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What's a Mobile SDK?
A Software Development Kit, SDK for short, is a set of pre-written tools that provide app developers functionality that they don't have to write themselves. Mobile SDKs come in a variety of flavors and offer an even wider variety of functionality. From development tools that help you write apps using Javascript to making more money, SDKs are an easy way to speed up the development of an app without having to reinvent the wheel for every feature. And, it's worth noting that most apps use at least one SDK. Be it for analytics, graphics, or mapping. Do you need to use a mobile SDK? Probably! Using pre-written code can really help speed up app development, and in some cases even offer functionality that you may not be able to get otherwise. The most common types of SDKs you'll see in most apps include: ads & monetization SDKs, analytics SDKs, and non-native development SDKs. But there are many others, like simple networking utilities, payments, notifications, and others. Which mobile SDKs should you use? Depending on your app, which types and actual SDKs you use would be different. When evaluating adding a new SDK consider how much it'll add to your app's download size, how much to you really need the functionality it offers, and how popular it is.
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What’s Keyword Competitiveness, how it’s calculated, and why it’s important to know
Keyword Competitiveness is a score between 1-100 that you can use to determine how hard it would be to break into the top results. Using Keyword Competitiveness you can more quickly identify keywords where there’s opportunity as well as forgo keywords that are out of reach. How is Keyword Competitiveness Calculated We’ve studied the algorithms Apple and Google use to rank apps for search results and identified the top components that are used, which include downloads, ranks, ratings, app’s age and update frequency, keyword placement, and a few others. We then bring all of those numbers together for the top 10 apps in every keyword using our proprietary algorithm, resulting in a score that can be compared across keywords. Why Is Keyword Competitiveness Important When researching for keywords it’s common to look for keywords that are popular and get more searches, but those also tend to be more competitive. If your app’s doesn’t meet the performance requirements for a keyword optimizing for it won’t do you any good. When optimizing it’s important to be realistic. If a keyword you’re interested in is out of reach find one that isn’t, even if it’s less popular. Use it as a way to increase downloads and when you’re closer go back to optimizing for the competitive keyword.
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What is Churn and how is it calculated?
Churn is a critical metric for apps monetizing with subscriptions! Subscriptions are a great way to grow a steady revenue stream - as long as you get more subscribers you'll make more money. Churn, on other hand, is a standard KPI used to measure how many (and how fast) subscribers are leaving and hurting your bottom line. What's churn? Subscriptions that have been cancelled as a percent of total active subscriptions. Daily Churn is the sum of Cancellations over the last 31 days (including the current day) divided by the Active Subscriptions for the day, 30 days before the starting day. Example: Churn on April 30th = Cancellations from March 31st to April 30th (including the starting and ending days for a total of 31 days) divided by the Active Subscriptions on March 31st. Let's say you have 315 cancellations and 730 active subscriptions. The churn calculation is: (315 / 730 * 100) = 43.15% Monthly Churn: The sum of Cancellations within the month (from the first to last day) divided by the Active Subscriptions on the 1st day of the month. Example: April's Monthly Churn = Cancellations from April 1st to April 30th divided by the Active Subscriptions on April 1st Let's say you have 112 cancellations and 489 active subscriptions. The churn calculation is: (112 / 489 * 100) = 22.90% Minimizing your churn is extremely important when monetizing with apps. Learn more about subscription churn.