Sales & Trends
“Sales & Trends” focuses on the revenue side: how many people bought, how much revenue, and the trend. It’s the “report card” for evaluating versions and marketing campaigns.
Core Sales Metrics
| Metric | Meaning |
|---|---|
| App Units | Download/sale count |
| In-App Purchase Units | IAP/subscription purchase count |
| Sales | Total sales (all purchases) |
| Proceeds | Revenue after Apple commission |
| Trial conversion | Trial-to-paid conversion |
Distinguish two concepts: Sales is the total users paid; Proceeds is what you actually receive after Apple’s 30% (or 15%) commission. Use Proceeds for financial forecasting closer to real payout.
Reading Trends
- By time: daily/weekly/monthly trends to spot seasonality and growth inflection points.
- By version: whether revenue rose around a version release — evaluate feature/pricing changes.
- By region: each country/region’s sales contribution to guide localization investment.
- By product: separate app download revenue from IAP/subscription revenue to understand the monetization mix.
Evaluating Campaigns & Versions
Example: launch a “30% off annual” subscription campaign.
- Record the 2-4 week baseline before the campaign.
- Observe subscription purchases and revenue during the campaign.
- Compare after: new subscriptions, conversion, and cancellation anomalies.
- Conclude and document for the next campaign.
Example: release v2.0.
- Compare downloads and retention between v1.x and v2.0.
- Watch for “downloads up but retention down” bubble growth.
- Combine with crashes and diagnostics to judge stability.
Data-Driven Growth Loop
- Set a goal: e.g. “subscription revenue +20% next quarter”.
- Decompose: conversion rate, average revenue, and retention are the three levers.
- Run experiments: pricing, screenshots, trial strategy, feature iteration.
- Review metrics: validate results with sales & trends.
Read sales with “stock vs increment”: a single-day revenue rise may be a campaign pulse; only when both “new-user first purchase” and “returning-user renewal” are healthy is revenue growth sustainable.
Self-Check List
- Can distinguish Sales from Proceeds
- Can filter sales by time / version / region / product
- Established “before/after comparison” for recent versions or campaigns
- Understands the revenue mix (downloads vs IAP vs subscriptions)
FAQ
- Revenue and download trends diverge — normal? Yes. More downloads doesn’t mean more revenue (free apps); focus on IAP/subscription conversion.
- Is there data delay? Sales data also lags; leave a sufficient observation window before drawing conclusions.
- How to evaluate a pricing change? Compare purchase volume, revenue, and cancellation across the same period before/after, controlling other variables.
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