Driving Adoption & Revenues with Mobile Analytics Concepts and actionable insights to help your App succeed in the marketplace. Roshan Kulkarni and Tanvi Shah Relevance to Business Building successful mobile Apps Businesses that invest in mobile apps are keen to understand the extent of returns on those investments. Such gains could be measured as direct revenues or as intangibles such as improved brand perception, customer satisfaction, loyalty or retention. requires a keen understanding of user behavior. With Analytics, you can set aside the guess-work and measure realtime feedback from users. Mobile analytics goes beyond mere page views and is a critical part of any mobile strategy today. This paper helps you grasp the key concepts in mobile analytics so you can effectively leverage it IT teams that deliver mobile Apps are keen to understand user behavior; A close observation and analysis of user behavior would be critical to shipping world-class Apps in the future. Brand marketers are keen to know how much (and where) to spend to promote the mobile App. What is the lifetime value of a mobile customer and what does it cost to acquire each such customer using online advertising? to drive adoption and revenues. A Mindstix Labs Publication 1
When working on a mobility roadmap for an enterprise or a consumer App, you need to carefully evaluate the following aspects as outlined below: Adoption: How is my App performing in terms of adoption? Where do most of my new users come from? What are their demographic profiles? Friction: Where do users get stuck or blocked while trying to do some activities in the App? What steps take too long to complete? And what can I do to make those steps more seamless in the future? Features: What parts of the App do users love or hate? What are the most popular features in our App and what are the hard-todiscover features? An old management adage goes - You cannot manage what you don t measure! Mobile Analytics provides you the instrumentation to measure user behavior and gain critical insights to shape your future mobile strategy Engagement: Which segment of users do we need to engage more using Push Notifications? Receptiveness: How receptive are users to our notifications? How effective are our Ad campaigns and SEM activities today? Engineering Strategy: What mobile devices do most users come from? Which mobile platform should we invest our engineering efforts on? Revenues: Which users spend more money in our App? Did those highspenders come from organic traffic or via Ads? Business Goals: How is this App helping us achieve our key business objectives? Mobile analytics can help you answer these questions and many more. The insights gained by leveraging analytics can drive your future mobile strategy and revenues. But first, you must decide what your key success metrics are going to be A Mindstix Labs Publication 2
Key Performance Indicators Key Performance Indicators a.k.a. KPIs are the indicators and measures of your App s success. These are goals based on your business objectives and your App s essential purpose. The first thing that an App publisher should do is to clearly define the KPIs, which will then help them understand what to measure and when to measure (from your analytics platform). While there isn t a one-size-fit-all when it comes to KPIs, we provide a few common examples of KPIs below: Starting a journey without a goal makes little sense. Make sure that your KPIs are objective, measurable and always time-bound. Define them clearly before you embark on your mobility journey KPI: App Adoption How many users download your app and launch it? Perhaps one of your KPIs is to achieve 2 million total App downloads or launches before the end of this year. KPI: Degree of User Engagement What is the average length of time that a user engages with your App every time they launch it? Perhaps one of your KPIs could be to make your App sticky enough that users stay-on for 5 minutes or more. KPI: User Retention Users may sign-up, or even stick around for longer. But are they coming back to perform specific desired actions in the future? We would like at least 20% of those users to come back and make a purchase in our App, within a period of 1 month after their first sign-up. KPI: Revenue Targets The revenues booked via your App is often the most important metric. These revenues could be from the sale of physical or virtual goods, or due to the sale of subscriptions. You can specify your revenue KPIs in absolute terms or as a percentage of your overall business revenue. Or you can specify your desired ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) metrics. A Mindstix Labs Publication 3
