How to Track User Behaviour in Your Mobile App

How to Track User Behaviour in Your Mobile App

Like any new phenomenon, the early investigations are the simplest, maybe due to a lack of data. The mobile app development company conducted a study to understand and anticipate user behaviour at the app’s start, trend-focused mainly on the number of downloads.

Although all owners of a mobile business application aspire to design and launch a successful app, most of them end up lost in a sea of competing apps in which all businesses compete to be the best. However, it’s worth noting the key features of a firm mobile app that no one should miss if they want to succeed.

We can do nothing that can’t be measured. Any work, including mobile applications, requires analytics to function well. This tool lets you track user behaviour and obtain detailed information about their activities.

Keep Track Of Every Interaction Your App Has With Its Users

The app user behaviour reports show you how users interact with it. You can use this set of reports to keep track of your users’ information. Consider the following scenario:

• Each session’s total number of screens watched.
• The order in which the screens are displayed.
• The number of technical blunders (including app crashes).
• The time it takes for various pieces of the application to load.

What Is The Definition Of User Behaviour Analytics?

Behavioural analytics is a kind of data analysis focusing on uncovering user behaviour patterns. Each user’s journey chronology records raw event data (such as button presses or page views). 

These user behaviour analyses identify customers’ concrete preferences and, by inference, what improvements (optimisations) might they make to help a product sell.

The app sector is exploding, data is becoming more readily available, and metric studies are becoming more precise. The current issue is to connect some of these signs to user loyalty to the app. As a result, let’s look at some of the best ways to track user behaviour that you should consider to make your app more exciting and appealing.

Usage Of The App

When it comes to understanding consumers and their behaviour, this is one of the essential indicators. To determine app utilisation, you must answer the questions: 

• Who uses the app? 
• What is the frequency with which they open it? 
• What kind of gadgets do they have? 
• What operating system are you using? 
• What time is it? 
• What type of information do they disseminate?

Groovy Web answers these significant issues can use particular aspects like social statistics.

Why is this so critical for app user retention? It’s the same as in real life. You may be conversing with someone, but you have the impression that the other person is not paying attention to you, as evidenced by their responses. If the situation does not alter, you will eventually become bored and end the conversation.

You find that most of your users frequent the photos section incredibly late at night. You can use this data to set up push notifications for updates to the photographs section or new articles on the subject just a few minutes before peak hours.

The more engaging you are with your consumers and the more relevant information you provide, the more they will relate to and value your app.

Conversion Rate

Because the conversion is dependent on the significant features that the app provides to its customers, this measure can vary depending on the type of mobile application. For example, a completed or unfinished checkout procedure might be used to determine the conversion rate of an eCommerce application. 

The conversion can count how many viewed and shared items if it’s a news app. It can also be assessed by the number of people who access the Internet and then download the mobile app.

Providing consumers with tools they can readily utilise in the most relevant areas is a fantastic strategy to enhance conversion rates. Exchange of content across social media platforms, commenting on articles, and creating a favourites list are just a few examples. Remember to think about the most critical user behaviour features of your app.

Active Users

How many people are dynamically reading articles, listening to music, watching movies, commenting on social media, sharing with networks, and so on? It’s critical to maintain track of active users and even plan actions for those who aren’t assets.

Push notifications are an efficient approach to engaging inactive users, and if you learn how to use metrics correctly, you can personalise your push notifications to be more effective.

Session Duration

One of the most crucial things for people in a society where everything happens quickly is time. As a result, the amount of time people spend on your app is a solid sign of how engaged they are with it.

The following are some criteria that can help enhance this KPI:

• Invest in the visual aspect.
• Creating a beautiful and appropriate design for the application’s concept.

For example, if your app is about on-demand food delivery, you should choose a gastronomy-inspired template. In contrast, if your app is about photography, you should use the Blurred template, which emphasises photographs.

Creating an android app development is another excellent technique to improve the user experience.

Behaviour Flow

Create a visual representation of how consumers moved from one screen or event to the next. This analysis will show you which app content keeps people interested in your app. View a user’s journey through Screens, Events, or a mix of Screens and Events. The company should configure the tracking code to appear in the user Behaviour Flow report for the events in your behaviour tracking apps.

Exceptions And Blocks

The company should list the name and briefly explain the main exceptions or technical faults that affect the application in this report. The locks are represented independently from the other exceptions. It would help if you defined standard exceptions, including network failures and searches that return no results.

Defining exceptions in the application’s tracking code necessitates technical application knowledge; hence, the programmer should handle it.

Top Common Metrics to Track Customer Behaviour

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) / Cost Per Install (CPI) (CAC)

Although it’s easy to relax as your app installs skyrocket, you will need to account for the money you spent if the installs don’t happen now. That is, how much money you spend on each download on average.

It would help if you aimed to maintain your CPI low and spend as little money as possible on user acquisition. When your CPI exceeds your Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) (which we’ll address next), you’re losing money on every download or customer you bring in, which isn’t a good indicator for your business.

