Mobile Analytics Tools support analysis of mobile and web applications and may correlate data across different applications and platforms. Mobile web analytics platforms supply insights about how site visitors using applications via smartphones or tablets experience the app in their mobile device's browser. App analytics for native smartphone applications allow developers to study user interaction with the app, and leverage this data to guide development.
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Mobile analytics tools support the analysis of mobile and web applications and may correlate data across different applications and platforms. Mobile analytics platforms supply insights about how site visitors navigate sites and applications via smartphones or tablets and how they experience the app in their mobile device's browser.
Mobile analytics for native smartphone applications allow developers to study user interaction with the app and leverage this data to guide development. For mobile app analytics, the number of downloads is a key metric, as is retention/app usage over time. Mobile analytics may cover hard ROI as well for apps that monetize directly. Many of the products in this category have a free version or freemium model, providing basic metrics at no cost to the user.
Many mobile analytics tools have invested in centralizing analytics from multiple mobile platforms and sites. This centralization is intended to help businesses track app users’ or mobile site visitors’ journeys to and from their specific site. This greater visibility presents a more comprehensive view of companies’ funnel, site attribution, and other engagement metrics.
Mobile analytics tools will provide different features to serve different use cases. Some mobile analytics tools are marketing-focused. They provide engagement data for decision making about audience segmentation or where to place in-app notifications/offers to have the biggest impact. Many of these tools overlap with the mobile marketing software category.
Other marketing and advertising-focused tools also focus on mobile and marketing attribution. Mobile attribution and measurement platforms trace how users find your mobile or web app and start using it. Being able to identify the attribution source allows organizations to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns on different platforms and websites. It also allows marketers to see where prospects fall out of the funnel and address those specific issues to optimize their funnel.
Other mobile analytics products are more focused on user engagement and activities as a function of app design. These mobile analytics tools overlap with the usability testing and mobile app development categories.
Though many web analytics tools primarily monitor and report on online, web-based application usage, some also track mobile web page or app usage as a channel. There is some overlap between the web analytics tools that cover mobile as a channel and tools in the mobile analytics category. Part of the value proposition of these products is that users can analyze trends in cross-channel behavior within a single platform.
When comparing mobile analytics tools, consider these factors:
Mobile analytics tool vs. full web analytics package: There are a large number of products that offer mobile analytics as part of a broader web analytics suite. These suites may provide more all-in-one capabilities for tracking and comparing user experiences across devices, browsers, etc. However, they are also likely to be more expensive and less tailored for standalone mobile application analytics.
Cross-channel analytics: Mobile analytics vendors have begun offering more robust analytics around attribution and tracking mobile users’ journeys across apps or sites. Not all vendors deliver this capability, but companies that are more focused on in-app analytics may also have less need for it in the first place. Consider the specific use cases intended for you mobile analytics, as this will help companies buy a tool scaled to their needs.
Granularity: Mobile analytics tools will differ in the granularity of the visibility they provide. Some take a high level approach by focusing on visitors’ paths from platform to platform, others give visibility into inter-webpage journeys, while others drill down into navigation within specific pages via heatmaps. Many vendors offer visibility at multiple levels, but will vary in how robust each level of analytics is. Again, the use cases that companies have in mind will determine which granularity is most important.
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Many mobile analytics tools provide free versions. Free versions usually have more limited feature sets and/or are capped at certain volumes of visitors. Paid versions often start at around $50/month and scale up by the number of users, sessions, or data points, up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month for large enterprise deployments. Web analytics tools that include mobile analytics are likely to cost more due to their expanded feature sets.