21 Crucial Mobile App KPIs to Measure App Performance

Competent analytics provide information for making decisions about the next steps in application development. But how do you understand whether your application is useful and convenient for your target audience? Is it growing and developing? To do this, you need to monitor a number of KPI metrics (key performance indicators) and make decisions on further actions based on the data obtained. Let's take a look at examples of metrics that are important for app promotion and business development.

The Importance of Mobile App KPIs

To know if you are managing your new app and business as a whole well, you should regularly monitor key metrics (KPIs). They will help you in:

• Analyzing how successfully your goals and objectives are met;
• Figuring out weaknesses and areas for app improvements;
• Finding lags and bugs, which influence user satisfaction and, as result, the  company’s revenue;
• Looking for ways to fix issues, optimize your solution, and maximize mobile marketing efforts;
• Estimating development and marketing costs (whether your app will pay off and when).  

Thanks to KPIs, specialists receive a complete picture of the application (about its work), services, and products. In terms of the app’s performance, different indicators allow marketers to see the number of installs and users, usage time, conversations, and so on. Then, specialists build certain strategies based on the obtained data: they study possible risks appeared recently, implement changes in work processes, establish alternative plans, and dispense the resources to make them available beforehand. KPIs are also useful for deciding which features to add and which to remove by analyzing user behavior and preferences. If you don’t track the key indicators related to this, the application may lose its relevance.

The KPIs listed below will allow you to determine in advance what can go wrong with your app. The metrics concern not only marketing and financial aspects (for example, customer acquisition, app session intervals and length, and monetization) but also technician ones (speed, latency, crashes, and the like). The stable operation of your application is a guarantee of your steady income growth.

Thus, KPIs are a tool to prevent a fall and create an app that would meet all users’ requirements.

General App KPIs

General KPIs for mobile apps are overall app usage metrics that show the app’s popularity regardless of business objectives. You can use them to see how many people downloaded, installed, deleted your app, etc.

App Downloads

The easiest and most obvious way to track popularity. This KPI shows how many times users have downloaded your app, but there are other important factors.

App Installs/Uninstalls

If users have downloaded an app, it doesn't mean they have completed the installation. This metric helps to track apps actually installed on users' mobile devices. As for uninstalls, there can be many reasons, but you need to analyze if this process coincided with any changes in the app (updates, new advertising methods, etc.), especially if the uninstalls started in a previously stable cluster of users.

Registrations

The decision to register in the mobile app and, therefore, provide personal information is another sign of user loyalty.

Updating the app and subscriptions

If you offer to update the app to a premium or paid version, control not only the number of updates but also the time it takes for the user to decide whether to pay for additional features.

App Attribution

This metric shows which sources users came from. The information is crucial for marketers and sales teams because it allows them to figure out the most effective promotion channels and focus on them when dispensing the company’s budget.  

Within the app attribution, marketers track the number of downloads from social media advertisements, PPC campaigns, SEO, landing pages, and so on. 

Customer app engagement metrics

Equally important KPIs are user engagement app metrics. They show how users interact with the mobile app.

Session Length & Session Depth

When evaluating session length, you'll find out how much time users spend in the app and whether session length is related to a malfunction. Session depth tracks the number of user interactions with the app. For example, going from browsing to ordering items means more session depth than simply checking in.

Retention Rate

Customer retention rate shows how many app users return to the mobile application. Different experts calculate the rate in various ways, depending on the information they want to get. The simplest and most common option is to count the percentage of users who return to the app after some time, e.g. a month.

Churn Rate

The opposite of the user retention rate is the churn rate. It shows the percentage of clients who stop using the application. Sales managers monitor the churn rate and retention rate regularly, especially after updates are released. If the ratios change dramatically for the worse after the updates, it means that there may be a mistake or bug somewhere, and it has to be found quickly to avoid losing the entire audience.

Active Users (DAUs & MAUs)

An application can be considered successful if it is used regularly. The Daily Active Users (DAU) and Monthly Active Users (MAU) clearly reflect the real popularity of the software. If your audience regularly spends time in your app, it means you've made a really cool and useful product. Modern analytics systems automatically detect this indicator. Your task is to interpret it and see if the value is alright. By dividing the DAU by the MAU, you can calculate the so-called user stickiness.

