Apple Apps Analytics FAQ
AppStore page conversions and ASO traffic estimates w/ real data and pics
Limitations
All data is collected only for iOS8+ users.
iTunes Connect Analytics shows user-based data (Sessions, Active Devices, Retention and Installs) only for opted-in users. This is the main limitation of ITC Analytics. It makes half of the data unusable because opted-in users are not a random sample.
Users opt-in when they set up iOS on a new phone or after reset. You can change your decision in Settings → Privacy → Diagnostic and Usage.
Some statistic for our apps:
- 19% of all Apple users
- 12% of Follow Me users (Russia mostly, not geeks)
- 23% of Aivee users (the USA mostly, geeks)
- 16% of Yumixo users (Russia mostly, not geeks)
So, like before, for Retention and Active Users you should use any other analytics: Flurry, MixPanel, Facebook analytics, …
Apps Units vs Installations
So, important question is what the difference is between these two. From the official FAQ:
What are App Units?
App units counts how many times your app was downloaded for the first time from the App Store on iOS 8 or later. App updates, downloads from the same Apple ID onto other devices, and re-downloads to the same iOS device are not counted. Family Sharing downloads of free apps are included, but Family Sharing downloads of paid apps are not counted.
What are installations?
Installations count the total number of times your app has been installed on an iOS device with iOS 8 or later, including re-downloads on the same device, downloads to multiple devices sharing the same Apple ID, and Family Sharing installations. App updates are not counted.
Installations totals are based on app users who agree to share their data with you. This data is anonymized and aggregated.
The important thing about Installations is that you can’t use them to measure conversion from AppStore Page Views to App Installs, because the App Store Views metric counts all users but the App Installs metric counts only opted-in users (10%-20% from all users).
Conversion from AppStore page views to sales
So to measure our AppStore page conversion we need to divide App Units by App Store Views. But:
What are App Store views?
App Store views are the number of times your app’s App Store page has been viewed on a device using iOS 8 or later. Although apps can be purchased or downloaded without visiting the App Store product page, such as directly from search results, only App Store product page views are counted.
App Store Views doesn’t count App purchases from Search Results and Top Charts (there is a Get button in the list).
So you can’t believe the absolute value of the conversion, but you can still compare conversions between different app versions to see where ASO efforts (screenshots, icon, description) bring you. And sometimes App Units can be greater then App Store Views.
Perhaps a better way to optimize conversion is A/B testing in SplitMetrics.
A quick example of how to count AppStore Page conversion. Go to Overview → Select a timeframe → Divide App Units by App Store Views.
So for the Follow Me app for the last 30 days we have 256/267 = 96% conversion. Don’t worry that your conversion is lower that this! The app only got traffic from radiofollow.me so it’s narrow and highly motivated audience.
Let’s check the conversion if we divide Installations by App Store Views
38/267 = 14.2%. The difference is huge.
App Store conversions for our apps:
- 96% Follow Me (web-version listeners only, narrow and loyal audience)
- 55% Aivee (organic search traffic)
- 40% Yumixo (organic search traffic)
- 17% WAYD messenger (organic + cheap paid traffic)
Sources: Top Websites and Top Campaigns
The Apple App Analytics Sources feature is supposed to replace install-source tracking analytics like AppsFlyer or Mobile App Tracking. But… It still can’t for two reasons:
- no callbacks to ad-networks;
- no in-app conversion tracking and cohort analysis; you still need AppsFlyer or MAT to compare ad-channels perfomance.
Sources: Top Websites is useful because you can’t mark all links to your app on the web and this report gives you an idea which sites are efficient, including Google Search! (may be you should invest in SEO of your landing page).
Sources: Top Campaigns is not so useful, but you should mark all your iTunes links in advertising before AppsFlyer/MAT. Also you should mark links when users share your app with friends.
If you do that you will have numbers for your Ads-traffic and Reviews/Article-traffic. What about the rest? It’s search results and app store tops! So you can measure your ASO traffic with this formula:
ASO Units = Total Units - All Websites Units - All Campaigns Units
Compare ASO Units after keywords/name improvements and you will see the effect of changes.
Conclusion
- Apple App Analytics is not a replacement for Flurry or MixPanel
- But you can measure the impact of your Icon and Screenshots improvements by looking at App Store Page Conversion
- App Store Page Conversion ~= App Units / App Store Views
- You can measure your ASO traffic and impart of keywords/name changes. You should mark all you advertisings and user shares with campaign links.
- ASO traffic ~= Total Units - All Websites Units - All Campaigns Units
I’m updating the post. Send your questions or data to me@alarin.ru
