What are app events?

Glossary What are app events?

A mobile app event is an action performed by users within an app. An app event can be anything a mobile marketer or developer determines is helpful to measure. Often discussed in mobile marketing, a revenue event is any action performed by users within an app that is connected to a monetary value.

A few examples of mobile app events that might be measured include a user completing a level of a game, visiting a particular section of an app, or making a purchase. Any and all actions that are defined as an event can be tracked with your mobile measurement partner (MMP) to learn how users interact with your app.

Why is mobile app event tracking important?

An app developer or marketer will choose to measure app events that will provide valuable information which can be actioned for optimization efforts. App event measurement provides data that can be leveraged to identify trends in user behavior, which facilitates the improvement of the user experience and app engagement. These improvements can have a domino effect on boosting average revenue per user (ARPU) and reducing user churn.

You may wish to measure app events in order to analyze:

  • What a user is doing just before the point of churn
  • The quality of leads driven by your user acquisition (UA) campaigns
  • Where a user goes in your app after install
  • User lifetime value (LTV)
  • Which events are connected with the highest session lengths
  • What a user does during a subscription trial period
  • The impact of pricing changes or feature updates
  • Which features in your app are popular, and which are not
  • Where a user is navigating in-app pre-purchase
  • How many times a user engages with a particular app event pre-purchase
  • Which devices are used more commonly used for a particular app event

Examples of mobile app events by vertical

App events will vary depending on app vertical and individual app needs. Here are just a few examples to give an idea of what can be measured.

Gaming app events

  • Level completion
  • In-app currency purchase
  • Achievement unlocked
  • Character customization
  • Social media share

E-commerce app events

  • Friend referral
  • Add to wishlist
  • Add to shopping cart
  • Application of promo code
  • Checkout

Fintech app events

  • Newsletter sign up
  • Account log in
  • Deposit
  • Withdrawal
  • Loan application
  • Premium subscription trial

How many app events should I analyze?

It’s easy to get bogged down with too much irrelevant data. Therefore, it’s important to track specific milestones or actions. For example, in a gaming app, you may want to track finishing the first level, or first few chapters, or even the first achievement, as opposed to the fifth or sixth level, as understanding why users drop off early could be more valuable than why they disappear later.

App events and Adjust

With Adjust, marketers are able to set mobile app events manually within our platform in order to track whatever they need. From there, we take care of the technology behind measuring event engagement, tallying points scored and purchases made, and the entire chain in between.

If you’re unsure where to start, Adjust supplies recommended conversion funnels by vertical to provide a customizable starting point for measurement and analysis. With our data clearly organized in the dashboard, you can download and manage as you please, figure out the places that might need optimization, and gauge just how successful your app is–and what you can improve to make it even better.

Interested in finding out more? Learn how to set up custom events in your Adjust dashboard or request a demo.

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