User Acquisition KPIs: What Should You Be Tracking for Your App?

How should you measure user acquisition? The more data our team has, the more significant and valuable our partners’ campaign results become.

Our growth managers at adjoe optimize and segment UA campaigns in a way that ensures we hit our partners’ goals and maintain a good scale – while gathering more campaign and user data along the way. 

And when it comes to advertising apps from various gaming verticals, there are certain user acquisition KPIs our teams track and analyze.

How We Use UA KPIs to Drive Initiatives

Larger volumes and combinations of KPI data allow our growth managers to suggest better adjoe solutions to test and implement. That’s why it’s important to provide your adjoe growth manager with both your predictive and actual KPI data. 

Data is key – when Huuge Games was looking to expand its reach on Playtime, our data analysis helped us identify the perfect opportunity to feature the publisher’s title in a holiday campaign, resulting in a 96-percent increase in US installs.

This enriched data set will ensure your growth manager can make those in-depth optimizations and reach those top-quality users, while ultimately stabilizing and boosting your revenue. 

But that’s not to say there aren’t specific UA KPIs our team looks at on a granular level when they measure campaign performance. 

They look at these three metrics to measure user acquisition.

1. Return on Ad Spend

ROAS is the cornerstone of every effective UA strategy – especially in the mobile gaming landscape, where every cent counts. ROAS is critical for sustainable growth; it’s the key focus from the outset of any campaign.

Our UA products demand a comprehensive view of ROAS from Day 1 to Day 30; our team recognizes that the impact of our campaigns on KPIs might unfold over time. For adjoe campaigns, there are no specific timeframes of when the user is rewarded, so return on investment can continue to compound over time.

ROAS D1/D3 

Early cohort performance is crucial to track during the initial stages following the launch of the campaign. For partners monetizing mainly with ads, the first 24 hours of data can already give our team a strong indication of the campaign’s longer-term performance. 

For those who monetize mainly through in-app purchases, Day 3 ROAS is also a good first indicator of performance. This is why Day 1/Day 3 ROAS is our initial checkpoint; it allows us to assess campaigns early and make quick strategy adjustments as necessary for optimal performance.

ROAS D7

We consider this metric the most important one for long-term successful growth. This stage is essential for refining our growth plan and implementing targeted product recommendations after the insights taken from ROAS D1/D3.

ROAS D30 

We take our findings from one month’s performance to establish the quality of the audience, especially for casual games. This allows us to establish a well-rounded performance assessment and plan our strategy going forward. 

ROAS D30 is also essential for long-term UA planning. Evaluating monthly performance allows our team to build a strategy for quarters to come – to decide on budgets, channel investments, and the overall mix of channels for UA.

This extended 30-day timeframe is crucial – especially for event-based campaigns, where user motivation and consequently ROAS can grow over longer periods as users progress and accumulate rewards for reaching new levels. 

We also continuously improve the ways we motivate users’ long-term engagement, making D30 KPIs even more important to track.

2. In-App Retention 

Growth managers at adjoe also look at an app’s stickiness. Without understanding user retention rate, it’s hard to know where an app really stands in terms of user experience. 

Day 7 and Day 14 cohorts give a good indication of whether a segment is a compatible user pool. Retention metrics are a large driving factor for ROAS; if users spend more time in an app, they are more likely to make in-app purchases or engage with in-app ads. 

Just like ROAS, user retention, with adjoe’s unique campaign format, often increases over time as users find more reasons to stay engaged – whether it’s reaching a new level for a bigger reward or hitting a reward cap in other titles.

Since many scenarios may lead to a lift in retention rate, it’s important to track and provide your growth manager with the full scope of KPIs. This way, you can assess what might work for future strategies.

3. Average Revenue per User

Shortened to “ARPU”, average revenue per user is an essential UA KPI for understanding the quality of the average user acquired and how much they spend in a certain app. 

It’s one of the key metrics to measure user acquisition for game publishers. It demonstrates how much revenue the app is generating, on average, from each user over a given time. This metric is also helpful in evaluating which monetization methods generate the most revenue for their app over different time periods. 

adjoe employs a sophisticated targeting strategy that combines demographic data with device usage patterns to identify users who are most likely to engage and spend within your apps. 

That’s why we need to track ARPU closely. This approach ensures we’re not just reaching a broad audience but targeting quality users who match the profile of high spenders in your category.

How Can You Get the Most from Your Campaigns?

To maximize the effectiveness of your partnership with adjoe and ensure you surpass your KPI goals, follow these best practices:

1. Share all user acquisition KPIs: Provide your growth manager with comprehensive data on all three essential KPIs, broken down by days and platforms (iOS and Android). These details are crucial for accurate campaign analysis – particularly as the mechanics differ significantly between time-based and event-based campaigns.

2. Reevaluate KPIs when necessary: Be open to reassessing your KPIs. Traditional KPIs used for incentive traffic or video platforms may not align with adjoe’s unique ad solutions. Our growth managers can offer tailored advice on optimizing your strategy as we understand your precise user acquisition KPIs across platforms and cohorts.

3. Analyze your reports regularly: Maintain a routine of analyzing reports – independently or with adjoe’s support – at both the campaign and SDK levels. Consistent tracking and collaboration with adjoe ensure you can continuously optimize your campaigns’ performance.

4. Participate in product testing: Embrace a proactive test-and-learn approach. adjoe continuously develops new solutions; by participating in alpha-testing you gain a headstart over others in the market. Our key partners receive early access to new products and win a competitive edge in acquiring high-quality users.

5. Leverage QBRs and strategic insights: adjoe’s top partners benefit from Quarterly Business Reviews, in which they receive regular strategic reports and actionable insights. These resources offer guidance on scaling opportunities and refining growth strategies in the competitive landscape of mobile gaming.

A Targeted Approach to Growing Apps

Knowing which user acquisition KPIs to track and really understanding how you can use this data to optimize your strategy is the crucial first step. 

But as the digital landscape evolves – particularly with shifts in privacy norms and AI – our team’s focus on targeted user acquisition has become even more crucial. 

The user targeting technologies we have built at adjoe are future-proof. They allow us to identify and target your perfect user based on not just their age and gender, but the very way they install and interact with apps on their devices.

It’s with these granular insights that our growth managers can constantly adapt and fine-tune their strategies to ensure your campaigns remain effective and competitive and your app continues to meet its growth targets.