- Created By cohencohen
Everything you need to know about Mobile Application ANALYSIS!
Building a mobile app is not enough! Here is the most comprehensive guide to mobile app analytics.
In this guide you will learn everything you need to know about mobile app analytics, from planning, setting up, implementing, and the meaning of the analytics before making the changes you need to get the best results.
So if you are looking for a holistic guide to setting up and using mobile app analytics in the right way for app-promotion, this is perfect for you!
Let's start!
Mobile Application Analysis - Basics
Mobile app analytics play a critical role in our efforts to understand how well the mobile app works and what areas we can work on to improve.
Whether you have an iOS or Android app, there are thousands of data points available that can be examined to determine what areas need to be changed, what areas need some maintenance or improvement, and what areas are working well.
Application analysis can help you answer the following questions:
- How many users, in total, have downloaded the application?
- How many of these users are currently active?
- How do these active or new users interact with the app
- What features are the most used and which ones are ignored by users?
- Which channel generates the maximum number of users and the most valuable?
- Where in the application are users? (glitches/UX glitches)
Why do you need mobile app analytics?
Once the application is built and launched in the application stores, the first time developers or application owners expect the application to run smoothly and think that all users are going to fall in love with it immediately.
This expectation is never met… any exceptions… never!
The efficient use of mobile analytics provides a single vision, in which you and your company would not be walking in the dark.
The tests will tell you the following:
- The way users are using your app
- The parts of the application with which they interact the most
- The actions they perform within the application.
This knowledge or analysis can be used to develop an action plan to improve the product or the mobile application in this case.
This enhancement could be anything from adding a feature, improving an existing feature, removing a feature, or changing the application flow for that matter.
Also, with this analysis right in front of you, a clear picture will emerge, indicating whether or not you are closer to reaching your goals.
Once you have this clarity, you can make an informed decision about the necessary changes in strategy and application to get closer to the goals you set for yourself.
Set the goals of the mobile app
The first thing to do here is to have clear objectives that you want to achieve with the mobile application.
However, we can't tell you what your goals should be.
It is you, and only you, who can define the objectives of your mobile application, and there is no answer to this: “one size fits all”.
For example, if you have a mobile game, you should focus on expanding your user base and trying to increase in-app purchases.
However, when it comes to ad-supported monetized free apps, a good goal would be to increase app traffic and strengthen user retention. You get the idea ... right?
How can I track my mobile app usage?
There is also an ambiguity here ... well, not an ambiguity ... but a lack of uniformity in which the use of the term app would be defined differently by different companies.
For an e-commerce application, the use of the application would be defined by the amount of sale or money spent, while for an entertainment or content application (monetized with Google advertising) or game the use of the application can be all about the time the user is spending within the application.
After determining the usage or usage definition for the app, you should create reports to track the app.
What is a mobile attribution?
Mobile attribution is the process of connecting events with the ads or marketing campaigns that are running in your app.
In this way, when a user purchases or registers through the ad or campaign, they receive credit for it.
Once you have this data in front of you, you can compare the campaigns and find out which ones work best for you.
Custom mobile app analytics important metrics
User acquisition metrics
Even if your only goal is to simply survive, you still have to keep getting new users and grow your user base.
And, if you are like everyone we know, and you want to grow with your application, then you must create a proactive strategy to expand your user base.
As you plan to acquire more users, the most important thing to know is the current origin of the users of your application.
This would require you to track the downloads and then attribute them to the appropriate channels or sources.
For example, suppose that by investing $ 1000 in Facebook you are getting 25 downloads in 3 weeks.
However, you discover that when you invest the same $ 1000 in Google ADS you are getting 10 times that number in just 3 days.
So if you're keeping track of attribution and daily download numbers, you'll know where to divert your marketing budgets to meet the bulk download goals you may have set for your app.
Application downloads
Of course, there was a time when it was the number of downloads that decided the fate of the application.
Today the scenario is very different, as other parameters have emerged that are stronger indicators of the health or performance of an application.
The quality of each download has gained much more important today, in terms of what it brings to the business in particular.
If you had a pay-per-download mobile app, then the more downloads you get, the more revenue you'll get.
This does not mean that you should ignore all the free applications that exist in the market.
