearly 12 billion ad impressions across 4.4 million app installs spanning from December 1, 2016 to December 1, 2017, Liftoff’s Dating Report revealed a number of trends in the sector.

The fifth and final section of the report deals with seasonal trends in user acquisition costs.

Dating apps have their own seasonal terminology, the report notes, such as ‘cuffing season’ in the lead up to the festive period.

‘Dating season’ runs from late December until Valentine’s Day.

The report found that August was the month when acquisition costs were lowest, at just $2.71.

August also sees the “cost to acquire an app registration [drop] to a low of $4.07 (yielding an impressive conversion rate of 66.6%)”.

Costs are also low in October, before increasing over the holiday period.

February through May is marked by particularly high costs per install.

The high costs around Valentine’s are attributed to fierce competition for the same pool of singles.

“By the time summer arrives many users are deeply committed to their current partner, and

see little sense in paying for a dating app to find a new love”, the authors add.

See our articles on the conversion rate findings here, on conversions by OS here, on engagement by region here and on gender-based trends here.

Download the full report here.