25 Critical Mobile App Metrics That Will Boost Your App’s Performance

25 Critical Mobile App Metrics That Will Boost Your App’s Performance

Mobile app metrics aren't just numbers. Instead, they are pages of a story, each clarifying an important part of the puzzle. From which buttons people tap to how much time they spend in the application, every metric says something important.

These metrics, when taken in isolation, offer a distorted image. To understand the success of your application and its performance, you need to connect the dots and weave a cohesive tale. In this blog, we walk you through that process. And most importantly, turn mobile app metrics insights into action that helps transform your app into a bestseller.

Buckle up and get scrolling.

Mobile App Metrics Overview

[Also Read - 10 Essential Steps to Take Right After Launching Your App ]

Mobile App Metrics for App Performance

These numbers tell you how well your app is running and how well your users are experiencing it in terms of performance metrics.

These are somewhat like health check-ups for your application. They indicate how well you do on each of these metrics and whether you need to improve.

1. App load time

This is at the top of your priority list if you want to deliver the best user experience.

Today, users want their app experience smooth and fast, and if your app takes too long to load, they will certainly think nothing of uninstalling it.

In an ideal world, your app should load in 2 seconds. For Google, the report states that you should aim to display content to users in under 3 seconds.

2. Crash rate

Every application crashes at some point; it is the frequency that you should be concerned with.

A high frequency of crashes in your app might pose a serious threat to its success and be viewed as a far more serious problem than a slow app launch time. The ASI research states that an app's stability score might drop by as much as 1%, which can cause reviews in the app store to drop by a whole star.

You can measure your app crashes in two ways:

App crashes per user: The frequency of each user crashing per app will tell you how often each user crashes. Here, your benchmark should be 1%, or one crash for every 100 opens by the user into your app.

App crashes per session: If the app fails to respond most of the time, then the number of crashes is stated as a fraction of the total sessions. Ideally, the number should remain less than 0.1%.

3. Latency

This number lets you know how quickly your app handles user actions.

When a user clicks an add-to-cart button, for instance, the API takes a while to respond before your application can determine the overall cost of the cart, apply any discounts, verify that the size and color are available, and determine when the delivery will be.

It should ideally be as small as possible, and you should optimize your app to respond in less than one second.

Mobile App Metrics for User Acquisition

For marketers, user acquisition analytics are the holy grail since they demonstrate how well you are expanding your user base.

With such metrics in hand, you can strategically change your marketing efforts and guide them in achieving your business goals.

4. Cost per acquisition

Once you get your marketing machine going, it's very exciting to see that your app downloads keep coming. Nowhere down the line, though, you have to account for the money you spent getting those installs.

CP cost acquisition of the new user due to marketing. Ideally, you would like to keep your CPA as low as possible and ensure it's always lower than the customer's lifetime value.

Ideally, a good CPA should be three times lower than the lifetime value of the customer.

5. Install Rate

Install rate is the proportion of users who visit your app store and download and install your app. This enables you to gauge the success of your app store optimization (ASO) strategy as well as the efficiency of your app marketing methods in driving people to your listing.

6. Paid Conversion Rate

The KPI measures the number of conversions generated through paid channels. This encompasses social media, PPC advertising, influencer marketing, events, and any other method that requires paying for impressions and installs.

Since paid ads have become extremely costly, this KPI really helps determine the success or failure of your paid advertising effort and decide whether to continue, increase, or stop it altogether.

7. Organic Conversion Rate

It refers to the organic conversion rate, which measures the number of users who convert through organic marketing. Some of them include:

• App Store searches;
• Suggestions;
• Word-of-mouth on social media;
• App store reviews;
• Any other free advertising strategy.

Using this metric, you can determine whether your app is truly attracting people who locate and install it themselves.

8. Return on investment (ROI)

ROI may be utilized as a user acquisition statistic, even though it is often thought of as a revenue-based metric.

It is actually the ultimate metric of your marketing efforts because you should account for the money you spend on app development and on acquiring new customers.

