Essential KPIs for Gaming App Measurement

Your role as an app publisher does not end after it has been rolled out. You still need to market it to promote its success. As you do so, you also need to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts as well as the performance of your app. There is a wide variety of KPIs available for this. Hence, coming up with a beneficial combination of the same can be an overwhelming task. This is why we have compiled a list of the essential gaming app KPIs for your guidance.

Acquisition Metrics

Before anything else, you have to win over users for your app. Today, app stores are filled with millions of apps. With gaming apps taking a large share of the same, getting people to discover your app can be challenging. Let alone getting them to install, register and grant permissions. It would help if you, therefore, tracked your ad spend and the revenue involved. Here are some of the discovery and acquisition metrics to look out for.

Effective Cost per Mile (eCPM)

This measures the amount of money earned from 1,000 impressions. It is calculated by dividing the total ad revenue by the total impressions then multiplying by a thousand. This is a simple way of evaluating your traffic and the value it has on your app.

Cost Per Install (CPI)

This is the amount spent for each new install. It is the price that you have to pay in order to acquire a new user.

Install Per Mille (IPM)

This is the number of installs achieved as a result of 1000 impressions. It is obtained by calculating the total number of installs, dividing by the total impressions, and finally multiplying by a thousand. This is a great way to measure the effectiveness of your campaign. A low IPM indicates that your ads are not that effective. You may want to re-evaluate your message and targeting.

Organic Conversion Rate

This is a percentage that measures the rate of conversion from non-paid channels. This can be press, social media, organic search, and so on. The metric can reveal opportunities for obtaining new users organically, without ad spend.

K-Factor

The K-factor will inform you of how many organic users you are winning over through users obtained from paid user acquisition campaigns. With a high k-factor, it means that your app is viral and can even enable you to reduce your ad spend on user acquisition.

Engagement Metrics

Once you have acquired users for your app, the next thing you want to understand is how they are interacting with your app. This involves measuring how they are using it, for how long, and over what period of time. By studying user behavior, you can gain insight into what they want. The goal is to end up with a loyal user base that keeps coming back to your app.

Retention Rate

This is a percentage that tells the number of gamers that return to your app within a specified period of time after the install. If your users are finding value from your app, they will repeatedly use your app, resulting in a high retention rate. It will also help you to focus your efforts on sources that bring in quality users.

Uninstall Rate

Also, the churn rate demonstrates the rate at which users are uninstalling your app within a specified number of days after installation. As you calculate your losses, you will also be able to follow up on the reasons behind uninstallations. 

Daily Active Users (DAU)

This metric gives you the number of individual users that launch the app at least once each day. This will help you understand the share of users who, after installing the game, are playing it every day. 

 Monthly Active Users (MAU)

With this, you will get to know the number of distinct users that interact with the app within a duration of thirty days. This metric gives you a better perspective of your user base and its growth than DAU.

Stickiness

Calculated by dividing DAU by MAU, stickiness tells you the number of days that users visit your app over a period of 30 days. This will give you an insight into how hooked players are to your game. A high stickiness shows that they are highly interested in your game and are therefore visiting it often.

Monetization Metrics

Retaining users for your app is good but is not enough. You also want to make money from your efforts. The previously discussed metrics still play a crucial role here as the more users you have, the more revenue you stand to make. You, therefore, need to maximize and capitalize on user behavior to monetize your app. 

Average Revenue per User (ARPU)

This is calculated from the total revenue generated divided by the total number of users over a given period. It includes money earned from all the revenue-generating app activities. It provides a better understanding of the player’s value.

Lifetime Value (LTV)

LTV refers to the revenue generated by a user over the entire duration of playing the game. It is gotten by multiplying the number of days of engagement by the average spend per day. It helps in the evaluation of ad spend to ensure that LTV outweighs the cost.

Time to First Purchase

This indicates how long, after installation, a user will take to make their first in-app purchase. It helps to determine where and when to place in-app purchases.

Share of Paying Users

This measures the percentage of gamers who make in-app purchases within a specific period from the installation time. This helps with evaluating quality users and their media sources.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

This is a crucial metric that gives you insight into how profitable your app is. It directly signifies the effectiveness of your campaigns in acquiring quality users.

Success Measurement

The above KPIs are crucial and effective in evaluating your gaming app’s success throughout its lifecycle. Nonetheless, the level of applicability of each will depend on the nature of your app and the category under which it falls. 

Still, you need to ensure that you measure data over time and do it comprehensively. You also need to study user actions and try and understand what they are prompting you to measure.

Conclusion

Launching a successful gaming app is a journey. You need to acquire users, keep them engaged in your app and finally monetize the app for financial returns. The above metrics provide a good reference point when measuring the success of your gaming app.