What is Mobile App Analytics & Its Role in Your App’s Success

The key to the success of your mobile app is a detailed understanding of how users are engaging with your app which will help you improve its functionality and experience leading to user loyalty and app success. This is achieved through Mobile App Analytics.

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What Is Mobile App Analytics?

Mobile app analytics is a system of measuring and analyzing user behavior on a mobile app. A mobile app analytics software may be implemented by the app’s developer or publisher seeking to improve or analyze their product.

A good mobile app analytics program will allow users to track how many people have downloaded the mobile app, where they are located, how often they use it, which features they like and don’t like, what ads they click on and what leads them to make purchases.

The information collected from the analytics is then used by app developers to tweak and improve their apps. This can include adding new features or making changes to existing features based on user preferences. An effective mobile app analytics strategy can help app publishers figure out which areas of an application need improvement, what is working well, and how best to promote the application through various channels, including social media campaigns, advertising, etc.

Why Is Mobile App Analytics Important to Your App’s Success?

Mobile app analytics is important to understanding your app users so you can improve their experience and drive-up retention. Here’s why mobile analytics are important for your app marketing strategy:

Identify what features make an app sticky – You can see which features of your app are used most frequently and which features users don’t engage with at all. This will help you see what features make your app sticky (i.e., increase user retention) and which features don’t. You can then focus on improving the features that don’t.

Track usage habits over time – Tracking how often users interact with specific features tells you a lot about how well they’re performing. Are they popular? Not so much? Why? It’s easy to tell if a feature is doing poorly but it can be harder to tell why it’s not performing well. That’s why mobile analytics provide this kind of valuable insight. 

Measure the impact of marketing campaigns – Mobile app analytics allow you to measure the impact of marketing campaigns in real-time, immediately after a campaign has launched. This is incredibly valuable because it gives your insight into how users respond to different types of marketing campaigns as they happen, instead of days or weeks later.

How Do Mobile Analytics Tools Work?

All mobile analytics software employs the same basic approach. A Software Development Kit (SDK) is installed in the app. The SDK monitors a device’s network traffic, looking for indicators of mobile applications in use. Each time a user takes an action, like tapping or entering data, the SDK fires off data that is captured in the mobile analytics platform. Depending on the tool, this can include requests to view a page, information about ads being loaded, or data relating to a specific app installed on a device.

The information collected by these tools is presented in various ways. The most basic is a historical log showing what was detected on a device at various points in time. Many tools also offer alerts, which can be set to notify you when certain activities occur. For example, you might want to know when your app is being viewed by someone who has never used it before, or when an ad is being shown to someone who has already seen it multiple times.

Mobile analytics tools also commonly provide some level of aggregation and automation capabilities. For example, if you have multiple devices running your app, all viewing the same content at the same time, you might want to see all of that activity in aggregate, rather than having to look at each device individually. Some analytics tools allow you to set up rules that detect patterns of activity and then perform actions based on those patterns. For example, you might have an automated process that emails you every time a specific event occurs.

Types Of Mobile App Metrics?

Mobile app analytics provides a lot of data that can help you to understand what your customers are doing and why they might stop using your app.

Details of the data that you get from mobile app analytics will vary, depending on what mobile app analytics software you use, but typically, you’ll get usage data and behavioral data.

Here’s a breakdown of how the two types of data differ:

Usage Data – This is all about how people are using your apps, covering everything from how many times people open your apps each day to what features they’re using most often. You’ll also see details about the devices your customers are using, which helps you to establish whether some of your users aren’t able to access certain features that you think should work across different devices.

Behavioral Data – This information will help you to understand why people are using your apps in particular ways. For example, maybe they’re not going on the product pages frequently enough or not adding enough products to their carts when they’re browsing your site. The idea is to identify patterns in their behavior so that you can start taking steps to address any issues before they become problems for you and your business.

Key Mobile App Metrics To Monitor

Whether you are an app developer or a marketer, there are certain metrics that you need to keep track of. Here are some of the important mobile app metrics that you should keep close tabs on-

  1. Active Users: This metric determines how many users are accessing the app on a particular day. It also tells you how many people have used your app within a specific time period, e.g., 30 days. A good benchmark is to have at least 100 daily active users (DAU )and 10,000 monthly active users (MAU).
  2. Usage Time: This metric shows how well your app is being accepted by your target audience and how much time they spend on it. If you want to increase engagement, then you will need to focus on improving the core features of your product that make it more fun or engaging for a longer duration of time.
  3. Retention Rate: It measures the percentage of your users who return to use your app a second time. It’s a commonly used metric, which is an important indicator of how apps are resonating with their user base.
  4. Churn Rate: Churn Rate is the percentage of users that stop using your app in the first X days. Typically it’s 30 days, but it can vary from one app category to another.
  5. Stickiness: Stickiness measures the frequency and duration of user sessions. It is a function of how engaged a user is with your app. Engagement depends on factors like a content, ease of use, and good marketing (getting people to download your app in the first place).
  6. Average Revenue Per User (ARPU): This metric helps you understand the average amount of money being spent by each user on your app or in-app purchases (IAP). If your ARPU is less than desired, then you can take immediate action such as redesigning some of your IAPs or improving the offerings.

