In-App Revenue and Reviews: Two Forces Combined

User sentiment and their inclination to buy something go hand-in-hand. This may sound obvious to some, but it's crucial when analyzing digital behavior around your brand. With Similarweb’s App Intelligence, there are two reports that get us exactly what we need in this regard: Revenue and Reviews. Using them in tandem will allow you to diagnose revenue trends and also assist with your competitive advantage. 

The Value of Revenue and Reviews

The Revenue report gives a quantitative view of monetization. It helps you understand where money is coming from and how effectively users are monetized. Through this, you can forecast potential revenue, and of course, benchmark your app’s performance to the competition. 

Note: Keep in mind that Revenue is estimated for the selected period. It includes paid apps, in-app purchases and in-app subscriptions, but it is only calculated for apps generating over $5K per month. It excludes ads, services, and physical product sales.

Meanwhile, the Reviews report gives a qualitative and sentiment-driven view of user experience. It allows you to understand how users feel, why they churn or upgrade, and what competitors are doing better/worse. 

Their Combined Insight 

Used together, these reports give both financial performance and the user voice behind it. Revenue provides what’s happening in terms of numbers, growth, and efficiency. Reviews show why it’s happening with user perception, feature feedback, and sentiment shifts. 

Together, they give a full feedback loop:

1. Revenue shows the outcome.
2. Reviews explain the drivers.
3. Both combined guide strategy (feature prioritization, pricing models, market expansion).

Let’s check out some examples of their synergy…

1. You might see a revenue spike in the Revenue Report. When you have, you can then check Reviews to see if users are praising a new feature, or if a pricing change is being accepted.
2. You might notice drop or ARPU decline. If you do, you can go to the Reviews report to find any negative sentiment about pricing, bugs, or any dissatisfaction with your offerings.
3. Using the two in tandem allows for strong competitive benchmarking. You can see where rivals are earning more and check if user sentiment explains their advantage.
    

Read on to discover two actionable workflows combining both reports…

Workflow 1: Diagnose Revenue Trends via Reviews

1. Go to the Revenue report, and look for a revenue spike or dip for your app. This could be a sharp change in either Monthly Revenue or your Monthly ARPU. In the example below, note how we see an almost 20% increase in ARPU during May 2025 for ChatGPT.
   
    
2. Cross-check in the Reviews report during the period in which you notice a change.
   • If you’re seeing a spike in Revenue or ARPU, what are users saying? What do they like?
   • If you’re seeing a dip, look to see why. Are complaints rising about price or bugs? Are there missing features?

• In this example with ChatGPT, adjusting the time frame to May of 2025 and filtering for positive sentiments, we can see how often people are commenting on the personable aspect of the AI chatbot. One person even goes as far to say that it’s like their partner. This would be noteworthy for OpenAI, and something they would want to capitalize on.

3. Use these insights to confirm whether the revenue change is sustainable or a short-term anomaly.
    
4. Adjust your roadmap accordingly. You can double down on praised features (like in this example, ChatGPT’s friendliness) or fix revenue-hurting issues fast.
   
    

Workflow 2: Competitive Benchmarking & Strategy

1. Use Revenue to benchmark your app vs. top competitors in your category. In this example, if you’re Wall Street Journal, how does the New York Times compare? Note that while the Monthly ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) is higher for the WSJ – which is great – NYT still has an overall higher Monthly Average Revenue. Even in that spike in May 2025, while WSJ saw a bigger percentage increase, they weren’t able to surpass NYT in Monthly Revenue.  

2. Then open Reviews Report for the same competitors:
   • Do they have better monetization (higher ARPU) because users value certain features?
   • Are their negative reviews signaling upcoming weaknesses you can exploit?

• In this example, we’ve filtered to May 2025 – the month in which we see a spike in Monthly Revenue. Sure, NYT has many more reviews in general, but the fact that WSJ only received 1 is pretty telling. NYT only has a 35% positive ratio, but it’s better than WSJ’s 4.2%.

• Continuing with this research, if we filter for the positive reviews for NYT, we can see the potential reason why people are still flocking more to NYT’s app than WSJ’s: people find their reporting to be fair, well-written, and overall informational. In the screenshot below, you’ll see the highlights in where users are stating such claims. Reviewing how NYT writes their content, as well as the kind of content they publish, might be helpful for WSJ as we see that users are happy with their articles.

3. Build a competitive playbook:
    
   • Emulate successful monetization strategies backed by positive sentiment.
   • Capitalize on competitors’ pain points (e.g., complaints about ads or pricing).
      

Key Takeaways

• Revenue = the “what” (hard numbers)
  • Use this to benchmark for different markets
  • You'll find any monthly spikes or dips in revenue
  • Analyze ARPU, the Average Revenue Per User, to understand user stickiness
• Reviews = the “why” (user perception)
  • Pinpoint and understand positive and/or negative brand sentiment
  • Find feedback tied to promotions, pricing, or product releases
  • Discover churn signals coming from user feedback
• Together = the “so what” (actionable strategy for product, marketing, and monetization).