What’s the formula for calculating the Consumer Price Index (CPI)?

Total Marketing Costs / Total Users Acquired

Customer Value Over Time (CLTV)

The next most critical app measure for you to know after obtaining a customer is how much value they will generate for you during their time as a customer. A Customer Lifetime Value is how much money you can expect to make from a customer when they download your app. Until they stop using it, or until they stop being your customer.

What is the formula for calculating CLTV?

Average Value of Conversion * Average No. of Conversions over a Time period * Average Customer Life Time(CLT)

(ARPU) Average Revenue Per User & Average Revenue Per Paying User (ARPPU)

Your average revenue per user determines whether or not you’ll meet your monthly revenue targets and, if not, how big of a gap you’ll have to close. The amount of income generated by your average user is known as ARPU.

ARPU and CLTV appear pretty similar – ARPU provides revenue analytics by giving you the average money your user makes for you. At the same time, CLTV tells you the average revenue your user will generate for you throughout their relationship with you. However, the distinction is not insignificant. 

You can’t forecast the total amount of revenue your user will presumably create for you over their lifetime with ARPU, which is why you require CLTV. To forecast future income and make decisions based on that information.

What is the formula for calculating ARPU?

Lifetime Revenue / Number of Lifetime Users

(MAU) Monthly Active Users & (DAU) Daily Active Users

The most common phrases in the Marketing index and likely the most significant KPIs for high-growth B2C enterprises to gauge user engagement. 

Today, with approximately 28% of apps being uninstalled within the first 30 days, there’s no guarantee that someone who has installed your app will use it. Your DAU and MAU mobile app analytics can show how entertaining and valuable your app is to those who download it.

DAU measures the number of unique users on your app daily. In contrast, the number of individual users on your app over 30 days, or a month, is measured by MAU.

What is the formula for calculating DAU / MAU?

On a daily/monthly basis, you should check how many of your users take action on your app. Your DAU / MAU will be this number.

Rate of Retention

Retention Rate is another critical app metric for determining the app’s functionality. Although not all your users may actively use your app, they may still turn to you in an emergency. And this is your Retention Rate — the number of users who return to your app at least once after installing it within a particular time range.

It would help if you tracked your retention rates on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, and the great thing is that you can use cohort analysis to do so. To have a more detailed understanding of your retention rates, Consider the following scenario: you’ve released an app update and want to know how your consumers reacted.

What is the formula for calculating the Retention Rate?

(Total No. of users at the end of a period minus number of users obtained during that period) / (Total No. of users at the beginning of the period X 100)

Stickiness Ratio

The Stickiness Ratio is one of the essential mobile app metrics since it indicates how much value your users get from your app over a period of months. The formula considers both DAUs and MAUs. 

A significant percentage indicates that more people find your app valuable and return to interact with it. The more addictive a mobile app is, the more money it may make. 

According to a 2015 study, the higher your stickiness ratio, the more likely you are to engage your users and avoid churn. The number of sessions (times a person opens the application) a user generates on the app can also be referred to as stickiness. The more sessions a user generates, the more engaged they are.

How can you figure out how sticky something is?

DAU/MAU x 100

Average Session Length

Each user’s average amount of time on your app is referred to as average session length. It isn’t a universal app metric, and its relevance is contingent on the industry in which you work.

This is important to track because it offers you a sense of how valuable your in-app content is to your users. If they don’t, you’ll have to conduct some A/B testing to learn about your users’ preferences.

This measure benefits apps like Spotify and Netflix since it tells them if their recommendations align with their users’ tastes. On the contrary, the longer you spend seeking rides on Uber (session time), the worse it gets because it means they won’t be able to serve you immediately – a problem statement that even Google struggles with.

How do I figure out how long an average session lasts?

Total number of sessions (in seconds) / total duration of all sessions (in seconds) for a particular time frame

Churn Rate

It’s the rate at which your users remove your software or cancel/downgrade subscriptions, which is the polar opposite of retention rates. While a high churn rate is terrible in and of itself, it becomes even more troublesome when your most valuable/top revenue-generating users leave.

Thus impacting your business’s overall unit economics. A high churn rate is terrible for you, regardless of your industry. The main issue with Churn Rates is that it’s exceedingly tough to pinpoint why your people are abandoning you. 

Several factors, such as decreased usability, a lack of fresh content, switching to a competitor, or frequent app crashes, can contribute to this.

Of course, there are strategies for reducing churn rates; the sooner you use them, the better.

Exit Rate

Exit Rate is frequently confused with Bounce Rate. However, the two are vastly different. While knowing how many of your users are leaving your platform without engaging with your content (bounce rate), it’s perhaps even more important to learn from which screen they left (Exit rate). Regarding mobile apps, the focus should be on the Exit Rate. Why?

