15 Mobile KPIs Every App Developer Needs to Measure
Smart app developers know that developing and launching an app isn’t enough to make an app a success. The real deal is to bag success after the app is released and to justify the ROI of an app. For which, a heap of metrics needs to be considered, or else, the app is destined to fail. To prevent such failures, a developer needs to delve into the metrics that decide the profitability that can be gained from an app.
Let’s focus on the four major segments that are responsible for making an app look like a dime or a diamond below:
1. Performance Metrics
Apps are popular for their swift performance, and if an app lacks basics, it’s of no use. Performance metrics include app latency, app API latency, app crashes, network errors, app load per period, etc.
Network errors
Your app may encounter network errors if it needs the support of network service. These errors cause low responsiveness and app crashes. Network errors majorly occur due to HTTP issues or service provider’s end.
App crashes
You may also call it an app’s nightmare. While average app crash rate is 1-2%, it also depends on the type, size, and usability of an app. App crashes not only cost lost of users, but it also dents the rating on the app store.
App load per session
These metrics relate to the app’s performance when it has an optimal load. It is usually observed via the number of calls or transactions in a specific time period. Make sure your app works well with sudden changes that affect the size and load of the app or else, prepare for the massive drop in app downloads.
API latency
Modern apps leverage various services, and API’s and API latency is commonly known as the time consumed between a request reaching the response along with resolution of the query. An ideally optimized response time is one second.
2. Demographics, usage, and user metrics
Every app is build focusing on gathering more users and to gain user base, an app should be user-friendly, sound lucrative to its users along with creating value for them. These metrics depict user behavior, count and their demographics.
Geographical metrics
Apps have their user persona, and they are developed accordingly to target a particular region, a country or state. Geometrics enable you to see if the app is getting the right traction, users and usage. Using the geographical data, you can easily spot location based issues.
OS and device metrics
Cross-platform apps are developed to be used on various OS and devices. This data metric is crucial to resolving issues of apps specifically pertaining to specific devices or OS. Additionally, you’ll get insights about your app’s market share on OS and devices.
Daily or monthly active user count
The user base of every app is divided into a daily and monthly count of active users. This metric ensures the right visualization of user cap and depicts whether the user count is inclining, declining or stagnant. Accordingly, with this metric, you can fix issues on the broader scale by creating strategies involving user attraction.
3. App engagement metrics
App engagement is one of the most vital metrics where you’ll be evaluating the number of sessions, intervals between them and retention rate. This metric helps improve user interaction along with enhancing the UI/UX of an app to increase user engagement.
Session length
Session length is the time interval between the opening and closure of an app in a single session. It indicates the overall session of a user and it’s visited app screens that eventually helps in improving particular elements of an app involved in the session.
Interval between sessions
The frequency of users opening your app is crucial. It shows how valuable your app is to them and this metric depicts the interval between the first and forthcoming sessions initiated by users. This set of data reflects the open rate of your app including the element of a user using your app repeatedly.
Retention rate
You may have downloaded so many apps but didn’t use them or never opened them for the second time. App retention rate is the metric to gain spot-on insights about improving your app’s features, visual screens, user engagement, app value, etc. It also helps you in creating targeting the right audience with the depicted app retention user data.
4. Business metrics
Ultimately, apps are developed to rake in money, revenue and most importantly, profit. Business metrics include user acquisition cost, abandonment rate, revenue per transaction, lifetime value and on top of all, the star rating of an app.
Acquisition cost
Users may find your app via distinctive mediums including word of mouth, ad campaigns, app store search, in-app referrals, affiliate marketing, etc. This set of data empowers you to see the channel by which user is coming on your app. Also, it helps in deriving the behavior of a user after that it opens an app. Both of these metrics enables you to sum up the user cost per acquisition.
Abandonment rate
It’s not necessary that all transaction reaches to the point of completion. App crashes, lack of performance, poor UX/UI, and users changing their minds are some spotted reasons why app transactions are abandoned. This metric helps in identifying the pain-point of user journey that is to be resolved.
Transaction revenue
Apps that support transactions leverage this metric. It shows how much of revenue an app is driving in and more importantly, by what features or services. By this way, you can spot elements raking in more revenue and enhance them to gain more money.
Lifetime value
Everything has a value attached to it, and the same is the case with an app. The lifetime value of an app is measured by calculating its user base, rating, cost per acquisition, revenue that it generates, daily and monthly income value. This metric depicts all critical features of an app and their worth to ease you out in calculating its valuation.
