A part of knowing what’s going on in your business is setting key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics for success. Unfortunately, time and resources are often limited, making it challenging to know what to prioritize when analyzing data.
When considering what metrics to measure, it’s important to keep your app’s overall performance and user experience in mind. Here are the most important metrics that matter for your app..
Loading Time
Whether your app is a game or a shopping app, loading time is one of the most important metrics to monitor. Using a program like AppOptics can help you see if there has been an increase in loading time, what’s causing the problem, and can give you insights as to how to fix it. You may be experiencing a bottleneck that could be impacting the rest of your app.
For example, your shopping app is designed to work well with 200 customers divided evenly between shopping pages, the cart, and the checkout process. Suddenly, you have 150 people in their cart and the checkout process at the same time. This can impede their experience, slow down your app, and ultimately lose revenue. Two seconds is the preferred loading time in our fast-paced consumer environment. Trying to stick to that preference is essential for your app’s success.
User Retention
Getting new users is one thing; keeping them is another issue entirely. Set KPIs that look at how many of your users leave your app after downloading. Take a deep dive and evaluate how long they are enrolled for, if they delete it entirely or just stop using it, etc.
Finding that a lot of people download your app then delete within a day indicates that they aren’t getting what they need. Users who keep your app but don’t use it for an extended period may need a reason to revisit.
Some apps aren’t meant to be used every day. For example, if you have a travel booking app, it’s unlikely that your user will log in regularly. Be sure to scale your metrics to account for the nature of your app.
Conversion Rates
If your app is responsible for selling anything, you’ll want to keep an eye on your conversion rates. How many sales do you make versus how many users you attract? What is the user flow and how do they end up purchasing something from you?
Conversion rates aren’t always an app performance issue; sometimes they speak to a problem with your marketing strategy. It’s not enough to have an option to purchase things via your app; you need to have a strong understanding of your consumer and your sales goals.
Monitor your conversion rates and test your market to see what works for sales and what doesn’t.
Sessions
In addition to your extensive look at user retention, you’ll want to take a deeper dive into the metrics regarding their sessions. Look not only at how many users use your app in the span of a day or month, but how frequently they log on. If you have a game like the easyslots.com games and find your users are logging on multiple times a day, it indicates that they are highly engaged in what you’re offering.
It’s also important to look at the duration of the sessions. How many of your users are moving through the app and dedicating time to its use and how many are opening it mindlessly or accidentally. Knowing how often your visitors visit in a day as well as over a month can indicate your app’s “stickiness.”
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
Your CPA metric works in tandem with your conversions. Think about it: it doesn’t matter if you’re converting a lot of customers if it costs you more to attract them than you make in revenue. In fact, failing to evaluate your CPA can be the mistake that puts your app out of business.
If you run an ad campaign for your app, divide those overall costs by the total number of users you attract. This will give you a campaign-specific CPA. It costs money to keep an app running well, so you’ll need to find that balance in your business model.
Lifetime Value (LTV)
Your Lifetime Value converts your CPA into a bigger picture idea of what’s going on in your business. Your LTV should always be higher than your CPA if you are to succeed.
To measure your LTV, multiply your conversion value by your number of conversions during the average customer lifespan. So, if each customer conversion gives you $20 in revenue, your average user spends about a year on the app and makes five conversions, then your LTV is $100 annually per customer.
Despite the name, this number isn’t set in stone. Thus, you will need to prioritize this metric when looking at your app performance. Together, your CPA and LTV will give you an indication of your return on investment.
Measuring Your Performance
Measuring your app performance and identifying key metrics is two-fold. You must understand your internal app performance and also know how well your marketing and user engagement is working. These areas overlap, and one often impacts the other.
If you have a marketing strategy that is giving you unprecedented results, you’ll likely see a decline in your app performance if you were unprepared for increased traffic. Alternatively, fixing bugs in your app that slow it down will result in an improvement in user experience and traffic. Take the time to figure out what’s happening in your app and plan accordingly.