ROI tells you how much bang you are getting for your buck. But it's not just about gaining new users; it's also about making sure they're worth the investment.

9. Click-through rate (CTR)

Click-through rate is a metric that tells how irresistible your marketing efforts are. It is important to know the number of people clicking on your ads when they see them.

To boost CTR, you'd write call-to-action buttons that are clickable and attract users' attention. Include action words and tell users what they will gain by clicking.

[Also Read - Essential Guide to Developing Mobile Apps for Your Business ]

Mobile App Metrics for Conversion

User acquisition metrics often err by identifying with conversion metrics, which are the most different from user acquisition metrics.

Conversion metrics, on the other hand, concentrate on the activities you want users to perform within your apps once they have already installed them. In contrast, user acquisition analytics are all about drawing people in.

10. Conversion rate

The most significant conversion measure is most likely the conversion rate. This measure measures the proportion of users who complete a desired action—like placing a purchase or subscribing to the newsletter—within your app.

This is also known as the goal completion metric, and it measures anything for a certain period after being designated as a goal in the user experience. The greatest feature of this statistic is the ability to monitor any particular action that is significant to your company.

For one business, it could be filling out forms, whereas for another, it could be making a purchase.

11. Cart Abandonment Rate

The percentage of users who added products to their carts but did not complete a transaction is known as the cart abandonment rate.

There could be various reasons behind the increase in your app's cart abandonment rate, such as excessively high shipping charges, slow delivery, and an unreasonably long checkout procedure.

Count this number down, and you can identify potential issues within the app's checkout process and thereby improve your business's conversion rates.

To reduce the cart abandonment rate, streamline your whole checkout process. Break the process of checkout into different steps with clear progress indicators, and provide your users with multiple payment and shipping options.

12. User retention rate

Not everyone will actively use your app. Some users will find value in it and will return to it frequently. At this point, the retention rate concept comes into play.

It depends on the company how many weeks it will take before calculating its retention rates. For instance, an application for booking a hotel should not yaw at weekly retention because the same people are unlikely to return to such applications too many times. The application should, therefore, come up with a period over which to calculate its retention rate.

Conversely, e-commerce apps that sell inexpensive products need to pay attention to the retention rate of 30 days since that is a type of application people are likely to use more often.

13. Average Order Value (AOV)

In an e-commerce business, the average order value is the gold standard metric. In simple words, it is the amount of money users spend every time they make a transaction or order within your application.

Knowing the AOV will allow you to review your marketing and pricing strategies. If your app cannot produce more users, try increasing the average order value to increase overall revenue.

There are strategies available for increasing AOV through product bundling, upselling, loyalty programs, volume discounts, and more.

It's worth noting that mindlessly pushing for growth in AOV can work to reduce the number of users of your app. Therefore, the objective is to improve the client experience as a whole to benefit both parties.

14. Average revenue per user (ARPU)

Unlike AOV, which discusses individual transactions, the ARPU gives a broad view of revenue generated while considering all the transactions.

ARPU is calculated by finding the average revenue obtained from each user of your application in a given period. It is usually best used by businesses that work with subscription-based models.

Since CLTV and ARPU both refer to the value created by users, they are similar in many respects. On the other hand, average revenue per user (ARPU) is a short-term indicator calculated over a weekly, monthly, or annual period of time.

Conversely, CLTV calculates the expected revenue that a customer will generate during their entire journey with your business.

15. Customer lifetime value (CLTV)

Long-term customer lifetime value is the overall revenue a customer will provide for your business during the entire life cycle of the relationship.

CLTV tells you the total value that will be garnered from your customer base in the long run and helps you make all decisions regarding retaining them. The moment you set your target for improving your business's CLTV, you start working towards giving maximum value to your customers so they stay with you for a longer period.

16. Mobile App Metrics for Engagement

The question of whether or not engagement metrics measure your app hooks and benefits users.

The higher these figures are for your app, the more integrated it becomes into your users' lives. The uninstall rate increases as these values decrease.

