“Android” is an open-source operating system platform that offers many more customization options than the iOS operating system. Android was launched in 2008 and purchased by Google in 2005. All mobile phones using the Android system have the Google suite of products pre-loaded onto them. It includes the well-known “Play Store” – Google’s storehouse of apps.
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Android apps
Android apps are pieces of software that can be installed on a device running the Android operating system. This software can also be pre-installed on any Android-powered device, including smartphones, Android TV, etc.
Google Play Store is not the only source of Android apps – Samsung and Amazon have their own “stores” for Android apps, as do other mobile phone manufacturers using the Android Operating System. They have added over 3.5 million Android apps to the App Store. These have all been created for a particular purpose – to access Google Gmail, Facebook, Chrome, and so on!
Image source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/276623/number-of-apps-available-in-leading-app-stores/
Android apps exist for every kind of activity imaginable that can be done through a few taps on your mobile phone. This generates a huge amount of data. These data help apps improve the customers’ user experience (UX), provide seamless engagement, and generate revenue.
Image source: https://www.androidheadlines.com/what-are-android-apps
Why do you need mobile app analytics?
How can you make your Android app popular and profitable? How can you use the data from your app to get a better understanding of its performance for your customers?
By using mobile App Analytics!
Mobile app analytics are tools that convert the data received from your Android app users into business and marketing insights. They do so by tracking, observing, and mapping user behavior on the app. Mobile app analytics provide answers to several questions that you may have as an Android app owner:
- How will people find my app?
- How many times has my app been downloaded and installed?
- How frequently do users use my app?
- What do they use my app for?
- Have I achieved the goals I set for my app?
As an Android app owner, you can analyze any number of metrics from mobile app data, as required by your marketing team. Here are the most common app analytics:
Image source: https://www.fullstory.com/mobile-analytics/
App Analytics – Android
Although there are several Android app analytics tools available in the market (both free and paid), the leader by far is Google Analytics. It helps you extract several insights from your Android app, such as:
- User behavior data
- Refine and improve the UX of your app
- New opportunities for app development
- Impact of new features
We will review how to use Google Analytics in this article.
Process of using Google Analytics
The most important thing before setting up Google Analytics for your Android app is to decide which metrics you want to track and analyze. Do you want to track daily active users? Or the number of downloads and installations? Or the retention rate, average revenue per user, or anything else?
You can set up Google Analytics in three ways:
- With Google Tag Manager
- Install the Google Tag SDK for Android.
- Add the Google Analytics tags.
- Use Google Tag Manager with Firebase Analytics
- It works if you have already installed Firebase.
- You simply have to integrate both Google Tag Manager and Firebase.
- Install the Google Analytics SDK (Software Development Kit)
Tracking and reporting with Google Analytics
You can track and report multiple metrics with Google Analytics. Let’s check out the main ones.
- Track your Android App installations
- This helps you determine which channels or marketing efforts are the most effective for pushing your Android app installations.
- It shows you how customers find your app via a report called an Acquisition Report.
- User experience with your app
- This provides you with detailed insights into the user experience of your app.
- You can also fix any technical issues found during your analysis or reported by users.
- Track events (i.e., user interactions) with your app
- Any interaction, such as app download, button presses, or ad clicks, can be called an “event.”
- These events can be tracked directly from a page or a screen load.
- Analyze your app customer data
- Who are your customers? How old are they? Where do they live? What do they like? How do they use your app?
- You can get all this information and more from Google Analytics for your Android app.
- This will help you to optimize your app and do better targeting of your ads.
- Set up and analyze your e-commerce metrics
- If your Android app is an e-commerce app, you will require sales and other relevant data at all times.
- Google Analytics helps you track the entire customer journey through your app sales funnel – from search to the first visit to a purchase.
- You will also be able to identify and solve issues in the app.
This, of course, is not a complete list of all the metrics you can track and analyze with Google Analytics, but it is a minimum requirement for you as an Android app owner. The number of metrics you choose depends on your specific requirements, business, and industry.
Here is a sample of Google Analytics dashboard:
Image source: https://econsultancy.com/google-analytics-custom-dashboards/
Benefits of Android app analytics with Google Analytics
Google App Analytics is the largest Android app analytics tool available. It can offer plenty of benefits to you as an app owner:
- You can track user engagements and interactions on both your Android app and website.
- Google Analytics is the leader in web analytics – nearly 55% of all websites use Google Analytics (data source: https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/traffic_analysis). This means more support solutions and guides than any other tool.
- Google Analytics is free to use. It also has a paid version called Google Analytics 360.
- It is amongst the easiest app analytics tools to use.
- Google Analytics offers multiple native data integrations, such as Google Adwords and Adsense. They can add value to your overall app marketing strategy.
Conclusion
You have spent a lot of time and effort designing and rolling out your Android app on the Play Store. Use a powerful tool like Google Analytics to pull out insights on all key metrics of your app. It will help to fully optimize your app and give your users the best app user experience possible.
But remember, do not use app analytics blindly. Your choice of metrics to be analyzed depends on what you want to achieve with your Android app. Find out if you want to create or raise brand awareness, boost revenue through your app, or do something else and then use the tool.