Conversion events
Every payment or trial RevenueCat reports becomes a named event we forward to your ad networks. Here's what each means — and which to optimize your campaign for.
The events, and how they map
The channel is set by your link; the event is set by what the user did. MakeRVN translates each RevenueCat event into the standard event your ad network understands:
| Event | What it means | Meta | TikTok | Money? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase | A first-time payment — the user bought (a subscription without a trial, or a one-off). | Purchase | Purchase | Yes |
| Trial started | A free trial began. No money yet (€0), but a strong intent signal. | StartTrial | Subscribe | No |
| Subscribe | A recurring renewal payment — an existing subscriber was billed again. | Subscribe | Subscribe | Yes (recurring) |
Subscribe vs Purchase — the usual confusion
These look similar but fire at different moments:
- Purchase — the first time someone pays. This is your acquisition “sale”.
- Subscribe — a renewalof an existing subscription. It's a retention / lifetime-value signal, not a new customer.
So in the Test & verify tool: send Purchase to simulate a new paying customer, and Subscribe to simulate a renewal. (On TikTok both trials and renewals arrive as Subscribe, since TikTok has no separate trial event.)
Which event should my campaign optimize for?
In Meta / TikTok you pick one optimization event — the action the algorithm chases. For a subscription app:
- Enough volume (≈50+ purchases/week)? Optimize for Purchase. You're telling the algorithm to find payers — the best signal for ROAS.
- Low volume or just launched? Optimize for Trial started. There are far more of them, so the algorithm learns faster — and MakeRVN still tracks the eventual Purchase, so you see real revenue and ROAS regardless.
- Subscribe (renewals) is usually notyour campaign's optimization event — you don't buy ads to make existing users renew. It matters for LTV reporting.
You don't have to choose blindly
A note on billing
You're billed once per customer, on their first attributed conversion (Purchase or Trial started). Renewals are never billed — see Billing.