Odds are pretty high that your organization’s website uses Google Analytics to track the traffic to your site. Google Analytics is the most popular tool in the world for measuring website activity and figuring out what pages are getting attention and which ones are not. The reporting allows you to find out important data about your audience, how they are browsing your site, and whether they are doing what you want them to do. Marketers, in particular, love Google Analytics as it provides valuable insight into how best to improve your web presence.
Did you know that you can also get that kind of insight in your mobile event app? Google now has a tool called Mobile App Analytics that allows you to get the same kind of unprecedented perspective into how people are using your event app. The information you get from the reports can cover just about every aspect of your app’s experience.
Acquisition
First of all, you can report on what devices are most commonly used for your app and the store they were purchased. Not only does it breakdown by operating system – Apple iOS versus Android – but you can drilldown into the specific device such as smartphone versus tablet. You can even get screen resolution and release numbers. All of this data is critical for making sure your app gives the best experience for the different types of users you will have.
User Engagement
These reports show how users are using your app over a period in time. In events, the peaks and valleys of the usage will often correspond to the attendee’s engagement with your presentations and app tools. Unlike a traditional app, an event app’s usage generally corresponds with the start and end of your event – so those times of engagement are particularly revealing.
Most Popular Pages
You can think of your app as having “pages” like your web site. You will probably have areas like schedule, presenters, exhibitors and so forth. This will make it easy for you to figure out who are the most popular speakers and which ones were not so compelling.
Usage and Goals
You can also use Analytics to see how your app is doing against expectations. Did the app ever crash? Were there times when the performance was less than optimal? You can also set goals, such as did the attendees play an interactive game.
The setup of Mobile App Analytics is not a straight-forward as for the web, but with the proper configuration you can get insights into your app’s usage that is every bit as rich as Google Analytics is for your website.
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