New Facebook App Insights Analytics Tool Offers Deeper Dive Into App Performance Metrics

Facebook has released a new app insights analytics tool for developers that helps track an app’s performance and retention by groups.

Using the new “Label cohorts” within the updated analytics tool, developers can segment app users to measure factors like revenue or the time spent within the app by different groups. The label cohorts also make it possible for developers to perform A/B tests – trying out various strategies on different groups of app users.

Facebook offered a list of ways the label cohorts could be segmented, using examples like “install source” cohorts to group users by the source from which they installed the app or “action-based” cohorts to group users by actions taken within the app.

Another feature of the App Insights analytics tool is an App Event retention chart that gives developers a visual representation of how people use the app during the first 14-weeks following the installation date.

[blockquote cite=”Facebook Developers Blog”]With this data, you can determine if certain changes you made to your app resulted in a significant change in engagement. From there, you have the option to run ads or make other changes as a result of knowing this granular, time-specific information.[/blockquote]

Here’s a screen shot of an Event Retention chart:

(Facebook noted that only users who are logging App Events can take advantage of the App Event retention chart, recommending developers start using the App Events via its Javascript SDK.)

According to the announcement, the retention chart tracks all events a developer logs, so if you’re logging user purchases, it will track the percent of users who made a purchase on the date they installed the app, and what percent made purchases on any day during the first 14-weeks following the app’s installation.

Facebook said the new insights are available for both apps on Facebook and native mobile apps.

Along with the announcement, Facebook shared the following video overview of its App Insights Tool by product manager Aydin Ghajar: