Glossary | A | App Key Performance Indicator (KPI) / Metrics
What are mobile app metrics and KPIs?
Mobile app developers use metrics to measure the performance of their app over time. These metrics ladder up to key performance indictors, or KPIs, which measure business goals.
There are a wide variety of mobile app metrics in use today. Most apps measure the total number of app installs, the average cost to acquire a user, the average lifetime customer value of a user, the average customer rating in the app store, and the number of daily/weekly/monthly active users.
Additionally, an app might measure other metrics specific to that app’s use case. For example, a freemium-model gaming app might measure the percentage of users who buy in-game items with cash, versus those who watch extra ads to earn items.
Individual metrics support the app developer’s larger business-level goals, which are described by KPIs. For example, a business-level KPI might be to “increase App A’s quarterly profits by 20 percent.” Multiple metrics will feed into that KPI, such as reducing the cost to acquire a customer, while making changes to increase the average amount of money that customers spend inside the app.