How to Analyze the App’s Performance: A List of KPIs to Follow – Part Two

Growing revenue is a sign that your business is doing great and the audience likes your product. However, don’t think everything is over and you can relax since you still need to know how efficient your marketing efforts are and which channels you can improve.

In the previous article, we discussed App Installs, CPI, ARPU, LTV, retention rate, and active users. Now, we’ll round out the list with other important marketing KPIs and let you know about some services to track them. Here we go!

Marketing KPIs. Their types and methods of evaluation

Conversion Rate

The Conversion Rate indicator is related to the client's conversion, i.e. tracking the user's conversion from the trial period to the paid version. If we need to calculate the conversion rate for the previous month, we use the ratio of the number of paying users to the number of users during the trial period. The higher the conversion rate, the better, and good advertising helps a lot in increasing this metric.

There are several common reasons that this indicator hits the bottom. The first reason is an insolvent audience. This happens in cases where a person starts a trial period and then unsubscribes from it one day before it’s over, so there is no switch over to the paid period. These clients are most often unprofitable for the application. 

Another reason for a low CR may be that the app is not engaging or useful enough for your target audience. A person started a trial, understood that it’s not what they need, and turned the subscription off.

If your monetization strategy is not based on subscriptions, but in-app purchases, then the conversion rate equals the number of purchases divided by the number of app installs.

Session length

Session length is the amount of time a user spends in the app during one visit, and this metric is highly dependent on the app’s purpose.

For example, a long session can be both a good and a bad indicator. Apps that focus on audio or video content (music, movies, podcasts) want their users to stay inside the app longer. But if the app is supposed to be quite simple and needs only a few clicks to function, and users stay there for a long time, then the users are struggling with something. In this case, having a large session rate is definitely not a good thing!

Churn rate

Churn rate (sometimes called attrition rate) is the percentage of customers who stop using your services or products during a designated period. The most common way to calculate this metric is to compare customers who left during period A and were active (bought something) during period B. Another common formula used is taking 100% - retention rate.

It's also a good idea to compare the churn rate with the growth of the customer base since it's important to attract more new customers than regular ones. If you calculate how much money you lose with outgoing customers, you will see an outflow indicator. This analysis is important because you can lose a large amount of money depending on how much the client spent in a month.

Note: There are no universal numbers of these metrics that will suit all the apps! All the necessary indicators are set up by the app’s team after an analysis of the first results.

ROAS

To know exactly how much revenue depends on each dollar invested in advertising, you can use ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend). This indicator will help you see which ad was the most successful. There are several ways to calculate ROAS, and one of them is to use the ratio of the advertising campaign revenue to the advertising expenses.

Services for monitoring KPIs

Today, there are a huge number of platforms that provide complete data analytics for applications. Let’s discuss the most frequently used services that are guaranteed to meet the needs in terms of evaluating the performance of a product.

Various services exist for tracking metrics. For example, Facebook, and its ability to track metrics in ads. But this is not always enough, because of other metrics related to the application itself, its internal indicators. These metrics can be tracked and evaluated using other special services.

If we talk about these services, then we can give an example of app installs. This service allows you to track the number of downloads and installations of the app.

Firebase

The main interest that Firebase represents in terms of analytics is the support of audiences, attributes with more advanced mechanisms (push and a more accurate demographic forecast) for working with targeted audiences, as well as some ready-made metrics such as ARPU and ARPPU.

Flurry

Flurry is a platform for collecting and analyzing statistics for iOS and Android mobile apps. The service receives data about users, their actions, and events. You can track up to five programs at a time and in order to get started, you simply need to connect the SDK. The tool is available in both the browser and in apps that can be downloaded from the AppStore and Google Play.

The ability to track user events and actions is useful for web developers. With the help of the service, marketers will be able to study the audience-geography, device type, and interests. The absence of a fee makes the platform more easily accessible for a start-up business.

App Annie

App Annie is a service that offers a comprehensive set of tools for analyzing performance on the mobile platform. By including mobile app statistics, advertising analytics, and unique information based on comparative analysis and big data processing, it provides mobile publishers and brands the ability to create a unique consumer experience. With that also comes an increase in their revenue as well as user engagement and loyalty.

Appfigures

A platform for monitoring and optimizing your app's downloads and revenue with detailed reports paired with a beautiful interface. You can monitor downloads and revenue from all monetization channels, including paid downloads, in-app purchases, subscriptions, and ads.

AppsFlyer

AppsFlyer is the market leader in mobile ad analytics, helping marketers accurately determine their target audience to optimize ad spending and increase ROI. This service allows you to get a holistic view of the user's path on all platforms, channels, and devices.

To sum it up

The list of marketing KPIs for app monitoring is complete! The metrics we mentioned are basic indicators for a manager to measure the marketing team’s work. If all the KPIs match the expected results, all is good. If they don’t, it’s time to find the root of the problem that keeps your app away from success. 

These KPIs are just the beginning. But they need to be understood by everyone who doesn't want to repeat the fate of the Titanic in the open sea of business.