There can be many various challenges when it comes to launching a mobile app. Some organizations might launch an app only to find that their conversion rate is unsatisfactory, its design has serious issues, or their retention rates are less than impressive. Others might find that their mobile onboarding process is too complex.
Of course, it’s also critical to understand user behavior within your mobile app. What are some factors that you should be considering? Here, we examine five different app metrics so that you can understand your users and their behavior much better.
Session Recordings
If you want to know more about your mobile app users, then it would be valuable for you to “see” what the user is doing. Through app session recordings, you can view what the user is doing, the taps and gestures they’re making, and better understand their critical frustration points.
For those who want to improve their app’s usability, session recordings can help you understand what needs to be improved or altered. These user session recordings can help developers reduce bounce rates, improve user engagement, and even help measure feature adoption.
Touch Heatmaps
What exactly is the user doing at a specific screen? Touch heatmaps can offer incredible information about what a user is doing, what their expectations are, and what gestures they are making. A touch heatmap aggregates all user gestures – whether it’s a double-tap, swipe, scroll, pinch, or otherwise.
These interactions are color-coded and can be filtered for specific objectives. For example, you can filter out unresponsive gestures to determine what users may have expected from their journey. Also, you can assess what features capture the users’ attention first, improve app usability, and see how or why users might backtrack through their journey rather than meeting a specific goal (creating an account in your app, for example).
Navigation Paths
One of the most critical aspects of understanding user journeys is to spot potential bottlenecks. When you map out navigation paths, you can figure out where some users might be confused about a particular layout screen, or visualize that users are encountering a particular usability issue somewhere in their user journey.
By mapping out navigation paths, you can identify where users seem to be confused about where to go or how to complete payment. You can also compare the navigation paths of new versus recurring customers to figure out where the user journey needs to be clarified or simplified.
Conversion Funnels
Conversion funnels are incredible tools for tracking user behavior. These funnels can clearly break down where and why users are dropping out of each funnel stage.
There are several advantages to understanding and improving conversion funnels. Conversion funnels can help increase in-app purchases, improve the onboarding process, and increase customer retention rates. Also, measuring the average time between each step of the funnel can help you optimize the user journey.
Action Cohorts
A “cohort” refers to a group of people who are banded together for a certain period of time. Action cohorts analyze groups of users based on what they do within a specific time frame (this time frame could be a day, week, month, or otherwise).
This allows you to get more data and insight regarding defined user groups, and better identify user engagement and usage patterns. Action cohort analysis is effective depending on the parameters established and the analytics tools at your disposal. Action cohorts can also shed light regarding user behavior between actions. Many developers combine action cohorts and session recordings to help optimize their mobile apps.
The Best Tools For Tracking User Behavior On Mobile Apps
Now that we understand different apps metrics that can help you understand user behavior, it’s time to examine what tools can be utilized to help improve your app. Here, we list seven valuable tools that can help you track user behavior on mobile apps.
Firebase
Firebase has both free and pay-as-you-go options to help you with mobile app analytics. Firebase is known for Crashlytics, which can help you track and prioritize any usability issues in your mobile app. It’s the perfect tool for developers who want to
Firebase is backed by Google, one of the biggest tech companies in the world. Google acquired Firebase in 2014.
Mixpanel
Mixpanel is a business analytic services company that was originally backed by Y Combinator, the well-known startup accelerator. Mixpanel tracks interactions through apps and websites so that businesses can better understand consumer behavior, and helps companies “build better products through data.” The award-winning company is now valued at over $1 billion.
The platform is known for offering incredible conversion analysis, as well. Mixpanel offers a free plan, a growth plan starting at $25/month, and a custom-priced enterprise plan.
Appsee (acquired by ServiceNow)
If you are looking for more information about the user journey, Appsee is a tool that can help you optimize your app for engagement. Appsee helps you “see” where users might be confused, or where there could be more engagement.
Appsee is well-known for its touch map features, where you can “see” where users interact the most on the screen. It’s also used for real-time alerts, navigation paths, and overall user journey tracking. Servicenow acquired Appsee in 2019.
Localytics (acquired by Upland)
https://uplandsoftware.com/localytics/
Some app developers are looking for tools that can help them track user behavior, but Localytics is more focused on improving mobile app engagement. If you are interested in creating personalized mobile app experiences, then Localytics might be your solution.
Localytics is also useful for developers who want to improve user flows, predict usage patterns, and translate their marketing initiatives into real ROI. Localytics offers custom pricing depending on your specific needs. Upland Software acquired Localytics in early 2020.
Clevertap
If you’re having trouble with customer retention, Clevertap is one of the most useful tools for your app. Clevertap is designed with mobile growth teams in mind, helping them with cross-channel messaging, optimizing mobile campaigns, and offering real-time behavioral analytics.
Clevertap is trusted by established brands like Mercedes-Benz, Domino’s, and TitleMax. They have also helped automate large-scale marketing campaigns. Clevertap was founded in May 2013.
Flurry
Flurry is a well-known mobile apps analytics platform that can be extremely useful for analyzing user behavior. The platform has been around since 2008 and has helped launch over 1 million apps.
This platform is ideal for app developers who want to find out more about user segmentation, funnel analysis, and more. One of the best aspects of Flurry is that it is entirely free to use, which is an obvious advantage over other mobile app analytic platforms.
Apptentive
Like many other tools on this list, Apptentive markets itself as “powering millions of interactions on billions of devices.” Apptentive is a great tool for those who want to capture and track user behavior, and it’s also great for utilizing customer feedback to target your most engaged mobile users. The company first launched in 2011.
For those hoping to drive better mobile experiences, Apptentive is the perfect tool. However, Apptentive is more focused specifically on mobile customer feedback.
