What app growth metrics are you using to measure your app’s performance? The App Store and the Google Play Store have in-house metrics to help you on your app growth metric journey, but this won’t give you the complete picture without using some third-party app analytics tools. The real question is which of these metrics is most important.
The dynamics of app growth are subject to rapid changes and disruptions, driven by shifting user behaviours and the rise of new industry trends. Focusing on the metrics that matter most is crucial to staying competitive and maintaining relevance in the crowded app market.
By understanding and monitoring these essential metrics, you’ll be equipped to make data-driven decisions, optimise your app’s performance, and ultimately achieve greater success in 2024.
Subscription Mobile Growth Metrics
1. Subscription Churn
If you offer a subscription monetisation model, then a mobile app’s subscription churn rate is a crucial metric, indicating the percentage of subscribers lost during a specific period. It is calculated by dividing the number of users who unsubscribed from your app during that period by the total number of active users at the beginning of the time period you’re trying to measure. You can measure the monthly subscription churn rate by using this calculation:
Subscription churn rate = (total # of users who stopped using the app / total # Subscribers achieved in a month)
Churn can occur for various reasons, including performance issues, poor onboarding (if users abandon after the first launch), or unmet user expectations (common around the second month for monthly subscription apps). Focusing on retaining and engaging your users and implementing strategies around this will make users want to stay and, therefore, decrease subscription churn.
To reduce churn, consider improving the user experience, adding new features, and launching retention campaigns. For instance, using push notifications to increase user engagement and frequency of app usage can be effective. The goal is to retain more subscribers, so checking out our blog on increasing retention and engagement during the holiday months will be beneficial.
2. Lifetime Value (LTV)
Lifetime value or LTV has continued to be an essential app growth metric. It helps determine the value users bring to your app and thus helps establish whether you are paying the correct amount to acquire them. Here’s how to calculate LTV:
Lifetime value = (average of conversion * average # of conversions in a time frame * average customer lifetime)
Figuring out how much value your subscribers hold can give you a better understanding of your potential revenue.
Focusing on retention and engagement will go a long way to ensuring that users stay longer and increase your lifetime value.
User Acquisition Mobile Growth Metrics
3. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
One of the essential metrics for any app that conducts marketing is the return on ad spend or ROAS. ROAS is the ultimate measure of profitability and helps your app’s user acquisition. Continuously assessing your campaigns’ performance and the calibre of users they bring in becomes more effective when you consistently compare revenue to ROAS. Here is how to calculate ROAS:
Return on ad spend = (Revenue attributed to your campaign / cost of the campaign)
To make sure that your return on ad spend is high, there are a few things you can do like:
- Include testing in your user acquisition strategies
- Expand your coverage to different acquisition channels
- Increasing your LTV
If you want to go into more depth on improving your app’s ROAS, check out more on our blog here.
4. Click Through Rate (CTR)
Click-through rate or CTR is the total number of people who clicked on your ad. This will tell you how effective your creative and targeting strategy is. To calculate this, you can use the equation below:
Click-through rate = (number of clicks / number of ad views)
CTR is a relatively easy metric to improve. By implementing A/B testing on your creatives, you can find out what makes your users want to click and visit your app store. If your ad is attracting high-value users to your app but is experiencing low CTR, consider modifying elements such as ad design, language, call to action, or other components to enhance the volume and quality of users directed to your app.
5. Cost Per Install (CPI)
In the same vein as click-through rate, cost per install will determine how much you spend on your paid user acquisition efforts, like Apple Search Ads or Meta, compared to how many installs you receive. This is an effective mobile metric to determine if your strategy affects your app’s number of instals. You can use CPI data to optimise your campaign efforts, from targeting to creative optimisations. Another area that will heavily impact your CPIs is your ASO efforts, so A/B testing your listings to improve CVR will support in lowering your acquisition costs and attracting a higher organic user base. To work out your CPI, you can use the calculation below:
Cost per install = (ad spend / total number of install directly tied to the ad campaign)
As cost per install is tied to click through rate, the ways to improve it are also similar. Implementing A/B testing and leveraging custom product pages can help see a decrease in your CPI.
6. App Store Conversion Rate (CVR)
As already mentioned, the app store conversion rate on the Google Play Store and App Store helps you better understand the effectiveness of your ASO efforts. That means your app store listing needs to do an amazing job in compelling users to download through creative assets such as your icon, screenshots and preview videos, whilst ensuring high quality organic traffic is converting into organic downloads via your keyword optimisation strategy. Here is how to calculate your app store conversion rate:
App store conversion rate = (total # of installs / total number of pageviews)
If you want a deeper look into how you can improve your apps ASO, especially ahead of 2024 during this holiday season, then check out our blog right here.
Retention & Engagement Mobile Growth Metrics
7. Retention Rate
Retention rate continues to be a cornerstone of app growth metrics to help evaluate your app’s performance. It serves as a valuable metric for gauging whether the users you acquire remain engaged with your app and the value they derive from it. It provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of your app’s messaging, onboarding process, and user experience. Here is how to calculate your Day 7 retention rate for a seven-day time span:
Retention rate = (# users on day 7 / #user on day 1) * 100
It is important to define a timeframe for retention that makes sense for your business, for instance, analysing 7-day, 30-day or even one year.
8. Engagement
Engagement measures a deeper level of commitment to the product. It considers the number of key actions a user takes, looking at both the frequency and sequence of actions taken. Engagement metrics are unique to each business, as the ‘key actions’ numerator and denominator should depend on the product and its core metrics. For example, a streaming app may focus on minutes of video watched, whilst a retail app focuses on the number of transactions completed. To measure the depth of engagement per user with your product, you should divide this by your active user count.
Engagement = (# of key actions taken / active users)
9. Session Depth
A session is when a user performs actions in your app. Session depth goes one step further to analyse how many interactions a user has in your app in one session.
Session depth = (time the app was launched – time the user became inactive)
Depending on the purpose of your app, a low session depth could be a good or a bad thing. A banking app with a high session depth may indicate that the user is struggling to complete a task, whereas a social media app with a low session depth may mean your users are quick to stop engaging with your app.
Conclusion
Defining and evaluating your mobile metrics is a core part of any app’s growth strategy. Making informed decisions based on data will help you grow significantly and make optimisations based on evidence rather than intuition.
Remember, data is your compass, and by constantly monitoring and optimising these metrics, you’ll be better prepared to make informed decisions, refine your strategies, and propel your app to new heights in 2024. Embrace change, experiment with new technologies, and stay connected with your audience to build a loyal user base.
