page.title=Measure What Matters
page.metaDescription=Customize Analytics to meet your business needs and get meaningful data on your app's performance.
page.tags="analytics, user behavior"
@jd:body
<p>
Once you've implemented Google Analytics, the information you see —
such as how much time users spend in your app and where they are in the world
— will give you insights that let you improve your app experience.
While this data gives you an idea of how users are interacting with your app,
you will also want to measure the performance of your business more directly.
For example, you might want to know how many times your users sign up for
your newsletter or how much revenue your app is generating. To get the most
out of your Analytics reporting you first need to define your business goals
and ensure you've built an appropriate measurement plan.
</p>
<h2 id="metrics">Metrics & Dimensions</h2>
<p>
Google Analytics easy-to-use reporting puts hundreds of
<strong>Metrics</strong> and <strong>Dimensions</strong> at your fingertips
— automatically.
</p>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Metrics</th>
<th>Dimensions</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Metrics are the way that Analytics counts data — the numbers behind
the reports. There are over 300 Metrics measured to help you quantify things like:
<ul>
<li>Users</li>
<li>Screen views</li>
<li>Sessions</li>
<li>Time in app</li>
<li>Events</li>
<li>Crashes</li>
</ul></td>
<td>Dimensions help you slice and dice the data so that you can see subsets. Many
reports have pre-selected dimensions listed as rows in a table. With nearly 350
dimensions you can break down your analysis by:
<ul>
<li>Geography</li>
<li>Language</li>
<li>App version</li>
<li>Device information</li>
<li>Install source</li>
<li>Network Information</li>
</ul></td>
</tr>
</table>
<h2 id="iab">In-App Purchases</h2>
<p>
While Google Play provides reporting about purchases happening in your app,
you can gain more insight by seeing how those actions link to other pieces of
information. For example, you might want to know which acquisition channel
led to the most in-app purchases. Google Analytics allows you to segment your
audience to understand who your best customers are and what the levers are
that you can use to maximize revenue and turn more people into paying users.
</p>
<h2 id="retail">Retail Sales and Ecommerce Transactions</h2>
<p>
When you're selling real products within your app, if you don’t have robust
analytics you won't be able to understand the specific purchase behavior of
your users and you may draw the wrong conclusions about why some products are
selling more than others. Google Analytics Enhanced Ecommerce offers deep
insights into shopper behavior, so that you can make smarter decisions. You
can:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Analyze how far shoppers get in the shopping funnel and where they drop
off</li>
<li>Understand which products are viewed most, which are frequently abandoned
in cart, and which ones convert well</li>
<li>Upload rich product metadata to slice and dice your data</li>
<li>Create rich user segments to delve deeper into your users’ shopping
behavior and the products they interact with</li>
</ul>
<div>
<img src="{@docRoot}distribute/analyze/images/ecommerce.png">
</div>
<h2 id="activity-iab">Activity-Based and In-App Conversions</h2>
<p>
Tracking downloads and purchases is an important first step to understanding
your app performance, but those data points may not provide the full picture
you expect for your business. You may want to track other important goals
like signups for a newsletter or achievements unlocked in your game. With
Google Analytics you can focus on what matters the most for your business by
setting specific actions in your app as goals. You can even understand how
these goals are related to key conversion metrics, tying it back to install
sources in order to have a comprehensive view of your marketing efforts.
</p>
<h2 id="customdata">Custom Data</h2>
<p>
Activating the Google Analytics library makes many metrics available to you
without additional work. Included among these are global metrics and
dimensions that apply to many businesses — the number of users, their
breakdown by country, length of sessions, and more. However, you'll likely
have specific parts of your app or experience that are unique to your
business. To capture this type of information, Google Analytics has several
ways to send custom data that you define and incorporate into your app. That
way, you can really dig in and understand the specifics of how users interact
with your app.
</p>
<h3>Events</h3>
<p>
One of the most common and easiest ways to track user behavior is with
events. Events are powerful for capturing specific actions that are relevant
to your business. They are often used to capture a specific moment in time;
an example of an event might be a <em>Level Up</em>. In this example, you'd
configure your code to send data to Google Analytics every time a user
successfully passed a level. You can send multiple properties with an event
so you can group your events based on the analysis you intend to do.
</p>
<div>
<img src="{@docRoot}distribute/analyze/images/events.png">
</div>
<h3>Custom Dimensions</h3>
<p>
Custom dimensions are another way to send custom data that is specific to
your business. Good for capturing a state of something in your app, custom
dimensions can be scoped at a user, session, hit, or product level. A common
use case might be using a user-scoped custom dimension to capture the
furthest level that a player has achieved. Using this, you could do an
analysis to understand what the breakdown was of users in different levels.
An example of a hit-level custom dimension could be capturing landscape or
portrait orientation with every hit, so that you can better understand the
breakdown of orientation as users play your game. Custom dimensions can be
used very creatively to get at how different types of users engage with
your app.
</p>
<h3>User ID</h3>
<p>
A specific custom dimension that may be of interest to your business is the
User ID override. Instead of using a randomly generated identifier, you may
send Google Analytics an identifier for a given user if you use one in your
own CRM systems. This enables cross-device reporting as you can track user
behavior across platforms. Note that your custom identifier must be an identifier
without any personally identifiable information; an account ID (not an email
address) is a good example of a common use case here.
</p>
<h2 id="realtime">Real-Time Perspective</h2>
<p>
Google Analytics reporting is available in real-time. This powerful
capability helps you understand app usage as it happens. Are users updating
to your latest version? Is your new marketing campaign having the effect you
expected? Is a scheduled in-app event driving up usage? You can answer all
these questions and more while they're actually happening.
</p>
<div>
<img itemprop="image" src="{@docRoot}distribute/analyze/images/realtime.png">
</div>
<div class="headerLine clearfloat">
<h2 id="related-resources">
Related Resources
</h2>
</div>
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