With millions of apps in app stores, creating an app that stands out and attracts users is increasingly challenging. Understanding user behavior in your mobile app is crucial to improving its performance and user experience. In-app events are a valuable tool for tracking user behavior in your app. This blog post will explore what in-app events are, how to implement them, and their importance in mobile app development.
Understanding user behavior is essential to improve app performance, engagement, and retention. In-app events are user actions and behaviors that can be tracked and analyzed within a mobile app. In-app events can range from basic activities such as app opens, clicks, and time spent in-app, to more complex actions, such as in-app purchases, social media sharing, and completing levels in a game. In-app events provide developers with data on how users interact with their apps, enabling them to optimize features and personalize user experiences.
Understanding In-App Events
In-app events are categorized into two types: predefined and custom. Predefined events are standardized events set by app development platforms, such as:
- App opens
- Clicks
- Purchases
- Registration
Custom events, on the other hand, are specific to an app and are designed to track specific user behavior, such as:
- Completing a tutorial
- Subscribing to a newsletter
- Reaching a certain level
In-app events are tracked using an SDK (Software Development Kit) integrated into the app. The SDK collects data on user behavior and sends it to an analytics platform for analysis. The analytics platform then gives developers insights into how users interact with their app.
Benefits of Tracking In-App Events
In-app events offer several benefits to mobile app developers, including:
- Measuring user engagement and retention: In-app events provide valuable data on user behavior, enabling developers to measure user engagement and retention. This data can be used to optimize popular features with users and identify areas of the app that need improvement.
- Optimization of app features and user experience: In-app events can help developers identify which app components are used the most and which features are not. This data can be used to optimize features and improve the user experience.
- Ability to target specific user segments and personalize user experience: In-app events can help developers identify specific user segments and personalize the user experience. For example, if users frequently purchase in-app products, the developer can provide them with customized offers and promotions.
Common In-App Events to Track
Developers can track several common in-app events to improve app performance and user experience. These events include:
- Time spent in-app
- It helps developers see if the users have a positive experience. For example, if session time drops after a change in the UI, this might indicate that the users negatively perceive the change.
- In-app purchases
- Purchase events show the patterns of paying users and help developers determine monetizing users and calculate ROAS.
- App opens
- App developers can track retention by creating the app oven event, which means comparing the total number of app opens to the total number of users acquired during that period.
- Completing levels in games
- In mobile games, level completion events are a great source of insights to see whether a level is performing well.
Developers can use these in-app events to improve app performance by optimizing popular features with users and identifying areas that need improvement.
Implementing In-App Events
Implementing in-app events requires several steps, including:
- Identifying the in-app events you want to track
- Integrating an SDK into your app
- Defining the data you want to collect
- Setting up an analytics platform
- Analyzing and interpreting the data
When implementing in-app events, it is essential to follow best practices for tracking and analyzing data. These practices include:
Determining the insights you want to extract from the data
It’s important to know what insights you need to improve your app before analyzing the data. For example, for a gaming app, insights about which level is the hardest to pass or how long it takes for users to make a purchase are crucial insights to know about.
Choosing the right metrics to track
After deciding what insights you need, start specifying the events that will provide you with those insights. For example, to answer the questions above, you must look at in-app events such as ‘’Level Completed’’ and ‘’Session Length’’.
Analyzing data regularly to identify trends and patterns & test your event data
Now that you’ve decided on your insights and event properties, start analyzing your data regularly and identify the patterns of your users. Let’s say your users’ playtime and engagement begin to decrease after a certain level- meaning that the level is too hard or causes a loss of interest. Then, you can adjust the level and test it to see if it made any improvements.
Find the right analytics tool
There are several tools and platforms for tracking in-app events, and it’s a process to find the one that works best for you. Here’re some tools to check out:
- Firebase (backed by Google)
- Smartlook
- GameAnalytics (specifically for mobile games)
- UXCam
- Mixpanel
- Heap
Conclusion
In-app events are valuable for understanding how users engage with your app. They enable developers to optimize features, improve user experience, and increase user engagement and retention.
Implementing in-app events requires several steps, including identifying the events to track, integrating an SDK, defining the data to collect, setting up an analytics platform, and analyzing and interpreting the data.
By following best practices and tracking common in-app events, developers can use this data to create better mobile apps and improve user experiences.