Mobile app analytics: the ultimate guide to mobile app marketing and optimization

The success of any app depends on a variety of factors, some of which are hard or impossible to track manually — this is where mobile app analytics come in handy. Such software allows you to track an extensive number of metrics, which can help you improve your app’s performance, customer service and user engagement. This article explains what mobile app analytics are, how this data can be useful for your project, and which mobile app analytics tools are a must-have.

What Are Mobile App Analytics?

With app analytics, you can track the user experience from the moment your users install your mobile app to the moment they delete it.

For example, they allow companies to observe the content their users engage with, the average time of their session in the app, and the moment they choose to quit or log out. Plus, app analytics highlight the components of your application that reduce user engagement and retention, such as convoluted conversion funnels or confusing features.

Real-time data and reports are provided by app analytics to assist you in finding rapid answers to such questions as:

• How many people have downloaded my mobile app overall?
• Which of my app’s features are the most demanded, and which ones are not frequently used?
• What do customers use my app for, and how do they interact with it?
• What percentage of users are active on my mobile app?
• Are users of my app encountering difficulties?
• Do customers face any UX challenges or technical issues?
• Which traffic sources brought the most valuable users to my app?

Armed with such data, app creators can make timely adjustments to improve customer experience, plus boost LTV and profits.

App Analytics vs. Web Analytics

Since user experience on a website and an app differs, you can’t use a single analytics tool to examine their metrics. Here’s how app and web analytics differ:

• Web analytics refers to gathering, examining, and reporting data related to website visitors, and how these users interact with web pages. They track data and use cookies to identify visitors by inserting a JavaScript tracking code into the HTML source code. Website owners can track the number of pageviews, sources of traffic, fresh visitors, returning visitors, and so on.


• App analytics gather data from mobile apps by means of software development kits (SDKs), and identify users by their device or operating system ID. They allow you to check such metrics as acquisition, engagement, retention analytics, uninstalls, and others.

Why Do You Need Mobile App Analytics?

With the number of mobile users approaching 7 bln, it is no surprise that they rely on mobile apps to complete many different tasks: shopping, mobile banking, playing games, socializing, learning, and so on. No matter what your software’s niche is, analytics in a mobile app can assist you in improving it and driving sales. Here are some examples of how you can use them.

Know whether you’re achieving your goals

You can use any KPI as a goal: for example, more traffic, income, or awareness. Let’s say you have an e-commerce app; you may want to boost sales, track in-app purchases, and increase the number of installations. Video streaming services need to keep tabs on engagement rates and customers signing up for paid subscriptions.

Correct data allows you to determine whether you are making progress toward your objectives: you won’t reveal bottlenecks unless you study the numbers. For example, your conversion rates may be falling dramatically after a certain milestone in your marketing funnel. Or there may be errors that users aren’t reporting (you can only learn about them in a crashlytics report).

While you should discuss KPIs in your team with sales, marketing and other departments, here are a few KPI benchmarks to keep track of:

• The average retention rate for users who install an app is 6-7% after one month. You should aim for a threshold of 20%.
• 49% of users open an app 11+ times each day (however, it depends on the industry).
• 53% of users quit an app if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.
• The average CPI for apps in most industries is about $3.21 for iOS and $1.51 for Android.

Track user behavior and actions in your app

With the help of a mobile app analytics platform, you can see user actions and some milestones. In addition, you can record User Properties, which are characteristics specific to app users that you can utilize to examine how your user base behaves.

Here are the events which can be tracked in a mobile app:

1. Default Events (Launch, First Launch, Application Opened, Session Start, and Session End) are performed by every user who installs and opens an app.


2. Standard Events (Log In, Registration, User Info, Facebook Connect, Transaction, and Add to Cart) are performed by all active users.


3. Custom Events are an excellent way to collect information specific to your particular application. For example, dating app users may Start a Chat or Complete Profile.

