Web Analytics vs. Mobile Analytics

Choosing between web analytics and mobile analytics can be a hassle for many people, who often misuse these tools and struggle to decide which one to focus on. In this article, we’ll explain what these tools are and which one you should prioritize for online success. Both web and mobile analytics tools play important roles in meeting your needs.   

Let’s get started!

Web Analytics vs Mobile Analytics. Understanding the differences between web analytics and mobile analytics

Web analytics collects data from websites to improve the user experience by reporting and analyzing the information. Mobile analytics measures mobile platform data to understand user behavior for better marketing and user experience. Web analytics show what users do on your website, while mobile analytics reveal app engagement and user preferences. Both provide valuable insights into user behavior.

Web analytics tools enable you to gather and examine user data to monitor site activity and address key inquiries. If you have a website, you might want to know how many people visit it, where they come from, what pages they look at, and how long they stay on the important pages. You may also want to know if they leave after just one visit.

Importance of web analytics for online success

Imagine running a business or brand without knowing who your customers or visitors are, what they like, or even how they found you. You’re running a website and hoping for the best without getting to know and understand your users. That’s where web analytics comes into play to help you excel.

Let’s look at the importance of web analytics for online success:

1. Understand Your Users
   Web analytics informs you about your website visitors, their interests, and how they interact with your site. This helps you improve your content.
2. Measure Your Marketing Efforts
   Web analytics tracks website traffic sources, keyword performance, and organic reach. It helps you see if your SEO strategy is working and if your ads are delivering value.  
3. Make Data-Driven Decisions
   Web analytics gives you real-time feedback to aid in adjusting your strategy, content, and even marketing. You get to stay ahead of trends and monitor and observe what people are searching for and what your competitors are doing. 

Importance of mobile analytics for online success

Mobile analytics aids you in understanding your mobile audience; this is important because, most times, your website is accessed from a mobile device. It also aids you in refining your app experience to make them come back for more. Let’s get into why mobile analytics are important and can aid in your online success:

1. Know your mobile users
   Mobile analytics reveals your visitor’s demographics, app usage habits, and even their location data. You can also track their popular app features, order patterns, peak times, and what they love.
2. Optimize for success

Through mobile analytics, you get to know your users’ pain points when they use your website or app. You can track in-app notifications and click-through rates and restructure your marketing strategy to ensure your call to action resonates with every user.

3. Assess and Modify
   Your social media efforts can often lead to dead ends, and you might not get the desired results. Mobile analytics play a big role in getting you back on track. It helps you track app downloads and know the effective ways to attract new customers and expand your reach.
4. More customer loyalty
   Mobile analytics can help you identify areas for improvement. It is a great way to analyze customer feedback and implement changes rapidly for more agile app development and to best structure your business.

Key metrics to track in web analytics

• Page Views
• Pages per session
• Average time on page
• Bounce rate
• Traffic sources
• Device type
• Exit rate
• Top pages
• New visitor sessions
• Returning Visitor sessions
• Revenue attribution
• Event tracking
• Conversion rate

Key metrics to track in mobile analytics

• Active users
• Session length 
• Retention rate 
• Conversion rate 
• Revenue

Integrating web analytics and mobile analytics

Learning how to integrate web and mobile analytics is important if you want to improve your brand and understand user behavior across both platforms. Here are key steps to help integrate web and mobile analytics:

1. Choose a good integration platform
   Use an analytic platform that allows for web and mobile tracking. For example, Plausible or Posthog. 
2. Use a single tracking code.
   Make sure to utilize a single tracking code for web and mobile applications to maintain uniform data collection on both platforms. You can configure it to capture events, actions, and parameters that you want to measure and analyze.
3. Define common metrics and KPIs.
   Use consistent KPIs and metrics for web and mobile apps. Set goals and benchmarks for each KPI to track your performance. Keep sentences short and use familiar words.
4. Tracking across devices and identifying the user
   Use techniques for user identification to follow users easily on the web and mobile devices. This aids in comprehending user journeys across multiple platforms.
5. Analyze and optimize your data.
   Make the most of your data by examining it closely and improving it. Analyze and optimize your data for better insights and accuracy.

Tools for web analytics and mobile analytics

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a tool that provides statistics and analytic tools for search engine optimization (SEO) and other marketing purposes. The product faces privacy issues in Europe for collecting and processing personal data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As a result of privacy measures and increased user awareness, tracking accuracy has been affected, and there are also challenges in identifying users across sessions and devices.

Plausible

Plausible is a tool that is lightweight, privacy-focused, and has a user-friendly interface. It provides insights into website traffic without compromising user privacy and also supports an open-source option for hosting analytics data.

Posthog

Posthog is an open-source event-based analytics platform that offers precise user interaction tracking and session recording. It is developer-friendly, flexible, and can be self-hosted.

Matomo

This was formerly known as Piwik and is also an open-source web analytics platform that gives you detailed insights into website and mobile app performance. It prioritizes data ownership, which gives full control over their analytics data. It is customizable to meet your needs.

Best practices for using web analytics and mobile analytics

1. Identify the right KPIs and your app’s main goals and objectives, analyze your app’s user behavior, research industry benchmarks, consult with experts, and test and iterate.
2. Set specific, measurable, and achievable goals. Ensure your goals are properly aligned with your objectives, and review and adjust regularly.
3. Learn how to visualize data using bar charts, line charts, pie charts, and scatter plots. These tools help you analyze and present information effectively, depending on your desired data type and message.  
4. Track user behavior and metrics to improve your app’s engagement. Analyze how users interact with the app and their feedback to make informed decisions on enhancing it.

Conclusion

Web and mobile analytics help you understand user behavior and optimize online experiences. Platforms like Plausible, PostHog, or Matomo integrate analytics efficiently. To succeed online, set measurable goals, adhere to best practices, visualize data, and adapt to emerging trends.

It’s crucial to note that for a single app, focusing on the predominant traffic source, especially if it’s primarily from mobile devices, is essential. Pay attention to where the majority of your traffic originates.