Mobile devices, Software

The Need of Analytics for Mobile Applications

mobile-appsThe number of mobile startups is really high today and what is more, their quantity is constantly growing. Success of such mobile games as Angry Birds and Candy Crash Saga shows that mobile apps still can bring considerable profit. But the success won't come easily, and the development of an app or a game isn't enough. Has a user checked in in your geo-social app or just installed it without ever opening? Where has he or she come from? There're a lot of other questions that will be interesting for you once you've developed an app but the answers to which you won't be able to get without analytics installed in your app. It should be mentioned that even nowadays a lot of apps are released without any analytical system installed. Some have these systems installed but improperly set up. Here're the main reasons to consider installing analytical system in your app before its release:

  • It's very difficult to create a perfect app from the very beginning. You need to analyze users' behavior to improve the app;
  • You can't evaluate the success of your advertising campaign without analytical data;
  • You can miss the first data about the users within your app, which are always very important.

This is why I've decided to write an article about most popular analytical systems for mobile apps and games and the ways they can be used.

Tracking conversions from external sources

Among the most popular and useful instruments for such tracking I would name Mobile App Tracking and Appsflyer. These tools can you provide you with great information such as:

  • Tracking conversion from every channel

In order to track conversions all you need to do is to insert your referral link into every channel you'd like to track. This can be a banner in the ad network, a Facebook post or a review on a specialized site, etc. You'll see the number of users from all these channels

  • Buy ads with CPI (cost per installation) payment system

It's always better to pay for installations rather than for mere clicks. Both these systems are integrated into most popular CPI networks so you won't have to break your head about this problem.

  • Retarget users

Facebook announced the launching of the retargeting system within their networks. Surely, they want you to install their SDK, but both Mobile App Tracking and Appsflyer are on the list of FB partners so you won't need to add more code.

Analytics of users' behavior within the app

The most important factors here are the following (in my opinion):

  • Daily active users (DAU);
  • Users' paths within the app;
  • The frequency of app use;
  • Goals conversions;
  • Retention rate.

To measure these data I'd recommend either Google Analytics or Flurry. The main difference between these two tools is that GA can't track installation source for iOS, only for Android. So if you have iOS app Flurry is your best choice.

Having installed either of these systems you will be able to track the opening of every screen within your app, track the click on any button or interactive element, track payments (GA has special module called Ecommerce where you can put a price tag on conversions, while in Flurry you'll need to create events for payments). Also, these systems are able to provide crash reports for your app - I think this is very important for the first versions of your app.

Push analytics

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn-WexB0lEE]

I think that Push analytics is no less important than other parameters. It's essential not only to send push notifications properly, but also to track their efficiency and make corrections.

Push analytics can be divided into two parts: the analysis of users who open the app from a push notification and analysis of the delivery service. For the first part you may use Flurry. Just create an event in Flurry when a user opens app from a push notification. For the second part I'd recommend using Parse which provide great reports for your campaigns. The key indicators in push analytics are the number of sent notifications, the number of users who opened the app from the push notification, and the number of subscribers to push notifications.

Also, push analytics allows doing A/B testing for your campaigns which is great for tracking conversions of different texts.

Conclusion

So if you want to understand your users better and see the areas of improvement for your app, you'd better use several different analytical systems as there's hardly one system that will provide you with all the important data you may need.

Written by Eugene M. from Apptraction, New York based company which offers mobile design and devlopment of your apps. We create enterprise level apps!

One Comment

  1. Great article! Well written. Here you can find a lot of useful information for yourself and your business

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