Been tracking downloads and DAU for months but our revenue keeps fluctuating wildly.
Starting to think these numbers don’t tell the real story about whether we’re actually building something sustainable.
What metrics do you focus on that actually correlate with long-term business health?
Check your organic growth and repeat purchases.
If users aren’t inviting friends or buying again without ads, you’ve got a product problem. Paid growth just masks this.
I ran campaigns for a shopping app once. Downloads looked amazing, revenue was solid, but we paused ads for two weeks and everything collapsed. Nobody actually loved the product enough to stick around.
Now I track how much revenue comes from users who’ve been around 90+ days. That number shows if you’re building habits or just burning cash on ads.
I track payback period on user acquisition spend and MRR growth rate.
If it takes over 60 days to break even on user acquisition, either my targeting is off or the app has issues.
MRR growth rate shows if the business model actually works. It smooths out those revenue spikes you mentioned.
RPU and retention cohorts tell the real story. Track what users spend in their first 30 days, then watch how many stay each month. Revenue might bounce around, but if RPU’s climbing and month 3 retention stays solid, you’re growing. Downloads don’t matter if nobody pays or sticks around.
I look at conversion rates from free to paid. If that drops your revenue will tank soon.
Check your churn rate and customer lifetime value