Analytics in mobile apps - why do you need it?

Introduction

In today’s digital world, mobile apps have become an integral part of our daily lives. Whether it’s social media, online shopping, or work tools, these apps collect vast amounts of data. Mobile analytics allow us to understand this data, providing valuable insights that can transform the way we conduct business. But why is this so important, and how can you start leveraging the power of analytics?

Why Use Analytics in Your Mobile App?

Understanding and utilizing mobile analytics is key to gaining a competitive edge, especially considering many companies still overlook this critical element in their app development strategy. Unlike web analytics, which are well-established in business practices, mobile analytics often remain underappreciated. This presents a great opportunity for those who decide to dive into their mobile app data to better understand user needs and behavior.

By analyzing data from mobile apps, it’s noticeable that relatively few businesses fully exploit the available information. This not only hampers their development but also causes them to lose competitive ground. In the era of digital transformation, where mobile apps play a crucial role in customer interaction, a lack of thorough analysis of user behavior can lead to suboptimal business decisions.

Making data-driven decisions is not just a trend but a necessity. Mobile analytics offer a unique opportunity to deeply understand user needs and preferences, which can be a deciding factor for success. Through it, improving existing functionalities and identifying new potential development areas is possible. Implementing a strategy based on mobile analytics allows companies not only to better understand their users but also to significantly increase their market competitiveness. This is no longer just an option—it’s a necessity for those who want to stay ahead in the digital race.

Setting Analytics Goals

Every analytics journey begins with defining goals. Do we want to increase user engagement or perhaps optimize the conversion path? Determining what we want to achieve is crucial for the effective use of data. It’s not just about collecting data but using it to make informed decisions that lead to the realization of specific business goals. Here’s how we can do it:

Why Set Analytics Goals?

The goal of mobile analytics is simple: to understand users and their behavior to optimize the app and achieve better business outcomes. For example, how can we increase revenue from a mobile app without knowing where we are losing users?

Discovering users’ key “pain points” can provide information on where resources should be allocated to efficiently improve our product without wasting time and money.

How to Set Goals?

1. Identifying business goals: Preliminarily determining what we want to achieve with analytics helps us select the appropriate tools and facilitates problem identification in the app.
2. Defining KPIs: Based on business needs, it becomes much simpler to determine the key performance indicators we want to measure. Examples of KPIs include retention rate, average time spent in the app, or the value of CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) per user.
3. Specifically set goals: Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound). For instance, instead of “increase engagement,” a goal could be “increase the average time spent in the app by 20% over the next 6 months” or “reduce the bounce rate of users in panel xyz by 14%”.

What to Measure and What Conclusions Can Be Drawn?

Mobile analytics data collection should be specifically targeted at indicators directly related to previously set goals, enabling practical conclusions to be drawn.

If the focus is on optimizing conversions, consider several factors. Bounce rate – do users reach the point of conversion, or do they leave the app earlier? If not, maybe the conversion point is not adequately highlighted? In such cases, changing the button’s position or color could positively affect CRO.

In a study conducted by HubSpot, changing the button color from green to red on Performable’s homepage increased the page’s overall conversion by 21%. It’s important to note that besides the button color, no other page elements were changed. The findings from this study demonstrate how significant a CTA button color can be and its substantial impact on user decisions.

Furthermore, analyzing the effectiveness of individual marketing campaigns allows identifying those generating the most engagement or conversion, which is crucial for optimizing marketing efforts and building a strategy focused on maximizing ROI and not overspending. For instance, if we have five Google Ads campaigns, it may turn out that one of them generates 80% of the site’s traffic, while the remaining four combined only 20%. At first glance, it seems logical to remove those campaigns and leave only one.

Completely ignoring the goals of these campaigns, one could blindly answer yes. What if the goals of these campaigns were not merely to increase site traffic but to increase the quality of traffic that converts?

Suddenly, it may turn out that the remaining four campaigns, despite bringing only ¼ of the traffic compared to the first one, might have brought 40 conversions, which in the case of the first campaign, bringing 4x more traffic, might only be 10. That’s why analyzing analytics from a multi-faceted perspective is crucial.

For instance, if other campaigns, though contributing less traffic, lead to a higher conversion rate, this indicates the importance of quality over quantity in traffic. This highlights why analytics should be viewed under various aspects and data analyzed in a multi-threaded manner.

What to Do with Collected Data?

App Optimization: Based on the collected data, you can make changes in the app that will increase its usability and improve the user experience.

Personalization of Offer: Data allows for the customization of content and offers to the needs and preferences of individual users.

Guiding Product Development: Insights from analytics can indicate directions for app development that will respond to the real needs of users.

Remember, setting goals and data analysis is an iterative process. This means you should regularly revisit your assumptions, check their current relevance, and adjust your action plan based on changing conditions and newly acquired information. Through this, mobile analytics becomes not only a tool for monitoring effectiveness but also a powerful lever for growth and innovation in your mobile app.

Choosing Analytical Tools

There are many tools for mobile analytics that can help achieve these goals. Google Analytics for Firebase is one of the most popular, offering deep insights into user behavior and marketing campaign effectiveness.

Other popular tools include:

Mixpanel: For advanced analytics of user behavior.

Amplitude: Specializes in analyzing engagement and retention of users.

Understanding Key Metrics

The most important metrics include Lifetime Value (LTV) and Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). Understanding these indicators is crucial for assessing the profitability of mobile apps. Why they are important:

LTV helps understand the total value of a user to the company.

CAC shows how much it costs to acquire a new user.

How to Start?

1. Define analytics goals.
2. Choose the right tools.
3. Collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data.
4. Optimize based on insights.

Summary

Analytics in mobile apps opens doors to understanding users at a level previously unavailable. By consciously using data, companies can significantly improve their products, increase customer satisfaction, and ultimately - accelerate growth.