With companies churning out mobile apps right left and center, a truckload of apps come with inefficiencies. However, chances are that even the best-developed mobile apps experience bugs, crashes and downtimes at some point. This article shows you exactly how to measure if your mobile application is doing well.
Whether your app is made for a specific niche of users or for the general public, you will greatly appreciate the need for application monitoring tools. These tools not only let you into the dark world of hidden statistics but also the glaring ones like app download.
Fortunately, there is a raft of mobile application monitoring tools in the market. These tools cater for the different data you may want to determine. The success of a mobile application may vary from one mobile app development company to the next. These are some of the ways to measure if your mobile app is doing well.
Total App Downloads
The very first metric from which you could determine the success of your mobile app is the number of people downloading the app. It is every company’s wish that people fall in love with their product and download their app. It is one indicator that people are getting value from the app and showing intent of using it more.
While the total downloads may not necessarily be associated with more money, it’s good to first solidify your customer base before you monetize. Most of the popular apps today did that. WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, name them.
Mobile app User Engagement
The other metric to determine the success of your mobile app is the engagement it attracts. Regardless of your business model, engagements are critical. Developers get tons of information by engaging users of an app. This information can be used to improve the user experience and the User Interface.
User engagement, however, should never be left in the hands of user alone. At best, the organization or developers should be present during the engagements as respondents or moderators. Engagements are also necessary when introducing a new feature of a mobile app.
Monthly App Users
Another mobile application performance monitoring metric is the monthly app users. This is often tied to the first metric we looked at-mobile app downloads. The total monthly app users are normally in the region of 25%-40% of the total downloads.
Companies use their monthly App Users (MAU) to compare themselves to competitors with a view to foster improvement. Higher monthly app usage indicates higher acceptance rates. It could also be a pointer to an improved User Interface (UI) and a fantastic User Experience (UX).
Decreasing monthly app users could indicate problems of inefficiencies, crashes, bugs or inadequate support services. This metric also ensures you track your application usage growth curve to determine peak usage periods and seasons.
App Session Length
This is the period between the opening and the closing of the app. As a metric for monitoring your mobile app performance, users should be spending considerable time in your app. High drop-off rates indicate they do not find value in the app. Similarly, more time in the app indicates quality engagement.
App User Retention
While it is every app user’s dream to acquire more and more users, user retention is a key metric that indicates success. The retention rate of your app is determined by the number of users who return to your app in the last 30 days. These mobile app analytics reveal exactly how to measure app success.
The exact opposite of retention is “Churn rate.” This metric determines the number of users who close the app and never ever come back at all. These metrics help you to better improve your services and user engagement for more retention.
Summary
Depending on your business model, you may want to prefer a set of metrics to another. However, these basic metrics are sure to give you a foundational analysis of how to measure your mobile app performance. These metrics center on User Experience, Mobile app performance and analytics.