50 Metrics & KPIs That Matter for Mobile App Development
Building an app is not that easy. Even after spending so much energy, time, and money on developing an app, what matters to the users is its applicability to them.
But you know what, it could drastically fail if you don’t appreciate the key performance Indicators (KPI tracking/KPI analysis).
Also, once an app is developed, hoping the users would widely accept it, you have beleaguered, and the app should serve the objective, but how will you figure out that?
Know about : Top 5 Key Features For Successful Mobile App
It is the key performance indicators, which will let you know what is contributing to your success apps and whatnot.
Figuring out the mobile app’s metrics and performance is a crucial aspect in today’s mobile app development market due to the number of apps increases the expectations for the app’s performance has risen relatively, in return demanding high performance from your app too.
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So, the next question that comes into many minds is.
How would you determine what is working for you, and what is not? What are metrics would you take to reach the ultimate goal of your app?
It can only start by determining metrics & KPIs that matter the most for your mobile.
Now, let’s find out how mobile KPIs work.
Before that, know what is a metric is?
Metrics are a little bit different in that they track the status of a specific business process.
How mobile KPIs work?
Knowing and understanding the vast range of KPIs is not that much is easy as you think.
KPIs help you to track & evaluate your app and therefore attract the attention & resources of investors, buyers, and shareholders.
Defining unique KPIs means determining what excellent performance looks like and how to capture & measure the various indicators along the way.
Tracking metrics and KPIs should be part of your development and marketing strategies, including which performance metrics and success metrics are the ones that should be considered the most important or valuable.
There is a keynote, which you should be all aware of.
There are almost as various mobile app metrics as there are apps, which brings you a lot of confusion.
It is your call to understand what you should be following and what you shouldn’t.
In this blog, we are going to discuss some KPIs and metrics that measure the general performance of a mobile application.
Most of the marketing and development teams are aware of this list of Metrics and KPIs, but it’s your decision on which metrics should be considered for your mobile app.
Here is a guide that worth reading: Mobile App Development Process 2023
50 Metrics & KPI’s That Matter for Your App in 2022
Let’s begin the show.
- Active users
The number of active users of the app determines the success of any mobile app. It is not just sufficient to download the app, but it is also important that how many users are genuinely using the app.
For measuring apps the number of active users, there are so many tools available, each of which works on different parameters.
For instance, Google Analytics, which works on the session parameter, depends on how many users are using the app at least for 30 minutes session.
- Time duration of the session
The time duration of using the app also matters a lot. Just open the app and shutting it off, which means that the app is not so attractive. If at all, the user is using the app for a longer time, then it means that a particular app can engage the user to the fullest.
With the help of the latest technology (Google mobile app analytics/Google app analytics), the app owner can even find out the time duration in which the user is using the mobile app and can get feedback from them.
- App churn
App churn refers to the rate of those users who will download and use the app, but after the usage, they will never come to the app again. The lower the app churn rate, the higher is the success of the app.
- App retention
This is opposite to the app churn; wherein, it is the measure of the number of users who will return to the same app within 30 days. This is more important because satisfying the users and raising the stickiness of the users to the app determines the success of the app. The app owners can increase the rate of app retention by keeping the app updated with the latest technology. The app retention time can be calculated using various tools like Localytics, Fabric, and AWS Mobile Analytics.
- App Downloads
The number of users downloading app determines how successful the app is. So, it’s better to keep an eye on apps to download statistics. If the number of users downloading the app is very less, it implies that the app is not able to attract the user.
The user’s requirement needs to be understood, and then the app developers need to design a suitable app that can meet the user’s demand for the success of the app.
There may be many reasons for the less number of app downloads, which may include marketing problems, no proper app store optimization unattractive app story listening, etc.
- Installations
Just because a user downloaded your app, it does not mean that your job is completed. There could issues while installing an app.
I have faced the same issue various times, which is not good, and people don’t give another chance.
Therefore, you should also be tracing actual installations on various devices that your audience uses.
- App Abandonment
With the help of this, one can know about the users who are dissatisfied with the app and left the app after their first interaction or sometimes even before signing into the app.
This helps in knowing the issues, which are troubling the users, and the app owner can pinpoint the problem and can rectify it.
For better signing up process, the app owners can reach the users using deep links, and the various tools used are Branch.io, which can help the user in signing up the process easier and make a trial in improving the user’s overall experience.
