whastGoogle Analytics already provides a wide range of data analysis tools to measure a website’s success. However, the variety of mobile apps and their numerous application possibilities make the tracking via a platform a challenge.

Therefore, the tips given by the Internet agency group TWT Interactive on what analytic tools and methods you could use for your app, could be useful. The experts point out that app analytics can be viewed from two sides: in-app analytics and marketing analytics.

The first variant refers to the analysis of the data from within the app itself, evaluating the time users spend online, shopping cart items and clicks. Marketing analytics on the other hand analyzes the marketing of the app, evaluating if the in-ads are displayed correctly and working fine, etc., hence, major areas of application for app analytics are gaming and mobile commerce apps.

App analytics provide among other things the ability to identify vulnerabilities to optimize them directly, therefore you may want to consider the following suggestions:

• Track the development of the customer over a specific period of time to better understand him and be able to address him in a more targeted manner.
• Measure the duration of the search in the product catalog to identify long click paths and be able to make them more user-friendly.
• Counteract customer losses by offering only relevant content.
• Analyze the interests of customers with in-app data to increase user loyalty or to find out which functions / areas of application can be used with particular intensity (or the opposite).
• Uncover incorrect programming through analysis and correct it if necessary, so that the performance improves.
• Determine user gestures via heat map, a graphical representation of data, to define an expressive customer journey.
• Identify faulty in-app ads quickly and correct them.
• Create social media connections, when sharing in-app content.

The extensive information from Google Analytics for instance offers you a complete picture of your customers at a glance. After a quick implementation, this platform places at your disposal a variety of data analysis – e.g. from your Google Adwords or ecommerce tracking for your online store. Due to the funnel visualization, you can then see immediately your conversion success rate and the direction for your marketing strategy to address your users in the future in an even more targeted way.

For that purpose, Google Analytics provides a Mobile App Software Development Kit (SDK), which is built into the app itself. A developer integrates these SDK functions accordingly, so that in case of an app-action by the user, for example by tapping on a secondary button, a corresponding measuring pixel is transmitted to the analysis platform. The app SDKs can also buffer measurements, if a user employs the app without an internet connection. By the way, WebTrends and Adobe Analytics offer this feature of analysis, too.

Fact is that the majority of users expect a well-functioning app to load after four seconds at most. Faulty apps are shunned and may adversely affect the company's image, not to mention that performance, relevance and reliability are important aspects users take into consideration.

By Daniela La Marca