Matt Tubergen, Vice President of Taptica, tells how to work with analytics on the pages of Pocket Gamer. We offer a translation of his second article, “Fundamentals of Post-Installation Analytics“, dedicated to events and their parameters.
In the first article, we started the topic of post-installations. In the second material, we will talk about the data structure. Actually, almost all mobile services specializing in monitoring post-installations (Flurry, Mixpanel, and so on) have similar components for structuring analytics.
Understanding these components will help you formulate queries correctly, search and find in the data what you are specifically interested in.
Events
Events are unique actions detected by the service. In the mobile industry, they are usually tied to a specific user. The event can be a simple click on a certain button or a user receiving a reward.
Events help to capture user behavior. The collected data can then be analyzed. Remember that events can reflect any player’s actions. You can also set a whole series of events to look for any common patterns.
If you select the necessary key events for yourself before integrating the service into the game, you will have no problems with data analysis.
Event Parameters
Parameters are data that can be indirectly related to events.
For example, a user completing a level is an event. As soon as the event is triggered, the user receives points and a rating in asterisks. Both points and rating can be assigned as event parameters so that you can see how many, on average, users complete a level with a certain number of points or rating.
Fixing event parameters will help you better understand why and how users react to game events.
Segments
Segments are data based on some general information, such as when the user was purchased, how much time he spent in the game, and so on.
As a rule, segments are grouped into periods of application usage. This helps to structure the information, as well as compare some periods with others.
For example, by updating the application, the publisher can compare old data with new ones and find out whether the first levels in the game have become more difficult for users or not (by the level of points and stars received).
Back to planning
In the previous post, we talked about the importance of formulating simple questions to the data obtained. Having dealt with the questions, it’s time to find out which events, their parameters and segments are key for you.