7 User Engagement Metrics to Measure Your App’s Health
Retention is the holy grail of mobile growth. “How do I keep new users coming back?” The answer is engagement.
The more people who engage with your app, the more loyal they become. And the better your chances at growing revenue.
But with half of all apps being abandoned after only 10 logins, building an app experience that gets users hooked on your app isn’t easy.
To measure and improve app engagement, you need to have the right metrics in place. And while there are dozens of data points you could track, you really only need two core metrics, supplemented by five more.
Two Core User Engagement Metrics You Must Track
Daily Uninstalls
How many people uninstall your app on a daily basis? Keep a running tally in order to understand the relative health of your app.
Keep in mind: most apps lose 80% of new users in the first 90 days. What’s more, 50% of all users who uninstall your app do so within the first 5 days. So if you’re able to address friction points during onboarding, you’ll see daily uninstalls taper off within those those initial 5 days.
Track App Launch to App Launch Retention Cohorts
Instead of looking at all your users in one bunch, cohort analysis is simply the act of breaking them down into groups based on shared characteristics. This could be acquisition channel, download date, feature use, etc.
In this case, break them down by when they launch your app. Specifically, how many users return to your app on days 1, 3, and 7 post-download.
This allows you to monitor how long each cohort stays active and how successfully they engage with your app. It will also allow you to see which of your marketing actions have a positive or negative effect on engagement. Did a highly successful cohort download your app to redeem a specific promo code? Does a cohort that uses a specific feature stay highly engaged?
Additional Metrics to Monitor Engagement
Track Active Users: DAUs, MAUs, Stickiness
You need to track Daily Active Users (DAUs) and Monthly Active Users (MAUs). These are the number of active app users on any given day or month.
Just remember to define the exact behavior expected from an “active user.” Does it mean launching the app, logging in, or completing some other action? An active user means something different for every app.
These two metrics by themselves will help you understand how effective your engagement campaigns are and how frequently customers are using the app. Do they perform the key activities you’re pushing them to complete? Do they keep coming back?
More importantly, these help you measure app stickiness.
This answers the question, “What percentage of my monthly users turn up each day?” The closer the number is to 1, the more sticky your app is.
Track Number of Daily/Monthly Sessions
By looking at the number of daily and monthly app sessions per user, you can determine if users are experiencing your app’s value and incorporating it into their habits.
Additionally, by looking at the number of times users launch and engage with your app, you can compare occasional users and heavy users. This is an easy way to segment your customers and identify your champions and power users.
Track Session Length
Finally, track the average time that users spend in each session. The longer they’re in your app, the better. Longer session lengths are a good signal that:
- Users are being delighted by the experiences your app provides, and
- Your marketing efforts are effective at getting them to engage
The idea, after all, is to hook them with your app and make it a habit for every user. As master product psychologist Nir Eyal says, “If a product doesn’t form a habit, it’s going to be forgotten.”
Why User Engagement Metrics Matter
Ultimately, user engagement metrics show how healthy your app is at multiple levels. The more users find your app valuable, the more loyal users you retain. This gives you an opportunity to monetize and grow revenue. It also gives your users more chances to evangelize your brand and grow your user base.
Better user engagement leads to retention, and eventually revenue, referrals, and growth.
CleverTap is a customer engagement platform that helps you to track and improve key mobile app metrics. To level up your mobile app marketing game, try CleverTap for free.
Need More Metrics?
For a more complete discussion on the metrics you need to track for mobile app success, read: The Definitive Guide to Mobile App Metrics.