17. Churn Rate

The churn rate, or the percentage of people who began a subscription and canceled it during the time frame we need to examine, is also known as the abandoning rate. This statistic is crucial because it is one of the most significant markers of our company's state.

We may account for two aspects of the churn rate when calculating this metric: the number of users who cancel their trials at the beginning and the number of users who eventually subscribe and renew over time. Additionally, we would want to know if the renewal is canceled in the first, seventh, or eleventh month of the subscription. Understanding and enhancing our company's profitability requires a level of study that would be enhanced by cohort analysis.

18. Stickiness ratio

Stickiness ratio is the measure of how often and consistently your users engage with your application.

This metric combines both DAU and MAU and measures how many users come back repeatedly to your app.

19. Session length

The engagement statistic called session length determines the typical amount of time a single user spends using your service.

Stated differently, you get to see how long your software benefits your consumers. There's a catch, though:

If your app is largely a source of information, then a high session length is a good thing. For example, an e-commerce business may be willing to accept a short session length if its users are converting.

20. Session Depth

Session depth measures how many pages or screens the user views in one session.

The deeper the session, the more the user enjoys using the application. Simultaneously, this could indicate that one is taking too much time navigating through your application to accomplish a particular action.

Session depth, along with session length, could tell you the effectiveness of the application's and design's user interface and where improvement is needed in the users' experience.

21. Push notification interaction rate (PNIR).

The push notification interaction rate is an engagement metric that measures how users respond to your app's push notifications.

This particular metric is somewhat tricky.

Although yes this lets you know the number of engagements with your notifications, this Rate may plunge seriously if you bombard users with notifications. Worse, the users may cease to use your app actively or uninstall it completely if you do so.

22. In-app purchases

If you're using app monetization strategies such as virtual items, premium content, subscriptions, or additional features through in-app purchases, then this is one of your top KPIs to monitor.

In-app purchases measure the total revenue generated by users. Using this metric, you can tell if it's money-making users who are just messing around in the app or just hanging around to get it for free.

With this metric, you can decide what you must do to improve the value you provide to your users and enhance your pricing and offerings to drive more users to make purchases within your app.

General Mobile app metrics

Even though these metrics do not offer insights into what's happening internally within your app, they give you top-line information that will help you decide whether your app is on the right path.

23. Total app downloads

Total downloads are the cumulative number of downloads your app has received. These numbers could be tracked from app stores and give you a fair idea about your app's popularity.

However, total downloads aren't the engagements and retained users. Total downloads also do not tell you how much revenue is being produced due to your app.

24. Ratings and reviews on the app store

Ensure that the mobile app store ratings are very high because nearly half of the users may not even consider downloading your app if its rating is less than three stars.

Anecdotal user feedback, in conjunction with the data listed above, will drive your app's future development roadmap.

Responses, both positive and negative, will ensure users are updated and prove that you are trying to get things right.

25. Active Users: DAU, WAU, MAU

Active users are people engaging with our application, and we can say them by time scale: days, weeks, and months.

• Daily Active Users (DAU): Total number of users who have had a session with our app in a given day.
• Weekly Active Users (WAU): These are the total number of users who had one or more sessions with our app in a week.
• Monthly Active Users (MAU): the total number of users who had one or more sessions with our app in a given month.

Active users: a statistic that any analytics tool gives you, and it's really crucial to track their growth and dependence on paid marketing. This isn't the first time we have seen in a project that MAU growth per month shows almost the same pattern as new users acquired in the month.

Conclusion

If you know and track these 25 mission-critical mobile app metrics, you are working to improve the quality of your app. Consistent analysis of these will allow effective optimization according to user behavior and industry trends, allowing you to provide a more engaging, valuable, and successful app experience.

Remember that application success is actually the process of continuous refinement, not an event. Monitoring, feedback, and iteration over time will be what will keep an application relevant and competitive in the shifting landscape of the mobile app market with opportunities to generate profit.