Category: Marketing

Not so long ago, app developers were all about deciding the success of apps based on analytics. The statistics were assessed to determine just how good an app was doing in terms of user appeal and feedback. At one time, developers measured the app’s overall success based on its ratings and the download count (or sales). These were key mobile marketing metrics.

However, these days there are better ways to assess the overall success of any mobile application. These marketing metrics are something every developer needs to know about if they are to decide the success of an application.

Every measurement shared here consists of a formula or a way of getting information that you can use to draw insights about the app and how well it is doing. You can figure out how much revenue an app is generating per user, the costs per loyal user, and the costs per install and compare it with mobile application development costs. 

The latter figures will reveal how successful you’re marketing is and if users are finding your app useful or enjoyable. You can also find out how people are engaging with the app, the parts of the app that are most enticing, and if your application requires changes or improvements.

1. Know Your ARPU

ARPU is an acronym for Average Revenue per User. The ARPU is broken down into a formula consisting of the amount of money the app generates within the framework of a set period over the number of active app users within the same timeframe.

Bear in mind that ARPU will be different for every mobile app category as well as for every revenue model. However, there are some comparisons that can be made that can prove useful in determining app success. ARPU by revenue model can help you take another look at the revenue brought in through advertising; fee-based downloads in-app purchases, freemium apps, and subscriptions for ease of comparison.

The ARPU can help you in finding out the average revenue the app is generating per user. The latter figure is important because you can use it in other metrics. First, in CPLU (Cost per Loyal User), you can compare the ARPU to the CPLU and if the latter is less than the former, you’re using your marketing methods correctly.

Essentially, it reveals you are generating more income than it costs to acquire the attention of the consumer. Next, in the Retention metric, the ARPU is part of finding out the lifetime value of those consumers you have as loyal users. Therefore, if you have an app that makes $0.50 a month and you retain a consumer for about 5 months on average, the lifetime value is $2.50.

2. Know Your CPLU & CPI

CPI is an acronym for Cost per Install. CPLU is also an acronym standing for Cost per Loyal User. The CPI is a formula that equals the advertising dollars you spend divided by the number of new installations you get within a given advertising campaign. The CPLU however, is the number of advertising dollars you spend divided by the amount of new and loyal application uses you get from the ad campaign.

These two figures can be used along with your ARPU to find out the return on investment you are getting from all of your advertising and marketing. For your marketing to prove successful, your CPLU needs to be less than your ARPU.

3. How Are Your Users Engaging?

Engagement is not something you can figure out by a formula, and it requires an assessment of how your users are making use of the mobile app in question. In understanding a user’s behaviors, you can get an inside view of what is most appealing to your users and what features may be unnecessary.

Engagement is an umbrella term covering a variety of user actions including an assessment of app screens viewed per session, the conversion rates, interactions, opt-ins, opt-outs, and session intervals and lengths. Let’s look at each of these analytics a bit more in-depth.

Customer loyalty measures how often your users return to the app and use it. Your customer’s engagement is vital to the success of the app, as engaged users are being called the bread and butter of an application’s overall success. If you have users that are remaining engaged with the app, it means they like what the app has to offer and are therefore more likely to spread the good word about the app to others – word of mouth advertising goes a long way in the mobile app industry.

What’s more, you can track the usage of loyal users over a longer time to see if trends in application development crop up or if the users repeat actions that may offer insight into how you can improve the application or enhance user engagement.

4. Know Your Love Ratio

The love ratio is a mobile marketing metric that’s been in use for a while and a broad assessment of statistics reveal that the answer is yes, just over 57.70% of the time. The measurement gives you a good idea just how much your users are enjoying the app and if the numbers are low it suggests you’ll need to make some changes to the app to make it more loveable.

Bear in mind, this figure can also vary if a person is not giving an honest answer to the survey and is just clicking on whatever answer will dismiss the survey question quickly. Despite potential biased answers and incomplete assessment values due to lack of user response, the Love Ratio formula still reveals vital information to the app developer, especially over the course of version histories and time.

