What are daily active users (DAU)?

Daily active users (DAU) is a key performance indicator (KPI) that measures the total number of unique users that engage with an app or website within a 24-hour window. 

DAU is essential for evaluating user engagement and understanding the health of your app. In general, the higher your number of DAUs, the better. However, DAU alone cannot be observed in isolation. It should be analyzed alongside other metrics like session lengths, feature usage, and conversion rates to identify whether users are engaging meaningfully or simply logging in without interacting with core features.

DAU is also integral to calculating other key metrics, including user retention, lifetime value (LTV), and average revenue per daily active user (ARPDAU). When combined, these metrics give a holistic view of a product’s financial health and growth potential.

To calculate DAU, define what constitutes an “active user” for your app. This definition will vary based on your app’s goals and use case. For example, a gaming app might classify a user as active if they start or complete a game level, while an e-commerce app might consider a user active if they add an item to the cart or make a purchase. 

Next, measure unique user activity over a 24-hour period. It is recommended that you use a rolling 24-hour window instead of a fixed day to account for time zone differences and ensure that you capture all users accurately. 

Once you’ve defined the action and collected the data, sum up the number of unique users that performed the action within that time frame. Each user is only counted once, even if they complete multiple actions.

For example, let’s assume that you’ve defined active action is “clicked a button or swiped,” and on a given day:

• User 1 clicks a button twice and swipes it once.
• User 2 logs in but doesn’t interact further.
• User 3 clicks a button once and swipes twice.

In this case, only users 1 and 3 meet the criteria for an active user. Thus, your DAU for that day would be 2.

Monthly active users (MAU) measure the number of unique users interacting with an app over 30 days. By combining DAU and MAU, you can calculate the DAU/MAU ratio, also known as "stickiness," which indicates the percentage of monthly users who engage daily. 

A higher DAU/MAU ratio suggests that a significant portion of monthly users return to the app daily, reflecting strong user loyalty and habitual use. For example, a DAU/MAU ratio of 30% means that 30% of your monthly users engage every day.

While DAU is a valuable metric, it has certain drawbacks:

• Inconsistent definitions : The definition of an "active user" can differ significantly between companies, making DAU less reliable for benchmarking or comparing engagement across different apps or industries.
• Risk of becoming a vanity metric: While a rising DAU might look impressive, it can be misleading if driven by superficial actions like logins without meaningful interactions. High DAU numbers may suggest growth, but without insights into how users interact with essential features, it’s difficult to determine if the product delivers real value.
• Limited insight into user sentiment: DAU does not indicate user sentiment. Users might be engaging out of necessity rather than genuine interest. Without qualitative metrics like user feedback, assessing whether users are satisfied, frustrated, or at risk of churning is challenging.

To boost DAU, you must implement strategies that keep existing users engaged, reactivate lapsed users, and attract new ones. Here are some recommended tactics:

Leverage personalized push notifications and in-app messaging

Delivering contextually relevant notifications is critical to driving user engagement. Push notifications are ideal for re-engaging users by delivering timely updates, while in-app messaging is perfect for guiding users through new features or offering exclusive content.

You can segment users based on behavior, preferences, or in-app activity by utilizing Adjust Audiences, part of Engage. This allows you to create highly personalized messages that drive meaningful engagement. 

Implement deep linking

Deep linking is a powerful tool for creating a seamless user experience. When implemented correctly, deep links  direct users to specific content or location within an app, removing friction and boosting engagement. For example,  deep links can be used in  email campaigns to guide users directly to a relevant section of the app rather than dropping them on the home screen. This reduces drop-off rates and increases the likelihood of users engaging with specific features, boosting overall engagement and DAU. 

Using Adjust’s TrueLink, you can create dynamic deep links that provide users with a consistent experience across multiple channels and ensure that each user journey is personalized and smooth.

Gamify the experience

Introduce gamification elements, like daily rewards, challenges, or leaderboards, to make your app more engaging. For example, daily login rewards or achievement badges can drive users to open the app regularly, thereby boosting DAU.

Optimize the onboarding experience

A seamless onboarding experience is crucial for converting new users into daily active ones. Simplify the registration process, offer guided tutorials, and emphasize the app’s core value quickly. If users understand the benefits of your app early on, they are more likely to engage regularly.

Improve core features based on user feedback

Regularly analyze user feedback to identify pain points or popular features and invest in improving these elements to keep users coming back. 

Create events and limited-time offers

Introduce special events, seasonal promotions, or time-sensitive challenges to entice users to return frequently. Live events, such as virtual meetups or limited-time content releases, can add excitement and urgency, encouraging users to log in daily.

While DAU is a critical metric, evaluating overall app performance requires looking at additional metrics such as session frequency, duration, retention, and churn. Together, these metrics help identify high-value users, clarify how they interact with the app, and determine their impact on revenue growth.

Adjust’s Datascape is an advanced analytics platform that centralizes data from multiple sources into a single, intuitive dashboard. This integration enables real-time tracking and visualization of metrics like DAU, session length, and retention rates, providing a holistic view of campaign channel, and app performance. With all data consolidated in one place, Datascape simplifies complex data analysis, making it easier for app developers and marketers to derive actionable insights and make faster decisions around where to allocate budget and optimize for growth.

Find out how Adjust can help you measure and optimize your app’s DAU and overall campaign performance—request a demo today.