If You Can’t Measure It, It Didn’t Happen
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it — did it make a sound? Did it even happen? If someone taps on your app, but it isn’t tracked — did they even tap it? Did it even happen?
You read the title and knew that was coming, right?
However predictable, though, the point does still ring true when we talk about app measurement strategy.
The original thought experiment highlights the difference between observation and perception: the most common response being that technically yes, the sound occurred but was not heard by anyone, and therefore no one can know for sure that it happened.
This is the same with app measurement. Fundamentally the use of your app occurs outside of your immediate environment, potentially thousands of miles away. So, without determining what you want to measure and assuring that your tracking is correctly in place to do so, all actions occur without you knowing that they happened.
The key to a successful app measurement strategy is not just to understand what you want to measure or how you’re going to measure it, but to also understand why you want to measure it and how and where your app performance fits within your wider business goals. Here are the key questions:
- Why do I want to measure this?
- What am I going to measure?
- How am I going to measure it?
Why do I want to measure this?
Type “app measurement strategy” into a search engine and you will be faced with articles such as “Top 51 Metrics to Measure App Performance” or “10 Essential Mobile App KPIs…” or “7 Key Metrics for Evaluating Your Mobile App…”
So, you’re probably asking yourself Which one is it…51…10…7? Could it even be 22…or 43…or just 4? What is the holy grail number of metrics?
The truth is, there isn’t a concrete number or combination of metrics that work for every app in terms of determining success.
These articles are great in terms of understanding what metrics are available within mobile measurement platforms, but they don’t, in isolation, amount to a measurement strategy. There are so many available metrics nowadays related to almost any action within your app but understanding why you should measure them will unlock the most value.
A well-defined strategy begins by defining what the role of the app is within your brand’s channel strategy. How does your app fit within the overall business and how can it enable you to achieve your core business objectives?
Your app objective might be to “inspire users to take control of their finances” or “build awareness of new product launches” for example, and these will have fundamentally different customer journeys and expectations, so a one-size-fits-all “10 Essential Mobile App KPIs” might not necessarily cater effectively to your specific needs.
Fundamentally, your unique app objectives and customer journey should be the basis of your measurement strategy, from here you can start to work out what behaviors you hope will occur in your app experience.
What am I going to measure?
There is such a plethora of available metrics across various mobile measurement platforms that it can be slightly daunting and confusing to determine which are going to be most valuable in effectively analyzing your app’s performance.
Jumping straight from clarifying your app’s business objectives can certainly give you a guide to some of your key KPIs, e.g. if the objective of your app is to be your primary source of revenue then logically you would have a particular CVR or ROI target, but this might not immediately direct you to measure the whole journey within your app effectively.
It is best to consider the behaviors that you want your audience to take within the app, and what steps you want them to take to move seamlessly towards your end goal. This is an important step because it considers the entire journey rather than just the final chapter.
One trap that some brands fall into is focusing their measurement strategy entirely on conversion, therefore missing out on the valuable understanding of how users get there. Let’s look at an example:
A fashion retailer’s primary business objective for the app is to drive 60% of total revenue for the next year. They feel that to achieve this, they will require a 3% increase in their app conversion rate.
If the retailer’s focus is the overall app conversion rate, they might very well conclude that they should promote the products that sell the highest volume at the highest conversion rates, and fundamentally that could work until the point of market saturation for those products.
However, there might be a significant drop off from Add to Cart to Shipping or, even earlier. Customers might be dropping off because the filters or menus make it difficult for them to find what they’re looking for which impacts all products and therefore the overall conversion rate, which the retailer will miss.
Fundamentally, the approach of only monitoring conversion will always be limited by the volume of users that get to the end of the conversion funnel and will potentially miss key insights from earlier in the journey that could be impacting a brand’s ability to achieve its business objectives.
You wouldn’t open a book and jump straight to the end and your measurement strategy should be no different.
How am I going to measure it?
Finally, once you’ve worked out the “why” and the “what” and have a clear outline of the behaviors that you want to focus on throughout the user journey, it’s time to work out how you’re going to measure them.
There are two sides to the “how” to measure your app’s performance:
- The key KPIs for each behavior
- The platform that can measure them most effectively
Identifying your KPIs
Firstly, for the behaviors that you hope users will take during the journey through your app, it is essential to have measurable, tangible metrics that show quantitatively whether what you hope is happening is actually happening.
A well-defined measurement framework should include both primary and secondary KPIs to give a holistic view of each behavior. So, if a content brand had an objective of increasing engagement with their app it would make sense to look at Average Session Duration, Pages per Session, or Bounce Rate as primary KPIs which would give an overall view.
For a much more detailed and effective view, they might also look at Top Viewed Pages or Exit Pages to determine what content was getting the most engagement or which content was turning people away. This extra level of detail, through secondary KPIs, can add significantly more context and make optimizations much more targeted and effective.
However, for a truly holistic view, it is important to also layer in qualitative data directly from customers to understand their views on the user journey, what works, what is limiting their experience, and what could be improved — essentially adding the reasons why you are seeing certain trends in the data.
Choosing the correct tools
Secondly, it’s important to pick the tools that will help you effectively measure your KPIs. There are a lot of app measurement tools available nowadays, all offering their own unique capabilities and it can be difficult to work out which is best for your needs.
There isn’t one specific tool that is going to cater to all of your needs. The most effective strategy is to rely on a combination of tools, each of which has its own distinct role and provides its own unique value.
The ideal combination would include the following:
- Performance tools
- Optimization or Testing tools
- Competitive Benchmarking tools
- Marketing Attribution tools
These, in combination with a robust measurement framework, will give you as much capability as possible to make sure that if someone does tap on your app, you will track it, measure it, and know that it did, in fact, happen.
Want help with your mobile app? The Rightpoint Digital Product team would love to learn more about the challenges your facing. Please reach out so we can set up a chat.
