All you need to know about mobile app analytics: A complete Guide

The success of an app depends on a lot of things, but one of the most important is a deep understanding of what users want. Mobile app analytics give you important information about how people use your app and are a must-have for success.

But you only get a partial picture if you only look at mobile app analytics data and ignore information from other touchpoints. By combining data from different sources, you can learn more about the user journey and how well your business is doing.

Getting and analyzing all of this information may seem like a big job, but help is easy to find.

1. What are mobile app analytics?

Mobile app analytics is a specialized field of mobile analytics. It’s the practice of collecting data about the behavior and characteristics of mobile app users.

Most of the time, mobile app analytics are done with a piece of software that is built into your app. Analytics platforms give you the information you need to improve app performance, user acquisition, user engagement, and user retention.

2. Why do you need mobile app analytics?

Mobile app analytics are necessary to understand and improve how well an app works. There are several reasons why you need mobile app analytics:

User behavior insights: Mobile app analytics show you how users interact with your app, such as how they use it, what they do with it, and what they like. This information can help you improve the user experience and make data-based decisions about how your app looks and works.

Getting and keeping users: Mobile app analytics can help you track how you get and keep users, which can tell you a lot about how well your marketing and user acquisition strategies are working.

Performance monitoring: Mobile app analytics can help you keep track of how well your app works, including how long it takes to load, if it crashes, or if it makes mistakes. This information can help you figure out what problems are happening and how to fix them.

Optimization of revenue: Mobile app analytics can tell you how much money your app makes, so you can tweak your pricing and monetization strategies to make the most money possible.

Competitive analysis: Mobile app analytics can tell you a lot about how well your competitors' apps are doing, which can help you find ways to stand out and get better.

Mobile app analytics can help you keep improving your app's performance and user experience by keeping track of and analyzing key metrics over time.

In short, mobile app analytics give you valuable information about how your app works and how people use it. This lets you make decisions based on data and improve the overall user experience.

3. Benefits of analyzing data with mobile app analytics tools

Improving customer acquisition

Using mobile app analytics, you can figure out how your marketing campaigns affect the number of new app users. You will also get the tools necessary to evaluate your results across different marketing channels and recognize the sources of the most engaged users.

Mobile app analytics metrics, events, and reports related to user acquisition:

• Downloads – shows how many people download your app. It’s a strong indicator of the performance of your marketing campaigns.
• Installations – presents how many users installed your app.
• Registrations – lets you see how many users decide to register in your app.
• Campaign attribution – allows you to assess which campaigns, marketing channels and mediums bring the most conversions.

Increasing user engagement and retention

Mobile app analytics enable you to examine the entire user journey within your app. Analytics reports let you see what users interact with, how long it takes them to fulfill a certain task, and when they decide to leave.

With all of this information, it's easier to figure out which parts of your app make it hard for people to use it and stay with it, whether it's confusing features or hard-to-understand conversion paths.

Mobile app analytics metrics related to user engagement and retention:

• Active users – the number of unique users who engage with your app within a particular period of time.
• Retention rate – the percentage of users who continue using your app over a given period.
• Churn rate – the percentage of users who abandon your app over a given period of time.
• Screen views – the total number of viewed screens.
• Sessions – the total number of visits to your application.
• Session length – the amount of time a user spends in the app during a single session.
• Bounce rate – the percentage of people who open your app and exit without any interaction.
• Content impressions and interactions – shows how many times a specific piece of content was displayed to users and the number of interactions with it.
• Social interactions – represent likes, shares and comments – in various social networks or in your app’s social features.

Optimizing user experience (UX), satisfaction, and app performance

You’ll resolve many user experience issues by analyzing user engagement and retention. That said, there are more technical metrics and events dedicated to performance and UX. Looking at them will help you make sure your application functions properly and is easy to navigate.

Mobile app analytics metrics related to user experience and app performance:

• Load time – how much time it takes for an app to load from the initial tap to being ready to use.
• Searches – what queries users are looking for by analyzing terms typed into the search bar.
• Crashes/exceptions – helps you spot and fix stability issues and errors inside your application.

