If you have already decided on a list of the main characteristics and capabilities that the analytical system should have, then you just need to pass the test “Choosing a Mobile Analytics System”. By answering 6 questions, you will receive detailed information on each analytical system that meets your requirements. If you have not yet decided on the exact list of requirements, then this article is just for you.

When choosing an analytical system, you may encounter several difficulties:

1. To determine the purpose and objectives. Exactly determine what features, functionality and characteristics the analytical system should have so that you can achieve the results you need and your goals.
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2. Financial and technical capabilities of your company. It is necessary to understand who will be engaged in integration and subsequent data analysis, will your specialists have enough experience and knowledge, how much money are you willing to spend each month on it and is it worth it?
   
   
3. A large number of analytical systems with different functionality and cost. It is necessary to find, systematize and analyze a large amount of information.

With the first complexity, everything is not as simple as it may seem at first glance. It is important to initially answer the main question: What is the main purpose of using an analytical system? How can she help you achieve this goal? What opportunities should an analytical system have so that with its help you can solve the tasks posed? You need to understand exactly what kind of result you need to recoup the time, financial and technical resources that you will spend on integrating the analytical system, collecting, analyzing and implementing changes based on the data obtained.

Define your goal

Each analytical platform has its own specifics. Some specialize in the analysis of the behavior of players, in others there are cool marketing tools, in the third - convenient work with the analysis of traffic. Therefore, you need to define your main goal - to understand what exactly you want to do in the first place. Increase the number and quality of users? Increase profits? Increase user engagement and retention rates?

Knowing the goal, you will be able to determine the set of necessary functionalities that the analytical system should possess. To make it clearer, consider the three goals listed as examples.

Attracting new players

Attracting new players is a lot of work and big financial expenses. Now there are many channels to attract users, but how to quickly understand which channels are effective and which are not? It is important to evaluate the various traffic channels not only by the number of users who downloaded the game, but also by how often the players return to the game and most importantly, how and how much they pay in the game. Cut off the channels through which poor-quality audience comes in: bots and motivated traffic.

Players need not only to attract, but also to keep in the game. To do this, you must be sure that they intuitively understand what they need to do, can quickly feel the satisfaction of the game and will want to return to the game again and again. To determine whether it is easy for beginners to deal with the gameplay, if their game delays, it is necessary to analyze how players go through the tutorial and the first levels of the game (onbording analysis), what percentage of players returns to the game (Stiky factor, Retention). It is also necessary to assess the quality of traffic in terms of the quantity and quality of paying players (Paying share, ARPU, ARPPU).

It is important not to forget about the virality of the game. Experiment with different methods of increasing virality in the game and evaluate the effectiveness of each method separately using an analytical system. This will help you to achieve significant success in increasing the organic traffic to the game.

With this data, you will know whether to make the game more friendly and interesting for beginners. Understand which traffic channels to use profitably. You will learn what ways of increasing virality really work, and what not.

Increase profits

To accomplish this goal you need to track the behavior of paying and not paying players. Understand which segments of the audience bring you most of the income - and work with them. Analyze what, how and when players buy. By understanding your players, you can increase engagement, optimize monetization, create successful marketing campaigns, and return paying users to the game.

Increase engagement

Here you need to explore the behavior of users inside the game - how they play, what they like or dislike in the current gameplay. To conduct polls among players - what content they want, what opportunities they lack. The wish list of players will help you create new content and improve gameplay. Further it is necessary to analyze how users perceive the innovations - what they liked and what did not. So you will begin to understand your audience and be able to increase the involvement of players. Pay particular attention to the behavior and desires of paying users. Explore each type of paying player individually. This will allow you not only to increase involvement, but also to increase LTV.



At the initial stage, you can use free analytics systems to understand what they can actually give you and whether you can use this data to achieve your goals. For integration and data collection, you can involve a programmer working on the project. If you have qualified staff and financial capabilities, then you will need paid analytical systems.

With the third difficulty, the test “Choosing a Mobile Analytics System” will help you. Answering 6 questions, you will receive by e-mail a PDF file with a list of analytical systems that meet your requirements, with detailed information and tables that compare the capabilities, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of each analytical system.

Other criteria for selecting an analytical system

In addition to the goal, it is necessary to consider such selection criteria as:

• Integration into the application. You need to decide whether you have enough data from the stores or you want to collect data inside the game - for example, about user behavior - then you need to integrate the SDK into the application.
  
  
• Technical training of your specialists. Working with some systems requires serious technical training from your specialists. Of course, you can train specialists or find new ones - but this will require additional time and financial costs.
  
  
• Price. Some analytical platforms cost thousands of dollars a month. Large companies can even use several such systems to process any data. Small studios and indie developers can’t afford it - it’s better to start with cheaper or free platforms. Now many services calculate the cost individually - depending on the number of players and the data collected. Contact the manager and specify how much the subscription will cost for your company.
  
  
• Multiplatform. It is important that the analytics system supports all platforms on which your application runs. Almost all work with iOS and Android. For less popular platforms - you need to look for a suitable service.

Develop your own or take ready

Making your analytical system is useful in two cases:

1. You currently have no budget for a paid platform, and the functions of free systems are not enough. You make an analytical system with limited capabilities “honed” for your purposes and needs.
   
   
2. You want to have your own analytics system for your games for a number of reasons: to be able to get accurate data and compare it with data from another analytical system, have access to "raw data", do not want to trust your data to a third-party service, etc. At the same time, you have qualified specialists who could make a high-quality analytics system and you understand that you can recoup its creation, development and support.

A large company is easier to create its own system - you can select a separate team that will do it. If you cannot hire additional employees, you will have to distract programmers from their main job. You will have to spend time and money on development - but it will pay off over time. After all, analytics allows you to improve the product, make it more profitable and attract more players. Many companies combine custom-made and ready-made systems. For example, data on users' behavior in the game is collected by themselves, and for marketing purposes they use third-party solutions.

The best way to determine the right system is to select a few and test it. Most analytical platforms have a trial period of 2-4 weeks. This is enough to figure out which service is convenient for you to work with.