Other important mobile app metrics include engagement, retention, and virality. Engagement measures how much time people spend using your app and how many screens they visit per session. Retention measures how often people return to use your app after a period of time. Virality measures how much one user tells others about your app, which is a great way to measure the popularity of your app.

The Need For A Mobile App Analytics Platform

To leverage data to improve your app, you need to have answers to these questions:

  • What do I want to achieve with it? 
  • How will I analyze the results? 
  • What tools should I use? 
  • How much time do I have to devote to this?
  • What resources would I need?

If you’re looking for a big-picture view of how your entire mobile app is doing, you need something that can pull together all your analytics from different sources, provide a comprehensive view and deep insights. 

Choosing The Best Mobile App Analytics Tool

When you’re creating a mobile app for your business, you’ll want to track its performance and usage. Here’s how to pick the best analytics platform for your app-

Type of data: Most app analytics platforms measure a fairly typical set of data, including things like how many people are using the app, which features they’re using, and how much time they spend on each feature. However, some analytics platforms can measure more advanced data sets that may be specific to your industry or business model. For example, if you’re an eCommerce company, you might want to know how many people made purchases on your app compared with how many people browsed but didn’t buy. If you’re a mobile gaming company, you might want to track the average length of time users are spending playing each day.

Reporting speed: How quickly do you need to know what’s happening with your app? Some analytics platforms offer near-real-time information about which features are being used most frequently or what devices are accessing the app. Other platforms have longer lead times for reporting. You’ll need to consider this when choosing a platform; it could be crucial to making timely decisions about product changes or strategy adjustments.

Functionality: Analytics platforms offer a range of functionality that can be useful depending on your business model and the type of information you want to track. For example, some offer A/B testing functionality that allows you to see which of two options performs better under various circumstances and then automatically apply that knowledge elsewhere in your product or marketing strategy. Other offerings provide detailed demographic data or activity-based data that helps you figure out how users interact with your product or site over time.

Usability: This involves more than just user interface design — it also includes how easy it is to implement the service, set up goals, and get reports. Some services are better suited for beginners, while others have more complex features that require technical expertise.

Mobile App Analytics Best Practices

Mobile app analytics has grown in importance for mobile marketers and developers. App stores like Google Play and the Apple App Store provide a wealth of information, but it’s also important to get third-party data.

This is why it’s so important to use a mobile app analytics platform to see how your app is performing, who your users are, where they’re coming from and what they’re doing once they have downloaded your app.

Here are some best practices for mobile analytics tools:

Set goals. An easy way to measure your campaign’s success is to set goals. This helps you determine if specific actions lead to certain results. For example, if you have a goal to generate 20 leads from downloads in one month, then you can see if the number of downloads correlates with the number of leads generated and whether there is any lag time between download and conversion.

A/B test. While analytics tools will show you general information about user behavior, A/B testing lets you compare two versions of a page and see which performs better. For example, A/B testing could show that visitors who view an image on a product page buy more than visitors who do not view the image; therefore using an image would increase sales. This gives you objective data on what works best so that you can replicate it in other marketing campaigns.

Focus on metrics that matter. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is focusing too closely on metrics that don’t really mean anything. For example, the total number of downloads isn’t nearly as important as the number of unique users — it’s better to attract 100 people who love your app than 1,000 who download it once and never come back.

Look outside sources for data. The data you get from an analytics platform is helpful, but you should also look at other sources such as Google Search Console, Facebook Pixel, and Amazon Analytics (if you’re selling physical products) for similar information about your audience.

Determine App Success Metrics. As a starting point, think about the success metrics for your app and whether they are being met by the users who interact with the app. Goals could include more downloads or increased social media sharing. Let’s assume that one of your goals is to get 5% of users to share your app on Facebook within 30 days of download. In order to determine how well this goal is being met by users interacting with the app, you need to be able to track when and if any users are sharing your app on Facebook. 

Use demographic data to create a persona for your average user. Creating a persona is an effective way to design products that appeal to the right audience. It’s important that you’re able to empathize with your users and see things from their perspectives. Personas help you design products with the right features for the people who will be using them. They help you understand what type of language to use in your marketing copy and how to prioritize your product roadmap items.

Optimize your user funnel. With a mobile app analytics tool, you can track every action your users take in your app, then use that information to make informed decisions about how to improve your funnel.

How Can AI Help In Mobile App Analytics?

Trying to make sense of the massive amounts of data generated by mobile apps is something even seasoned analysts have trouble doing. Applying artificial intelligence for mobile app analytics helps solve many common problems with data analysis. It does so by studying and understanding user behavior, detecting patterns, and offering suggestions that can improve customer experience. This can reduce the effort needed from an analyst and free up valuable time for dealing with high-level strategic concerns.

