If you’ve designed an app and are ready to launch it into the world, there are a few things you might want to consider beforehand.
Once you’ve researched your target market and performed your competitor research, come up with a solid marketing plan and define your KPIs.
KPIs (short for Key Performance Indicators) are vital to monitor how your app is doing. There are many to consider, but the most important ones are the following:
- App Downloads: with this number, you can tell from quite early on how your app is doing.
- Daily Active Users (DAUs): number of users who use the app every single day.
- Monthly Active Users (MAUs): number of users who use the app at least once a month.
- Stickiness Rate: (= DAU ÷ MAU), the likelihood of turning a MAU into a DAU.
- Number of new users: this helps you understand is your user base is growing or not. Try to ask yourself questions like “Are those new users due to a recent event or marketing campaign?”
- Retention Rate: percentage of users who return to the app after their first visit, it shows how many users are loyal to your app. You’ll want this to be high, obviously.
- Churn Ratio: percentage of customers who stop using the app (= 1 – Retention Rate).
- Session Length: shows how much time the user spends on your app per session.
- Uninstalls: try to find out why a user would delete your app, especially if those uninstalls are in bulk: have you added a new feature? Was your latest ad campaign a disaster? Maybe bugs need fixing?
Other things to consider when looking at how well your app is doing, is the time it takes for your app to launch and load. If it is high, users won’t wait.
Try to ask for feedback (in a non-invasive way!): unhappy customers won’t return, so if there’s something wrong, you’ll want to know.
It’s important to know the number of times your app was accessed during the first 24 hours or week after installation: if it’s one or less, chances are the user won’t be returning to it.
The fact that a user gives an app access to the app (to their location or contact’s list for example) shows that there is a bond of trust that has been created. If they deny access, try to understand why.
As always, it is all about keeping your users happy and understand what they want and why they make the decisions they make.
If you’d like to read more about mobile app KPIs:
What Are The Best App Marketing Strategies?
My Journey in Web Design 