iTunes app analytics: free Eldorado of ASO ideas

App Store Connect comes together with your first app uploaded to the App Store. It’s inbuilt into the Apple system and — it collects a plenty of useful data to make an app a success. Crazy enough, most app owners even don’t know they sit on this goldmine! This gives you a unique possibility to be the first one to use the App Store Connect data to outperform all the competitors in the App Store. Do not hesitate and learn how!

How to connect with App Store Connect?

App Store Connect is something you already use for submitting your apps to the Store. So there are no special steps for accessing the tool. You simply log in to App Store Connect with your Apple ID. After that, go to the “App Analytics” tab on the main page.

This is how the analytics panel looks like:

Congrats! Now you can start checking the data every once in a while.

App Store Connect data and how to use it to boost an app

Here are the metrics you can find in App Store Connect.

• Impressions. The number of times the app was viewed on the App Store (for longer than one second). “Impressions” statistics include the times your app appears to people in the search results, is being found via the featuring tabs (Featured, Explore, Top Charts, and the app Product Page Views. This data allows calculating the tap-through rate of the app (TTR): the number of users seeing it and clicking further to view the product page/download it. And TTR allows to understand if the app is really reaching customers.
• Product Page View. Shows how many times the app’s Product Page is viewed by App Store visitors.
• App Units. How many times the app is downloaded in a chosen period of time. By dividing the App Units number by the - Impressions number you can get the conversion rate (CVR) of the app.
• Installations. The installations tab demonstrates how many people have installed the app.
• Sessions. Apple collects the information about App Store behaviour of the people who’ve given their consent for this. So the Sessions tab shows how often people use your app for more than two seconds.
• Active Devices. This metric demonstrates the number of devices using the app for a chosen period of time.
• Retention. The app usage within a given time period. If you analyse it by segments and trends you will get more ideas for growth.

It is a good practice to segment all the data you get from App Store Connect into at least two types of traffic. This will make it easier to concentrate on meaningful data and not to get lost in all the metrics. There are the segments:

• Search traffic. All the people seeing your app’s Product Page because they’ve searched for the relevant keywords.
• Referral traffic. All the people coming to the app’s Product Page from web or other apps.

For each one of them, the following metrics should be analyzed:

• Impressions.
• TTR (tap-through rate).
• CVR (conversion rate).

Impressions

Impressions tab, plainly said, shows how many people organically discovered the app in the Store. The more people get to see it, the better the app it is optimized and has a higher chance of being downloaded in the terms of the iTunes algorithm.

Finding the Impressions data: Go to “Metrics” tab → “Impressions” tab → Select “View By” as “Platform Version” → “Filter” by “Source Type” → Choose “App Store Search” → Set the relevant period.

When you compare this data to the previous period, did the performance of the app increase, decrease or stay the same? Acting upon the data:

Tap-through rate

Now you have the Impressions data, you can calculate the tap-through rate (TTR). TTR is the ratio between the average number of Impressions for a period relevant for your business and the average number of Product Page views for the same period.

Finding the TTR data: Go to “Metrics” tab → Let “Impressions” tab stay on → Choose “Compare To” “Product Page Views” → Select “Unique Devices” → Set “View By” at “Platform Version” → “Filter” by “Source Type” → Select “App Store Search” → Set “Date” at “Custom Range” → Set the relevant date.

Acting upon the data:

Conversion rate

Conversion rate (CVR) is the ratio between the downloads of your app and the total number of people who’ve seen the app.

Finding the CVR data: Go to “Metrics” tab → Let “Impressions” tab stay on → Under “Sales Category”, choose “App Units” → Set “Compare to” at “Product Page Views” → Select “Unique Devices” → “View By” “Platform Version” → “Filter” by “Source Type” → Select “App Store Search” → Set “Date” at “Custom Range” → Set the relevant date.

App Store Connect counts the downloads from the Search Results together with those from the Product Page. This is why the CVR can be higher than 100%.

Acting upon the data:

Do not forget referral traffic!

However important it is that an app is well-visible in App Store thanks to a smart ASO strategy, do not forget App Store Connect also gives you an opportunity to see if people are coming to the app from the third-party sources.

You can find out the Impressions and the CVR we’ve talked about above for referral traffic as well. This is how.

Impressions: Go to “Metrics” tab → Choose “Impressions” → “View By” “Source Type” → Choose “Add filter” and add “App Referrer” (to see the third-party apps traffic) or “Web Referrer” (to see the web traffic) → Set the relevant period.

Now you know how many people get to see the app thanks to other sources. These may be your own website, partner apps and websites, and all types of the ads (think of Facebook or Instagram). The data about the Impressions drawn this way gives an understanding if the marketing channels you invest in really work positive for the app’s visibility.

CVR: Go to “Metrics” tab → Under “Sales Category”, choose “App Units” → Set “Compare to” at “Product Page Views” → Select “Unique Devices” → “View By” “Platform Version” → “Filter” by “Source Type” → Choose for “Web Referrer” (to see the web traffic) or “App Referrer” (to see third-party apps traffic) → Set “Date” at “Custom Range” and choose the relevant date.

As you see, there’s also a possibility to filter by a particular referral, say, Facebook or Google.

The successfulness of the referral traffic for your app depends on several factors. First of all, attractive and unique product. Next, not less attractive and unique messaging about it, fulfilling the expectations of a potential customer. The last is how relevant the third-party channel is to promote your app. CVR data from App Store Connect helps you analyze if specific marketing channels work as expected.

Wrapping up…

App Store Connect is a perfect and not too complicated tool to analyze the app performance in the App Store. It provides a lot of insights (such as Impressions, tap-through rate and conversion rate) one can use to adjust the ASO strategy in particular and the marketing strategy in general. Do not hesitate to use this data and get ahead of your competitors! May the 4th be with you 😎