AI can be used to monitor app usage and user behavior. AI can track user behavior and patterns. It can understand what the user is doing in the app and can suggest changes based on the user’s behavior. These changes can involve adding new features in an app or making improvements to an existing feature in an app. For example, AI analytics tools might notice that a certain percentage of users who reach a specific page doesn’t go beyond it. This information can tell the developer that maybe this page needs improvement or there’s a bug on this page or the content on this page needs to be changed to keep users engaged.

The same analytics tools can also analyze user data and provide valuable insights into how users behave while interacting with the app. This information is used to improve the experience of using an app by enhancing app usability, improving navigation within an app, adding new features in an app, etc. For example, if a large percentage of users abandon their cart while shopping online, then the eCommerce site owner will probably want to make some changes to improve this situation so they can maximize their sales and profits.

Qualetics- An AI Mobile App Analytics Software

Qualetics AIMS, our software quality analytics platform, can help you get a 360-degree view by tracking key metrics and providing real-time insights. Powered by AI, our analytics platform, helps you get actionable intelligence on your app users and app usage in an easy and cost-effective way. Here’s how our platform helps you measure and analyze user engagement.

For a free demo or to know more about our software quality analytics platform, contact us here. 

FAQs on Mobile App Analytics

1. Why do I need mobile app analytics? 

Mobile app analytics is a vital tool for monitoring performance and improving your product. It is the source of key insights on how your users interact with your product. Without it, you won’t know if your app is working or what features they like best.

Analyzing data from your app can help you understand how people are using it and whether or not there are any issues with it (i.e., crashes). Analytics can also help guide you in making decisions about where to invest your time and money for your app. When deciding how much time should be spent on marketing versus development, for example, looking at usage data helps determine which area is most important for growing your user base.

2. What can I learn from mobile app analytics? 

Mobile App Analytics will tell you how often people use your app, which features they use most often, where most of the interactions happen in the app, how far people get before leaving, and much more. 

You can use analytics to understand how users are using it and what features they find most appealing. You can also use analytics to see which features users engage with the most and where their attention is focused. Analytics can tell you which users return often and how much time they spend on your app. You can also use analytics to monitor how many people are downloading your app, what devices they’re using, and other details that will help you improve your product in the future.

3. How do mobile analytics tools help in the success of your app?

A mobile analytics tool allows you to see how your application is being used and what features or functions it needs. Mobile app analytics help in understanding various aspects of your mobile app such as: How do people use your app? Where do they get stuck? How often are they using it? What are the sources of traffic? What are the top referrers? How many downloads does your app have? Are there any crashes happening?

The goal of an analytics tool is to help you understand your users, their behavior, and their demographic information. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to test and improve your applications. Mobile app analytics also help in identifying crash bugs or issues that might be affecting your users. The data collected through mobile application tracking is analyzed so that you can identify issues and rectify them as soon as possible. Mobile app analytics are important not only for the development of the application but also for marketing and monetization. You need to know which channels are bringing in more customers, what type of content they prefer, what kind of ads they like, etc.

So if you are planning on developing a new mobile app, it is essential that you choose the right analytics platform that will allow you to learn as much as possible about how people interact with your app.

4. What is mobile app analytics and why does every application developer need it? 

Mobile app analytics refers to software that is used to collect data about user engagement with a mobile application. With the help of app analytics tools, mobile app developers can know exactly how their application is being used by its users; they can know what are the highest conversion areas in the application, what are the most frequently visited pages, and so on. Mobile app analytics helps developers improve their applications based on actual user data.

App stores like Google Play & Apple App Store have a feature called “App Analytics" which allows developers to track some simple metrics such as downloads and installations. However, these numbers are not sufficient for most developers who want to build an app that people love and use every single day.

Mobile app analytics tools allow gathering much deeper information about users’ behavior in an application. Mobile app analytics tools help you answer questions such as:

  • How long does a typical user spend in the different areas of my application?
  • What was the last screen that a user viewed before he/she abandoned my application?
  • Which are the most frequently visited pages within an application?
  • How many times did each page in my application get opened during this month? This week? Today?

Most app developers already know about the importance of analytics for monitoring traffic, bugs, and user activity. But few realize that they can get more out of their analytics service by using it not only to analyze what’s going on with their apps now but also to plan ahead.

4. Why do we need third-party software for mobile app analytics?

Why do we need third-party software? Why not stick to Google Analytics, app store analytics or some other free tool? After all, they have everything you need. They can track installations and active users, user demographics, retention and conversion rates, revenue, and more. You can even set up funnels, goal tracking, and custom parameters.

Thing is, those tools are not built specifically for the unique needs of mobile app owners, so it’s not that easy to get the exact data you want. The obvious limitation is that they don’t provide enough in-app data or behavior data. The solution to this dilemma is using a specialized mobile application analytics platform like Qualetics that provides data on user behavior, app performance, and more.

Mobile app analytics platforms give you access to all the same capabilities mentioned above and more. They also allow you to track social media conversations, in-app events, and push notifications as well as app store ratings and reviews.

Also, mobile app analytics software like Qualetics is powered by AI and provides you not only granular data but also actionable insights for you to act on.