Determining the success of mobile apps and your broader enterprise mobile app strategy often seems more dependent on guesswork than on objective measures. But a new report from Forrester, "Measuring Mobile Apps," recommends a variety of objective metrics to help you determine how successful your apps are. Using them can help ensure that you and your team are building five-star apps that accomplish exactly what you set out to do.
Forrester suggests that you measure the success of your mobile apps using three types of metrics: business metrics, engagement metrics, and technical metrics. You can, of course, gather more than what Forrester recommends, but they're an excellent starting point. There's not room in this blog to cover all of them, so I'll hit the high points.
Business Metrics
Forrester recommends a whole host of business metrics. One of the most important is the total revenue generated by the mobile channel. In Forrester's words, "This measure rolls up all points of mobile revenue, including app sales, in-app purchase revenue, and revenue generated from ads placed in the app and viewed by users."Also important is the average revenue per user (ARPU), which you arrive at by dividing the total revenue by the number of users of an app. A low number may indicate that users simply aren't engaged by the app.
Engagement Metrics
These metrics measure how involved people are by apps. One important measurement is how long do customers keep using an app. Do they use it for a day, 30 days, 60 days or more?How do people's use of the app change over time? Does it become more sporadic or stay strong? If people's use drops over time, you may need to add new features or launch a marketing campaign.
How long are people's sessions? Do they merely glance at it for a moment or two, or do they spend at least several minutes with it? Are they using it multiple times a day? Knowing all this can help you make design decisions such as whether to use larger text, and where to place notifications and ads.
Technical metrics
Technical metrics help you know whether users face problems when using your app. Make sure to collect data on the platforms the app is used on, as well as form factors and devices. Examine crash rates and error by device operating system and carrier to hone in on issues. And be sure to collect performance metrics such as how slow the app is to load.
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