Once you have built a mobile app and released it out into the world, the next step is finding and engaging users so you can generate revenue. This is where a mobile app analytics tool comes into the picture. The insights you gain from your mobile app data are instrumental in making your app more engaging, impactful, and profitable.
Choosing an analytics tool for your mobile app is one of the most important strategic decisions you will make. By accurately collecting, analyzing, and optimizing, your app performance data you will feel confident in making critical strategy decisions to drive growth and improve profitability.
Below we will answer some of your burning questions about how to choose the best tool for measuring your mobile app analytics.
What is a mobile analytics tool?
A mobile analytics tool helps you to monitor your app’s performance. These types of tools will capture, analyze, and organize your app user behavior and engagement in a dashboard or allow you to export this data to other analytics partners. Platforms that capture mobile analytics typically attribute app events such as clicks, installs, engagement, feature usage, time spent, retention, and revenue. This is typically done through the implementation of a software development kit (SDK) within your app.
Ultimately, the goal of a mobile analytics solution is to help you understand how to optimize your product development, marketing strategies, and user experience in order to drive revenue.
Some popular platforms for mobile analytics include Segment, Branch, Amplitude, AppsFlyer, MixPanel, mParticle and Adobe Analytics.
What are the different types of mobile analytics tools?
The vast majority of mobile app analytics tools will collect, measure, and report on app data that relates to either the operation of the mobile app or the behavior and actions of users within the app. For example:
App behavior
These tools allow you to track user behavior, measure engagement and retention, and monitor app performance in real-time. Examples of popular app analytics platforms include Firebase, Google Analytics, and Adobe Analytics.
In-app user experience
By leveraging in-app tools brands can collect user feedback within the app. This enables you to identify issues, gather feature requests, and improve overall user satisfaction. Examples of popular user feedback tools include UserVoice, SurveyMonkey, and Zendesk.
Mobile attribution
These tools are called mobile measurement partners or MMPs. They help apps track user acquisition and measure the effectiveness of paid ads by providing insights into which channels and campaigns are driving your app installs and engagement. The most important factors when choosing an MMP include the accuracy of their measurement capabilities, linking reliability, depth of integration partners, and privacy reputation. Examples of popular MMPs include Branch, AppsFlyer, and Adjust.
User segmentation
These are tools that help app brands manage and analyze customer data across different channels — such as mobile apps, websites, and social media — by collecting, unifying, and activating customer data to create personalized experiences and targeted marketing campaigns. A popular example is called a Customer Data Platform or CDP such as Braze, mParticle, Segment, and Amplitude.
What are the benefits of mobile analytics platforms?
Without app analytics, you won’t know which app features or ad campaigns are performing well and which are not. You’ll miss hidden opportunities and bottlenecks.
1. Provide data-driven insights
By analyzing user behavior, app analytics tools can help you identify opportunities to drive revenue and save costs by analyzing cross-platform performance, in-app purchases, subscriptions, and ad campaigns. A mobile analytics solution collects and organizes mobile advertising data to deliver a unified view with powerful insights into your app performance across the most popular platforms and channels. Mobile analytics tools can measure the technical performance of your app, track user engagement and acquisition across networks, channels, and campaigns, and capture how your app is retaining users over time.
For example, an MMP allows you to pull valuable insights from your paid ads so you can manage your budget across key channels and platforms to help you optimize installs, return on ad spend (ROAS), and lifetime value (LTV).
2. Optimize goals and objectives
App analytics tools provide data-driven insights to help you make informed decisions regarding your app development, pricing, and overall marketing strategy. With the data gathered from mobile analytics, apps can make informed decisions about which features to add or remove, how to optimize user experience, and how to improve overall app performance. By understanding user behavior and engagement, you can use this knowledge to better monetize your app.
3. Deliver a better user experience
By analyzing the performance metrics of your app, you can identify the areas where it needs improvement, such as app load time, response time, and crashes. Understanding the connection between performance, functionality, platform interactions, and in-app use will not only enhance mobile app performance to drive revenue but also help simplify user experiences, save development costs, and increase engagement.
For example, if analytics show that users rarely access a given feature, you may want to eliminate support for that feature, saving you developer time and resources that you can use elsewhere. You also may be able to identify pain points that cause frustration or even lead users to delete your app. By fixing these issues and eliminating blockers, you will provide a better user experience that leads to lower costs, more engagement, and higher revenue.
What should I look for in a mobile analytics partner?
You must consider many different factors when choosing a mobile analytics partner to ensure that it best fits your wants and provides the tools you need to measure data and find insights that will drive growth and success for your app. Here are some things to look for:
Enterprise scalability
Not all analytics platforms are built to handle enterprise-level business growth. You want a partner who offers scalable infrastructure, processes, and systems that can adapt and support your growth, without causing disruptions to your business. The goal is to ensure your app can grow and succeed without being limited by technology or infrastructure constraints.
Ease of use
Look for a solution that is easy to set up with a user-friendly interface and clear reporting. You must also make sure your analytics provider has a strong track record of delivering accurate and reliable data. You want to have confidence in the data insights you receive from your mobile analytics partner.
Industry-leading partner integrations
Analytics platforms must interface seamlessly with your tech architecture as well as the data infrastructure of your marketing partners. When choosing, you must ensure any partner can integrate seamlessly with the platforms you use, such as MMPs, CDPs, and marketing automation platforms.
Solid customer support
Choose an app analytics tool partner that provides excellent customer support. You’ll want a team that is responsive, knowledgeable, and helpful when you need assistance. One of the best ways to understand the level of customer support is to do your research and read reviews from other businesses. This will give you a sense of their customer support level and how easy they are to work with. One of the best sites for B2B company reviews is G2.
Overall, choosing the right app analytics tool partner can be a significant decision for your business. Take your time to evaluate your options carefully and choose the one that best meets your needs.
How do I get started?
It’s easy to get started. Not only will these tools report valuable insights in a centralized dashboard, but they will translate and visualize your data so you can access them with ease. A mobile analytics platform should make it easier to capture data, create a plan, and make informed decisions that will drive mobile app growth and increase profitability across all your channels.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to get started, Branch is here to help.