Important Metrics for Mobile App Analytics

Brands are investing more on mobile to reach their customers, especially younger demographics but this is a different world than the web, requiring different methodology and metrics. Mobile offers targeted reach, but it is essential to track performance and optimize campaigns for the best returns. Regardless of the platform(s) your apps live on or the tools you use, you need to be able to acquire and engage your target audience and closely monitor the outcomes of your marketing actions.

Acquisition Metrics

Acquisition metrics show how people find apps and whether they continue to use them. Some of the important acquisition metrics include:

• New and active users. By keeping tabs on the new and active users launching apps, you understand if applications and marketing efforts are successful or not.

• Traffic sources. Understand which traffic sources generate the most new users and in-app conversions to better refine your marketing and focus on the sources that provide highest quality users.

• Device overview. Analyze the top mobile devices and OS versions that your apps run on and optimize the experience for each device.

Demographic Segmentation

You can learn how different segments behave by applying filters that segment visitors based on usage, retention and geography, as well as age, gender and category interests. Demographic data can be used to identify target markets, which you can apply to develop products that meet specific needs.

As a result, you can align sales people with those markets, reallocate resources and redefine territories proactively to get in front of opportunities. Sales forces with access to real-time profiling and customer activity have advantages over their competitors. Plus, the ability to anticipate and answer questions without making phone calls or requesting reports allows them to provide better service to customers.

You can also use this information to plan acquisition campaigns based on segments that perform best, prioritize development of product features for the most loyal segments or package parts of the audience to sell directly to advertisers.

Flurry helps organizations understand how consumers interact with their mobile applications.

In a study published by Experian Marketing Services, 27% of U.S. users’ time online (collectively from desktop and mobile) is spent on forums and social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. People use this time to talk, support and share with friends and families. That’s why brands need to track social conversations to gauge the viral engagement of their mobile apps and messages.

Conversation Rate = Number of Audience Comments (or Replies) Per Post

You can measure conversations on all major social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube and Pinterest, among others. But you need to go beyond counting the frequency of words or phrases used and get to the heart of how people really feel about your products and services through conversations on various connected networks. By connecting conversations to products, you can address the biggest business issues across market strategy, media planning, web marketing and customer care. The objective is to find and engage with highly-connected influencers, whose recommendations are actively followed by their friends and acquaintances.

Funnel Analysis

Funnels help us understand the final outcomes of multiple interactions that happen on mobile apps. Each mobile application has a specific goal. An analysis of mobile app funnels determines the areas (content or visuals) that prevent your customers completing the activities that achieve those business goals. For example, in a game this could be completing a level or purchasing virtual currency.

Funnels visually measure how customers move through series of events. If a digital agency app has the goal of generating online inquiries, the series of activities might include clicking on a call-to-action button on the site’s homepage, followed by filling out a form to capture the type of inquiry, details and visitor contact information, and then seeing an acknowledgment page that tells the visitor the business team will be in touch soon. Funnel analysis breaks this process down into discrete steps and shows how many users are lost at each stage. This information can be used to improve the placement of call-to-action buttons or create shorter forms with fewer details requested.

Funnel analyses are an effective way to calculate conversion rates on specific visitor behaviors and contribute to the development of effective apps.

Optimize Screen Hierarchy

Making apps look good and work well across hundreds of devices with different combinations of screen sizes, pixel densities and aspect ratios is not easy. The optimum design hierarchy of needs assumes a design must meet basic needs before it can satisfy higher-level needs to be successful. For example, a high to low requirement would be functionality, reliability, usability, proficiency and creativity. In addition, mobile apps designs tend to have deeply hierarchical interfaces with lots of screens with small amounts of information that users have to navigate. There simply isn’t enough screen space to show lots of information. So if the calls to action or other important information are buried deep under multiple layers of content, visitors might not be able to reach them to complete the goals set for the apps.

Regardless of the industry you are in, to thrive in the world of mobile apps marketers must engage to retain audiences. How are you tracking and monetizing your mobile customers’ movement and activities?

Designing Your Mobile Website to Draw Visitors

In my last blog post, we established the need to have a mobile optimized website for businesses to increase their reach and improve chances of interacting with target audiences in their comfort zones. But the idea is not to merely offer a “good enough” mobile experience, but to make your services available in a smartphone context. Let’s dig in further and understand what works in this format.

You can reach your mobile audience with three different approaches. The best option for your business will depend on your primary web interactions, your users’ habits and your budget.