- Registrations
Deciding whether signup/register is another sign that users are purchasing what you are selling, at least figuratively.
Also, you can use their contact number or email address to market future updates and other apps to them.
- App Crashes
The app gets shuts down while the user is still using the app in this unpleasant event. This problem has to be rectified as soon as possible before the potential users are lost.
The best way available to prevent it is to have a rigorous testing of the app during the development of the app.
A beta group can be deployed to identify the problems and solve them as early as possible. There are so many testing tools available in the market for identifying these problems; one can choose the best suited as per the requirement.
- Subscriptions
If subscribing to new content is a feature you offer, you must have a bull eye on the number of signups and unsubscribes.
Along with that, keeping track of how long it takes for a user to subscribe once the app is installed, and average subscription length, which will help you in better understanding how users are behaving on your app.
- Upgrades
If you offer a choice to upgrade your app to a premium version, app tracking analytics not only the no of updates but their timing.
How long does it take for a customer who has registered and/ or installed for the app to seek to update?
Is the advanced version rated more highly than the basic version or both are the same?
The above both the things indicate user engagement metrics and depth of financial commitment they are willing to make- essential information when you are attempting to place a valuation on your mobile app.
- Growth rate
You need to track app growth rate because it will help you make sure your user base is growing and how it’s growing.
Growth may vary with the introduction of new features/new schemes/updates; you need to track mobile application analytics to know at what period the app gained more users.
The tracking growth rate helps you plan your strategy effectively.
- Intervals of the Sessions
This is the measure of the time interval between the user leaving the app and again revisiting the app. If the app has a bundle of attractive features, then the users will undoubtedly get attracted to the app and will be returning to the app soon. This can also be measured using various tools like AWS Mobile app Analytics IOS/Android and google analytics. This rate can be raised by introducing the number of push notifications.
- Flow of the screen
This includes the rate of both navigational flow among the various screens and the number of visits made by the user per screen. The understanding of this screen flow will help in knowing the navigation pattern of the user, problem areas, drop off screens, and conversion road bumps. To enhance this screen flow, one can employ tools like mixpanel, Localytics, and google analytics.
- Issues with the Network
Sometimes, the app working can be disturbed by the problems with the network.
If the system is not supporting, then it may lead to shut down the app abruptly, landing the user in a displeasing ultimate mobile experience.
This can be avoided by not allowing the app to entirely dependent on the network.
Tools employed for this are android tools and Xcode. Other tools like OKHttp and Charles Proxy helps in determining the network connection speed.
- Social media shares
The no of times your app is shared or recommended on social media.
The higher the number of shares, the better it is for the app. Besides, look when and where the app is shared & in what context.
Because we all know how social media is and don’t be famous for the wrong reasons.
It is essential if you have any social media integration or functionality build into your app.
So, keep an eye on KPI social media.
Also Read: How Much Does It Cost To Develop A Real Estate App Like 99acres?
Financial KPI’s
- Average Revenue per User
The revenue is given by individual users to add the overall revenue of the app. This average revenue refers to the average revenue generated by each user.
For calculating the average revenue per user, the total revenue generated can be divided by the number of users. If the income from individual users is low, and the number of users is high, then the average would be exceptional.
- Lifetime Value
Lifetime Value, LTV refers to the total revenue that can be generated from a particular app, before the user abandons it. To calculate the profit, the cost per acquisition needs to be subtracted from the total amount produced. To get good LTV, the main thing, which has to be focused, is to meet the user’s needs. Also, gathering the feedbacks and offering customer care support will help in improving the app helps in raising LTV.
- Purchases
Purchases are a relatively significant and straightforward number to track if your app involves any exchange of funds; they may be in-app purchases, subscriptions, or upgrades to a premium version.
- Customer Acquisition cost
The revenue you use on gaining a new user is the customer acquisition cost, how do you do that?
Advertising.
It is the first thing that flashes on everyone’s mind.
Advertising involves various things, including the time, factored in for marketing costs. You can find the number of averaging the total gross revenue during a period by sales and marketing costs incurred during the same period.
- Effective customer acquisition cost (eCAC)
The actual cost of acquiring new customers, including organic search methods, paid advertising, and expenses incurred during the marketing process.
It can be calculated by comparing the no of new users to the total no of imitations generated by marketing campaigns and factoring in the cost of those campaigns to achieve a final number.
- Cost per Acquisition
The cost per acquisition of a conversion.