Discover what can be fixed

Did you know that every $1 invested in UX improvements can generate $100 of income? By eliminating bottlenecks and making the user experience smooth and pleasant, you increase engagement rates and profits. The data offered by mobile app analytics is a surefire way to make changes to your product that will boost its success. They can help you discover what should be fixed, and where things in the app user’s journey seem to be going wrong.

Deliver personalized marketing and boost conversions

A purchase of an item or a subscription is, of course, the most important event for the majority of apps. However, such conversion is preceded by other equally significant actions, such as examining a product, adding something to the shopping cart, and so on. You should pay great attention to these events and remember that many of them can be driven by marketing efforts.

With the help of mobile app analytics, you can discover the best-converting acquisition channels (Facebook, Google, etc.) and allocate more budget to them. Additionally, you will see what works best to turn leads into conversions rather than simply downloads. Choosing quality over quantity is essential!

Industry Use Cases

Here are some examples of where and how to use mobile analytics depending on the niche.

Gaming apps

Active players are more inclined to spend money and effort on your game. Gaming app analytics should be focused on:

• UX design. You can track how simple the onboarding process is, and whether the interface is appealing and responsive.
• Player retention. This may depend on such factors as technical issues, personalization (individual experiences, prizes and suggestions), new content, and updates.
• Monetization. A great UX design can improve gaming experience and drive more in-app purchases. If your game makes profit from ads, the UX will determine how ads are integrated into the gameplay.

Financial apps

If you have a finance app, mobile app analytics can help you track:

• First-time payers. The number of new paying customers that convert for the first time in your app within a predetermined time (typically, weekly and monthly intervals). They can highlight the efficiency of your marketing efforts in attracting new users.
• Users who pay on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. You can also use this data to assess if special events or days particularly encourage additional in-app purchases. Additionally, you can compare the stats of your paying and active users.
• ARPU (average revenue per user) indicates how much money an active user typically brings in for your app over a certain period of time. Even if a large number of users will only ever use the app’s free version and never upgrade, you can still make money off of them.
• Return on Investment (ROI) indicates the amount of profit you made from your marketing investment. Tracking it can help you maximize the profit from every dollar spent on advertising.

Social media apps

Mobile app analytics play a crucial role in understanding user demographics and behavior, improve their experience, and drive more sales. Here are some key social media app metrics:

1. User Acquisition. Track such metrics as the number of downloads, sources of installation (referrals, organic, paid) and the cost per install.
2. User Engagement. Here, you need to pay attention to daily and monthly active users, session length and frequency, and retention rates.
3. User Behavior. Watch for screens and features, accesses, navigation path, and click-through rate.
4. Content Performance. Mobile app analytics show such metrics as popular content, post reach, likes, shares and comments.
5. Conversion and Monetization. These factors can be measured with conversion rates, in-app purchases, and ad revenue.
6. Technical Performance. Take a look at such metrics as load time, app crashes, devices, and OS versions.

By regularly analyzing these metrics, social media app developers and marketers can make informed decisions to enhance user experience, optimize features, and drive user engagement and retention.

What Are Mobile App Analytics Tools For?

There’s an extensive range of data sets that can be studied with mobile analytics solutions. Let’s review the most critical ones — they are important for the majority of app types.

User engagement analytics

Such metrics show whether people find value in your app. To get an in-depth understanding of how engaged users are with your app, pay attention to the following metrics:

• Quantity of downloads
• Quantity of shares inside the app
• Daily, weekly, and monthly active users
• Duration of in-app sessions

Because user involvement is directly related to your specific goals, we can’t include all the possible information here. If you have an e-commerce app, for example, you’ll need to focus on fundamental shopping metrics such as the quantity of «add to cart» events, transactions, and viewed goods.

For measuring engagement with a gaming app, it’s crucial to view users’ session durations, what levels they complete, what hidden features they may access (particularly if they need to pay for them), etc.

See how AppMetrica’s user behavior analytics could help you understand your app’s users better.

