Where there was darkness, let there be light
This, however, is changing and a major step in gaining proper insights happened recently when Google Analytics, the company’s service for tracking and analysing web traffic, announced it was going mobile.
“Mobile is becoming front and center (sic) for marketers and businesses,” says Google. “As more of them understand the value of mobile apps, sophisticated measurement tools are becoming core to how marketers and app developers invest, analyse and market their apps.”
This is the most significant development in m-commerce and in-app-commerce in a long time. For the first time app publishers, retailers and marketers will be easily able to see how their various commercial apps perform. They will be able to look at valuable engagement data such as the frequency with which people use the app, the length of time spent on the app and the in-app usage patterns, as well as when the app crashes or if it gets infected with any bugs.
Google’s app analytics will also show details of in-app ad clicks and in-app purchases. The best thing about this service is that it’s ‘free’. This will no doubt benefit developers, but it will also help app owners build better apps and get more from the apps they build. It could herald the next significant stage in the development of the mobile app.
Google has also launched the Google Analytics App for Android phones. No doubt an iOS version will follow soon. “With the Google Analytics App, you can access the same accounts and profiles you see when you open Analytics from a desktop browser, but you’ll see reports that are optimized for your phone,” says Google.