KPI: Customer Satisfaction Metrics (CSAT) What is the average rating your App receives on the App Store or in surveys? Is the overall user sentiment positive or negative? Say, you would like your App rating to move from it s present 3.5 stars to 4.5 stars by end of this quarter. Ratings can make a huge difference towards the future adoption by prospect customers and hence is an important KPI to watch out for. KPI: Ad Conversion Efficacy and ROI Online advertising, organic traffic, and social media could be some of the ways to acquire new customers into your App. How many users click on your Ad and actually convert into a sticky mobile customer? Say, we expect the average lifetime value of our mobile customers to be $600 and hence, we expected a certain % return on investment from our mobile promotion expenditures. Having looked at these primary goals, let us explore some of the frequently used concepts and terminologies in mobile analytics now. Basic Concepts For the uninitiated, several platforms and providers exist in the market today for mobile analytics. Some of the leading providers are listed below, but do keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list. The evaluation checklist at the end of this paper should help you evaluate the right provider that fits your needs. Mobile Analytics Providers Google Analytics Mixpanel Localytics Flurry Appsee Distimo A Mindstix Labs Publication 4
Moreover, several MBaaS (Mobile Backend as a Service) providers also offer mobile analytics capabilities as part of their platform offering. If you are leveraging a MBaaS platform check with your provider first as the analytics features may already be baked-in there. There are three key components of most mobile analytics platforms: (a) A Client SDK (b) Cloud Platform and (c) Analytics Dashboard. Client SDK The client SDK is a library given to the App developers by the mobile analytics provider. This library gets integrated into your mobile App at the time of development itself, and is responsible to send information about interesting activities that happen within your App to the Cloud Platform. You can think of this as the basic instrumentation (or sensors) that capture user behavior within your App. Cloud Platform The cloud platform is responsible to capture the raw data received from the client SDKs and to roll-up this data into meaningful reports. Since your App may be running on millions of mobile devices, this cloud platform is most often designed to handle massive scale. Analytics Dashboard The analytics dashboard is part of the cloud platform which helps you visualize reports via a browser interface. It can let you define customized reports, filter the data being shown in those reports, or to download bulk-data for further analysis by other tools. Understanding Essential Terms To leverage analytics well, we explore some of the most commonly used terms in this area: We describe each term along with a relevant example below. A Mindstix Labs Publication 5
Concept Event and Event Properties Description and Example Event is any user-driven activity of interest that happens within your mobile App. It is the fundamental-building block that is captured from your App and subsequently used to generate all other reports. Events can have associated properties with it. Example: Login, Add to Cart, and Checkout are examples of events in a mobile commerce App. A specific ProductId could be a property of the Add to Cart event. Trend Charts A time-series chart which shows occurrence (counts) of specific events over a period of time. Example: A time-series chart that shows number of logins in your mobile App on a month-by-month basis. See Figure 1. Monthly Active Users The number of unique active users in your App in a specific month. Any event triggered by the user is considered as a user activity and this metric is often shown as a month-on-month trend on a chart. Example: While your App may have over 1 million registered users, only 40% of that number may be active in each month. See Figure 2. Funnels Funnels help you visualize the workflows within your App and the drop-offs of users at each step in that workflow. Example: A path to purchase on a mobile commerce App involves multiple steps - Search, Add to Cart, and Checkout. Users could drop-off at each step and a funnel can indicate the % of those drop-offs at every step. See Figure 3. A Mindstix Labs Publication 6
Fig 1: Trends: Logins & Checkouts (Counts in millions) Figure 2: MAU: Monthly Active Users (Counts in millions) 50 70 37.5 52.5 25 35 12.5 Logins Checkouts 0 April May June July Aug 17.5 MAU 0 April May June July Aug Figure 3: Purchase Funnel (Counts in millions) 60 Number of Users 45 30 15 Drop-Off Percentage Value at Each Step 0 Login Search Views Product Add to Cart Checkout Returns Figure 4: User Segments by Mobile OS viewed month-by-month (Counts in millions) Number of Users 180 135 90 45 ios Android Windows 0 April May June July Aug A Mindstix Labs Publication 7
