page.title=Understand the Value of Your Users
page.metaDescription=Understand what makes users come back to your app and improve retention.
page.tags="analytics, user behavior"
@jd:body
<p>
In-App Analytics will help you understand user behavior and ultimately user
value over time. Fundamentally, users are people — and no two people are
exactly alike. You can explore what makes your different groups of users
unique and, in turn, how these groups respond to your app content, features,
and monetization strategies. The more you understand about what your users
respond to, the better you can tailor your apps to meet their needs.
</p>
<h2 id="cohort">Assign Value to User Goals</h2>
<p>
Different types of developers value their users differently — and
different types of users have different values. Google Analytics gives you
the power to value your users in the way that makes the most sense to you.
</p>
<p>
By using Google Analytics goals, you can define specific actions in your app
that mean the most to your business: perhaps it’s important that your users
reach a specific screen in your app or that they spend a designated time
playing your game. Perhaps you define a goal based on whether or not a user
completed a certain event (like completing a level).
</p>
<p>
Whatever the method used, you can assign a monetary value to a goal in order
to put a dollar value on an action. Perhaps it’s worth $3 if a user completes
a given level or $.50 if they sign up with an account. By assigning value to
given behaviors, you can really dig into the data to understand your most
valuable users.
</p>
<p>
Google Analytics also lets you view Revenue per User for transactions in your
app (such as in-app purchases). Pair this data with segments to drill down to
find your most valuable users.
</p>
<h2 id="audiencereporting">Know your users with Audience Reporting and Demographic
and Interest reports</h2>
<p>
Google Analytics’ <strong>Audience Reporting</strong> section highlights a
wealth of data about your users’ characteristics: what app versions they’re
using, what devices they’re on, where they’re from, and what they're
interested in. Among these, the Active Users reports highlight how users come
back over time.
</p>
<div>
<img itemprop="image" src="{@docRoot}distribute/analyze/images/active_users.png">
</div>
<p>
Google Analytics’ <strong>Demographics & Interest</strong> reports highlight
information about your users gathered using Google Analytics’ extensive reach
in apps. See the Gender & Age breakdown to discover the demographic
characteristics most common among your users, or take a look at the Interest
reports to see what interest categories entice your users.
</p>
<div>
<img src="{@docRoot}distribute/analyze/images/demographics.png">
</div>
<h2 id="change">All Things Change with Time, and So Do Your Users</h2>
<p>
Getting users to install and open your app the first time is a big accomplishment;
however, it’s only the first step of what is hopefully a long and prosperous
relationship. The best apps aren’t just the ones with the most downloads, they are
the ones that have users coming back day after day, month after month, and year
after year.
</p>
<p>
Google Analytics takes a user-centric approach to reporting to help you explore what
keeps users coming back. <strong>Cohort Reporting</strong> allows you to see which users
come back over time and when usage tends to fall off. You can easily take this same
information and overlay it on any other report.
</p>
<div>
<img src="{@docRoot}distribute/analyze/images/cohort_reporting.png">
</div>
<h2 id="measure-value">Measure Value over Time</h2>
<p>
Analyzing retention is a great way to ensure users stick with your app and come back day after
day. With <strong>Lifetime Value</strong> reporting, you’ll get a full picture of these users’
value over time. To get the most out of this report, it’s important to start with a clear
definition of what a user’s value means to you based on your business objectives.
</p>
<p>
Once you’ve defined the value, you can access the report to measure certain variables such as
revenue per user and number of screen views per user over a period of 90 days. For example, if
the goal of your app is to get users to purchase virtual or material goods, you’ll want to use
this report to get a clear view of when they make a purchase and how much they are spending in
your app over time.
</p>
<p>
Lifetime Value is a key metric to use to measure the effectiveness of your acquisition
campaigns. If your cost to acquire a new user is higher than the average value over time,
you might want to optimize your campaigns to meet the lifetime revenue they generate. Lifetime
Value is particularly valuable if you offer in-app purchases, but it can be applied to
discovering many other useful insights, such as number of times they open your app, total
number of screens and goal completions.
</p>
<h2 id="cohort">Segment Your Data</h2>
<p>
Looking at aggregated data helps you understand overall user behavior trends,
such as how their purchase patterns change over time. However, in order to
understand why purchase patterns changed you need to segment your data.
</p>
<p>
Segmentation allows you to isolate and analyze subsets of your data, based on
specific attributes. For example, you might segment your data by marketing
channel so that you can see which channel is responsible for an increase in
purchases.
</p>
<p>
Drilling down to look at segments of your data helps you understand what
caused a change to your aggregated data. All reports in Google Analytics
provide for segmentation of your traffic. For example, each row in your
Language report shows how a specific segment performed. This lets you compare
different segments and understand which languages are bringing in the highest
value traffic.
</p>
<div>
<img src="{@docRoot}distribute/analyze/images/language-report.png">
</div>
<p>
Here are some common segments that you might want to consider when looking at
your own data:
</p>
<ul>
<li>Date and time, to compare how users who visit your site on certain
days of the week or certain hours of the day behave</li>
<li>Device or app version, to compare user performance on different
operating systems or app updates</li>
<li>Marketing channel, to compare the difference in performance for
various marketing activities</li>
<li>Geography, to determine which countries, regions or cities
perform the best</li>
<li>Customer characteristics, such as repeat customers vs. first-time
customers, to help you understand what drives users to become loyal customers.</li>
</ul>
<p>
To use segments, click <strong>Add Segment</strong> above the report on any
data set you’re interested in breaking up. See the 15 System segments that
come with any app profile; these are default segments that allow you to do
basic analysis on elements like New Users, Android/iOS Traffic, or Tablet
traffic. If you need to dig deeper into your data, you can build a custom
segment by clicking <strong>+New Segment</strong> in the top right. Using any
combination of dimensions and metrics, you can create segments specific to
your business. The combinations of criteria are so extensive, hundreds of
thousands of permutations are available.
</p>
<p>
For example, for a report across all sessions in a date range you may choose
to include only users whose cumulative revenue across all sessions in a date
range is greater than $100; or only users who viewed a specific screen, then
completed a specific event, but never actually made a transaction.
</p>
<p>
Alternatively, you could include only sessions that were the result of a
specific advertising campaign or only sessions that resulted from a specific
campaign AND resulted in a goal completion.
</p>
<p>
Another way to generate segments is to import from the gallery. When you
click Add Segment, click Import from gallery (next to +New Segment). Using
the Gallery you can import segments that other businesses have found useful
— maybe you're interested in importing segments that pertain to
engaged traffic or mobile commerce. Choose from hundreds of segment packs
to find the ones that make sense for you.
</p>
<div>
<img src="{@docRoot}distribute/analyze/images/segmentation.png">
</div>
<p>
Segmentation is a powerful way to slice and dice your data in order to unlock
insights about users and their behavior. Use this information to improve your
app and find more people that resemble your high-value users.
</p>
<h2 id="cohort">Understand What Makes Your Users Tick with Further Analysis</h2>
<p>
Using the power of segmentation, you can perform very sophisticated analysis
on the types of users using your app — are your buyers concentrated in
a particular geographic area? Are users who visit a certain screen getting
stuck and abandoning your game? Are there certain behaviors that lead to more
conversions? What crashes are having the most impact on your revenue?
</p>
<p>
Understanding what properties make up an engaged and monetized user base is
important for developing a strategy to find similar users and for building
users’ experiences based on their behavior.
</p>
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<h2 id="related-resources">
Related Resources
</h2>
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