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Understanding KPIs
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. There are many KPIs which determine how effective a given application is. Some are going to be more telling than others, and getting the balance right is essential. This brief writing will go over several KPIs which are worth carefully monitoring to determine best operational effectiveness.
Cloud application monitoring is a key component of many businesses today, and the more efficiently you can manage your apps, the more effectively they’ll perform. Different KPIs will have different relevance for different businesses.
Downloads
This is a pretty obvious KPI, but it bears quick examination. How often is your application downloaded, and is that number increasing on a regular basis? You should see download rates steadily increasing as your application becomes more effective going forward.
Open Rate
Downloads mean nothing if the app goes unopened. Why someone would download your app without opening it is a hard question to answer; but it’s not uncommon. Also, how often an app is opened is something worth knowing. This can be a very revelatory KPI.
How Many New Users Over “X” Period
How many users you have, and how many users you had, can be a key indicator of performance. Public Relations can play a big role in acquisition of new users, meaning new trends in PR must be monitored; but then again so can application design. There are a lot of factors related to marketing that will drive up users, but there are also factors related to software performance.
When you’ve got good marketing conjoined to qualitative software, you should expect to see your number of users increase. Depending on the size of your business, this number will increase more or less over certain periods of time. The more high-profile your outreach methods, the more likely it is that new users will be acquired over a long, rather than short, period.
The DAU, Or Daily Active Users Rate
This is a different DAU than the DOW-Jones economic indicator. The Daily Active User rate is an essential one for your business. You need to know how many people interact with what you’ve produced on a daily basis. Again, this will differ per business. Some apps are designed to be be used daily, others have been put together for more sporadic use.
The MAU, or Monthly Active Users Rate
How often users use your app in a month can be as relevant in terms of describing effectiveness as DAU. MAU rates may differ broadly between apps. Depending on what your app does, this may be a more revelatory indicator than the DAU.
Retention Of Clientele
Do you keep users? For how long? What’s their average span of use? This is an important KPI. If you only gain users for a few hours or days, then their numbers may not matter. If you gain them and lose them quickly, then their method of acquiring your app may be suspect. Retention is a very revealing KPI.
Ratio Of Uninstalls
Tinder is on the downswing in many respects. The app has become overrun with adware and secondary features which many original users don’t like. Accordingly, they uninstall it. The ratio of uninstalls your app experiences can show you where new changes are performing well, and where they’re upsetting clientele. You can’t please everyone, but ideally, good changes produce fewer uninstalls.
Managing Applications
Solutions like Loggly help provide diverse businesses a framework through which metric acquisition and log monitoring can be more seamlessly managed. There are a lot of KPIs out there, and some are going to be more relevant than others. Finding which ones are best for your business can be difficult, but the payoff is worth the cost of pursuing them.
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