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August 22, 2024What is Mobile Analytics? Get the Best Insights
Mobile app downloads and usage are increasing daily, indicating that the mobile app industry is not slowing down. According to recent estimates, there were approximately 255 billion app downloads in 2022. The mobile app market is projected to create more than $613 billion in revenue by 2025. This means that currently, in 2024, mobile apps are on the rise.
Since this competition won’t end anytime soon, it’s a chance for mobile app owners to improve their skills in the app industry and learn more effective strategies. You’d want to stay ahead of the game with your mobile app techniques and achieve success sooner rather than later.
If you are considering creating an app, reading this blog beforehand will help you get the best tips and insights to support the mobile data analytics platform. Since this takes a lot of effort and thoughtful strategies, we will list down all the factors you need to know and learn about mobile app analytics tools and more. So, let us get right into it.
What is Mobile Analytics?
Mobile analytics is a method for gathering data from users, specifically app users, to show and interpret user behavior and track your app’s performance. Mobile app owners will have questions that they want answered. Mobile app analytics platforms are tools that are used to track user experience and behavior precisely.
Here is a list of some of the most common areas for product managers where mobile analytics can help resolve some of their pain points:
- Which screens in my app have the most crash rates?
- Which screens are most engaged with my app?
- Where do my users spend most of their time?
- Are my users flowing through my app as they should?
- Is there any friction I should address?
- What are the most frequent interactions across my app?
- Which features confuse my users?
- Who are my competitors?
- Are my users sifting to a new app?
These are just some of the most common questions you will want to ask yourself before you choose to create an app. Mobile app analytics can easily provide answers to these questions. These are a few examples of the kind of data mobile teams gain access to with the use of mobile app analytics. With this much detail and the answers to these questions with close-to-proximity answers, you will learn how users interact with your mobile app, and you can keep in check for ways to improve your mobile app further where needed for increased user experience. This drives an increase in user engagement, retention, and conversion rates.
Read more: Everything You Need to Know About Mobile App Quality Assurance.
Benefits of Using Mobile App Analytics
App owners would want to know what are the benefits of using mobile app analytics. If you are a researcher or have worked with an organization’s research team, you would be more aware of these terms and findings. There are many benefits of using mobile app analytics for your mobile app, such as tracking its progress, having an in-depth understanding of user behavior, and having a clearer understanding of what they demand or expect from your mobile app.
The product team shares similar principles for collecting data, prioritizing consumer needs, validating the product, and acknowledging feedback, all on a budget. User research through a research team can be time-consuming. Mobile app analytics cuts the cost and time for that in half. However, this does not mean that these analytics tools should replace the team.
It is important to remember that mobile app users can subconsciously change their behavior toward the app, and analytics tools can give unreliable results for this. Therefore, human researchers are needed in this field to complement app improvement.
Using mobile app analytics and its tools will scale your user research efforts and attempt to not mess with them. Having as many data points as possible when you are attempting to justify a hypothesis helps. You will find it simpler and easier to convince a stakeholder that your possible solution to the specific problem is a bet worth making when you have ample evidence and stats to back up that solution. Stakeholders always love to see the evidence. What better way than to provide them with mobile analytics? It is also simpler to make changes and adjustments to the decisions and designs when you can clearly see the underlying issue of the app that is driving users away.
Learn more about mobile app security here: What Is Mobile App Security? [8 Steps to Boost Your Apps Security]
Is Mobile Analytics Important?
In this section, we will cover all the reasons why mobile analytics is important for mobile app owners and developers. Research shows that, on average, after users download your app, only approximately 13% of users will stick to it, staying engaged, while the remaining may not be engaged at all. If you wish to learn about these trends and want to know why this happens, you must track your app through the power of mobile app analytics.
Tracking app analytics is important to learn how users interact with your mobile app, where it is possible for them to leave the app, after how many uses, and after which step. Some apps, such as banking apps, tend to ask for personal information. If your banking app automatically saves these personal credentials to the device without taking permission from the user, it could drive many users away. Mobile app analytics allows you to create more sound and informed decisions when it comes to changing your app, keeping user satisfaction in mind.
Here is another example: you run a boba tea shop and want to increase your customer base by launching an app and providing delivery service. Before you jump right into this idea, it is important that you truly understand your customers and potential customers. By gaining the advantage of mobile analytics, you can gain valuable and useful insights about user behavior and consumer behavior. While the purpose of your boba tea app is to allow your customers to order their favorite drinks easily without any issue, you need to create your app to look appealing and meet the needs of boba lovers’ preferences.
