7 Things you Need to Know About Apple App Analytics

With the rollout of the Apple’s app analytics module in iTunes Connect, we’re beginning to see the kind of data we need in order to make efficient steps toward even more effective App Store Optimization. With that in mind, I thought it useful to quickly run through a few things that might not be immediately clear to users coming to it for the first time.

So, in essence, the app analytics module is a collection of data relevant to developers and marketers of apps that gives you up-to-date, first-party data. Using the module does not require any changes to your app, and other developers cannot view your data. The analytics module is in your iTunes Connect landing page and is available if you have admin, finance or sales access to your iTunes Connect page.

That data offered by the module is divided into four: overview, metrics, sources and retention.

Overview: Pretty much as it sounds. The unfiltered data, giving you almost all the info in the other modules at a glance.

Metrics: Gives you App Store Views, App Units, In-App Purchases, Sales, Installations, Sessions, Active Devices, Active last 30 Days and a comparison drop down menu so you can compare any of them side-by-side. I’ll cover the more confusing ones later.

Sources: Offers up sources and figures of the users coming to your app.

Retention: A tidy, if a touch inflexible, 30-day retention chart, showing retention by day.

It’s well worth remembering that there are a few caveats to the data offered by Apple analytics. Firstly, it’s all data from iOS8 onwards. This is why currently, it should be used more as a guide than anything else. There are also a lot of data points that are entirely opt in. This is essential to know when using this data.

I am in no doubt that more comprehensive data is coming, but from an ASO point of view, there are a few things I would love to see, such as time-on-page and uninstalls. Similarly, data directly from search is not present, so you’re still unable to see exactly what search terms bring users to your app.

This seems to be the biggest problem thus far with this app analytics tool. Currently there are two metrics that appear to be the same thing to many people, namely App Units and Installations. In essence, App Units are the first-time downloads of an app, while ‘Installations’ covers things like redownloads, multiple devices and family sharing. However, it’s worth noting that the figure for ‘Installations’ is opt-in data, while ‘App Units’ is not.

The figure of users opting in to sharing app data can be found in the top right-hand of any page in the module. Clicking on the tooltip for ‘About App Analytics Data’ will give you the opt-in figure. Bear this in mind when you use this data. What kind of users opt in to your app? Are they giving skewed results?

Far and away the most useful element of the module in terms of ASO is within the metrics tab. For the first time, we can now see the link between App Store Views and App Units. Comparing these two data points gives you a very basic conversion rate (again, remember, that data comes with caveats). Obviously, one of the biggest issues is how to identify a low conversion rate, given that you don’t have access to a global average, but here it may be worth looking at web and other mobile analytics and making a few best guesses relevant to your field.

Conversion rates vary wildly across categories, but some testing and tweaking over time should yield results that are now measurable, albeit not in A/B format. In general, if you find you’re running at a very low conversion rate, reworking your app metadata to more closely reflect your app and having a close look at keywords to ensure they are highly relevant is the sensible next step.

The best two sources for the analytics module as it stands come directly from Apple. The first, a PDF guide, can be found here, while the FAQ can be found in the FAQ section under app analytics. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or want to discuss anything I’ve covered in this article, and I hope that has helped as a very basic introduction, at least from an ASO point of view. 

Disclaimer: Tom Leclerc is the ASO manager at Wooga GmbH. However, this article does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of that company.