Push Notification Metrics

After downloading the app, marketers do their best to keep the user engaged. Often, they use push notifications. If it’s true for you, take into account the following KPIs:

• Views;
• Open rate;
• Opt-in and opt-out rates;
• Re-engagement rate;
• Conversions.

A high opt-out rate usually says that you send out messages too often. Or pushes aren’t relevant to the audience. In this case, you should get to know your customers better.

Push notifications are a great tool for service or product promotion but use them properly and wisely.

Tracking users’ actions and events

Thanks to modern technologies, marketers can see which targeted actions users make. It may be adding items to the cart, filling out certain forms, sharing content, placing orders, etc.

However, remember that tracking all events is a big mistake, which can bewilder. Just decide on several key user actions to receive only noteworthy information.

User Experience and Mobile App Performance Metrics

These KPIs are not directly about profits, but they do give an indication of how users are comfortable interacting with your app and how exactly they do it.

Load Speed

The load time of a mobile app. The lower this metric, the more convenient it is for the user to interact with the application.

Mobile App Latency

The app latency is closely tied to app speed and these two indicators are  often perceived as a single whole. However, the metrics are different.

The app latency is about the time that the system takes to send or get a response from the server and API. This KPI must be as low as possible because users hate to wait. The app speed, in turn, measures the page loading time.

Devices & OS

This is a fairly simple app KPI that tracks which mobile devices your target audience is using. Depending on whether it's Android or iOS, tablets, or smartphones, you can fine-tune your targeting.

Crash/Bug Reports

Statistics on crashes in the app. If an app is constantly crashing or full of bugs, users definitely won't use it. When you're dealing with software, this is an indicator that you need to keep a close eye on.

Revenue Metrics

These are financial application KPIs that measure the cost of acquiring a new customer, such as the cost of an advertising campaign and the revenue that this cost generates.

Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)

This KPI for mobile apps is also known as current LTV (lifetime value). For example, you can determine the average revenue per user since the product launch. To calculate it, you need to divide the total income by the total number of clients.

Purchases

Here everything is quite simple. Purchases refer to the number of purchases made by users through the app. This mobile app KPI is the final part of the sales funnel, and it is the metric that business owners are chasing the most.

Average Order Value (AOV)

This KPI is relevant for businesses, which sell something (products, software, etc.). The metric involves analyzing how much buyers spend per purchase. When you have this figured out, then you can start looking for ways to increase AOV. As an option, offer complementary goods during the checkout process.

Also, you can track AOV per paying user to exclude customers who don’t spend any money (for example, if you have the trial version of your service). This approach will help you find out how much money you are receiving from each performed transaction.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

This type of metrics for mobile apps is needed to determine the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Not all marketing channels are equally effective. It largely depends on the field of activity and the correct setting of advertising. For example, some applications get 90% of new users from contextual advertising, while others only get 20% from this channel. And how do you know which marketing channels are effective and which are not? This should be determined by analysts, but for a quick assessment it is sufficient to calculate the customer acquisition cost using this formula:

Conversion Rate

Every application has a different conversion rate, but whatever industry you’re in, you always need to look at the first purchase, not just the installation. Push notifications, abandoned cart reminder emails, strategically placed discount offers or sale notifications can help increase sales when conversion rates are low.

Return on Investment (ROI)

This figure can be calculated to clarify the return on investment for mobile app marketing in general or a specific advertising campaign (for example, from one sales channel). If the ROI is more than 100%, then the investment is justified, and you’ve made a profit. Otherwise, you should reconsider your strategy and either refuse further investments or make some changes to remedy the situation.

To Sum Up

As you may have noticed, the important mobile app KPIs don’t differ much from standard KPIs for business. Setting up analytics to monitor mobile app metrics is an important stage in product development. Without information on user behavior, the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, and so on, it is impossible to make objective decisions on further actions regarding your business growth. You will be working "blindly" and have no idea what you are doing.

Think about competent mobile app analytics in the early stages of development. A week is not enough for customization and testing. It's a voluminous process, but it's worth the expense, so be sure to give it working time and get everything ready for the app launch. Better yet, contact professionals who can help you set up all the metrics tracking and calculation tools you need and give you a complete picture of your app's effectiveness.