Stop fake installs on mobile app campaigns
Fake installs are the primary invalid traffic type for mobile UA, directly stealing CPI budget, corrupting MMP attribution, and destroying the LTV data your UA strategy depends on.
Trusted by leading brands worldwide
Fake installs are the most direct form of mobile UA budget theft
Fake installs are the core mechanism of invalid mobile traffic. Every fake install triggers a CPI payout, draining budget that should be acquiring real users. Across the industry, 28% of mobile app installs are estimated to be invalid. On campaigns without active invalid traffic removal, UA managers are paying for installs from users who do not exist, never will engage with the app, and contribute nothing to revenue. The only beneficiary is the bad actor collecting the CPI payment.
Fake installs enter attribution data through three main routes. SDK spoofing simulates installs without any device involvement. Device farms generate installs on real hardware. Click injection intercepts organic installs and attributes them to invalid sources. Each method produces different signal patterns but the same outcome: your MMP records an install, your CPI model pays out, and your cohort data is contaminated. LTV projections built on cohorts that include fake users will consistently overestimate engagement and revenue, leading to budget decisions that cannot be justified by real outcomes.
How Tapper stops fake installs on Mobile
Three steps from connection to clean data, no engineering required.
01
Connect Tapper to your MMP and UA campaigns
Tapper integrates with AppsFlyer, Adjust, Kochava, Singular, Branch, and your ad network accounts. Every install event is monitored from the moment of integration.
02
Fake installs identified across all invalid traffic vectors
SDK spoofing signatures, device farm clusters, click injection patterns, and CTIT anomalies are all analyzed simultaneously. No single technique is assessed in isolation.
03
Your CPI reflects real users and your LTV data is clean
Fake installs are excluded before entering your attribution data. Your reported CPI is anchored to genuine installs and your LTV models reflect actual user behavior.
Fake installs by the numbers
Data from Tapper's platform analysis and published industry research.
28%
Of mobile installs are invalid globally
$10B
Lost to invalid mobile traffic in 2023
40%
Of invalid mobile traffic uses SDK spoofing to fake installs
90%
SDK spoofing detection rate achieved by Tapper
Tapper vs MMP built-in invalid traffic removal
SDK spoofing detection
Proprietary behavioral session analysis
Device signal matching only
Click injection detection
Anomalous CTIT and click pattern analysis
Basic CTIT threshold rules
Device farm identification
Device cluster and network analysis
Device ID blacklisting
LTV data protection
Fake installs excluded from cohorts
Invalid installs included in LTV models
Leading brands growing with Tapper
See how companies are protecting their ad budgets and improving ROI with Tapper.
13%
lower CPA
8.6%
higher order rate
“Tapper played a key role in improving the efficiency of Du's performance marketing activity by addressing traffic quality issues within campaigns. Following implementation, Du achieved a 13% reduction in CPA and an 8.6% increase in order rate, demonstrating a clear improvement in conversion quality and overall campaign effectiveness.”
Joseph Elbcherrawy
Client Leadership Director, Mindshare, a WPP Media Brand
14%
more conversions
11.4%
lower CPA
“We uncovered low-quality traffic that wasn't visible inside the platforms. Removing it delivered a 14% uplift in conversions and an 11.4% reduction in CPA, a meaningful efficiency gain for INFINITI's 2026 growth plans.”
David Barnes
Data & Technology Lead, Omnicom Group
40%
higher conversion rate
“When we take low-quality traffic out of the funnel before it reaches the algorithm, the campaign optimizes against cleaner signals and the efficiency comes through quickly. For AMA Nissan, that was a 40% lift in conversion rate and a lower CPA on Google, with nothing else in the setup changing. That is the kind of result we want to offer clients as a matter of course.”
Sohail Khan
Senior Performance Manager, WPP Media MENA
Frequently asked questions
Tapper provides install-level invalid traffic classification so you can see the exact proportion of installs flagged per campaign, network, and creative. Most UA managers without active invalid traffic removal are surprised to find that 20-40% of installs on some ad networks are invalid. Tapper gives you the breakdown by invalid traffic type so you can identify which networks and sources to deprioritize.
Click injection is when a malicious app on the user's device detects when another app is being installed from the Play Store and fires an invalid click immediately before the install completes. This ensures the invalid source appears as the last touch in the attribution window and claims the CPI payment for an install that was actually organic or driven by a legitimate channel. Tapper identifies the anomalous CTIT patterns that characterize click injection.
Your install counts will fall and your CPI will initially appear higher, because you are now measuring only real users. But your downstream metrics, retention, LTV, ROAS, will improve as your data is no longer diluted by fake users. The installs you counted before were not generating revenue; removing them from your data gives you an accurate picture to make better budget decisions.
Worried about fake installs on other platforms?
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