Bottom line: if you want to make informed, smart decisions about your mobile app, you need actionable data with clear visualization. Without the numbers, you simply have no way of knowing how your app product is performing, what (or if) marketing efforts are working, and how profitable your app is (or isn’t!).
In this article, we’ll focus on the top tools to track for App Analytics. There are a number of mobile app analytics tools available on the market that are valuable to app developers, app marketers, and product managers.
Remember that in order to grow your app effectively, you need to have a mobile app analytics tool in place to track key metrics. You must have data to develop a blueprint for app success – see where your app is performing well, where it’s under-performing and what steps to take accordingly.
What important metrics do app analytics tools track?
Number of downloads and installs
Number of active users – Daily Active Users (DAU) & Monthly Active Users (MAU)
Average session length
Retention rate
Churn rate
Average revenue per user (ARPU)
Conversions for your key funnels
User cohorts
Return on investment (ROI)
Lifetime value (LTV)
There are more metrics than the ones mentioned above, but these are some of the key ones you need to keep an eye on.
What factors should you evaluate when selecting the right app analytics tool?
Key metrics you want to measure
Team Expertise
Pricing
As for how many analytics tools you need for an app, much will depend on the app store that your app is launched, along with pricing and level of analytics that is important for your app – which can vary greatly by the category/type of app it is. Overall, we recommend choosing 2-3 tools from the list of most popular App Analytics tools outlined below.
Google Play Console reporting is a good starting point which is available for all apps launched on Google Play.
Google Play Console statistics allow you to see key metrics like the number of app users, uninstalls, app ratings, and conversions – in addition to Android app vitals like stability, permissions, render time, battery with crash data that s linked to pre-launch reports. There are also user acquisition reports that show app retention based on acquisition sources.
GP Console offers release tools – like a release dashboard – so you can track new releases and monitor metrics. With this feature, you can stage rollouts so that you can catch and fix issues in batches before moving on to a larger group.
Their business growth tools include store list experiments, Google Ad campaigns, acquisition reports, translation services and a subscription dashboard.
iTunes Connect reporting is a good starting point which is available for all apps launched on iOS App Store.
App Analytics lets you measure user engagement, marketing campaigns, and monetization for your iOS and tvOS apps with aggregated metrics such as app store impressions, product page views, app units, sales, installations, sessions, and more.
Firebase is popular because of its variety of products and use cases. It’s built on Google infrastructure and scales automatically, which is helpful for apps of all sizes. It offers a generous free version and a more advanced pay-as-you-go plan.
Its most helpful uses include a smooth onboarding flow by giving users an intuitive sign-in process, a customized “welcome back” screen to create a positive, personalized experience for each user, a progressive roll-out to test out new features, option to add in-app chat, and ad optimization based on user behavior.
This product has a lot to offer, so it’s worth checking out to see if the pricing and level of sophistication make sense for your product.
Mixpanel is an intuitive app analytics system that provides clear visualization of all your app-related activity. With this tool, you can collect essential user data like conversion, engagement and retention in real time across all platforms. You can easily identify trends through advanced tools like look-alike modeling and optimize testing through real-time product experimentation and messaging.
Another full-service analytics platform that offers different features at 3 different price points, one of which is free. The basic features core analytics, custom dashboards, team communication, unlimited data retention, APIs and integrations, and compliance security.
More advanced features are available with the monthly payment subscriptions like behavioral reports, monitoring and automation, in-app chat and advanced security options.
Facebook Analytics offers a variety of “people-first” analytics like providing data on user journeys, segments and demographics. There are features available for attracting new users, building products and growing revenue.
FB Analytics works with Facebook Pixel, SDK for iOS and Android, Pages, Messenger and more, for a seamless setup. The tool is free with a monthly cost for full-suite features.
Localytics does a great job of providing insights for deeper personalized user understanding. It provides insights that help you measure engagement effectiveness, prevent churn, drive conversions and understand uninstalls. It personalizes engagement through localization and omnichannel engagement through features like in-app notifications and contextual messages.
As you can see, there are quite a few viable options when it comes to choosing app analytics tools. But we hope this gives you a good idea of where to start and how to prioritize your needs.
Please remember that there is no “one size fits all” approach when it comes to mobile apps, so use this guide to get you started and keep exploring other solutions that will best serve your app product and your business goals and objectives.
If you’d like to contact our knowledgeable team for help with your mobile analytics needs – or any other app marketing needs – we’d love to hear from you!