User acquisition

This data set shows how you bring in new users, and provides insights into their demographics (age, country, preferred acquisition channels, etc.). Additionally, you can find out the typical cost of acquiring a new user, including their lifetime value and the cost per acquisition. The list of useful features and advantages is not limited to this — check User Acquisition Analytics Solutions | Boost Your App’s Success | AppMetrica (yandex.com)

Pro tip: While examining client acquisition, try not to focus on the figures only — there is a lot of qualitative information that could be helpful as well. For instance, you can discover a specific marketing channel that attracts the largest share of leads. However, once you analyze acquisition, take a look at what happens next. Track users’ retention rate, activity level, engagement, and lifetime value — these app analytics could make you change your mind about your preferred channels.

App performance

This kind of analysis provides a wealth of information about your app’s health. Performance-related metrics allow you to enhance and optimize your software. They display the number and type of errors, network latency, and crash-related data.

Here’s what the statistics say:

• 88% of users would abandon an app that has errors (51% of them indicated they would never use the app again if they face one or more bugs per day).
• Smooth onboarding (without bugs) can increase retention rate to 50%.
• 96% of users do not report bugs; they prefer just quitting instead.

The latter means you won’t be able to detect bugs without software. See how AppMetrica’s Crashlytics can help you monitor errors and view your app’s responsiveness in real time.

After receiving a positive customer experience, 89% of users make another purchase. Satisfied users guarantee higher retention rates and are more inclined to recommend the app to their friends, relatives, and business partners. Even after extensive pre-release testing, users may utilize an app in a different way than expected. The only tools that can show real user activity are mobile app analytics tools.

If your software meets the demands of your users and helps them accomplish the goal for which it was created, they will be happy with it. But they won’t give your app a chance if they become frustrated and don’t know what to do next. Mobile app analytics solutions help you identify critical performance issues so you can take prompt and efficient action.

You can evaluate customer satisfaction with the help of such reports as:

• Funnels.
• Cohorts.
• Retention.
• Revenue analytics.

Who Needs Mobile App Analytics Tools?

Mobile app analytics can be helpful for many departments and specialists:

• Developers and engineers can improve app performance by studying bugs and crash reports, load times, and users’ actions on certain app pages (for example, via a heatmap). This can significantly reduce churn and boost LTV.
• Product managers view metrics of all sorts to get a holistic picture. They can decide on marketing budgets, ways to improve customer experience, and new features to add (here is how A/B testing by AppMetrica helps with that).
• Marketing specialists usually analyze user behavior changes throughout the marketing funnel (drop rates and conversions), ad campaign performance, and ROI. Metrics can help them find bottlenecks in the user journey, optimize the cost of customer acquisition, and focus on the most profitable channels.
• Revenue/Monetization managers. Mobile app analytics can help them analyze all metrics related to profit: return on investment, profit per user, and average value of purchase.
• Customer support managers. Here, user satisfaction metrics and reviews should be taken into consideration to improve customer experience.

Types of app analytics tools

Depending on your app’s niche and demands, you can leverage certain types of analytics. Let’s review the most important niches for mobile apps, see which metrics they can track, and what mobile app analytics tool can be used for that.

Product analytics

This is a systematic approach to gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data related to how users interact with the app. It helps app owners to enhance their product by studying qualitative and quantitative metrics. Product analytics is usually done with the help of:

• Time spent on certain pages
• Retention
• Customer journey
• User segmentation
• User profites
• LTV/Churn
• Engagement metrics
• User experience metrics (session recordings, reviews)
• UX-related metrics
• A/B tests

You can reveal missed features and overall product health, which consists of security, tech errors, and performance.

Performance and crash analytics

This is where you can take a look at whether the user journey meets your users’ expectations. Generally, users are satisfied if software runs smoothly and doesn’t have bugs. The following tools can help you reveal and fix any issues:

• Error rates and crash reporting (a super-useful feature because users don’t always report bugs)
• Remote configuration (in AppMetrica, this feature is called Flag Configuration)
• Load speed
• Average response time
• Request rate
• Server CPU

Marketing analytics

This type of analytics mostly studies ads and marketing campaigns. Typically, such analysis allows you to assess the return on your marketing efforts. It is done with the following metrics:

• ROI
• Click-through rate (CTR)
• Click to install (CTI)
• App Store conversion rate
• Organic / non-organic users
• Share of remarketing conversions

All these metrics can help you understand funnel bottlenecks, plus raise profits and user retention.

