Don’t just see what appears, but measure what doesn’t appear too.
Every business, whether a start-up or already established, which is at the edge of investing in mobile app development, strives to include the superior level practices required to ensure its success. From top-of-the-line app development software for smooth functionality to eye-catching designs and attracting features, they aim to employ only the best of everything they can afford.
Yet, not all apps are successes. Gartner, a leading research, and advisory firm, predicts that, by 2018, less than 0.01% of mobile apps will gain considerable financial success. Also, as per other statistics, there are currently over 6.5 million apps on the market. That means that merely 650 apps have a good chance of success.
Now, what, according to you, is the deciding factor for an app’s success? How can you measure whether your app is making its mark among the user community? While you might think you should consider the revenue or number of app downloads, this is not the case. Your revenue can be high, even if you have a small customer base. Likewise, the number of downloads can be high, even when the usage is almost null. So, you should not let these superficial factors cheat you into thinking that your app is performing well when it is actually not. Instead, the deciding factor should be right – the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that show you the reality and the optimized future path for your business. While the mobile app development company you have partnered with, will be informing you of the app’s performance, it is important that you know the metrics yourself.
The following article provides some insight into the major KPIs that should be considered while measuring a mobile app’s performance.
User Engagement Demographics
1. Number of Active Users
This metric is extremely important if your app’s goal is to expand your business’s reach. The number of Daily Active Users (DAU) or Monthly Active Users (MAU) demonstrates your app’s consistency. Is it increasing, dropping or stagnant? This will help you decide what your next action plan should be.
2. Social Media Reach
Social media rules the market today. And, if your business can create hype on social media, it has already taken flight. So, it is crucial to measure how many users are sharing, following or interacting with your app via social media.
3. Session Duration
Session duration is the measure of time between when a user logs into and logs out of your app. The longer the duration, the more the user’s engagement is with your business app. To take it further, you can also measure which screens see longer durations than the others. This will let you improve those screens which are not engaging enough.
4. Retention Rate
It is not surprising that, on a mobile device, many apps are downloaded, while only a few are used on a regular basis. This can be calculated as the percentage of active users on regular intervals based on the date of their downloads. This will help you update your app with the knowledge of what works in it and what does not.
Business Metrics
5. Acquisition Revenue
At times, in the process of marketing, some of the most abundant markets remain untapped due to a lack of measurement analytics. You might think that your users are reaching the app through social media, but, in reality, they could be coming to the app from some other source. So, this metric allows you to measure which sources generate more users which will help you plan your marketing strategy accordingly. For instance, if the analytics show that more users are coming to your app through in-app referrals, you can start giving prize money for in-app referrals.
6. Churn Rate
Churn is another term for the “Abandonment Rate”, i.e., it is the rate of how many customers break away from your app in a period of time. They might withdraw due to a variety of reasons, including poor performance, longer loading time, and app crashes. Measuring this rate will enable you to see how your app is performing from the perspective of a user.
7. Permissions Granted
If your app asks for permission from the users to access their personal information, this metric will be a clear indicator of how much trust and reliability you have earned from the users. The greater the percentage of permissions granted is, the more trusted your brand is in the eyes of your users.
Performance Metrics
8. App Load in a Time Interval
It is crucial, especially in the initial period of your app’s launch, to measure whether or not your app development software is able to handle a sufficient load. Also, check whether the performance is consistent, even after the load increases.
9. Crashes and Errors
Measuring the crash rate and the number of network errors for a specific app can indicate how your app is going to perform in the long run.
10. Responsive and Unresponsive Gestures
In any app, there are a number of features and widgets. Through this metric, you will be able to understand which features are receiving any responses from the users and which ones are unused. This will help you design more personalized features and remove those features with zero responsiveness.
Takeaway
Do not let the revenue or only the outcomes that appear decide how your app is performing in the market. Instead, look at the metrics and then decide on your next step. This is perfectly summed up in the words of the marketing expert, Ian Brodie, “Without the right metrics, you are just shooting in the dark.”
Withal, the KPIs mentioned above are essential and sufficient to measure your app’s success, no matter which app development software you used. If you want to share some other metrics that can contribute to a mobile app’s success, feel free to connect with us through the comments section below.