Responsive or adaptive design: This involves having one URL to serve the same HTML to both mobile and desktop devices but using CSS to alter the page rendering according to the device. A responsive design will show more stuff or less, optimized for a mobile layout. For example, if you rotate the phone between landscape and portrait, it will change the spacing, but not the content but is likely to still provide access to the full desktop-view’s content. An adaptive design, by contrast, might show very different content and also present a different user interface, reflecting the tap/swipe/scroll of touchscreens versus desktops keyboard/mouse interactions.

Separate mobile URLs: Every desktop URL would have an equivalent mobile-optimized URL. Separate mobile URLs, also known as mobilized websites, may share some content with the desktop-oriented websites, but will have a lot of their own code with slightly different URLs, like “m.affinityexpress.com” or “mobi.affinityexpress.com”. For companies with both desktop and mobilized websites, the code may detect the users’ devices and either automatically switch to the appropriate sites or offer choices.

Mobile apps: A mobile app is downloaded on the mobile device and doesn’t require Internet access to run (although it may require Internet access to perform most tasks).

Before going ahead and choosing one of these three options, it is important to understand your audience and their requirements and hence customize your mobile format:

1. Check mobile usage patterns:

You need to find out if your potential customers have mobile interactions in a rush while on the go or in a more relaxed fashion as this will impact your content, design, amount of text and calls to action. Most people now use their phones for the same tasks we do on desktops but knowing the specifics of your target audience will help in providing the content that they are looking for in the exact fashion they like.

2. Build for future:

Plan ahead and invest in mobile technology that can be evolved a year or two from now rather than going for complete redesigns. It is good to define your expectations from mobile websites in the current scenario as well as in the long run. This will help you weigh pros and cons of having apps versus investing in sites that work across devices.

3. Make functional mobile website:

Users expect mobile websites to fulfill their needs, primarily entertainment, productivity or communication. So more than great designs and artistic presentations, your prospects are interested in the functional aspects of your websites. Therefore, it is important that your mobile designs facilitate easy and quick website transactions. Confusing user interfaces or poor performance will result in bad brand images and render even the most beautiful designs ineffective.

4. Decide between mobile website and app:

Mobile apps are great for more focused and personal user experiences but they require complex management and involve many outside participants like carriers, handset manufacturers, operating system developers, store administration and others. Mobile sites avoid all of these things and allow for a much faster path to execution. If your goal is to offer mobile-friendly content to the widest possible audience, then a mobile website is the right choice as it offers broader accessibility, compatibility and cost-effectiveness. On the other hand, you can look at developing a mobile app if you plan to provide specific advantages to your customers such as:

• Interactivity/gaming: To let your customers play interactive branded games like Angry Birds.
• Regular usage/personalization: To personalize your services like the Net-A-Porter app that reflects the website’s lifestyle network. In addition to snapping up a Proenza Schouler handbag and Alexander Wang sandals, users can read up on the latest fashion trends and watch exclusive videos on everything from designer interviews to full-blown runway shows.
• Complex calculations or reporting: To allow complex data calculations and reporting that could be used by financial and investment related domains.
• No internet required: If the content is not updated on a daily basis and you just need to provide offline access or perform functions without a network/wireless connection.

5. Check analytics for better focus:

Before focusing on the operating system, version and screen size, it is good to see which device is getting the bulk of your mobile traffic. For example, in Google Analytics you can see a breakdown of the devices that are being used, the divide between different operating systems, as well as what versions of each operating system are being used. You can see the devices bringing the traffic on Audience> Mobile > Devices.

To check out the mobile operating software being used by your website visitors, you could look at another variation of the report:

6. Identify and address core audiences:

Mobile devices are very under-powered compared to traditional computers. Mobile is inherently more selective than the general public web and the mobile ecosystem is far more fractured. Since mobile users visit mobile websites away from their regular internet connections, out in the real world, most interactions are driven by the content and ease of maneuvering. In other words, a shopping assistance site is more likely to be used in an actual retail environment than an exotic recipes site, which is why it’s vital that mobile sites be specifically developed to address distinct needs and user profiles. Some tips to keep in mind while developing sites are:

• Design the pages to fit the most-used mobile screens
• Limit images and text so pages load quickly even at slow connections speed
• Create links and other navigation options that are easy to click on with a (fat) finger, stylus, or other limited input options.
• Find out and address most urgent needs on the first page.

7. Avoid separate mobile websites:

Avoid building separate mobile websites, as each of these take up time, energy and money. It also makes maintaining and updating content difficult on all of them, not to mention the effort required to check and report on each one’s performance. The best option is to build mobile platforms that are optimized for as many devices as possible. This is the optimal setup for focusing your resources and budget on developing engaging content rather than maintenance.