Additional KPI
You have become well aware of the key KPI’s that decide the fate of an app. There’s another KPI to mention that is common but the most important, that is the ratings received. While you might think that getting a five-star rating for an app is tedious, here is the spoiler; if you can get the above mentioned KPI’s entirely on point, your app is all set to shine brightly with star ratings. Now is the time; start evaluating your app and fetch the right results.
Analyzing your app’s vanity metrics is an easy way to make yourself feel fantastic about your product. But, do you know if the mobile KPIs you’re measuring will actually help you gain the best insights on your app, optimize effectively, and generate more revenue?
To turn an average mobile product into a successful business venture, developers have to do more than just measure mobile KPIs. Developers also have to learn the best methods for measuring mobile KPIs, and find out the best KPIs to measure.
The following 15 mobile KPIs have been specifically chosen to help you stop viewing your product’s in-app measurements as just numbers, and start seeing them as individual ‘road maps’ to generating a lot more revenue from the app store.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #1. Average session duration
What it means: Your app’s average session duration is the average amount of time that your users spend in your app from open to exit.
How it indicates your app’s success: Winning over an audience’s attention is a major part of building a successful mobile app brand. So, the more time that users spend using your app, the more influential your product can be. High average session durations show that people are engaged with your product, and are receiving some type of positive fulfillment from it. This can be equated with a strong UX, increased advertising revenue, and/or more in-app purchases sold. Keeping close tabs on your mobile app’s various indicators of user engagement is critical, as this is always a safe way to keep your audience happy, and increase your brand’s value.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #2. Daily active users
What it means: Daily active users is a measurement that represents the number of users who engage with your product at least once per day.
How it indicates your app’s success: Your app’s DAU shows the number of unique users who engage with your product each day. This is a sign of how much interest your app is receiving on any given day, as defined by some kind of ‘action’. For example, DAU may be measured according to the number of people who sign in, play or interact with your product. It’s a sign that your app is doing a great job of ‘pulling’ people to your product on an ultra-consistent basis.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #3. Churn
What it means: Similar to a ‘turnover rate’ when used in a business sense, your app’s churn is the percentage of users that you lose over a given period of time.
How it indicates your app’s success: Churn isn’t fun to talk about . But, it’s one of the most important mobile KPIs to keep track of. In fact, mobile apps tend to have a high churn rate across the board, so it should be your goal to outperform the industry standard. By keeping your mobile app’s churn lower than average, you’ll be able to retain users for longer periods of time, drive more revenue for your product, and increase the overall value of your brand.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #4. App search results
What it means: If people can use your mobile app to search for products, keywords or any sort of search term, then your app search results are essential in terms of taking users to what they want within your app.
How it indicates your app’s success: A good quote that reflects the importance of app search results is, “He who would search for pearls must dive below”. Digging deep into your product and its users will help you find out precisely what people are searching, and better assess your users’ ultimate wants and needs. If multiple users are searching for terms that don’t show any results in your app, for example, then your app may be missing a feature or product that people are begging to see. Ultimately, to ensure that your users are able to find everything that they want from your product, creating a great search UX on mobile is a must.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #5. Monthly active users
What it means: Your number of monthly active users tells you how many people are using your app at least once per month.
How it indicates your app’s success: This metric is similar to daily active users, but on a monthly timeframe. It’s a reflection of how many users interact with your product on any given month. Like DAU, your MAU should be measured according to a consistent ‘action’ such as log-in, open, or some other user interaction. Having a healthy MAU reflects a potent product with potential for monetisations.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #6. Unresponsive gestures
What it means: Unresponsive gestures illuminate which gestures your users are attempting on certain areas of your app, yet are not receiving a response from your application.
How it indicates your app’s success: Users who can’t get a response from certain gestures in your app almost immediately become upset, which can lead to mobile app uninstallation, negative reviews and lost revenue. Unresponsive gestures can happen a lot. The issue is not that they aren’t fixable, it’s that most developers don’t even track them properly in the first place. One of the keys to making your mobile app better than the rest is in knowing precisely when unresponsive gestures take place in your product Touch Heat-maps are designed to help you track every gesture that your users make inside of your app, so that you’ll know exactly when users’ gestures aren’t triggering a response. Touch Heat-maps can help you watch for unresponsive gestures, and solve them as they occur.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #7. Average number of days to first IAP
What it means: This measurement shows the average number of days that it takes for a user to make a purchase inside of your app. You can also think of this measurement as the average amount of time that it takes to convert one of your users into a paying customer.
