Types of Mobile Analytics Software

Mobile analytics software has a wide variety of use cases within an organization’s different departments, operational units and teams. These use cases help categorize the different types of mobile app analytics tools. For example, the software can help marketing teams with analyzing market data and planning more effective marketing strategies. It can also help production teams make informed product-related decisions based on user interactions, feedback and experiences with the product.

The following are the four main types of mobile analytics software based on how they are utilized by different departments within an organization:

Mobile analytics software for marketing teams

Mobile analytics software is one of the more important solutions in any marketing department’s arsenal. Many teams and marketing departments rely on such solutions to identify and analyze acquisition channels, as well as user behavior, retention and funnel completion rates of leads acquired through different sources. Marketing teams will usually initiate and keep track of their marketing campaigns concurrently through specific campaign attribution links.

Marketing teams will then determine the app’s performance through the number of installs, new and returning customers/users, the time spent in the app by active users, sales funnel performance and conversions. With all these metrics visible to marketing teams and experts, it quickly becomes clear to them which of their campaigns and strategies—as well as their acquisition channels—are actually working and are more effective at drawing in more leads and prospective customers.

By implementing the right mobile app analytics tools, marketing teams and departments can spend their budget more wisely towards better mobile ad campaigns and strategies with greater ROI.

Mobile analytics software for product teams

Mobile analytics software is also very useful to product managers. They use mobile app analytics tools to look at various data points and try to identify patterns prior to making product decisions. Once modifications and adjustments have been made to the product, they will then look for improvements using data from the analytics tool. The application of mobile analytics for product teams also enables users to conduct more aggressive analysis, which can be accomplished through A/B testing and user segmentation.

The software segments users to allow product managers to compare user interactions and other actionable insights prior to making final product decisions. Mobile analytics software also enables product managers to effectively assess conversion rates, funnels, top used screens, events like crash reporting, device operating systems and app versions to make improvements to their product and to make better and more reliable product decisions.

Mobile analytics software for technical teams

Good mobile app analytics tools are crucial to the efficiency and productivity of technical teams, especially since these are the only solutions that can be utilized for understanding the technical characteristics of app users, i.e. the operating system they’re using, the type of device, network connectivity, screen resolutions, etc. Technical teams can leverage the data points acquired through analysis in order to optimize the code for the most common user/device attributes.

In addition to optimizing code to ensure the best user experience possible, mobile analytics software is also critical to discovering and identifying potential technical issues with regard to mobile apps. Technical teams will use the analytics software to help troubleshoot apps and to make sure they always function as intended.

Mobile analytics software for UI/UX teams

There are a growing number of UI and UX teams that use mobile analytics software to assist them with designing and developing the optimal user experience for different aspects of their mobile app creations, including the sigh-up and verification process, as well as the navigation to a smoother and more secure in-app purchase. A good example of this is the recent UI/UX implementation of apps on the App Store and Google Play devices where all users have to do is scan their thumbprint to be able to download any Android or Apple app and make in-app purchases.

With custom events and funnels, an organization’s design team can effectively monitor and analyze user interactions with the app, specifically what they’re doing on particular screens of the application. For example, if end-users are not tapping a particular button that is meant to be tapped during the account verification process, which can result in reduced conversions, the best way to spot or identify this issue is to take a closer look at events and funnel reports provided by the mobile analytics software.

How to Choose Mobile Analytics Software

There are many different mobile analytics software available in the market. So it’s important that you know what to look for when evaluating different mobile app analytics tools. The following are some of the key considerations that should help you make the right decision:

Your application requirements

When you consider the different categories of mobile app analytics tools, it becomes clear that you need to figure out what kind of analytics your mobile app needs. Which team or department will end up using the mobile analytics software? Is it your marketing department, the product team, the UI/UX design department or the technical design team? You should determine this before you begin filling up a shortlist of mobile analytics products.

SDK size and ease of implementation

The software development kit (SDK) can have a significant impact on the implementation process of mobile app analytics tools. Many of the top-tier mobile analytics software in the market are user-friendly and very simple to implement, sometimes as easy as a single line of code. However, there are others that require more complex SDKs, which can be detrimental to the development of your mobile application. In some cases, it may even slow down your app’s performance.

Level and quality of customer support

You simply can’t buy any kind of software product without first figuring out what kind of support you will be getting from the vendor or service provider. While you’re in the process of evaluating mobile analytics software, find out how much documentation the software platform offers. Does the vendor/service provider offer 24/7 customer support? Do premium clients get access to a dedicated account manager to provide quality support? These are some of the questions that need to be asked if you want to determine the level of support you can expect from the software vendor.

Benefits of Mobile Analytics Software

Get performance insights

One of the main objectives of implementing mobile analytics software is to gain valuable insights into your app’s performance. While there may not be in-depth log outputs available from most mobile app analytics tools, you do get certain data points that will help you identify possible functional and performance issues with your application.

Get app usage insights

With the right mobile analytics software, you get a wide variety of web and app usage data, including the frequency to which app users make the purchase after placing an item in their cart, the amount of time they spend on your app, the pages they frequent and those that they bounce off the most. Mobile app analytics tools also provide insights regarding pages that get the most traffic and those that don’t.

Common Features of Mobile Analytics Software