Cranberry Cider-- When to add Cranberry Juice?

I'm been experimenting with a few different flavored ciders recently namely Cranberry, Cranberry-Pomegranite and Blueberry. My normal recipe for 6 gallons is
1.5 gallons Cranberry (or other) Juice
2.5 lbs Dextrose
Apple Juice to fill
Champagne Yeast

OG of 1.066
FG of .998

I then usually backsweeten with a mix of cranberry juice and sugar to 1.024 and pasteurize at 1.020. When tasting my latest batch pre-backsweetened it dawned on me that very little flavor is coming from the cranberry juice added at the start and that I could save some money by fermenting straight apple juice and sugar and then backsweetening.
Anyone ever compare straight apple cider backsweetened with cranberry juice to one fermented with some cranberry juice? Do you think their will be vastly different flavors between the two?

I can't speak as to a comparison, however I fermented cranberry juice and Apple juice together a couple of times at a ratio of about 2/3 apple to 1/3 cranberry juice. I used champagne yeast as well. The final product was dry and tart. It was a big hit every time I made it.

Just about everything that undergoes a fermentation will yield you with different flavour profiles in the final product. Think about grapes fermenting into wines. They taste almost nothing like a grape! Maybe play around when you add the cranberry in. If you have a few gallon jugs spare, you could experiment by adding it at the start, adding it mid fermentation and adding it as a back-sweetener.

Then you could let us know how you went and which recipe was the best