Increasing the number of in-app purchases (e-commerce tracking)

Increasing revenue is the ultimate goal for every application with e-commerce features. Here are some important metrics and events to keep track of if your app has in-app purchases:

• E-commerce transactions – a type of analytics event that lets you track the number of purchases inside your app, the quantity of the items purchased and their total value.
• Custom events with a value – if the in-app purchases can’t be classified as e-commerce transactions or if you’d like to use more flexible types of events, you can use custom events that let you specify the value.

4. Track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Revenue KPI metrics: These metrics track the performance of a business in terms of its revenue generation and include metrics such as:

• Gross revenue
• Net revenue
• Average order value
• Conversion rate
• Customer acquisition cost

Engagement KPI metrics: These metrics track the level of engagement of customers with a business and its products or services and include metrics such as:

• Bounce rate
• Time on site
• Pages per session
• Return visits
• Click-through rate

UX and performance metrics: These metrics measure the performance and user experience of a website or app and include metrics such as:

• Load time
• Session duration
• Error rate
• User satisfaction score
• Funnel completion rate

It's important to note that while these are some common KPI metrics, the specific KPIs you should track will depend on your business goals and objectives.

5. Top app analytics tools & platforms

Here are the top app analytics tools and platforms we recommend.

Google's Firebase is an all-in-one app development platform with a set of tools for making, improving, and making money from mobile apps. You can track and analyze a wide range of data with Firebase Analytics. This includes user behavior, crash reports, and real-time data.

Google Analytics is a popular web analytics service that Google offers. It gives information about how many people visit a website, how they use it, and how many of them buy something. The service also lets app developers track key metrics like the number of users, how often they use the app, and how long they keep using it.

Apple Analytics: Apple Analytics is a tool for tracking the performance of iOS apps, including downloads, revenue, and user engagement. It gives developers information about how users behave and how they use apps, which helps them make decisions about how to build and market apps based on data.

Mixpanel is an advanced analytics platform that gives real-time data about how users behave, how engaged they are, and how long they stay with a site. It allows developers to track a wide range of events and metrics, including user journeys, conversion rates, and funnels.

Flurry Analytics is a mobile app analytics platform that gives information about how apps are used, how well they work, and how people act when they use them. It lets developers track important metrics like user acquisition, engagement, and retention, as well as get detailed reports on how the app is being used and how well it is doing.

Amplitude: Amplitude is a user analytics platform that helps app developers understand how users interact with their products. It has a lot of analytics and data visualization features, such as real-time analytics, tracking user behavior, and dashboards that you can change.

Heap is an automatic web and mobile analytics platform that keeps track of everything a user does on a website or app, such as clicks, taps, and pageviews. It has a lot of tools for analyzing data and keeping track of it, like funnels, cohorts, and user behavior analysis.

When choosing a tool, it's important to think about your specific needs and goals, as well as the features and capabilities of each platform.

6. How do you choose the best-fit mobile app analytics?

When picking a mobile app analytics platform, it's important to think about a few key things to make sure you get the best one for your needs. Here are some things to consider:

Key features: Evaluate the features offered by each platform and determine which ones are most important for your app and business needs. For example, you may need a platform that lets you analyze user behavior in detail, do analytics in real time, or create advanced reports.

Your app's needs include: considering the specific needs of your app, including the types of data you want to track, your business goals, and the level of complexity you need in terms of data analysis and reporting.

**Level of support:**Think about how much support each platform offers, such as documentation, training tools, and customer service. You want to make sure you have access to the tools you need to put the platform into action and use it well.

SDKs: Look at what each platform has to offer in terms of software development kits (SDKs) and how well they can be integrated and customized. Some platforms may require more complex integration work than others, so it's important to consider this when making your choice.

Data privacy and security: Consider the data privacy and security policies of each platform, as well as the measures they have in place to protect user data.

Cost: Consider the cost of each platform and ensure it aligns with your budget and business goals.

You can choose the best mobile app analytics solution for your business by taking these things into account and judging each platform based on your specific needs.

7. Conclusion

Mobile app analytics gives you the reliable data and insights you need to make your app better for users. Combine this data with data from other touchpoints, like your website, CRM, or app store analytics, to get a better picture of how your business is doing.

To make sure you're following the rules, make sure your data is properly anonymized and stored in a way that meets the requirements of your region's or industry's data protection laws.