Every marketing strategy is based on hit and trial method. You perform an activity, get the data related to the activity performed, and measure what effect it has. A good marketing strategy is made following the channel; analyzing, knowing and working towards all the metrics that are relevant to that medium.
If you are the owner of an app and need to know where your marketing strategy is going and whether your tactics are fruitful; there is a set of metrics that you need to monitor essentially.
Here are the vital metrics you need to keep an eye on:
1. The Number of Downloads
The number of downloads is the simplest and a straightforward measure. You need to break down the total downloads in downloads per month, downloads in a day, downloads in a week. This helps you understand what marketing strategy works or not. You can improve your number of downloads by optimizing the app for app store.
2. Retention Rate
More than the installs please, the uninstalls hurt. The app’s retention rate means a lot. A track of retention of apps on the phone helps you understand the how many people want to be connected with the app in some or the other way.
The recent study by Localytics stats that average retention rate can vary by industries.
AI can help you to retain your app users because it makes you understand the user behaviour and journey. Netflix uses this technology to provide relevant and helpful content to their users.
3. Engagement
If earning through the ads displayed on the app is the return you are expecting, the user engagement is the key metric to be analyzed. It gives you an insight of how interested users are in your app.
4. Acquisition
According to Liftoff analysis, the cost of acquiring an app user who makes purchase is $64.96 which is much more than getting a first time user at $8.21.
There are multiple ways through which the user can reach the app. It can be a social media handle or through a viral post. Keeping track of this source will help you get the right direction of marketing.
5. Drop Out Time
There would be users who were actively using your app, but now have opted out. This drop may be due to some changes in the app or some other external factors. With this analysis, you get an insight on how you can make changes to the app to decrease the dropout and make your app more attractive and upbeat.
6. In-app Time
For some app, even seconds spend by the users in the app is a good amount. While for some app, several minutes spent by the user in the app is also not a good time. It purely depends on the sector that your app is in. You need to identify the amount of time that is normally spent on the competitor’s app and monitor likewise.
7. Screens Widely Used
When a user launches the app on his phone, the flow of screens on the app can be analyzed. Knowing which screen is active most of the time will help you optimize the monetary gains earned through the app.
8. Lifetime Value of the App (LTV)
The LTV is a measure of how much money you can make from the app from one user in the lifetime of the app usage.
With this measure, you can analyze how much money can you spend on the marketing of the app. This measure works well to get financial stability.
LTV can be measured as
LTV = ARPU *1/Churn
ARPU = > Average revenue per user
Churn => Percent of customer lost over a given period
9. Active or Peak Hours
For different apps, there’s a different time of the day when the app is used by a maximum number of people for a longer duration. Capturing this data will help in designing the in-app marketing strategies like sending notifications, sending user engagement elements and placing high paying ads.
10. Target Audience Demographics
Marketing has all lot do with the target audience. The marketing strategies differ from one age group to other, from one region to other.
For marketers to blend their marketing strategies according to their target groups is a must. Hence gathering these data points is important for a marketing strategy.
All the above metrics are a must when it comes to a business which works on an app. With these data points in hand, the app owners can create their marketing mix and optimize their strategies.
