What are the most effective app analytics tools and metrics for CRO?

1 Why CRO matters for mobile apps

Mobile apps face a lot of challenges in the crowded and competitive app market. According to Statista, there were over 3.4 million apps available on Google Play and over 2.2 million apps on the App Store as of the first quarter of 2021. However, only a fraction of these apps manage to retain and monetize their users. A study by Localytics found that 21% of users abandon an app after one use, and only 32% of users launch an app more than 11 times. Therefore, it is crucial to optimize your app for conversions, which can be anything from signing up, making a purchase, sharing content, or completing a task.

2 How to define your app conversion goals

The first step of CRO is to define your app conversion goals, which should align with your business objectives and user needs. You should also prioritize your goals based on their impact and feasibility, and break them down into micro and macro conversions. For example, a macro conversion for an e-commerce app could be making a purchase, while a micro conversion could be adding an item to the cart, viewing a product page, or rating a product. You should also assign a value to each conversion, which can be based on revenue, retention, or engagement.

3 How to measure your app conversion rate

The next step of CRO is to measure your app conversion rate, which is the percentage of users who complete a specific conversion goal. You can use various app analytics tools and metrics to track and analyze your app conversion rate, such as Google Analytics for Firebase, Mixpanel, and Appsflyer. These tools offer features for user segmentation, funnel analysis, retention, and experimentation, as well as custom events and properties. Additionally, you should monitor and optimize key metrics such as conversion rate, average revenue per user (ARPU), and customer lifetime value (CLV). Conversion rate is the ratio of users who complete a conversion goal to the total number of users who visit or launch your app. ARPU is the amount of revenue generated by each user over a given period of time, and CLV is the estimated net profit that each user will bring to your app over their entire relationship with you. By tracking and optimizing these metrics, you can gain valuable insights into your app performance and user acquisition and retention strategies.

4 How to optimize your app for conversions

The final step of CRO is to optimize your app for conversions, which involves testing and implementing changes to your app design, functionality, and content based on data and insights. You can use user research to understand your users' needs, preferences, motivations, pain points, and expectations, and identify the gaps and opportunities for improvement in your app. Additionally, user testing can validate your assumptions, hypotheses, and solutions, and measure the impact of your changes on your app conversions. Furthermore, UI and UX design can enhance the clarity, simplicity, consistency, and appeal of your app, and reduce the cognitive load, confusion, and frustration for your users. To optimize your app for conversions, some of the best practices and tips include using clear and compelling value propositions, headlines, and calls to action, as well as social proof, testimonials, ratings, and reviews. Additionally, personalization, gamification, and rewards can increase the relevance, engagement, and motivation of your app and your conversion goals. Finally, push notifications, in-app messages, and email marketing, as well as analytics, feedback, and testing can help you monitor, measure, and optimize your app performance, user behavior, and conversion rate.