8. Aim for an easy mobile experience:

Successful and often-visited mobile sites are easy and clean. Consider having a survey to ask your clients what’s really important to them and what they expect to see on your mobile website. Give out information that they seek like light image galleries on a wedding photographer site, requests for demos on a coffee vending machine site and menus with location maps on a restaurant website. Some more tips for a user-friendly site are:

• Use minimum layers to navigate in the compact screen
• Avoid artistic fonts and instead keep the text easy to read with crisp fonts
• Do not ask for too much information as typing on a mobile or iPad is not exactly pleasant
• Use technologies that are easily grasped by your target audience

Are you using a mobile platform for a broader reach? How does your mobile website/app help you better connect with your audience?

Mobile Marketing Adoption by SMBs

As the world around us goes mobile, businesses face a new challenge of adopting this channel to reach and interact with their target audience. While SMBs have a hard time grasping the hows and whys with their limited means and resources, many believe this could be a blessing in disguise for them.

xAd and Telmetrics recently released a Mobile Path-To-Purchase study, conducted by Nielsen, which explored the growing importance of local mobile search. The study determined the top 3 reasons that consumers have for engaging with local mobile ads:

• Locally relevant: the ad is for a business that is nearby and easy to access
• Local offers coupons/promotions: presented with multiple business options, the ad presents a deal that the consumer can’t get with the others
• Features a known brand: like any type of advertising, consumers are often drawn to businesses they know and trust

According to a report from Borrell Associates, “2013 Local Advertising Outlook: Get Ready for the Rebound,”U.S. local digital advertising will reach $24.5  billion in 2013, to take a 25% share of total local ad budgets.

Of those who have used mobile advertising, a solid 83% said they were at least somewhat likely to use it again in 2013.

Broken out from online spending, 25% of SMBs planned to increase mobile budgets this year.

A continuous wave of new statistics are illustrating that consumers are increasingly turning to their mobile devices for local information. This was also confirmed by Google in one of its announcements that as much as 50 percent of mobile search via its platforms is for local information.

Mobile is where today’s consumers already are, but local businesses are not. So, what do the local businesses need to do to integrate mobile in their marketing communication strategies? I took inputs from my colleague Adam Burnham, vice president of interactive services, to understand the path forward for mobile.

• Which mobile ad features produce the best responses for advertisers today?

Just like most advertising,  clean and simple campaigns with clear calls to action will produce the best results. And mobile allows great levels of targeting to get messages to the right audiences.

• Which mobile marketing tactics have the highest adoption rates among the advertisers?

There are three products within the mobile platform where I see the best tactical adoption and execution. Those are mobile banner display, mobile banner interstitials and mobile sites. All three work well together and complement a diverse media buy.

Marketers have been targeting local buyers for years with publishing news about deals and store openings and expansions in local newspapers. The next step is mobile banner advertising that provides targeted reach and interactive messages tailored to suit individual tastes and preferences. Just make sure to design ads that clearly state the offers, give clear directions for interested buyers and have decent analytics installed to analyze campaign reports to help you get instant feedback and act quickly.

• Which business sectors are using mobile marketing effectively? Which types of businesses can benefit the most from mobile marketing?

This is what is so great with mobile. Many think you need to be in a specific business or serve a certain type of customer for mobile advertising to be effective. The reality is that it will work for pretty much anyone. You should absolutely make sure you have a mobile-optimized site where you are driving traffic through mobile search and mobile display options. The mobile platform is growing faster than anything we’ve seen before, which means more people will access it.

• How does mobile marketing help publishers target the local SMB advertisers?

Local publishers have a leg up just as they do on the web, as they are delivering a content-rich experience for their audiences. People are already visiting their mobile sites to access the content they want, when they want it. That gives them immediate leverage and opportunity to serve the local marketplace through display advertising options. They can then build from there to offer additional mobile products including landing pages, mobile sites and search.

• How can publishers integrate mobile into their multimedia services offering?

Leveraging the mobile platform as part of complete offerings is very necessary. Publishers have to look beyond strictly web-based sales opportunities. And they have to accept that their audiences will be migrating to mobile devices. You can’t fight that. Publishers need to embrace it and build the right offerings to serve the needs of their advertisers. Mobile aligns very well with print, web and social.

Though many studies show people on the go engage with mobile ads and convert into customers at high rates, many local business owners still have skepticism about mobile as the latest “next big thing.” So I tried to understand from our technical expert, Ray Sheerer, about some key tips that SMBs could use before going live with mobile marketing.