It doesn’t necessarily imply the conversion comes from a new customer, but from a new behavior such as upgrading to premium or higher level, giving new permissions, signup for subscription, and in-app purchases.
- Effective cost per mile (eCPM)
The actual cost per 1000 actions or impressions, including paid & organic marketing efforts along with the cost of time spent/other expenses incurred.
The effective cost per mile calculated by factoring in the number of views or impressions produced by marketing efforts divided by the no of users gained.
Formula = Cost for advertising X (Impressions/1000)
- Revenue Targets
This is a check on the amount gained through the app over some time.
This will allow the app owner to set a goal for getting a specific and realistic revenue from a particular app.
The various marketing strategies helps in understanding the progress on a weekly or monthly basis.
- Organic conversion rate
It is nothing but the conversion of customers/users through unpaid mediums such as organic search engine results, influences, app store listings, word of mouth, social media trends, and many more ways to marketing your mobile app that doesn’t involve paid advertising.
- Paid conversion rate
The rate of conversion through paid advertising includes display ads, sponsored posts, PPC advertising, social media ads, or any other method of marketing your mobile app that contains a direct exchange of money for reviews and mentions.
- App Speed
The user expects the app to be fast in its operations. So, to deliver the best experience of using the app to the users, it is highly recommended to test for the speed of the app.
Also, the speed of the app needs to be checked across various operating systems. The various tools, which can measure the speed of the app, are Rollbar, New Relic, APM, etc.
- Cost per install (CPI)
The cost per install calculates your customer acquisition costs for customers who installed your app in response to viewing an advertisement (tracking paid installs rather than organic).
“Ad spend/ number of installs directly tied to the ad campaign.”
- User Experience KPIs
The user experience KPIs are the most critical factors for the development of your app after the release the post-release; if you cannot follow these, there is nothing that could help your app grow.
Using these google mobile analytics, KPIs, and others to track, measure, and therefore improve on it might be the essential activity that you can engage in as a mobile marketer or developer.
- Devices
Deices is another simple KPI to define and track; it devices your audience uses to access your app.
Depending on your clientele, it is essential to know if they usually use tablets versus smartphones/Android vs IOS/specific devices, based on which you can target your app’s performance accordingly.
- API latency
This is the time between your API proxies being triggered or called and their load or response time.
Most of the cases, you would want this number to be very less.
API latency is tied to load time & user behaviors.
- Operating systems
It is not about Android versus IOS, it doesn’t matter in what platform your app is, but it should work well on both the platforms.
If there is a high uninstall or crash rate for anyone, or a strong preference Android or Apple realms, that is something we need to consider and apprehend why that is the case, and therapy any problems that these biases may indicate.
- Screen dimensions/resolutions
It is related to the devices that your customers use to access your mobile application, but before you do the upgrades or updates, you need to consider this KPI.
It may cause flaws like crashing and lagging, which will result in crashes and uninstalls.
- Permissions granted
It is the amount of authority or access that your customers allow via your app.
Also read: Develop OCR Scanner Mobile Application – Expert Guide & Features
Mobile app marketing
Picking the ones that track your preferred or most real methods is essential, along with quantifying your app’s growth and indications on social media & influencer networks.
You should also be accountable for any paid advertising & monitoring your app store analytics to see what is driving.
Unsurprisingly, you should also be reporting on any paid advertising and monitoring your app store analytics to see what is driving and downloads.
- Channel breakdown
There are various channels you would be providing your users to access your app, keep the trajectory of all the channels, and how is each channel acting.
It will help you improve the ones which do not give you much traffic.
- Behavioral metrics
What does the “users” metric measure?
It measures the number of visiting the site and how they are behaving.
The type of behaviors that are identical to your app can be a valuable insight into your audience’s minds.
The mobile app KPI applies to both how the user came to your app & what they do once it is downloaded; it also includes the other apps they have downloaded and social networks they join in or websites they actively visit.
- Install source
What feature would be used to collect how many times users downloaded a product catalog?
Install source/mobile app install tracking used to collect the information, along with the above information; it also collects from where the user came to know about your app and reasons to install the app.
Instead, if you are generating traffic through organic, try improving them for even better results.
- Demographics
Which report and metric should you analyze the gender, age, and ethnicity of your audience.
It can be done through demographics.
