Our downloads look amazing but revenue is flat. Retention is decent but LTV keeps dropping.
Starting to think we’re tracking the wrong things. What metrics actually tell you if your app business is healthy long-term?
Time to conversion saved me from throwing money at users who never buy.
If someone takes over 14 days for their first purchase, they probably won’t convert. Track how fast your best users buy and use that as your benchmark.
Also watch repeat purchases. One-time buyers are nice, but repeat customers are where you actually make money.
Monthly cash flow trends matter more than individual metrics.
Revenue per user cohort saved my ass from terrible decisions. Track what each monthly group brings in over 6-12 months.
Learned this the hard way with a productivity app. Downloads kept going up but each new batch of users was worth less than the last. We were just grabbing cheap users who’d bail.
Watch your payback period too. If it takes over 90 days to get back what you spent acquiring users, you’re screwed. Every app I’ve seen that ignores this burns cash like crazy.
LTV dropping? Either your product sucks now or you’re getting the wrong users. Check if your acquisition channels shifted recently.
Focus on monthly recurring revenue. Combine that with churn rate for different user segments to see what’s truly important.
CAC to LTV ratio cuts through the noise. Spending $10 to get a user worth $8? That’s broken math. Check retention by channel. Some bring sticky users, others dump cheap traffic that disappears fast. Day 1, 7, and 30 retention tell you everything. If Day 1 is under 25%, fix onboarding first. Forget vanity metrics. Focus on revenue per active user and payback period.