•  What should an advertiser keep in mind before starting to use mobile advertising?

Before the mobile campaign begins, geographic location is usually considered the most important piece of targeting criteria for a small- to medium-sized business. Next, the advertiser needs to choose an ad serving platform either through a publisher or on their own. The ad serving platform delivers these mobile ads to mobile websites, microsites and apps that are part of the ad network. The ad networks extend the reach of the mobile ads and allow the SMB to specially geo-target the ad delivery. The advertiser should also request reports that display daily metrics about impressions, clicks and conversion rates. These reports are essential to measure the performance of the mobile advertising.

• Does the call-to-action of a mobile ad need to be different from an online ad?

The call to action of a mobile ad needs to be more clear and concise due to the smaller ad size and reduced space for text and graphics. More important than the mobile ad is the mobile landing page that corresponds with the overall campaign promotion/message. A clear call to action with a click-to-call or a simple lead generation form could highly increase the ad ROI.

Mobile ads can use some innovative ideas to improve engagement. One example is to run click-to-call campaign that initiates the mobile phone’s call function after the user clicks on the banner ad. There is also a click-to-SMS functionality that can be combined with a number of techniques, including the ability to SMS back to the user a mobile web link. These actions reduce the time to reach the seller and share your query. Click-to-download is another mobile-specific choice that is popular for app download campaigns. This call to action takes the user directly to the app store where they can download the advertised app onto their mobile device. Another example of a mobile call to action would be the use of QR codes.

• Which mobile features are being utilized by marketers most effectively today?

SMS opt-in is becoming one of the most effective mobile marketing tools. The messages are delivered to the consumer because they requested them and are typically not viewed as being annoying and unsolicited. QR codes are also being utilized to drive traffic to mobile websites and mobile landing pages. The consumer scans the QR code and is automatically directed to a URL without having to type. The use of call to action buttons for calling, SMS, mapping and emailing is also effective because these are one touch functions to allow the consumer to contact or find the advertiser.

As the main purpose of adopting any technology is to better achieve your organization goals, mobile fulfills those criteria by reaching out to your customers in their comfort zone and initiating interactions that have high chances of resulting into business transactions.

How do you foresee integrating your advertising efforts with mobile technology?

Designing Landing Pages that Convert

Landing pages are made with the purpose of making the page visitors perform a specific action that gets them into the sales funnel. The action can vary from downloading information to completing contact forms to making actual purchases. Regardless of the desired type of engagement, landing pages play a pivotal role in digital advertising. You can have the most eye-catching ads that drive tons of traffic but if the associated landing pages are confusing and vague there isn’t much chance to convert those visitors into leads.

Here are the 7 must-dos while designing landing pages.

1.          Put your best foot forward: Curiosity is one of the main factors that bring in visitors to a landing page but they are probably wary of going further and must be convinced. That’s why landing pages should be built to gently unveil the best deals with the visitors, extend their stay by showing glimpses of your coolest inventory and coaxing them to buy or at least leave their contact details so your team can follow up.

2.          Ensure consistent messaging: Landing pages need to be designed to integrate with the content of campaigns. If visitors are lured by your communications and then see different offers, they will feel disoriented at best and cheated at worse. In fact, this could turn people off your brand completely. You should also keep in mind that sharing too little information can be dangerous. Include all the relevant facts.

3.          Write clear and concise headlines: The headlines are the first thing noticed by the visitors to landing pages.

Effective Marketing Tactics for SMBs by George Bounacos

It is a challenge to stand out in a crowded marketplace, and effectively convey the uniqueness of your brand. In a bid to connect with prospects across channels, SMBs get overwhelmed with the available options and the cost associated with exploring and using them to get satisfactory results. In the last segment of our interview with George Bounacos, after taking advice on SEO and tips on online marketing, we tried to understand how SMBs can effectively use various channels of marketing to establish themselves among their industry peers.

We hear a lot about online reputation management these days. What should SMBs monitor, where and how?

The best practical and free advice is to set a News Alert at Bing and at Google for your organization’s name, the trade names of all of your products and the names of the individuals on your management team. Make sure to select to receive everything and have items mailed to one person. Make that person your early warning system.

There are commercial packages to buy, but for basic monitoring, you can’t go wrong with this free, simple solution.

How effective do you believe mobile marketing is for SMBs and how would you suggest they get started?

Local businesses should already be deploying mobile solutions. The new buzzword in web development is “responsive design,” which means that a site will adapt and configure itself to neatly fit on a smartphone display, tablet or a desktop computer monitor.