Trailing the demographics of your actual customer base as it compares to your target audience in an excellent way to review the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
- App Attribution
In this, the effectiveness of the various marketing strategies can be known, and it refers to the score of the users who want to acquire the app. This can be improved by a technique called deep link technique in which the advertisement page and the desired page can be linked. Tools used for it are Adjust and Branch.io.
- Net Promoter Scores
Net Promoter Score, NPS refers to the index in the range of 100 to -100 in which the willingness of the users for recommending a particular app to their family and friends is measured. NPS can be given in terms of scores on a scale of 0 to 10 based on the questions related to their willingness to recommend a particular app.
With the help of these scores, the users can be categorized into three groups
Promoters- who will highly recommend the app and their NPS would be 9 or 10
Passives- who will recommend the app, only under the condition that, if there is no better option, their NPS would be 7 or 8
Detractors- who are not so satisfied with the app and will hesitate to recommend the app, their scores fall in the range of 6 or less.
The simple equation used for measuring the NPS is subtracting the percentage of detractors from promoters. The tools employed for this NPS are Medallia, HelpScout, Drift, and Delighted.
- Viralness
This is a bit similar to NPS, and it measures the interest of the users in recommending the app to their family and friends.
The people are got attracted to this app recommend to others and make other people also to use it. This recommendation is mostly through mouth publicity, hence of cost of acquisition is low.
Encouraging users to recommend the app by offering incentives like free vouchers, rewards, etc. can enhance this. Tools needed for this are Branch.io and Buzzsumo. In addition, the various social media apps like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook helps to evaluate it.
- Virality and K factor
It is viral popularity or word of mouth adjoining your mobile app marketing. One can measure virality in different ways, but the most common method is to calculate the K factor by multiplying the no of mentions by the matching conversion percentage.
However, you track virality; it is essential to determine one way of tracking it from the beginning & sticking with it for the amplest and cohesive results.
- Cohort analysis
Your user base can likely be clustered in a variety of categories based on their demographics & performance.
Alliancing them and the captivating note of the patterns in their behavior can be a valuable learning experience about your current and potential customers.
- Geometrics
The geographical location of your customers may affect in-app purchases and ad revenue, so it is important to track everything.
It also informs your future mobile app marketing campaigns by letting you know which locations to target and which areas are already drenched.
Also Read: Top 10 Mobile App Development Companies in NYC
App store optimization (ASO)
Probably the essential aspect of marketing and promoting your mobile app is the app store experience and how to attract users, how they discover your app, decide whether to install it or purchase it and rate and review it.
- In-app Feedback
This feature enables the user with the option of providing feedback about the app by the user.
The best part of this In-app feedback is that the user can give feedback without leaving the app. Besides, these feedbacks are considered very much genuine as active users of the app provide these.
The tools used for diagnosing this In-app feedback are Intercom, Drift, User voice, Instabug, etc.
- Keywords
The keywords are the key tools for ranking your app better; this will help users discover your app.
From starting from your app name, developers’ names to the screenshots and descriptions and logo will help you in building your app rank better.
- Ranking on the app stores
When the number of users searching for a particular app is more, it merely implies that the app is more penetrated users, and many people want to download it.
This ranking on the app stores can be enhanced by the optimization of the app on the app store listing.
The various tools, which can be employed for this rank analysis, are SearchMan, App Annie, appFigures.
- Conversion of Views to installs
The no of times a user seen your app before they installed in their mobile app.
In General, the lower no of views to install, the better, since it provides that your advertising & app store listing are operative.
- Rating of the app
Ratings apps are the direct reflection of what the user fee about the app. This serves as a booster for the new users to download that particular app. various tools can measure the app rating, like AppFigure, Appbot, and many more.
- Reviews on the app stores
Reviews place vital roles, not only concerning the apps but also concerning each product.
It’s just like when we buy any particular product, we will check the reviews of it and buy, in a similar fashion, when a user wants to download an app, then it is evident that the user will go through the reviews of the app, they will decide.
If the reviews are positive, then the chances of downloading the app are high, whereas if the reviews are negative, that leaves the app owner with the option of rectifying the issue mentioned.
Conclusion
It is all about various metrics and KPI’s implementation that will benefit you in making your mobile app better than it before and successful.
It could be a little bit daunting to track all these, but they are all interrelated and when you start implementing the mentioned metrics and KPIs, you will get in with the flow and your app will do great.
Hey, if you do not have an app yet or planning to add additional features, we would be happy to build you one.
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