Only through mobile app analytics can you achieve this data-driven approach, which allows you to optimize your menu, improve the delivery routes, and identify more customers and potential customers. You can create impactful, relevant, and effective marketing campaigns to further enhance your boba tea app. You can consider all these measures through mobile app analytics and stay ahead of the rising competition in the boba tea drink industry.
Learn how healthcare apps are beneficial: Top 10 Advantages of Healthcare Mobile Apps.
Advantages of Using a Analytics Platform
Here are a couple of more advantages of using an analytics platform for your mobile app:
Accurate Data Collection
Collecting accurate data will save you time from trial and error. When you run a proper performance check on your mobile app and check on user’s feedback or interviews, mobile app analytics platforms can uncover the “whys” and “hows” behind user experience with ample detail and reliable data.
Helps With App Customization
When you have accurate data in your hand, you can make more informed decisions. You can customize your mobile app more accurately according to user preferences. Having this data will help you easily identify the underlying and root issues behind your mobile app. These can include features such as session replay and heatmaps to fix any obstacles or errors that may come in users’ way. This way, producers and mobile app owners know what changes are required to create a seamless experience for users.
Gain Data-Driven Insights
Data-driven insights are the producers’ dream; they help you make more sound and accurate decisions for your work. You also learn how to become more user-centered and focused to create a goal to satisfy users. By using mobile app analytics, you are able to get this data and free up time for mobile teams to focus on delivering the user-focused app for updates and improvements.
Aligns With Cross-Functional Teams
Mobile analytics can help you share sessions and recordings, and the customizable dashboard you create allows you to share those files with other authorities further without worrying about security and the data being meddled with. Only the true owner of those analytical dashboards can make changes.
Fun read: 23 Best Mobile Games to Download in 2024.
Top Mobile Analytics Metrics to Track
To be on top of the game for mobile app analytics, you must understand the key essential metrics. Here are the top KPIs to track for mobile apps:
1. The Number of Downloads
As a mobile app owner, you must know the number of downloads for your mobile apps on a monthly or yearly basis to keep track of how they are going. This will help you understand whether your mobile app needs any changes or improvements, and you will be able to notice a specific pattern as well. You may notice that other competitor apps are on the rise, which is causing the downloading of your mobile app to slow down. This can also give you an idea of your mobile app’s initial appeal.
2. Daily Active Users
How many users open your app during the day and stay on your app throughout the day? Mobile app analytics can help you understand this and track this pattern as well. If you notice a decrease in usage in your mobile app or notice that not many users are opening your app as often as they did in the past month, you can make amendments or start a push notification system to remind them of the app.
3. Monthly Active Users
Keeping track of the months is also important. This builds a clearer picture of your mobile app usage. Measuring the number of users and active users within a month to understand your app allows you to gain deeper insights into the user base.
4. Time Stayed on the App
Measuring the session length and how long users stay on your app throughout the day can help you gain valuable information. This will allow you to find out how addictive your app is and whether it is really serving its purpose. For example, suppose you are a supermarket app that sells many things. In that case, you might notice that users stay on your app for a short period but continue to revisit you throughout the month or every month because of your trusted services. However, if you own an addictive gaming app, expect users to revisit your app and stay on it for longer.
More to know: How to Make an Application like Airbnb [+8 Best Airbnb Alternatives]
5. Conversion Rate
With mobile app analytics, you can analyze how effectively your app converts users into paying customers or determine its stickiness. This means that your app includes in-app purchases and determines user satisfaction. You can notice how many users are willing to pay for more services in your app or those who are okay with the free version.
6. Retention Rate
Through mobile app analytics, you can determine the retention rate of your mobile app. This metric calculates the number of users who are retaining your app over a period of time. Just like the supermarket app example, most users would do this for a supermarket app.
7. Average Revenue Per User
Mobile analytics can help you track the average revenue your mobile app makes per user, and this metric is important for you to understand the financial performance of your app. If you notice a trend where revenue is lacking, it is time for you to do your research and notice what the causes of that could be.
8. Customer Lifetime Value
By observing the customer lifetime value metric, you can estimate the total revenue you can expect from a user throughout their relationship with your mobile app. Even if they decide to uninstall it, you can still determine what those factors were and how much you were able to make out of them.
Read more: The Essential Guide to App Store Optimization.
What Are the Best Practices For Mobile App Analytics?
