Mobile App Analytics: Overview of Systems and Metrics

Improving an app’s position in the App Store and Google Play rankings is called ASO (App Store Optimization). This is a comprehensive optimization of a page and its visibility in the marketplace. But other resources are also used for promotion, such as contextual and targeted advertising or SEO optimization of the company’s website.

A mobile application analytics system plays a key role in success. It’s not enough to make an excellent app and then use standard tools and collect basic statistics. To promote mobile applications, you need to build an analytical system. This includes integration with advertising channels, collecting feedback, and constantly searching for bugs.

The best decision you can make is to go to the mobile app marketing services, for only an adequately built system can help you make business decisions that increase profitability and develop the company.  

What Problems Can Be Solved Using Analytics?

Without proper mobile app analytics, you will simply be moving blindly. Do people like the app or do they quickly fall off, and if so, at what stage? Will this happen immediately after the registration or after a week of use? Did the money spent on advertising bring results, or do you need to reconfigure or completely change the promotion plan? It is application analytics that helps find “holes” in strategy and development.

The Importance of Analytics for Mobile App Developers

It is known that finding all the bugs is not easy. However, with analytics for mobile games and applications, the process becomes more straightforward. For example, a gaming application has a decent number of downloads. Many users start playing it, but for some reason, they don’t stick around.

Statistics show that most fall off within a week or two. After some digging, the developer finds a bug in leveling up a character that only appears after a week of active playing and completing levels.

In addition, the analytical system helps with the following:

• optimization of functionality of the application;
• eliminating shortcomings;
• improving user experience;
• understanding the right time to release updates;
• plan the developer’s workload in advance.

Analytics for Mobile App Marketers

Analytics is the main marketing tool. Without it, it is impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising, new paid services, and audience reactions or plan the next steps.

The goal of promotion is to move the user through the sales funnel and retain them. To do so, you need to come to the Netpeak Agency, and they will use all channels – visual, social, direct communication, and addressing pain points. This approach is called omnichannel marketing. According to it, any contact with the user, direct or indirect, cannot be considered separately and must be included in the system.

Mobile App Performance Metrics

Now let’s turn to the metrics and which of them must be collected by the analytical system.

Engagement metrics: the number of downloads and installations. Everything is very clear here, as this is the base metric from which other metrics are calculated. It doesn’t evaluate the quality of the app or how interested a person is in it, but it demonstrates how well the mobile application is progressing.

Activity metrics: daily (DAU), weekly (WAU), and monthly (MAU) active users. It is important to compare this with the number of downloads: the application can be downloaded at least 100,000 times, but if only 100 people use it, then something is definitely wrong.

DAU counts one unique user once, no matter how many times they log into the application. But if it is intended that they should log in several times a day, then the number of sessions (Daily Sessions per DAU) and the average session duration (ASL) are taken into account.

The user retention rate shows how many people return to the application. This is an important cross-section for assessing not only the quality of the application but also the effectiveness of advertising: how much high-quality traffic does it bring? The Churn Rate also helps with this assessment.

Recommendations for Choosing Tools and Setting up Analytics

Choosing the right analytics tool is essential, even though, at first glance, they all seem to be the same. Using more services is also not always the correct answer. Here are some critical guidelines for choosing mobile app analytics tools:

• Metrics and KPIs. Before choosing a tool, you need to clearly define your goals and which indicators are more important than others. All services collect basic metrics, but only a few collect unique or highly targeted ones.
• Users. Choose a tool that can track visitor behavior in your app: usage frequency, session duration, and sales funnel path.
• Integrations. Make sure it integrates easily with other services and platforms you use.
• Segmentation. The tool should provide opportunities for user segmentation – this is the only way to understand different audience groups.
• Visualization. Ensure the tool provides clear and easy-to-use visualizations, such as dashboards and graphs.
• Privacy and security. Choose only those services that meet privacy and data security standards. Check that the general requirements and those of the specific region in which you operate are met.

In addition to all of the above, the tool should allow you to conduct A/B testing and optimize marketing campaigns.

Competitive Analysis

In addition to the results of the application itself, it is important to monitor competitors. Analyzing competitors’ mobile apps is important for several reasons:

• Market. This way, you can learn about the strengths and weaknesses of competitors and understand where and how exactly to stand out in the market;
• Trends. The behavior of competitors and their analytics make it clear what trends are relevant to the markets and where to move;
• Strategy. By analyzing the failures and successes of your competitors, you can find effective strategies and avoid making the mistakes of others;
• Product improvement. What competitors offer and what is in demand among them helps make your product or service better and more competitive.

Only a systematic approach to app promotion will solve the main problem – the continuous development and success of the business.