Figure 5: User Segments by Age 13% 10% 9% 23% 8% Below 15 15 to 25 25 to 35 35 to 45 45 to 55 Above 55 37% Concept User Segmentation Cohort Retention Description and Example Segmentation is a grouping of users based on certain characteristics of those users. Mobile analytics platforms help you define a group and then target that group via push notifications, emails, or in-app notifications for further engagement. Example: Users could be segmented based on their profile characteristics such as age mobile OS, group, location, language, purchase habits etc. See Figure 4 & 5. Retention is a measure of the % of users who have come back to your App and performed subsequent actions within a certain period of time. Example: A retention report can indicate that 25% of the users who sign-up come back later to purchase something in your App. See Figure 6. Average Customer Lifetime Value Return on Investment (ROI) Average Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a measure of average value per customer from the time they first started using the mobile App. Example: This could be measured in monetary terms such as the average dollarrevenue per mobile customer, or in terms of intangibles such as content contributed by the customer, average number of invites sent by your customers etc. See Figure 7. This determined by the customer lifetime value and the average cost of acquiring a new customer. This could also be measured as a percentage for the entire lifetime of your app, or on a per-campaign basis. Example: If your average cost of acquiring a customer has been $3 via a pay-per-click campaign, and suppose, the CLV per customer is $30, then your ROI is nearly 900%. A Mindstix Labs Publication 8
Figure 6: Cohort Retention: As Measured for First Login vs Add to Cart Activity First Login +1 Mo +2 Mo +3 Mo +4 Mo +5 Mo +6 Mo Jan (125K) 56% 35% 30% 25% 24% 24% Feb (156K) 50% 32% 29% 24% 23% Mar (181K) 52% 34% 34% 26% Apr (203K) 58% 32% 33% May (250K) 57% 36% Jun (260K) 58% Figure 7: Average Customer Lifetime Value Average CLV US$160 US$120 US$80 US$40 Average CLV US$0 April May June July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Recommended Best Practices Define KPIs Upfront Make sure that analytics is an integral part of your mobile strategy and your KPIs are clearly defined upfront. Analytics without KPIs makes very little sense. Secure your Analytics Analytics is closely tied to your App or business strategy. In competitive scenarios, your analytics needs to be well guarded from prying eyes. Check with your provider about the kind of tenant isolation that is offered to you. Avoid Free-form Input as Tag Names One common mistake is to use the free-form user inputs as event names. This causes an explosion of event-tags on your dashboard A Mindstix Labs Publication 9
Figure 7: Recipe making it difficult to roll-up or segment data. Attach such inputs as custom properties of your event if you need to. Make It Actionable Analytics without real actions becomes useless. Make sure what you learn from analytics is actionable and you have a plan in-place to take corrective measures based on those learnings. Directly engage target user segments, or experiment with App features and content based on what you find. Leverage Customized Dashboards Customized dashboards let you look at the metrics that matter the most based on your own KPIs without being distracted by all the other features of your analytics platform. The contents of the dashboard could be defined based on the role of the stakeholders. Management Commitment Make sure senior management reviews at the analytics dashboards with regularity and fervor. This should be one of the key things to discuss in all product strategy meetings. Leverage Real-time Analytics When new features or products are introduced in your App, or when new promotions are launched, make sure you observe the analytics in real-time, and not just in retrospective. This will help you quickly take corrective actions if required. A Recipe and Your Next Steps If you are embarking on your mobile analytics journey, Figure 7 presents a recipe that you could follow. This recipe is based on much of the concepts and best practices outlined in this paper. A Mindstix Labs Publication 10
Platform Evaluation Checklist Several platforms and providers exist in the market today for mobile analytics. There is no one-size-fits-all and the right choice could depend on your KPIs, the nature of your App, and your budget. We ve put together an evaluation checklist that helps you rate various providers and chose the one that best fits your needs. For each row in this list, you may answer a Yes/No, or assign a weight to it. Comparing the final scores will help you arrive at your best fit provider. A Mindstix Labs Publication 11
