Cash in on the best KPIs for retail app discovery

For most marketers, there’s no question that you need to measure. After all, how are you going to improve app discovery, conversion, and engagement without knowing where to put your ad spend? But what to measure… that becomes a little more complicated. Especially for retailers, there’s acronym soup of all the things you can track — what items people click on, how they browse, what they add to their cart, when engagement drops off, CPI, CPC, CPA… it’s dizzying enough to make a head spin, but you know TUNE — we’ve got your back!

Here are three of essential KPIS for retail app discovery. To jump straight into KPIs for conversion, engagement and retention, download the tip sheet, “Shopping the Best Mobile Marketing KPIs: The Most Important Metrics for Retail Apps,” or meet us right back here on the blog next week. 

3 Important KPIs for Retail App Discovery

1. App downloads

This is the most foundational—and broadest—potential KPI for your campaigns. To accurately measure app installs across app, mobile web, and desktop web, you’ll need a tool like Attribution Analytics. Keep in mind that not only will you want to know how many users downloaded your app, but you’ll also want to use that information to see if audience segments share certain attributes and which advertising partners hit it out of the park, so you can tailor future ad spend accordingly.

2. Cost per install (CPI or CPA)

Along with each app download, you’ll want to keep an eye on cost per install (often abbreviated as CPI or CPA). Cost per install is a measure of the cost to a marketer for each user that installs their mobile app. By focusing on the right mix of paid and organic acquisition, marketers can reduce their overall cost per install. In fact, we’ve found that for every paid install, an app gets another 1.5 users organically.

2. App store category rank

Take it from the major national retailer Staples; after all, if a traditionally print retailer can dominate digital, you can too. Their mobile marketing lead, Gwen Murray, told us in a recent webinar, “Being featured in the app store is a big win… We see that when we are featured in the app store, we get a 2.5X increase in downloads.”

And industry data backs it up. More than 65% of app installs come from customers searching app stores. Ensure your app is discoverable by measuring your app store rank with a tool like App Store Analytics. Want to go platinum status? To reach top 10 in a category, apps need to rank in the top 10 for 60 to 100 search terms.

Creating a full-funnel mobile marketing plan

App discovery is just the beginning. To acquire users who drive value beyond just the install, you’ll want to track KPIs through conversion, engagement and retention. To get KPIs for each stage of the funnel and real-life examples, check out “Shopping the Best Mobile Marketing KPIs: The Most Important Metrics for Retail Apps.”

Now get to measuring; you’ve got it in the bag!