Over time, users now spend more time inside apps than ever before, which is a tendency that will increase over the years.
If you want to enhance your fintech app, the Time-in-App metric is the key. Although this metric only tells us a little on its own because it will depend on the context, we will see a few ways to understand more about it and how it works.
For example, you could see that they’re spending more time because they’ve found extra value in the app or because it’s taking longer because the app is difficult to use, loads slowly, or can’t easily find what they need. So, this metric will allow you to understand the user to enhance your app engagement.
Understanding the Importance of Time-in-App Metrics
With Time-in-App Metrics, you can track how long a user was in your app over a period of time. In this way, you can identify how often your app is being used and how engaged your users are in the app. Furthermore, using these metrics will allow you to measure behavior over time and give a clear view of usage patterns and trends to personalize initiatives to boost usage and further engagement.
For example, one of the Time-in-app metrics most used is Average Time-in-App. You can compare your number with the market average to know if your app is competitive or not.
Time-in-App Per User Segment
Another metric to consider is Time-in-App Per User Segment. This will help you find stability and predictability between your users. For instance, you can segment by demographics, geographic location, device, languages, and others.
Time-in-App Per Screen
Another one is Time-in-App Per Screen, which helps you declutter your UI and optimize your main navigation. In this way, you can ensure that every screen that gets added to the app continues to add value.
Key Metrics for Measuring User Engagement in FinTech Apps
If you want to know how users interact with your app and what kind of value your app provides users, the following metrics will guide your app engagement strategies:
Active Users
It measures the number of users who engage with your product or service over a specific period. You can divide them into Daily active users (DAU) or monthly active users (MAU). With this indicator, you will understand how sticky your app is.
Conversion Rate
It measures the percentage of users who become paying customers. This metric allows you to understand engagement rates. If you have a high conversion, your users see some value in your app and are willing to pay for it.
Stickiness Ratio
This metric gives you an idea of how valuable your app is to users. If you have a sticky app, you will know that it delivers a unique and memorable user experience, meaning you have a loyal following, low user churn, and high engagement. This metric focuses on the transactional value of your product and is usually caused by a unique and effortless user experience.
Churn Rate
It measures the number of users that leave an app over a period of time. While retention rate measures the percentage of users who continue engaging with an app, with churn rate, you will know the exact speed at which customers stop subscribing to your app. A high churn rate means low engagement.
The Importance of a Well-Defined App Engagement Strategy
Your goal is to get users engaged. With a well-defined app engagement strategy, you will ensure you have designed a sticky app. Just ensure you have your user engagement tactics very clearly and well-defined.
Knowing what you want from the beginning is recommended because, without a clear plan, a few failed tests can quickly diminish the motivation you need to achieve your goal.
Remember that app engagement refers to any interaction between a user and a mobile app, and the more time users spend in your app, the more content they consume, and the more screens they interact with, the more engaged they are.
Here are a few guidelines to increase engagement:
– Improve user activation by guiding users through necessary steps.
– Enhance user engagement by prioritizing a smooth and hassle-free fintech experience for users throughout their journey, eventually leading to enhanced user engagement.
– Boost feature adoption by educating users on using these features effectively, reducing any barriers or uncertainties that may hinder adoption.
– Drive conversions by encouraging on-the-fence users to take desired actions and boosting conversion rates.
11 Proven Strategies to Boost User Engagement in FinTech Apps
As you know, new competitors enter the market daily, so keeping users engaged takes work. Here are a few proven strategies to boost user engagement:
1) Design an efficient app onboarding flow: With clear steps and an intuitive onboarding process, you will deliver a positive first impression. It is important to simplify the user onboarding experience by reducing the steps to create an account and teaching through action to help users learn the primary gestures for interacting with the app.
2) Use push notifications strategically: Sharing information through push notifications will help you provide information and stay top of mind even when users don’t have your app opened. It is recommended to personalize push notifications because it will help lower the abandonment rate.
3) Boost user excitement with competitive features: Normally, users only know some of your app’s functionalities. Encourage them to try your features by highlighting some of them in your app store description, the welcome screens, and the onboarding sequence.
4) Gamify the app experience: If you want to make your app fun, social, and easy to use, gamification is the answer. You can incentivize mobile app engagement with interactive features such as challenges, progression, and achievement systems. This will help users stay consistent with exercising, saving money, interactive learning, etc.
5) Build relationships with two-way communication: Using in-app messages, you will provide real-time assistance when and where customers need it to troubleshoot issues and answer questions. Also, using in-app chat, you will build relationships through one-on-one conversations and point users to relevant features or content.
6) Emails and social media to drive engagement: This kind of communication is helpful when retargeting is your goal. For example, if you are looking to engage users outside your app, you can send a series of onboarding emails to encourage them to try your app, and in this way, you will stay top of mind.
7) Make the experience social: Social interactions are a magnet for keeping users engaged with an app. Through leaderboards, challenges, and forums, you will increase social influence. Also, you will create an in-app community, making your app a safe space while delivering an on-brand experience.
8) Deploy an omnichannel marketing experience: Omnichannel allows you to be able to communicate with users through all channels; thus, the customers will feel accompanied throughout the entire experience process, but first, you must understand your customers’ journey and identify their preferred channels at each stage.
9) Focus on your value prop from the beginning: Any engagement strategy starts with your value proposition. You must make it clear and straightforward and guarantee that your onboarding experience reinforces the message at every journey step. Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression.
10) Design a retention plan: It is vital to define how to attract, convert, engage, and retain customers well before you start and build a product engagement strategy. Mapping out user journeys will help you identify the proper marketing channels, customer touchpoints, and potential obstacles. This will maximize long-term customer retention of your app.
11) Use feedback to enhance your app: Asking customers what they like and dislike about your app and what improvements or bug fixes they want will allow you to improve your app through the real users’ experience. Take advantage of it through surveys, chatbots, or socially engaged communities.
To sum up, user engagement varies from completing onboarding to making a purchase or simply swiping through the app. For that reason, understanding the engagement metrics will help you recognize your audience’s motives and behaviors and, therefore, will help you personalize your interactions with customers and enhance engagement. Remember, app engagement is all about the user.
Get ready to take the leap and transform your app’s user experience!
Consider partnering with ThinkUp, an experienced fintech app development company that understands the intricacies of fintech mobile apps. Let us help you transform your business and stay competitive in today’s fast-paced.

