In app metrics and analytics can provide so many new insights about apps and their users, but all too often developers struggle to convert that data into actionable information that help to improve their apps.
As Ted Nash from TapDaq puts it in his post,
“90% of developers use in app analytics, but only 5% of them know what to do with their data”.
This is shocking.
In this post, I will look at three basic analytics metrics that you can start acting on today to build a better product.
1. Where Are Users Located?
Knowing where your users are located means that you can make educated assumptions about what languages they’re likely to speak, which in turn allows you to optimize your app and website for the most popular ones. In most cases English should suffice, but if your app happens to be a hit in countries where English isn’t so widely spoken it makes sense to offer multilingual support. Sure, you could count on browsers like Google Chrome to translate your website, but relying on your browser to accurately translate is a big risk. To avoid anything getting lost in translation, manually supporting other languages is your best bet.
Arguably one of the most important insights you can gain from location data is what your primary currency should be. App Stores will display prices based on the user’s local currency, making it very easy to know what they’ll be paying. That isn’t the case with your website, therefore knowing where most of your users come from can drive the decision of what your default currency (or currencies) should be.
Location data can also influence the way you communicate with your users in-app. E-mails aren’t as time sensitive as they can be read and replied to at any time. On the other hand, social media posts often come with a limited “shelf life” before they disappear down the timeline or news feed, so you need to ensure that posts are scheduled for times that suit your users.
2. Which Devices Are They Using?
At a time when more and more apps are going cross-platform, inevitably putting a strain on development time, device data helps developers make better decisions about where to allocate their efforts. Here’s an example: let’s say the mobile and desktop versions of your app are used significantly more than the tablet version. Do you spend more time improving the tablet version, or do you focus on improving the mobile and desktop apps even more? And what features are used most on each respective device type?
Once you know what devices your app is used on, you don’t have to shoot in the dark anymore; you’re in a far better position to make an educated decision about how to spend your time. Knowing what devices your users are on also helps you prepare for new major versions, since you need to consider backwards compatibility with older hardware.
3. What OS Versions Are They On?
As with backwards compatibility on hardware, understanding what OS versions your users are running helps you to decide whether it’s worth supporting older versions of your app. For instance, at Paddle we’ve got a number of vendors here who continue to support older versions of their apps, just because they have a substantial customer base still using them and it’s worth their time.
Is it worth yours?
Final Thoughts
There’s a ton of insight you can take from tracking the right metrics in your apps, but even with the most basic metrics, there’s a lot of actionable data you can take away.
Are you using in-app analytics to track this data already? Let us know how it has impacted the way you build your apps in the comments.