Features and Dashboard Maturity Trend Charts Ability to view time-series charts for events and extensible filters on those. Screen Flow Visualization Funnels User Segmentation Retention Reports Visualize screen flows along with drop-off metrics within the flow. Ability to define custom funnels with powerful filters on those. Define user segments based on custom attributes. Retention reports based on custom attributes and time filters. Monthly Average Users Revenue Tracking Number of active user sessions on a month-by-month basis. Tracking cumulative and segmented reviews with time-filters. Lifetime Value Tracking Ad ROI and Acquisition Tracking Custom Reports and Bookmarks KPI Dashboard Data Export Capabilities Advance Query Capabilities Tracking average lifetime value of users and it s trend over time. Tracking ROI on click-thru advertising and customer retention metrics for those. Ability to define and save (bookmark) custom reports. Ability to aggregate various reports / charts into a single KPI dashboard. Ability to export data into CSV, XLS or PDF reports. Ability to define custom queries using an expressive query language. A Mindstix Labs Publication 12
Platform And Offering Maturity REST API Support Service Level Agreements Uptime History Scalability Community Tenant Isolation Pricing Limits and Thresholds Support for REST APIs which can be invoked from mobile clients. Ability to extract reports and metrics via REST API. Tightness of the SLAs and uptime guarantees. Track record of service uptime; Reference customers to ascertain this. Track record of service uptime; Reference customers to ascertain this. Health and activity in the community and forums? Availability of documentation. Degree of isolation between tenants; Analytics can be sensitive information. Pricing model - Flat fee, subscription based, revenue-linked, user-linked. Limits and thresholds on the number of users, devices, reports for specific pricing model. SDK Maturity OS Support Track Sessions Track User Profiles User Agent Tracking Geo Tracking Custom Properties Crash Reports Android, ios, Windows Mobile, Blackberry Support. Capability to track user sessions every time the app comes to the foreground. Ability to associate a user profile with events. Track device and user-agent information (OS, Version, Device, Manufacturer). Track geo-coordinates of the user. Ability to attach custom properties with an event. Ability to report crashes and exceptions within the app. A Mindstix Labs Publication 13
Offline Support Real Time Reporting Documentation Maturity Ability to track even if device is offline using client-side buffers. Ability to report events in near-realtime to the cloud platform. Overall maturity of the API documentation and ease of integration. Summary This paper has looked at some of the key business drivers for mobile analytics and it s core concepts. We believe that analytics should not be an afterthought and should be an integral part of your enterprise mobile strategy from its outset. Our evaluation checklist should help you pick the right provider that fits your needs and our recipe should help novices quickly get started. A Mindstix Labs Publication 14
About the Authors Roshan Kulkarni Roshan Kulkarni is the Founder and CEO at Mindstix Software Labs. He has a master s degree in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay with over 10+ years of product leadership experience. Since its inception, Mindstix Labs has evolved under his leadership to become a creative home to 100+ software craftsmen, product designers and code ninjas. Tanvi Shah Tanvi has a bachelors degree in Information Technology and has led mobile strategy and delivery engagements with global clients, including several Fortune 500 customers here at Mindstix Labs. Tanvi has experience in planning and implementing scalable systems using the MEAN (MongoDB, Express, AngularJS, and NodeJS) stack as well as native mobility platforms. About Mindstix Labs Beautiful Software. Purpose-built for your Enterprise. Mindstix Software Labs was founded in 2009 with a vision to deliver high-performance product engineering services to enterprises across the globe. Our primary areas of work include Mobility, Cloud Engineering, Embedded & IoT Systems, and User Experience Design. With an impressive line-up of customers including Fortune 500 Enterprises and leading Silicon Valley startups, Mindstix Labs has sustained a 100% growth year-on-year. Immaculate product design, agile cadence, and intense dog-fooding are what make us a strong engineering-partner today. A Mindstix Labs Publication 15