In this section, we will cover the best practices for mobile app analytics. This is to ensure that you implement the right practice and strategy for your app.
1. Set Your Objectives
To properly benefit from mobile app analytics, starting with clear goals and objectives is important. The first part is to define what you want to achieve from your mobile app, whether it is to enhance user engagement, boost retention rates, or increase revenue. Of course, you will have to keep user satisfaction in mind while keeping your personal objects straight. Once you have properly laid out your goals, you need to highlight the key performance indicators’ KPIs that align with them. You can create a checklist to figure out if you are on track with your analytics or tracks or not.
2. Choosing the Right Tools
Before you dive into the whole process, you need to select the right analytics tools for your app. It is important to rigorously go through these factors and consider the right choice. The factors that determine these are user-friendliness, feature set, compatibility, and the existing infrastructure and cost. Try selecting a comprehensive solution that provides you with a lot of analytics, such as tracking user behavior, performance, and session recordings. You can further experiment with different tools to understand their accuracy and relevance to your mobile app and its specific needs.
More to know: 10 Best Apps for Couples to Build a Stronger Relationship in 2024.
3. Data Security and Privacy
Data privacy and security measures are very important when it comes to your app. It does not matter what app it is. All apps have these protocols. Some are more strict than others. For example, a gaming app would have less strict security as compared to a banking app, for obvious reasons. You have to make sure that your user’s identity and credentials are not at stake. Keep up with the security measures that app stores provide you with and keep reviewing them. If you notice any changes made, then you can take immediate action for your mobile app.
4. Integrate Analytics With Your App
When you integrate analytics with your app, you are able to gain the benefits that come with it effectively and use that to your advantage. You will need to include the necessary software development kits, also known as SDKs, into your app’s codebase and follow the provider’s guidelines so you stay within those guidelines. You can activate important features like even tracking and session recordings to help you understand more about user insights.
Learn more: How to Make a Music App: A Step-by-step Guide.
5. Act on Data and Analyze
Keep analyzing and monitoring the key metrics and user behavior, and make data-driven changes that can help you improve your mobile app’s overall performance and enhance user satisfaction. It is important to keep a close eye on all the dashboards for your mobile app. This will help you figure out trends, patterns, and other aspects that will help you make sound decisions. The data you collect through mobile app analytics will be used to help you gain the best insights into user behavior, and you can find out other areas that need improvement. Depending on how you analyze the data, you can test out different features and redesign them to keep a strong user flow. Keep fixing bugs, if any occur, and keep your attention on user feedback.
6. Data-Driven Results and Culture
To use mobile analytics to the best of its potential, you first must learn how to use it well and, along with that, teach your team members about its importance and help them with simple training sessions on how to use the tools and interpret the data it generates. You can then share those important insights with the rest of your team, knowing that your work will remain safe, test out different hypotheses, and come up with better ideas for your next approach.
App ideas to spark your creativity: Revive Your Inner Genius: Top 55 Apps for Creative Thinking [2024]
Over to You
Mobile Analytics is as important as it would be for websites and other industries or businesses; we have gone through each reason in detail for you to understand its importance in the mobile app industry. Regarding mobile app designs, it can be a challenge for individuals to meet the needs of ultimate user satisfaction and experience. However, it is not impossible to gain.
Apps Leagues has been crafting customized mobile apps for mobile app enthusiasts who want to join the competition in this industry by providing you with affordable and custom solutions that are perfect for your needs as the app owner. Our team of talented mobile app designers and developers has mastered the art of understanding mobile app analytics, so they know what features and mobile app structures are famous and trending for any industry.
FAQs
What is mobile usage analytics?
Mobile usage analytics is the process of measuring, collecting, and analyzing data generated by users’ interactions with mobile apps and websites. It helps developers and businesses understand how users engage with their mobile apps and platforms, providing insights that help boost their performance and make informed decisions.
What information can an organization track by using mobile analytics?
Information such as app usage length, in-app purchases made by users, and user demographics can be tracked. Marketing units can use this to their advantage to track the success of different apps by looking at certain metrics to solve their pain points.
How does mobile analytics differ from web analytics?
While mobile analytics generates a higher amount of data and supports the product teams in understanding user behavior, web analytics focuses on specific metrics such as page views, patterns generated by users, behavior-related metrics, and interactions with ads.
Why do companies use mobile app analytics?
Companies use mobile app analytics to help developers and businesses understand how users interact with their mobile apps and platforms. This provides helpful insights and improves user engagement in the long run.