What Metrics Will Help Measure the Success of Your Mobile App

When having an awesome idea for an app, your job is to do everything in your power to implement that idea with maximum efficiency. Making it all happen you research the market, prototype your service, consider business issues, get investments, build an MVP version, etc.

Still, when all of the steps are done, how can you understand that your brainchild is successful? That’s the right question to ask, and we have the answer for you.

Firstly, let’s take a peek at how the mobile app scheme works:

1. Customers upload the app to the gadget;
2. When users like the app, they are to enjoy it occasionally. When the service doesn’t seem to be fun or useful, customers might simply remove such program from the gadgets;
3. When users are happy with the app and its features, they turn to be current active users willing even to pay to enjoy extra features, say, subscriptions and various in-app purchases. Such loyal clients are the ones to make their contribution to app monetization success.

Such stages can be characterized by specific metrics to see how successful the program is. Such metrics serve as guiding stars to design your mobile app. We’d like to present you with those program performance metrics.

# Customer Involvement

Mentioned aspect is characterized by two key points:

• New Customers are users opening specific service first-ever;
• Total Customers represent the quantity of people that are using the service at a specific point in time.

The New Customers figure reflects the data which is accurate for a specific day when checking the metrics. In its turn, the Total Customers figure presents the quantity of users having tried the app.

# Customer retention

When customers enjoy a service the following day after opening it for the first time, that’s a great sign, as it shows your service made a good first impression and users decided to stay with it.

Here exist the below-stated options:

• 1-day Retaining shows the percentage of people returning to the service the next day after using it first-time;
• 7-day Retaining reflects the percentage of people returning to the service 7 days after using it first-time;
• 28-day Retaining presents the percentage of people returning to the service 28 days after using it first-time;
• Rolling Retaining reveals the percentage of people opening the service on a given day and still being active.

One clarification regarding Rolling Retaining: here we’re talking about people who have applied for the service at least one time over the past 7 days.

# Customer activity ratio

It’s time to specify online metrics to evaluate the activity level of customers who enjoy your service on a regular basis - we mean people who you happened to keep loyal to the service.

• Daily Active Users (DAU) are specific customers opening the service on a particular day;
• Weekly Active Users (WAU) refer to certain customers logging in throughout one week;
• Monthly Active Users (MAU) reflect specific customers logging in throughout one month;
• Loyal Daily Active Users (LDAU) mean particular loyal customers opening the service on a specific day.

FYI: the approach to calculating LWAU and LMAU indicators is identical.

A loyal customer is considered to be a user applying the service one day after opening its first-ever and did it at least one time.

# Monetization ratio

When figuring out the success criteria for iOS and Android services, we can’t ignore the money matter. Those specified below are metrics that could reflect data per day and any other time periods of your choice:

• Paying Users to refer to the quantity of users who pay;
• Paying Share means the proportion of active customers making payments;
• Paying Conversion reflects the percentage of paying customers in relation to all customers registered over a certain time period, for example, a day;
• Transactions present the overall quantity of transactions processed during a specific time interval;
• Transactions by User refer to the averaged quantity of transactions carried out by one paying user during the preferred period;
• Gross involves the overall quantity of payments by all users over a specific time span;
• Revenue means the sum of money that service owners obtain without deducting commissions;
• Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is the sum of money which one user spends at the average;
• Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU) presents the number of payments over time span divided by the quantity of paying customers;
• Lifetime Value (LTV) reflects the sum of money that one customer spends on average over the whole time applying the service.

One clarification on calculating ARPU metrics - to receive accurate data you should include paying and non-paying users.

Regarding the Revenue figure, it turns out to be the most exciting, since it shows how much you earn. Sadly, App Store & Google Play impose a 30% service fee approximately. Thus, service owners shall be satisfied with 70% income only. You’ll see that figure in your application analytical metrics.

That’s pretty much it concerning service performance metrics. To sum up we’d like to specify several hints and tips for your app prosperity.

Constant improvements

It’s critical to make clear that building an app is only the first step in a long way down the road. Your rivals are still there, and they’re striving to get even better. Customers always want to see something new and exciting. Keep it in mind that even an outstanding app idea might become pointless, when not being taken care of properly.

What should we do?

• Monitor current tendencies of web and mobile designing - you might have to refresh your service interface to be up to date;
• Pay attention to what your target audience is looking for, try to meet their needs - your customers know perfectly what they want. Your task is to provide them with it;
• Use modern technologies as much as possible - have you thought of supplying your app with AR functionalities? Trust us, that would be a great idea.

Tools specified in the given article are for you to see your service performance and to adjust your strategy if required. We do hope your app will only get better!