How it indicates your app’s success: Mobile apps that rely on in-app purchases need to convert users into paying customers as quickly as possible, while still solving user’s pains, and delivering lots of value. So, the smaller this measurement is, and the sooner you can minimize this measurement, the better off your product will be. The goal is always to make your users feel comfortable about purchasing items inside of your app as fast as possible.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #8. Retention rate
What it means: Your app’s retention rate is the percentage of your users who visit your app at least once every 30 days. In the mobile app industry, retention rates are measured over the course of one business quarter (90 day period).
How it indicates your app’s success: Retention rates indicate how loyal your users are. Retaining users is one of the highest priorities that a mobile app developer or development team can have, because user retention is normally a direct reflection of your audience’s happiness with your product. Retention is also one of the most difficult measurements to grow, so it’s best to focus on growing your mobile app’s retention from day one.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #9. Session interval
What it means: Session interval is a measurement that reflects the average amount of time that passes between one user’s session and the next session.
How it indicates your app’s success: Basically, your app’s session interval indicates how frequently people engage with your product. Tracking this KPI is important because your app’s session interval can signal noteworthy changes in how people use your product within a certain time bucket. When your app’s average session interval decreases (this is a good thing), you could potentially see an increase in your app’s advertising revenue, in-app purchases, social media engagement and a number of other positive metrics. To optimize your app’s session interval, your time will be best spent improving your app’s UX, or making your product more habit-forming.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #10. Conversion rate per each item paid
What it means: This measurement demonstrates how well your app’s in-app purchases sell or don’t sell. Your conversion rate per each item paid provides you with a quick, easy and visual way to find out what your audience enjoys purchasing from your app. It’s also a great way to validate which ‘pain points’/needs your users are willing to pay for to solve.
How it indicates your app’s success: You should want your conversion rate per each item paid to be as high as possible, because this is a sign that your in-app purchases are popular with users. And, if you’re seeing low conversion rates for some paid items, then you’ll know that those items need to be optimized to improve conversion, or even replaced if necessary.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #11. User sign-ups
What it means: Your app’s user sign-ups represents the number of users who sign up or register an account to use your app.
How it indicates your app’s success: Users who sign up to use your app may be easier to retain, as they’ve shown greater commitment to adopting your product. When you collect the email addresses of users who sign up, you’ll also be able to build a valuable asset that you own. If you aren’t getting the number of user sign-ups that you want, it’s important to ask yourself, “Why are My App Users Not Filling out My Sign Up Screen?”
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #12. Daily app launches
What it means: The number of daily app launches that your mobile app receives shows how many times your app is opened on any given day.
How it indicates your app’s success: Paying attention to your daily app launches and how this figure fluctuates throughout the week is a great way to find out when people interact with your product most and least often. If you know that your app attracts peak usage on a Thursday evening, for example, then you might schedule a flash sale or other promotion at that time. On the other hand, you may want to increase your marketing efforts during times when your app is launched least often.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #13. Number of screens per session
What it means: This measurement determines how many screens your users visit each time they use your product, and how they interact with those screens.
How it indicates your app’s success: It’s usually a good sign when your users engage with a significant number of screens per session, as this shows that your product is interactive and useful to people. It’s also helpful to know which screens your users enjoy visiting most often during sessions, as this indicates which type of content or features your users want to experience more of.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #14. Crashed sessions
What it means: Crashed sessions pinpoint how frequently, at what time and where in the UX your app is crashing.
How it indicates your app’s success: Because mobile app crashes are one of the leading reasons why users abandon mobile apps, it’s important to stay on top of your app’s crashed sessions. Using a tool like Crash Recordings makes it convenient for developers to track and solve product crashes as soon as they happen. You’ll be able to use this tool to watch the exact sequence of events leading up to any given crashed session, just as if you’re watching from the user’s viewpoint.
Must-Measure Mobile KPI #15. Screens with longest and shortest visit duration
What it means: This measurement works as an extension of the ‘number of screens per session’ KPI, and provides even more detailed information about the aspects of your app’s screens that users interact with most often.
How it indicates your app’s success: By understanding which screens your users spend most time using, you’ll also come to understand which types of screens your users don’t enjoy using. This will help you improve your app’s screens, provide users with a better UX, and generate more revenue for your mobile app.