The mobile app market is growing at an alarming rate. More people are choosing to go mobile in order to access the web even while they are on the move. There is so much that mobile app developers should do in order to take over the competition and acquire much of their users’ attention. App stores these days are very crowded and have enough apps to provide something for everyone using a mobile phone. With all this, how then are mobile app developers able to measure the success of their apps? The number of downloads you get is no longer a measure of success in mobile app development.
You need more specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in order to understand how well, or even how badly your app is doing in the market. It is important to note that every app is different, therefore the KPIs that you will choose to use as a measure of your app performance should be dependent on the kind of app you have developed. The indicators have to fit your business goals as well. Here, is how you set up your mobile app KPIs:
1. The number of active users you have
If your app is a free download, so many people will download it because this is the easier type of app to get. However, not all people who will download it will use it in the end. To get the accurate results, you will have to consider how many people out of those who have installed the app already are using it. You should be able to know how well you are doing form the daily or even monthly active users. This is how you know how the world views your app; that is whether or not it is useful to them.
2. The number of frequent visits your app receives
This is easy to know by the number of times users open your app and interact with your contents. So many people might install your app in their phones or other mobile gadgets but they will never take time to see what the app is all about. If the app is opened only once in a while, you will automatically know that it is not doing really well. Check out how well they will use it in the first week, and you can easily tell how its usage will be in the future.
3. The number of social shares
If you have content in your app, you might have to look out for other metrics other than the in-app purchases to determine the success of your app. Many people using mobile gadgets connect the apps that they use to their social media accounts, therefore social shares are something to look out for and it can say a lot about your app. Apps or app contents that are shared so much are those that have triggered some interest in the app users. You might end up with a good and reliable community base if you have content that is interesting to people, because anyone who finds it will share it out to his friends and network.
4. How long the session time lasts
The length of a single session is more accurate in the measurement of the usefulness of an app other than the number of active users one has for their app. This is in fact the best measuring indicator for gaming apps for instance because a longer session means that the user is finding the app really interesting. It will help a lot to have just a few users who are spending more time in the app in such cases than so many users who will only pen and close it almost immediately.
5. The revenue per user
This is usually one of the most overlooked metric that can be used to determine the actual value of your mobile app. The potential of a loyal base can be determined by revenue per user. The results here will indicate the overall value of every user to your business. The results should be derived from both the in-app purchases as well as the any spending a user makes on the app across other digital channels.
6. The depth of every visit to your app
How much are your users doing in your app in very visit? This is an important metric to determine how good app is. Under this, you will measure your app’s success by the number of pages or screen that every visitor visits in just one session. The depth of every visit should tell you how useful and engaging your content is. It will also tell you how seamless and smooth their experience is in your app. If the app is loading fast and the content is good, you can be sure that your users will spend more time on each page.
7. The number of conversions you get
If your app is a retail app or a fashion branded application, your main objective will be to sell and convert. In this case, your conversions can be used as an indication of just how successful the app is at a given time. A conversion could be a purchase or even a registration, depending on exactly what is in the offer. However, this cannot tell you how well your app will be doing in the future, but just how well you are doing at that moment. You might have to keep track of sales and conversions in order to determine the real lifetime value of your app.
Determining the value and usefulness of your mobile app is very important so as to know how well your app business is doing. Your app success will be determined by the loyalty of the users that are engaging with the app regularly. This can easily be done by setting up KPIs for your mobile app. One metric is not enough to get the real value of your app, therefore you have to use more, depending on the kind of app you have.