How to choose a mobile app analytics tool

Deciding on a mobile app analytics tool can be challenging, because there are so many options available and new ones are released annually. Take a closer look at the factors below; they will help you choose the platform that best suits your demands.

1. Cost. It sounds obvious, but you should always check the price policies of a platform before committing. Find the lowest pricing plan, determine the available possibilities for upgrading your plan, any average transaction rates, and the fair usage guidelines. Also, don’t forget about customization opportunities — some features become necessary after you purchase. For instance, while AppMetrica allows you to add new analytics features anytime, Google Analytics doesn’t allow you to purchase any extra tools once you’ve bought a pre-defined plan.
2. Features. Discover what functions the product offers beyond the essentials, for example, A/B testing, push alerts, and tracking of key performance indicators. AppMetrica offers a blend of mobile marketing and product analytics, providing you with an in-depth knowledge of your audience and app’s performance.
3. Required data set. Assume you are releasing your first application. If so, a basic analytics tool can provide you with all the insights you want right now. On the other hand, if your app is unique and needs certain pieces of information, opt for a solution that features customizable analytics.
4. Data transmission and retention. Some platforms provide information with delay, for example, Google Analytics for Firebase requires a few days for processing. Besides, gathered data is usually stored on provider’s servers for a few months or years before being permanently deleted. All that imposes restrictions on your analytical capabilities and further action. To access both real-time and historical data, choose advanced solutions like AppMetrica: it saves clients’ data forever and updates it instantly so you could have access to your historical data to make comparisons and see how metrics evolve over months or years.
5. Customer support. A mobile app analytics solution that offers the appropriate assistance when you need it is the industry gold standard. Find out how much documentation the product provides, and see whether you can get support from an account manager or via a 24/7 hotline in case something goes wrong.

Key Takeaways

Hopefully, this guide has helped you understand what mobile app analytics are, and what valuable insights they can provide. Here is a rundown of the major points:

• Mobile app analytics are the best way to track tons of data, draw conclusions, and make data-driven decisions.
• For each app niche, you need to track certain metrics and KPIs.
• At the same time, KPIs should be assessed holistically — see the whole picture.
• Learn to interpret your findings correctly.
• Select a mobile analytics solution carefully, taking into account the features, support, pricing, and customization options.

If you’re not sure which solution suits your needs, compare top analytical platforms: 8 Best Analytics Tools to Optimize Your Mobile App Performance.

FAQ

Why are mobile analytics tools important?

They allow mobile app owners to track certain data sets instead of playing guessing games. Mobile analytics tools give an overview of important metrics (engagement, return on investments, technical mobile app performance, user demographics, and more), allowing you to turn numbers into conclusions.

What are mobile analytics tools?

This type of software allows you to track a range of app-related metrics, such as performance, product, and marketing metrics. It tracks data by getting direct access to the app via SDKs. As an advanced analytics vendor, AppMetrica tracks both marketing and product metrics of mobile apps.

How is mobile analytics different from web analytics?

They differ by the set of key metrics tracked. Web analytics track user behavior on a website, as well as the most well-performing pages. Such software uses сookies to identify visitors by inserting a JavaScript tracking code into the HTML source code. Mobile analytics focus on app-specific metrics, including session recordings (frequency and duration), technical issues, conversion and engagement, and installation statistics.

How do mobile analytics work?

Mobile analytics track data by means of software development kits (SDKs). They allow you to view such metrics as acquisition, engagement, retention rate, installation, and more. By reviewing the numbers, mobile app owners can decide on further improvements for their product, technical performance, and mobile marketing.

How do you analyze mobile app data?

Interpretation of each metric differs, but it is highly recommended to view them all both separately and as a whole. Such aspects as UX quality, absence of technical bugs, content, customer service, user engagement, and purchases are closely interconnected. Thanks to one insight, you can draw a series of other conclusions.