How do you measure the success of your mobile app? Do you know what the most important mobile app metrics are? Are you tracking those metrics to ensure your app’s success? In this article, we’ll discuss the top 7 mobile app metrics you should track to measure your app’s success and tips on how to optimize them.
1) Downloads
Downloads is one of many mobile app metrics you should be keeping track of, but it’s also one of easiest. This one is simple: if downloads are on a steady rise and retention levels remain high, then your app is probably doing pretty well. Retention refers to how many users come back after their first session with your app. The average retention rate for mobile apps ranges from 30% to 50%. If you’re seeing consistent, steady growth in downloads along with a healthy level of user retention, it’s safe to say that people like your app enough to keep coming back for more. That makes it time for some celebration—well done!
2) Active Users
Mobile app developers recommend calculating your app’s active users by using a combination of daily and monthly active users. DAU measures how many people are using your mobile app on a daily basis, while MAU indicates those who use it multiple times per month. These two numbers together give you a fuller picture of how engaged your user base is with your product or service. To calculate these figures, simply divide your total number of unique mobile app users in a given time period (say, 30 days) by that same period’s total number of days. This gives you an average number of unique mobile app users for each day in that time frame. Multiply that figure by 365 to get an average daily mobile app user count over a full year. Repeat for each month in order to calculate MAU as well as DAU for each month separately; then sum up all four months to get your annual total.
3) Daily Active Users
Mobile app metrics you can’t afford to overlook. If a user launches your mobile app at least once in a 24-hour period, he or she is considered an active user. You can calculate your daily active users by taking your monthly active users and dividing by 30. Active users who don’t launch an app for consecutive days are inactive—meaning they can fall out of key onboarding flow segments and hurt retention rates, so it’s important to check daily active usage regularly.
4) Retention Rate
One of top mobile app metrics you should be tracking is your retention rate. This tells you how many users return to your app after a given amount of time. The benchmark for retention rates tends to be between 20-50%. If your mobile app falls below 20%, it may be a sign that something is not working as intended. For example, maybe your onboarding process isn’t strong enough or maybe there are too many bugs in your product. Either way, if you see low retention rates, you need to take action and figure out what’s going wrong. Otherwise, people will stop using your mobile app and never come back!
5) Time Spent in App Per Day
How long do people spend in your app per day? This is a big one because it can inform you about how sticky your app is. If users are sticking around for an extended period of time each day, then that’s good news – it means they’re enjoying your app and want to keep coming back. If they’re spending just a short amount of time each day, that could mean that there are issues with usability or engagement.
6) Uninstalls
Uninstalls are one of the most important mobile app metrics you can use when evaluating your success. Uninstalls help determine if people really want or need your app, and whether you should be continuing to devote resources towards it. If people are uninstalling, they aren’t using it and so they probably don’t find it useful. That’s valuable information that helps you decide how much time and money to invest in a mobile app. A high uninstall rate may indicate that users have tried your mobile app but didn’t like it enough to keep using it. This could mean that something is wrong with your product—or that there isn’t a demand for what you offer in a mobile format. Either way, it's important information for making decisions about future development efforts and planning where to focus energy on improving existing features.
7) Referrals
If you’re looking for a mobile app development company, one of your best resources is other businesses that have worked with mobile app developers. Ask your friends, business associates and customers if they know anyone who has good recommendations. Ask them how their apps have been performing since they launched and what advice they would give you in hiring mobile app developers.
Conclusion
The best way to learn if you’re on track with your mobile app is by measuring performance. Mobile app metrics that fall within these six areas will help you understand how your app is performing: Acquisition, Engagement, Retention, Revenue and Virality. Hire a mobile app development company that can design metrics into your project from day one of development; hire them based on their expertise and experience rather than cost alone. You’ll be able to move forward confidently knowing that you have an active and engaged audience for your mobile application. Get in touch with us today to see how we can help make it happen!
