Ultimate Guide: Mobile App Conversion Tracking (2022)

As an important part of app development, tracking your app’s conversions helps you see the full picture. Without it, it would be hard to fully understand where your app is headed and what needs to be fixed. 

An app conversion is any action your user takes in order to download your app. There are specific app conversions that may be more crucial to track than others, even though all actions that you can track are important in developing and improving your app. 

This article will highlight mobile app conversion tracking in full, covering how important it is, the types of conversion data available, how to use it successfully, and the various tools you can use to help you track and analyze conversions. 

How Important is App Conversion Tracking? 

You may have an app that is conventionally successful: It has a lot of users, has a good design, and provides your users with value. But even if your app has all of this, tracking your app conversions is still as important. 

Whatever stage your app may be in, you will need to improve it accordingly, such as updating its design and features which are competing with other apps in your niche. Tracking your data can make you understand just how your users are engaging with your app. 

Conversion data is valuable because you can then examine how to make the relevant updates or improvements. 

Your existing users can show you which features they’re using or not using, and which actions contribute to more app conversions, or meeting your app’s larger goals, such as profits, engagement with users, or brand awareness.

The data you manage to track will allow you to take relevant steps in optimizing your app for the type of users that you’re already engaging with. 

Given the app market’s competition, conversion tracking provides you with a boost in your user acquisition strategy as a whole.

What Type of Conversion Data Can You Collect? 

App conversion tracking can make you access a large amount of data. Most of the tools you use to track your conversions will indicate various data, including but limited to: 

• Number of apps installed
• Number of app deletions
• Actions that users take in your app
• Channels that caused app downloads 
• Number of users, including paying users 
• Actions that led to an in-app purchase or other action-goal 

All these forms of data show the ability of conversion tracking and analytics in helping you strengthen your grasp of your app. According to the goals you have in mind, you can collect suitable data. 

For instance, you can categorize conversion data based on the channels that led users to download your app or make an in-app purchase. 

You can also see what type of users are deleting your app, which platforms they’re using, their device and app version and other such characteristics to gain a better view of why users are leaving your app. This helps you plan what actions you can take to solve specific issues and retain more users.  

How to Successfully Use App Conversion Tracking? 

Now that we’ve established the amount of data that you can gain from app conversion tracking, let’s look at how you can most effectively use such data. 

The data that is the most valuable will depend on the exact goals that you have planned for your app, and brand more generally. 

Most conversion tracking tools that you can use will be able to track main conversions, such as first app-launches after downloads or re-installs, and in-app or retail purchases. 

Despite the value that can come from such conversion data, the data that you need for your own app may not be indicated directly. 

Different conversion tracking tools can help you customize your own conversion actions. You can create a conversion action for when a user carries out a certain action in your app once or multiple times, or create a conversion action that can appear when a user has spent a specific amount of time on your app. 

The conversion actions you pick are ones that should contribute to your overall goals for your app. If your goal is to make profits, a good conversion action can be your user creating a new profile, sharing your content, or saving their payment information.  

This is why the best way to plan your conversion actions is by noting down the goals you have and what actions will help bring about your app’s success or failure. 

Once you have understood the type of data that is valuable from your conversion tracking, you can easily use analytical tools to create custom conversion actions and goals that align with your goals. 

What App Conversion Tracking Tools Are Available to Use? 

There are a number of third-party tracking apps that you can use to track your app conversions. The tool you eventually use will depend on the tools the type of app you have, including whether it is an iOS or an Android app. 

Both iOS and Android devices can host tools that are known as cross-platform apps, but tracking conversions is most successfully done when you use a variety of multiple tools so that you can gain the most amount of data possible. 

One tracking tool you can use is Firebase, a Google tool that brings together the different features and dashboards of Google Ads and Google Analytics. 

Firebase or Google Ads can also be used to track your app conversions on iOS devices, even though your ability to track iOS conversions will only include conversions that were made directly from your users engaging with Google Ads. 

It’s good to note that Android apps can gain a lot more analytic and conversion data using Firebase than iOS apps. Recently, Google enabled some features that help give iOS apps more detailed insights and conversion reports, but this data is only based on anonymous user information.

If you’re an iOS developer though, fear not. Apple has its own app conversion and analytics tracking tool called App Analytics. This tool can give you a full picture of your app, its ranking on the App Store, user conversion data, payment information, app performance and health, and other useful data. 

Now, even though Firebase and App Analytics are the two most effective conversion tracking tools, there are so many other tools that you can explore, such as Flurry Analytics, Countly, Localytics and App Annie.  

If your app is both on the Google Play Store and App Store, you will want to use different tools to gain the clearest view of conversion data that is relevant on both devices that host your app. 

Conclusion 

The data you collect from your conversions is one of the most important steps you can take in the development of your app. It begins to give you effective results when you aim to gather data from as large and various sources as possible to gain the clearest view. 

Tracking your app’s conversion data can help you decide which features and functions are working, and which could use a bit more improvement to attract new users or retain existing ones. 

Knowing exactly which tools to use for your tracking conversion data for your app can be challenging, so spending time getting to exact the vision for your app and the type of data you need to track the most can help you get started with choosing the right ones.

 

Need help with tracking your app conversion data? Get in touch with us.