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Your new mobile game is ready for launch but now what? Running user acquisition vs building organic growth, you will need a mobile analytics tool that will help you uncover valuable user behavior insights for continuous improvement.

How does that help? A good tool gives you an understanding of where your installs came from, which game level did they stop at, how much is the projected LTV, why they churn, and other key insights. Through this article, we’ll discover the importance of mobile analytics, the different tools available, and what to look out for when choosing a suitable analytics tool. 

Why is mobile analytics important?

1. Mobile gaming data is fragmented

You have attribution data mapping the source of your downloads, there’s mediation data tracking the revenue of your app, and not forgetting user-level stats on game engagement. Funnelling them and converting these data sources into usable insights is a huge task itself. 

2. Visualise your data to find insights

Having numbers are great but when you have millions of rows of them, maybe not so. Visualising your data by mapping specific metrics into meaningful tables, charts and graphs can make a UA manager’s work so much more efficient. A good BI tool should adopt information hierarchy, calling out important data while deprioritising others.  

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3. Be quick to focus on ROAS 

Mobile gaming industry is dynamic with changes that can happen overnight. You would want to be quick to catch on to pivot your user acquisition strategies. Do you need to increase or decrease bid due to the recent hike in CPI?  

4. Time saving. Let the experts handle data 

Why build a team to handle data warehousing when you can leverage on existing solution that you can get it up and running within a day? If you are a small/medium game studio, it can be distracting to think about the data related work while focusing on optimising your game. Not forgetting the time, effort and money needed to invest in building your data team. 

5. Knowledge sharing is king

With so much insights on hand, disseminating them to the right teams to develop timely strategies is crucial. Having the right BI tool with access managment gives you the freedom to share data directly with the respective teams based on their needs. No more offline reports and having V1, V1.1…. V2.8

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What is the difference between MMP, Firebase and App Analytics?

Mobile Measurement Partner or MMP 

A third-party tool app used by marketers to understand how their mobile app marketing campaigns perform. To put it simply, MMP is able to measure campaign performance across advertising marketing channels, media sources, and ad networks. 

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What should marketers look out for when choosing an MMP? 

Linking reliability, accuracy of attribution, accuracy of measurement capabilities, depth of integration partners, and privacy reputation. 

MMPs: AppsFlyer, Adjust, Tenjin, Kochava

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Firebase by Google Analytics 

For creating and monitoring mobile apps, tracking custom events such as in-app purchases, game variant A/B testing and more. In addition, Firebase Analytics helps you define custom user properties for all of your users. For example, your music app can record a user’s favorite genre or your fitness app can record a user’s favorite exercise. If you’re simply looking for an app analytics tool, it can get overwhelming as Firebase helps with much broader user analytics. 

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App Analytics is a free and built-in mobile analytics tool meant for startups and app developers in Apple’s ecosystem. The tool is equipped with some useful features for tracking app downloads, app store performances, marketing campaigns, usage data, and basic app engagement. It is interesting how you can use this tool to understand how users find your app in the store and replicate this experience for your target consumers.

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The Checklist - What do you really need?

With the sheer number of mobile analytics tools available, marketers are bound to feel lost. Here’s a decision tree to help determine your analytics tool of choice.

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Pricing

Enterprise BI solution can cost Do you have the expertise, money, and time to create and maintain your own analytics tool? If not, it’s best to select an analytics tool that’s already available in the market. But even then, you should be aware if the features of the tool will fulfil all your business needs at the cost you’re willing to pay. Because it’s likely that you’ll use the tool month after month, be aware of subscriptions, growth, and hidden fees as those can quickly add up. 

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Understanding your business requirements

Adding an analytics tool to your tech stack can be a major decision ask yourself this - Does this tool have the capability to support my current and future business objectives? You can answer this by creating a list of your desired business outcomes. Next, break down these outcomes into measurable analytics goals. Once you have this knowledge, you're in a better position to choose an analytics tool that provides access to data and features to help you achieve these business objectives. 

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User interface

The analytics tool you sign on for will be used by your employees while making business decisions. Most analytics tools are self-service. It is for this reason that you need to select a tool with a user-friendly interface that can support different user types. Even non-technical users must find it easy to use and be able to understand dashboards and create reports. 

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Integration

While selecting an analytics tool, ask yourself if a standalone or integrated solution is best for your business. There are a variety of options for standalone tools, but integrated solutions help you access analytics from applications that your users are already familiar with. Assess how easily you can move your data to other systems if the need arises. You must also understand how your analytics platform can connect with your existing systems and third-party data sources. 

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Whether you are at the starting point of your mobile app marketing journey or you’re looking to do a deep dive into advanced data, a mobile analytics tool will provide unique data points that will make your app irresistible for your targeted audience.

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