In fact, it is important that you perform a competitive analysis to understand if you are really benefiting from asking for the download money.
The basic idea here is to be a bit more strategic while pushing for more downloads, keep an eye out for whether users are actually opening the app after they have downloaded it.
These are excellent indicators of the popularity of the application among its users.
Vital User Acquisition Metrics
- New downloads
- Attribution Discharge
- Installation cost
Strategies (User Acquisition)
Web Visitors to Mobile Users - Remind your website visitors that they can use your application or that you have an application with a "Download the application" button.
You can also incentivize the first in-app purchase in the form of points or app-only discounts.
Referral Program - Even if you are making changes to your application with the intention of improving it, you must ensure that the news about your application and your product is spread everywhere in the digital realm.
For this to happen, you must somehow or other urge users to refer your app to their friends and family, and one of the most effective ways to do this is through email or social media.
Tracking the impact of in-app referrals is super important and can only be done when the referral code is embedded in the message.
This parameter by itself can form the basis for you and give you many more metrics that can help you further analyze the performance of the application.
An incentive that works quite well is a certain discount in exchange for your referral code being redeemed and for first-time users.
Multiple studies by reputable research organizations have indicated that consumers tend to trust their friends much more than the larger brands.
Therefore, your current users are a great channel for you to acquire new users.
Incentivize current users to recommend the app and watch your user base expand exponentially while strengthening social proof.
Two brilliant examples of referral campaigns that worked perfectly are Uber and Dropbox.
Effective App Store Optimization - When you have a higher characteristic in App Store searches, you have a better chance of showing up while enjoying higher visibility in App Stores, thus enjoying a better download rate.
This section can be a blog post on its own, in fact, some time ago we wrote a fairly detailed article on app store optimization.
Some of the points that can be taken into account are:
- Add search keywords to the main title
- Show the main features and related keywords in the app description
- Add attractive user interface screenshots
- Mention the version and the date of the last update.
User activation metrics
A user activation rate of 85% or more says you are in good shape, but anything lower than that indicates the need for further digging and analysis to identify and fix activation problems.
Things to avoid like the plague!
Misspelled Words - With data vulnerability and malware attacks making the rounds, it's natural for app users to see a red flag when they see a misspelling.
Mismatched icons - If the food delivery app's icon looks like a taxi, users of the app will just get confused and skip installing it.
Required and Long Registration - allows users to have fun exploring the application before creating an account.
If you just can't help it, let it be a pretty basic signup process with up to 3 fields to fill out without asking for too much commitment.
Activation Rate = Number of Activations / Number of Downloads x 100
This means that if your app was downloaded 200 times and enjoyed 120 activations, your activation rate would be 60%, which is pretty decent, but it can definitely be worked on.
Vital User Activation Metrics
- Activation rate
- Launch rate downloads
- Installations at the registration fee
- The average cost per record
Strategies (User activation)
Onboarding - let them know what your app can do for them and what are the key benefits they can get from the app through well-written emails or strategically delivered push notifications campaign.
Incentivize - give your app users a little something in exchange for accessing your app. This piques curiosity and who does not like an incentive just to sign up for an application.
In-App Exclusives - plan something exclusively for the users of the application. It could be early access, special content, or some coupons that can only be redeemed through in-app payments.
User retention metrics
If you manage to improve your retention rates by 5%, your profitability can increase by 25%!
How about that for statistics?
Keeping users engaged is critical to your retention efforts, but once again it's a difficult feat to accomplish.
With a rapid reduction of attention span and a wide range of options for application users.
On average, an application loses more than 77% of its daily active users in 3 days from its installation.
What can you do to get users back to your app?
Tracking retention sets and obtaining actionable user data is an efficient way to do this.
What we mean here is that you would be dividing all the user data into sets and tracking their behavior over a period of time rather than just throwing everything in one big pot.
In this way, you will gain valuable information on integration flows, user experience, and product/market fit.
Withholding rates.
This is by far the most basic and critical metric in the world of application analytics.
The retention rate of an application is basically the percentage of users who return to the application after the first time they use it.
The greater the number of times that the users of the application return to it, the better the performance of the application and the greater the number of times that the users return to you.
Find the second part of this post on my blog!
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