What is success for branded apps?
Success is something we all strive for as individuals, and as businesses, but more often than not, this success has been defined by years and years of legacy. Making money equals success. Getting a promotion equals success. Increasing conversions equals success.
But for mobile applications, as one of the youngest mainstream media, success has yet to be truly be defined. For games developers it is ‘relatively’ simple. Downloads equal revenue, and ultimately, profit (although not necessarily sustainable). But what for brands? Many brands have launched themselves into the app foray without the slightest consideration for what they want to achieve. Downloads is often banded around as an indicative measure of success, but what do downloads really show?
Well I have taken it upon myself to explore this and many other success metrics for mobile apps, hopefully with a view to enlightening an industry which in my eyes, is being tarnished by applications without success metrics defined, and thus affecting the quality of the ouput. I have established 2 core categories; primary and secondary.
Primary metrics
- Frequency of visits – As with all of these metrics, frequency does not just mean ‘as many/much as possible’. But dependant upon the use case of your application, frequency may be related to ‘times a day’ or even ‘time of day’. If your application is a utility which you expect people to use every day before they go to work, success may be defined as ’5 visits per working week’. Alternatively, your app may focus on targeting a specific activity which happens infrequently throughout a month, but you want to encourage this activity to occur more frequently using the application. This is where this ties into the next metric.
- Length of engagement per visit – So how long do you expect people to use your application for per visit? As long as possible I am sure, but does a longer engagement translate to success? Smartphone owners spend on average 45 minutes a day within apps, so how much of that time do you want to capture? The thing is, applications serve a variety of purposes, but roughly speaking, they are either used to save time, or waste time. If your app has been designed to save time, you will judge your success on shorter engagement times, whereas for apps designed to waste time, you would more than likely want to see people spending a much longer time with your content.
- Active users – Combine frequency of visits and length of engagement per visit, and you land upon this ‘uber-metric’. Active users are your ultimate sweet spot. These are the people using your application exactly as you wish for it to be used. And whether that means less than 30 seconds every day, or 45 minutes once a month, this engagement is real success. With this particular metric however, you cannot pass judgement until a good few months after it has launched. As research has shown, between 20-30 days after an app has been downloaded, the number of people actually using your application can drop as low as 5%. So just because you have a lot of active users within the first few days, sustaining this is what really counts. In the long run, this could become DAUs (Daily) or MAUs (Monthly), dependant upon what your app intends to achieve.
- Downloads – Downloads supposedly equal reach. To a degree this is true, but 1 million downloads does not mean you are ‘reaching’ 1 million people. Obviously the more downloads you have, the higher propensity for engaged users, and thisroughly translates to 10%, but will rely on your application being truly compelling and useful.
- App store rating – Many people will question as to why this is determined to be a secondary metric. It is actually very simple. What people say is very different from what people do. Actions speak louder than words. You get the gist. Anyone can review an app, and assuming it is free, this means any relevant smartphone user can download it and pass judgement. This could be people who have no interest in your brand, and therefore think your content is irrelevant, or, dare I say it, the ratings are tampered with by a competitor brand. Although this may be a small minority, the quality of reviews is incredibly varied, and therefore should be taken with a pinch of salt.