We’ve been beating the drum about the dying Web (here and here). In this new app economy, the metrics by which to measure success are changing rapidly and they are much, much, MUCH different than the metrics you’d traditionally use to gauge marketing efforts and conversion rates online.

It’s an increasingly free-to-play (F2P) world where most apps are free to download. But, one of the many lessons game developers have taught us is that in-app purchases are where the big bucks are.

To compete, you need to understand your customer lifetime values (cLTV), which is just a fancy term for revenue. By that, we mean that any business decision you’d normally make based on revenue calculations should include some idea of cLTV. By understanding your cLTV early, you can determine:

• Who your most profitable users are
• How to acquire more of them (for less)
• How to best fine-tune your app experiences to cater to and optimally monetize these high-value users

Kontagent is hosting its first-ever conference–Kontagent Konnect 2012–next week. The theme of the event is customer lifetime value. We caught up with Kontagent CEO Jeff Tseng to learn:

• What cLTV is, and the challenges in calculating it with regards to apps
• Why it’s so important in this new app economy
• What you’ll gain by attending Kontagent Konnect 2012*

After analyzing so much user data for so long (more than 50 billion monthly events!), Kontagent will be sharing its most recent, actionable findings with you. Jeff’s hope is that you’ll leave with a playbook for how to think about cLTV–and be able to develop, market and manage your business more profitably because of it.

See you there!

*That background noise you’re hearing is our busy office full of loud data scientists.

Related reading:
What you should consider when searching for a social and/or mobile analytics provider
Five mobile metrics that matter for SMBs

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About the author: Catherine Mylinh is a member of Kontagent’s storytelling team, where she is head of PR, brand and content marketing. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of kScope. In her former life, Catherine was a news anchor for CBS and NBC. She credits her journalism and computer science roots—she was once a programmer!—for her love of learning and writing about all things high tech. You can contact Catherine at @cat_mylinh.