Measuring app performance is crucial in making informed decisions.
Gone are the days when app success could be defined by a mere count of downloads or app ratings. Today, it's about understanding user engagement, retention rate, revenue, and app performance combined with app store ratings to gauge the effectiveness of your app. In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at some of the ways to measure the success of an app and provide insights for CTOs, CMOs and developers.
Why Measure Apps?
App measurement provides valuable insights for informed decision-making and continuous improvement of user-centric apps. Tracking metrics like downloads, users, retention, and engagement helps developers optimise their apps. It ensures efficient resource allocation, targeted enhancements, and effective user acquisition. Measuring apps enable businesses to assess ROI and make accurate investment decisions by providing a rewarding experience to the users.
User Engagement
User engagement is crucial in determining how well your app is performing. Keeping track of user activity, such as time spent on the app, frequency of usage, and the features that are most frequently accessed, can provide insight into whether your app is meeting the needs of its users. High user engagement is an indication that users find the app useful, intuitive, and easy to use.
Daily Active Users
DAU = Number of unique users who engage with the app on a given day
Monthly Active Users
MAU = Number of unique users who engage with the app within a given month
Click-through Rate
CTR = (Number of clicks / Number of impressions) x 100
In-App Purchases
IAP = Sum of all transaction values within the app
Retention
In order to measure the success of your app, you need to know how long users keep it installed on their devices. Retention rate denotes the number of users who maintain an app on their device for an extended period. If the retention rate of your app is low, it indicates that it hasn't managed to sustain users beyond their initial use, which is not a good indicator of success. Based on Quettra’s data, 77% of daily active users of an app uninstall within the first three days. As a result, it is highly recommended to keep an eye on the retention rates and continuously improve the app to keep it high.
Retention Rate
= (Number of retained users / Number of total users at the beginning) x 100
Revenue
While the revenue generated by the app may not be the primary indicator of success, it certainly matters. One of the primary goals of the app might be to boost revenue. Therefore, keeping an eye on the in-app purchase revenue, subscription revenue, or ad revenue is crucial to understanding whether the app is capturing the interest of its users and is, therefore, a profitable investment.
Conversion Rate
= (Number of conversions / Number of visitors) x 100
Churn Rate
= (Number of customers lost during a specific period / Total number of customers at the beginning of the period) x 100
Lifetime Value
LTV = (Average Revenue per User per Month) / Churn Rate
App Performance
While user engagement metrics are quite critical in terms of understanding app performance, technical metrics are also important. An application that doesn't work as it should lead to unhappy users and negative reviews, all of which can quickly sabotage an app's success. Metrics such as the app loading time, error rates, and crash rates can indicate how well the app performs in the real world.
Load Time
= Time when the app becomes usable - Time of app launch
Reaction Time
= Average time taken to respond to user interactions (e.g., button taps, screen swipes)
Crashes
= Number of app crashes or unexpected closures
Errors
= Number of functional errors or glitches encountered within the app
Memory Usage
= Amount of memory (RAM) consumed by the app during operation
Screen Rendering Time
= Time taken to render and display content on the screen
App Uninstalls
= Number of users who uninstall the app from their devices
App Store Ratings
App store ratings and reviews are another vital gauges for measuring the success of your app. App store optimisation (ASO) is the process used to improve an app’s ranking on the search results. Google Play Store and the Apple Store require separate strategies on how to rank on the platforms.
App developers can encourage app users to leave reviews by providing an improved user experience and incentives like discounts or special offers. If they are incentivised appropriately, they might leave a positive review that will motivate other potential users to download the app.
By analysing key metrics such as user engagement, retention rate, revenue, app performance, and app store ratings, valuable insights can be gained to enhance app functionality and continuously meet the evolving needs of the target audience.
If you have a project in mind, don't hesitate to take the next step. Contact us at Bilue, and let our team of experts help you build your next app or boost the performance of your existing one.