5. Monitoring Retention Rate

There’s a formula for determining your retention rate, which is a metric marking the number of users you have returning to your mobile app on a weekly basis. Aggregate retention is the number of actives you have during a month divided by the install amounts during the same period. To determine what the retention rate for a specified time is, you need to note the number of app users you’ve retained by the end of a specified time and divide it by the installs during that period.

Broad statistics suggest that as many as 40% of mobile UX apps continue to use the app following the first 30 after the installation, but this number dramatically declines to a little as 4% within the year following the date of install.

The retention rate will allow you to define, not just how many downloads you have, but how many users you have. Even better, you can figure out active users over the course of time. Even if you have 100,000 downloads, 50% of that may have retained users over the course of time, and only by knowing your retention will you know how many downloaders actually remained active users.

When you know the monthly active users, you can use the figure to multiply it against the monthly average revenue you’re making per user to determine your overall revenue.

In essence, there are plenty of ways to measure what is happening with your mobile app. There are formulas you can use to find out user behavior, actions, and if they like using the application you‘ve created. A developer can then use the insights gained to improve the application and subsequently increase revenue.

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Nowadays when the tech world is rapidly developing it takes a lot to put away “business-sharks” or throw them off balance. But even in the ever-changing area of the business industry, the conversion caused by the mobile field is a lot to take in. Mobile is not just a whole new landscape. It is a different state of mind.

One helpful step in adapting to this new reality is letting confusions and misunderstandings go away. It’s one thing if you’re building a mobile app as a hobby. However, it’s another story if you’re going to develop a business. To assist you to do that, here are some simple tips to follow.

1. Capital accumulation depends only on the client base

Today’s business directors clearly understand that having a numerous client base does not mean that your product will be turned into a benefit for your profit. A lot of mobile apps are being offered free of charge. It means that mobile promoters need to make more efforts while creating their mobile application monetization plan.

They may learn from other mobile company’s mistakes that have translated their achievements into cash. But there is one positive moment in the Smartphone revolution that has created some new profit sources. Nowadays, entrepreneurs don’t need to encourage users for using their products because user data is becoming a whole new currency. 

2. A good marketing strategy means to be in the spotlight

The first rule is to choose quality over quantity! A small group of trusted and nicely selected users would be more effective in earning capital than tons of users.

It’s weird to see that even nowadays big companies are looking for collecting as many app downloads as possible instead of focusing on loyal users. While it may appear to be silly, to invest resources in a smaller source of customers instead of a wide range is what mobile marketing calls for. 

3. Stay away from the red ocean strategy

A highly competitive market must be a prerogative. However, it doesn’t mean that you should fall out of business. User’s instability sometimes could work for you if you have a creative background and managing and marketing skills to beat up a rivalry.

Conducting close focused research and the market investigation is important in any case, and even if you come up with a completely original idea, you would still have to do enormously hard work to succeed. The notion line is simple: don’t let the opposition turn you back and simply make a task to improve your skills and win a competition.

4. Entrepreneurs are the chosen few

Due to opening new markets and fields of investigation, the popularity of mobile app solutions has turned a lot of entrepreneurs without a solid tech background into qualified mobile leaders.

Because, the fact we carry a cell phone every day, use different apps, play games, and live a digitized lifestyle creates plenty of possibilities for building our own successful business. 

5. Creating a great product is the most important issue

There are plenty of mobile companies that believe wholeheartedly that storming the App Store with their digital products without any proper basis is a profitable business deal. You need to give your product a favorable push with a smart launch strategy, followed by disputable optimization efforts.

You must take into consideration this little but very useful truth, and set a target replacing the misguided notion of “If you create it, they will buy”.
And last but not least. Here is a story about the owner of a small community-minded mobile coffee truck. She needed an effective way to increase her customers including a simple messaging system that will show the truck’s location and suitable hours.

Since launching her app, the benefits to her project have exceeded all the expectations. Her winning app feature is a loyalty card that she actively promoted. So, it is a good sample of a good strategy for small business development. She said:” Customers save money, and we make money. So, it’s a win-win.”

Even an experienced entrepreneur can learn something useful from this list of tips.