When it comes to the task of marketing a mobile app, there is certainly no shortage of statistics, ratios and other performance indicators available with which to analyze your app marketing strategies, from advertising, to organic social & app store optimization to even your in-app user experience. All of this choice begs the question:

Which metrics are the best to use for my app marketing strategy?

The short answer is that it depends, but the good news is that the process of selecting the right metric for your app marketing strategy is pretty straightforward. Read on to learn about:

  • The difference between metrics and KPIs
  • Choosing the right KPI for your app
  • Choosing the right KPI for your app marketing strategy

Metrics vs KPIs

Metrics are performance indicators, or data points that you use to figure out what’s going on across each of your channels and segments. Just like squares and rectangles, every KPI is a special kind of metric; however not every metric is a KPI. Here are some examples of regular metrics for app marketing strategies:

  • Impressions (a count of each time your ad or post is shown)
  • Reach (a count of the unique number of people who see your ad or post)
  • Clicks
  • Quality or Relevance Score (an aggregated measure of an ad’s relevance to the users it is shown to, established by platforms like Facebook, Adwords or Bing Ads. These scores are based on an advertiser’s content and ad user engagement; FYI these scores can impact your ad reach and also how much you pay to show ads)
  • CPM (cost per thousand ad impressions)
  • CTR (click through rate)
  • Cost
  • CPC (cost per click)
  • Average Screens Per Session (can sometimes be a KPI if tied to revenue)
  • Average Sessions Per User (can sometimes be a KPI if tied to revenue)

KPI stands for key performance indicator, and is a recognition reserved only for the particular metric(s) that is/are most important to your mobile app marketing plan, depending on…