How to set the right KPIs for your new mobile app

Did you know that gauging the performance of a new mobile app is a make or break skill in today’s marketplace? Find out how to set the right KPIs for your new app.

Over the past few years, the app industry has exploded. But for every successful, go-to app, there are thousands of brilliant ideas that didn’t quite catch on.

Creating a profitable app is a tricky task – even if you think you have spotted a lucrative gap in the market. So how can you ensure that YOUR app succeeds? The answer is in setting the right KPIs.

And to help you do this, here are six factors that play a crucial role in maximizing positive results during mobile app development. 

1) Customer engagement 

Is your target audience satisfied enough with your mobile app after downloading it? The answer is right here!

A marketing engagement plan helps the mobile app development improve the metric growth among their target audiences. It is a fruitful way to keep track of your downloaded apps, revenues, reviews, and performance regularly. It further assists you in figuring out if your users are revisiting your app as frequently as your desired goal. 

It is possible to increase customer retention by up to 50% after employing an effective onboarding strategy. The entire onboarding experience depends on the first-time downloads that can convert regular users into highly active users on the application.

If your engagement isn’t as high as you’d like it to be, there are a variety of ways to increase it. You can build engagement through organic social media or through influencer marketing, just to name a few. Take a look at your audience and work with your strategist or team to determine what the best course of action is moving forward.

2) Rate of attrition

The attrition rate is a metric that shows how consistently you manage your customers when they stop using your app after a certain period (also called the Churn Rate).

For new mobile app developers, the competition is tough to determine various adjustments such as improving UX designs, optimizing feature requirements, or altering costs. If you want your mobile app to be profitable or financially stable, try to reduce the attrition rate since it can maximize your app revenue. 

After 30 days, the attrition rate tells you whether or not your app could generate loyal customers. Once you have identified the reasons for uninstalling your app, make informed changes quickly to avoid losing your customers and the associated expenditure. The average three-month user retention rate for mobile apps was 29%, with a 71% churn rate across the globe. 

3) Daily Active Users (DAU) and Monthly Active Users (MAU)

Keeping a record of Daily Active Users (DAUs) and Monthly Active Users (MAUs) can keep you updated with the effectiveness of your app. 49% of individuals report that they open up an app 1-10 times each day. These are valuable metrics for analyzing visibility and potential income for early-stage startups of your app. If the number of new customers increases compared to those who uninstall the app, you can consider that a success for these mobile app KPIs. 

These analytical tools can help you maintain the pace of the user activity and the length and depth of their sessions. You must attentively take note of each session’s activities and make a record of the total clients acquired daily or monthly. 

4) Cost per Action (CPA) 

Mobile app development provides you an opportunity to generate money with several engaging strategies, touchpoints, and mandates. However because there is great competition in the marketing industry, you must be unique among other competitors. As mobile usage increases by 58% year over year, it is your responsibility to find which distribution channels bring in these amounts. When developing a mobile app and planning to advertise it, your objective should be to yield the best possible margins for the use of time and money.

To calculate the CPA of performance, add up all of its costs and divide them by the number of conversions or acquisitions generated. These are the primary marketing tactics that can quickly capture the attention of the audience towards your app. 

5) Lifetime Value (LTV)

The value of a new user is determined by Lifetime Value (LTV) that can benefit you to identify the profitability associated with a growing number of customers. According to Statista, 48% of app marketers believe that the biggest challenge in marketing is that app installs do not help convert Lifetime Value (LTV) users. 

A high proportion of active users indicate that you are providing excellent services to your visitors. It could be anything as simple as sharing the app on social media, conveying a message about it, or generating cash through adverts and in-app payments. Make best marketing decisions by calculating the LTV of your app’s net income over a certain period by the number of profits made during that same duration. 

6) App availability

In the current digital era, measuring the performance of a mobile app is increasingly essential to remotely check how your app is doing on a variety of devices. People are widely using iOS, Android, and Windows, and you need to cope along. For instance, it is helpful if you want to transmit data to your server and then analyze that data to improve the efficiency of your app.

As of global success, there were 218 billion app downloads worldwide in 2020. It is crucial to note a checklist of how frequently people find your app on the App Store, Google Play, or third-party stores available on Android. 

How can you ensure your app succeeds?

Developing a mobile app has become a smart way for businesses to expand their brand image and user satisfaction. But if you don’t get your idea and development right, it could end up being an expensive flop.

To ensure this doesn’t happen, consider which KPIs you set. And ensure that you keep the needs and demands of your customers front of mind, and ensure they’re engaged with different user acquisition campaigns.

It is also essential to gather the most up to date information and track the performances of each step of development while increasing app revenue. And always make sure that your app is in line with your general business mission and goals.

Need help with mobile app marketing? The SEM Nexus Process uses a combination of ASO, App Store & Play Store ads, social media ads and influencers to acquire users, followed by in-app analytics to retain active and paying users.

Photo by Fausto Sandoval