KPIs for Mobile App Businesses
These are the KPIs a mobile app tracks for installs, engagement, retention and revenue. Retention curves show whether a product has lasting users or only a launch spike.
The KPIs to track
Daily active users is the number of distinct users who perform a qualifying action in your product on a given day.
Formula and SQL query on the Daily Active Users (DAU) page.
Monthly active users is the number of distinct users who perform a qualifying action in your product within a calendar month.
Formula and SQL query on the Monthly Active Users (MAU) page.
DAU/MAU stickiness is the ratio of daily to monthly active users, showing how often monthly users come back each day.
Formula and SQL query on the DAU/MAU Stickiness page.
Day-30 retention is the percentage of new users who are still active about 30 days after they signed up.
Formula and SQL query on the Day-30 Retention page.
Crash rate is the share of app or website sessions that end in a crash, whatever the device.
Formula and SQL query on the Crash Rate page.
Average Revenue per User (ARPU)
ARPU is the average recurring revenue per active customer or user in a period.
Formula and SQL query on the Average Revenue per User (ARPU) page.
Cost per install
Advertising spend divided by the number of installs it produced.
Free-to-paid conversion
Users who started a paid plan or purchase divided by total users in the cohort.
Where the data usually lives
A product analytics tool or event database, app store reports, ad network dashboards and the subscription or payments system.
Measurement mistakes to avoid
- Install counts differ between the store, the ad network and your own analytics; pick one source.
- Retention should be measured by cohort of install date, not across all users at once.
- Active users need an agreed qualifying event; opening the app and doing something are different.
Questions to ask your data
You can type these as plain questions. SchemaChat turns each one into SQL against your connected database or uploaded file, runs it, and shows the SQL and the figures it used so you can check the answer before you share it. Check that the result matches how your business defines each KPI.
- What is day 1, day 7 and day 30 retention by install month?
- What is the crash rate by app version?
- How many users converted to paid within 14 days of install?
- What is our cost per install by channel?