Brief guide to implement Mobile Analytics SDK in your App

There are nearly 5 million mobile apps available today, with approximately 30,000 being added every month (data source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1020964/apple-app-store-app-releases-worldwide/). According to Statista, an app user spends an average of 5 minutes on an app session. Thus, if you want your user to return to your app you need to provide them with the best possible user experience within this short time.

The only way to ensure your app is visible to users and used regularly is to improve the user experience continuously and engage your users to keep them locked into using your app. And how do you track and improve your app user experience? By using mobile app analytics.

Mobile app analytics

Mobile app analytics are tools and processes that convert the raw data received from your app users into actionable insights by tracking, observing, and mapping user behaviour on the app. Mobile app analytics can help you determine several insights such as:

1. User behaviour data
2. Impact of new features
3. New opportunities for app development
4. Refine and improve the User Experience (UX) of your app

Mobile app analytics use a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods to help you develop a best-in-class mobile app. You require a Software Development Kit to design/insert an analytics tool into your app code.

SDKs for mobile analytics – the engine for the analytics process

A Software Development Kit or SDK is a set of tools that allow you as the app developer to build a customized application or functionality that can be added to another program. Programmers can use SDKs to build functionalities for specific platforms.

An SDK saves you time and resources as it can offer pre-built functionality or solution without the need for a software professional to write new code every time you need a new solution.

A mobile SDK is a set of software tools that are designed specifically for mobile apps. It can be used to design and build mobile applications for different platforms and add new features to your existing mobile app. SDKs for mobile analytics are one such solution. As a mobile app developer/owner, if you want to collect data and analyze them in a better and more organized manner, you need to use a mobile analytics SDK.

Image source: https://clevertap.com/blog/what-is-an-sdk/

How does a mobile analytics SDK work?

An SDK tool includes a range of elements such as libraries, code samples, documentation, guides, and processes that you can use and integrate into your mobile app. Mobile analytics SDKs are designed to be implemented for a specific platform or programming language. Therefore, you would need an Android SDK for an Android mobile analytics app or an iOS SDK to develop a mobile analytics app for an iOS app.

Key features of a mobile analytics SDK

A mobile analytics SDK is a key component of your mobile app as it provides the ability to select and use data to improve your mobile app’s functionality and user experience. Therefore, the mobile analytics SDK that you choose must have the following key features:

1. It should be easy to use and implement
2. It should have all the documentation required to explain how the SDK code works
3. It should have enough functionality so that it can be scaled up to match the growth of your mobile app customer base and features
4. It should not affect the mobile phone’s battery, CPU, or data usage
5. It should not affect the functioning of other SDKs integrated into your mobile app

Choosing the best mobile analytics SDK for your mobile app

An SDK helps you implement your mobile analytics faster, as compared to developing a solution from scratch and using up developer resources, money, and time. You must therefore choose a mobile analytics SDK that helps you:

1. Implement the mobile analytics solution quickly
2. Reduce opportunity cost (the revenue that is lost when you develop your analytics solution)
3. Protect your app’s user data securely

Benefits of a mobile analytics SDK for your mobile app

1. Faster integration
   • An SDK for your app’s mobile analytics helps you integrate this too faster into your mobile app
2. Efficiency and speed
   • An average Android app uses approximately eighteen SDKs – and more if the mobile app is a game
   • You may not have the time or resources to develop every DSK from scratch
   • The need is filled by using an existing mobile analytics SDK which frees up your developers to concentrate on building a great mobile app
3. Better reach through better analytics
   • We know those analytics are critical to the success of your mobile app
   • Using a top-class mobile analytics SDK helps you implement the best modules for your analytics, which in turn helps you improve your app functionality and user experience
4. Reduced risk
   • A well-designed mobile analytics SDK helps you control what elements of your analytics show up in other apps or SDKs
   • This helps you work on better integration of the SDK with your app, and to make sure your app is not tampered with

Image source: https://clevertap.com/blog/what-is-an-sdk/

Mobile analytics SDKs in the market

There are over 1,000 mobile analytics SDKs available in the market. The following is a list of the top ten SDKs that are used by the majority of mobile app developers/owners for their analytics:

1. Google Firebase (the leader with over 93% of all apps using this tool)
2. Adobe Analytics
3. IAB OM Open Measurement OMSDK
4. Flurry Analytics
5. AppsFlyer
6. CleverTap
7. GameanAlytics
8. AltBeacon by Radius Networks Integrated
9. Moat
10. Amplitude

You should involve your app developers to review these options and choose the best one for your mobile app analytics requirements.

Example of implementing a mobile analytics SDK

Let us see a simplified process of implementing a mobile analytics SDK into your mobile app. We will use the example of Adobe Analytics here.

1. Go to the Extensions > Catalog page.
2. Find the Adobe Analytics Product String extension by Adobe Consulting Services and click Install.
3. Take a moment to read the instructions.
4. Click Save to Library

Note: this is an extremely simplified explanation of installing Adobe Analytics. Visit https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/platform-learn/implement-in-websites/implement-solutions/analytics.html?lang=en for the complete installation process.

Conclusion

Mobile analytics SDKs are very powerful tools for analyzing your app’s functioning and ways to improve it. As a mobile app owner, you must choose the mobile analytics SDK that best fills your requirements and can give you the most relevant insights that you require to run your app smoothly.

You need to ensure that your mobile app is functioning at its best all the time and that you can respond to app issues quickly and smoothly. This can be done by implementing a robust mobile analytics solution. Mobile app analytics SDKs are an important resource as they help you to integrate your analytics app quickly and seamlessly into your mobile app and improve its functionality and user experience continuously.

The bottom line is that mobile Analytics SDKs save you time, money, and resources. As the app owner, you can speed up the process of integrating this solution as the set-up cost is reduced considerably.