Because you’ll be able to see which of your conversion screens need repair, this could be because your users aren’t getting enough value from the screen or because it doesn’t meet their expectations. You’ll need to do usability testing to pinpoint the exact reason behind this.

What is the formula for calculating the Exit Rate of users?

Total number of user visits to a screen / Total no. of exits from that particular screen

Average Order Value (AOV)

While it’s critical to concentrate your efforts on growing website traffic and lowering cart abandonment rates, many marketers make the mistake of overlooking Average Order Value.

So, what exactly is AOV?

Your clients’ average order value is the amount of money they spend on every order they place on your app. Knowing your AOV may help you analyse your pricing and marketing efforts, and it’s one indicator that directly impacts your bottom revenue line. (It’s important to clarify that AOV refers to sales per order, not per customer.)

What is the formula for calculating AOV?

Total Revenue / Number of Orders

Top Free Tools To Track User Behaviour

Several tools on the market may help you better understand how users interact with your app and their likes and dislikes. These tools can help you understand how people interact with your app and improve and optimise it.

The following are some of the tools:

Google Analytics for Mobile Apps

Google provides this service for free. Both Android and iOS users can use Google Mobile App Analytics for free. You can upgrade to a premium version if you need more detailed information on user behaviour.

The primary goals of Google Analytics are to track user acquisition, activation, and income. It only takes a few moments to log in with your Google account and start using it. You can establish goals for your users, check if they’ve been met, and track their progress. The features include:

• The number of people who have used the service and their number of sessions.
• The money that users spend
• Duration of the session
• Users’ operating systems, device models, and locations

Mixpanel

Mixpanel can track your mobile app and analyse how users interact with it so that you may re-engage them with more relevant information in the future.

You may learn more about your consumers’ journey through your mobile app, desktop, and mobile web. It is straightforward because no coding is necessary to track the app’s stats.

Cover features:

A/B testing and intuitive insights track engagement, retention, and conversion funnels.

Appsee

Appsee lets you see which of your users are confused during onboarding or abandoned your app by analysing how they behave while using it.

Touch heatmap features reveal where users interact most and least on each screen. Unresponsive movements are also displayed on the heatmaps, allowing you to rapidly detect any usability issues and optimise your app for a better user experience.

A few characteristics include the following:

• In-app metrics in real-time
• Touch Heatmaps
• Tracking the user’s journey
• Alerts in real-time
• Paths of Navigation

Localytics

Localytics has many features, including comprehensive quantitative analytics, smart tagging, and more.

It teaches you how to increase targeted engagement across the user lifecycle. Android, iOS, Windows, Blackberry, and HTML5 are all supported by Localytics.

Some of the characteristics include:

• App usage information
• A/B testing
• ScreenFlow
• Segments and funnels

Clevertap

CleverTap provides detailed information on user behaviour, segmentation, and targeted messaging.

Using it, you can send your user’s customised push notifications and in-app messages to learn more about their preferences and retarget them after uninstall. It has the following features:

• Audience Research (funnels, cohorts, uninstalls, user journey)
• Segmentation software that works automatically
• Campaign Optimisation
• Omnichannel Marketing 

Flurry

Flurry analytics are comprehensive and detailed, allowing you to see your app’s usage data. Businesses can use it since it tracks user interactions across multiple mobile apps.

The dashboard displays a range of data, such as app usage, audience, and events. It may appear perplexing initially, but the statistics provide a wealth of information that can help you improve your app. Below are some of the characteristics to consider for tracking user behaviour:

• User Sessions
• Retention Analytics
• Segmentation and Events
• Funnels
• User Paths

Apptentive

Apptentive analytics will assist you in identifying strengths and problems in your user experience and assisting you in listening to, engaging with, and retaining your users. The program intelligently engages customer segments and prompts users to act via in-app messages, surveys, and other means. Apptentive can help you increase app reviews, downloads, and client loyalty. Among the features are:

• Rate & Reviews
• Analytics
• Sentiment Analysis
• Surveys

Conclusion

We can track the user preferences via behavioural analysis, which we further use to provide or guide that user to specific content. It helps to draw attention to particular products or advertisements.

If you’ve developed a mobile app, the next step is to promote it. To do so, you’ll need to engage your customers, and the best way to do that is to watch their app user behaviour and discover any potential usability issues or reasons why they like or dislike your app. We provide you with the following tools to help track your customers’ behaviour.

While they are using your app, weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each tool and select the one that best suits your needs.

Some users believe the data collection techniques are dangerous and intrusive on Groovy Web, and they ideally monitor and record everything they do.

Author Bio: Krunal Panchal is the CEO & Co-founder of Groovy Web. He has been a hardcore programmer since he was 11 and started his career very young. His technical and logical mind drove him to choose coding as his destiny. At an initial stage, he got essential experience and the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship. Learning something new is a never-ending process for him. Under his leadership, Groovy Web has become an established organisation serving industries from startups to enterprises, regardless of limitations.