Metrics and KPIs for Increasing User Engagement for OTT Apps

Time and again, user engagement has proved to be a key factor for determining a customer’s journey with an OTT app. With customer preferences going through constant changes, it becomes increasingly challenging for OTT apps to deliver unique experiences that keep users coming back. In the next few minutes, you will get to know about some important benchmarks/KPIs for maintaining an engaging user experience for viewers using OTT registration apps.

User Onboarding Metrics

Creating an engaging streaming experience starts with user onboarding. Onboarded users are most likely to stay engaged and build long-term brand loyalty. During this initial phase, it is important that you know their interests and preferences. Top OTT platforms ask users to select favorites from a list of genres during onboarding. It helps to deliver a more relevant experience tailored to match each user’s preferences.

Install to Registration Rate 

The install to registration rate is an important metric as you need to keep track of what percentage of users installing the app actually create an account  on your streaming app.  Closely monitor the install to registration rate to optimize the user onboarding process.

Average Time to Register

This is another important user onboarding metric. How long does it take for a new user to register and log in to your app? Time to register is a good indicator of the value a new user sees in your app. If it takes quite a long time to register, users may quit from registering or even uninstall your OTT app.

Average App Time Load

The average time it takes for your app to launch or load on your user’s device is a crucial factor in determining whether your end-users are going to use your OTT app or opt for your competitors. 

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) 

CAC is the total cost of acquiring a new customer including your sales and marketing costs divided by the number of customers acquired. This metric helps calibrate your investment and ensure you’re making the right decisions for your service’s growth.

Streaming giants like Disney+, for example, ran over 5,000 national TV spots, throwing billions into new ad spend just to acquire new customers and build their subscriber base.

A Few Tips

• We would recommend greeting first-time users with a welcome message on first app launch. This would aid in making them feel special and make the user onboarding experience personal.

• Push users to register via an in-app message that focuses on the various benefits of subscription or highlight popular content of your OTT app.

• It is advisable to offer an introductory product tour that covers the most important actions users generally take inside the app like searching for content in the search bar, finding relevant content, etc.

User Engagement Metrics

We have entered the century of personalization and OTT apps are no different. High end streaming services spend millions in driving personalized user engagement campaigns for driving higher viewership. It’s the foundation for better user retention in the long term. For driving better user engagement in streaming apps, personalized streaming recommendations both via in-app notifications along with external channels like push notifications and email messages is a must. 

It’s important for you to make your onboarded users feel important and this can be done through user engagement techniques that aid personalizing the on-demand video streaming journey of the newly onboarded user. During this initial phase, it is important that you know their interests and preferences. 

Click-Through Rate

Click-through rates (CTRs) help measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Are your messages generating the response you intended? Are they prompting users to open your app?

Session Frequency

The average number of monthly app launches for your app helps in gauging how often users come back to your app. According to research, 16 is the average app launched per user in a month.

Start Time and Speed of Startup

The time that it takes for the video stream to start playing once you hit on the play button and the speed that it takes to start is a crucial metric to keep in mind if you want your OTT business to thrive.  

Error Rate

The rate at which playback failures occur during video streaming. Higher the error rate higher is the chance of your customers uninstalling your app and opting for your competitors.

Average Video Bitrate

Average video bitrate refers to the average amount of data transferred per unit of time. It reflects the rate at which the consumer is viewing and the bitrate shifts that may arise. OTT platforms should be able to allocate a higher bitrate to the complex segments of media files and a lower bitrate to the simpler ones.

Also Read: Adaptive Bitrate Vs Multi-bitrate Streaming – What’s the Difference?

A Few Tips

• It’s good to send in-app notifications to your viewers with content recommendations after they install and launch the app

• Personalize the streaming experience of your users by helping them discover new content with video previews 

• Use in-app notifications to inform an onboarded user about the benefits of a subscription plan on first launch. 

• Run personalized push notifications or email campaigns 

Also Read: Essential UX/UI Features for OTT Apps

Wrapping Up

There’s no singular path to driving user engagement for video streaming apps.  OTT giants like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime have taken this principle seriously and they continually keep improving their user engagement metrics/KPIs for their OTT apps based on user behavior and data.

For more information on why you should launch your OTT app, read our blog 3 Reasons to Launch your Own Branded OTT Streaming App.

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