Are you looking for insights on how to track and measure monthly active users (MAU) for your mobile app, website or software platform? Making sense of MAU not only gives insights into user engagement but also helps in measuring the performance of any given product. Understanding and applying this KPI (key performance indicator) is essential to boost engagement with existing users as well as attract new customers. In this blog post, we will cover everything from what exactly MAU means to strategies that can help maximize your user base’s growth. Read on if you want all the info related to Monthly Active Users!
What are Monthly Active Users?
Monthly active users (MAU) is a useful analytics concept for platforms and businesses that rely on user engagement. Measurement of MAU helps companies analyze the number of individuals who participate in their services on a month-by-month basis. This metric gives businesses that measure MAU a clearer idea of what kind of content and features have traction with their particular audience, providing more control over user experience, higher retention rates and improved decision making. The goal is to use this knowledge to tailor promotions, releases, and other types of market events toward the most active users so as to maximize engagement and loyalty from their customer base.
Why Is It Important For Startups To Track This Metric?
Startups should track Monthly Active Users (MAUs) to gain insight into the usage and engagement of their product or service. MAU data helps indicate user engagement with the app, which provides valuable feedback on whether users are returning to the app again and again or abandoning it after the first launch. By tracking MAUs, startups can measure their progress towards critical success metrics such as customer acquisition, customer retention, product improvement or feature enhancement, user growth and overall product adoption rate. Moreover, MAU metrics give startups a better understanding of user base for targeted campaigns and enable them to experiment with marketing strategies through A/B testing. Tracking Monthly Active Users is necessary for new businesses looking to pivot quickly and seize unique opportunities in their respective markets.
How do you calculate Monthly Active Users?
Calculating Monthly Active Users (MAU) is an important statistic used to measure a product’s user engagement. MAUs are typically calculated over the course of a month, usually within a thirty-day period or at the end of the specified month. Generally, calculating MAUs involves looking at the number of unique users that have logged onto the product or service during the given time period. By doing this on a monthly basis, one can determine how engaged their customers are and quickly identify any changes in activity. To become more accurate in identifying MAUs, companies often take multiple data points into account such as page views and device login information. This helps quantify how actively individuals use their product or services, allowing them to truly understand user engagement levels.
What factors affect Monthly Active Users
Here are the factors that affect monthly active users:
Engagement
User engagement is the key to any successful product, and it’s important for companies to understand how users are interacting with their product if they want to grow monthly active users. Companies should track user actions such as time spent in the app and frequency of use as indicators of engagement.
Retention
Retention is a measure of how many users are returning to use the product. Companies should track churn rates and focus on improving user experience in order to reduce churn and retain existing users.
Acquisition
Acquiring new users is an important way for companies to grow their monthly active users. This can be done through paid or organic channels, and companies should focus on understanding user acquisition channels that are cost-effective and drive the most value.
Monetization
Successful monetization strategies can be used to increase monthly active users by providing users with incentives or rewards for using the product more often. Companies should experiment with different types of monetization strategies to determine which ones are the most successful.
Promotion
Promotional activities are another way to drive more monthly active users, and they should be used strategically to ensure that they reach the right audience. Companies can use email campaigns, social media marketing, or even influencers to promote their product in order to reach new potential users.
These are just a few of the factors that can affect monthly active users, but companies should also consider other aspects such as user experience, customer service, and product updates when optimizing for growth. With the right strategy in place, companies can maximize their user base and increase monthly active users.
What are the effects of Monthly Active Users on a startup?
Here are the effects o monthly active users on a startup:
Indicator of Growth
Monthly active users (MAUs) are a key indicator of how quickly a startup is growing, as it measures the number of people who use and engage with an app or website in a given month. This metric is especially useful for startups that rely on user engagement to succeed, such as social networks. It indicates whether a startup is gaining traction and capturing new users, which can help founders and investors decide if their strategies are working or if changes need to be made.
Increased Revenue
Having a high number of monthly active users usually means more revenue for the startup. If a user has an enjoyable experience with your product, they’re more likely to purchase additional products or services. For example, if you’re a mobile gaming company, the more monthly active users you have, the more in-game purchases they may make.
Improved User Retention
Monthly active users also help startups measure user retention rates—the percentage of people who return to an app or website on a monthly basis. A high MAU indicates that users are engaged and satisfied with the product, which can lead to improved retention rates and reduce churn.
Increased Brand awareness
Having a high number of active users can also improve brand awareness as more people become aware of your product or service. This is especially important for early-stage startups who are trying to get the word out about their products and services. By increasing MAUs, you may be able to reach more people and build an audience for your product or service.
Overall, monthly active users can provide a startup with key insights into how successful they are as well as how quickly they’re growing.
What are good Monthly Active Users?
A good monthly active user rate (MAU) is typically determined by the daily active users (DAU) ratio to monthly active users, expressed as a percentage for both short and long periods. DAU/MAU gives a clear indication of user engagement, helping to measure the effectiveness of an app or game’s success. As such, a rate of 20% or higher is generally considered positive, and those over 50% are considered world-class performance. While this metric does help provide insight into user engagement, it is important to remember that other criteria may also be required to determine any application’s success or failure.
Tips to Improve Monthly Active Users
Here is how you can improve your monthly active users:
Leverage Social Media
Utilize social networks to your advantage by creating posts that are attractive, shareable, and most importantly, relevant to your target audience. Use tools like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram ads to reach potential users.
Run Contests & Giveaways
People love free stuff! Giving away prizes to your users is a great way to incentivize them to interact with your product more.
Optimize Your Product
Make sure you’re constantly optimizing and improving your product, making it easy for users to navigate and find what they’re looking for quickly.
Utilize Retargeting
Retargeting campaigns are one of the most effective ways to bring back users who have already interacted with your product.
Analyze Your Metrics
Use analytics tools like Google Analytics and Mixpanel to measure user engagement, retention rate, average session length, and more. Make sure you’re constantly reviewing your metrics so that you can make any necessary improvements.
Personalize Your Content
Create personalized content for your users to ensure that it’s relevant and useful to them. Use segmentation and targeting practices to make sure you’re sending the right message, at the right time, to the right people.
Conclusion
So what does this all mean for your app business? Getting more Monthly Active Users should be one of if not your top priority. With a steady stream of users you can then focus on driving conversions and advocating for your product internally. The path to success is getting people in the door and giving them a reason to come back, but most importantly, making it easy for them to do so.