Yandex AppMetrica

The main articles are:

• Data management
• Business Intelligence Definition

AppMetrica is a versatile analytics and marketing platform.

AppMetrica SDK

AppMetrica SDK is a set of libraries for collecting statistics on the use of a mobile application, as well as for creating and conducting push campaigns and collecting statistics on them. The collected data can be viewed in the web interface.

2024: Adding LTV Predicts Tool

AppMetrica, Yandex's service for mobile application analytics, has a tool - Predicts of LTV (lifetime value) and outflow. With Predicts, mobile app owners and marketers will be able to optimize advertising campaigns for high LTV users, find effective advertising channels with high profitability, and start user retention on time. Yandex announced this on March 6, 2024.

The predictive LTV model is based on Yandex ML technologies using the impersonal data of tens of thousands of applications of various categories. This allows you to make forecasts both if you have information about monetization within the application, and without it. Within a day from the moment of installation of the application, the model analyzes many parameters related to LTV, and distributes users to cohorts based on the probability to bring income to the application (top 5% of users by LTV, top 20% or top 50%). Further, this data can be used to target a high LTV audience in advertising networks. Accumulating information, the model is self-learning and adapts to the behavior of the audience of a particular application, increasing the forecast accuracy by up to 99%. In the AppMetrica interface, forecast data for current and new users is updated every 24 hours.

With outflow Predicts, at the time of installing the application, you can identify users who are highly likely to stop using it soon, and develop measures to keep them. The predictive model analyzes the behavior of all active users for three weeks, assessing their actions daily. The result is a forecast of four groups: in terms of outflow probability - > 95%, 75-95%, 50-75% and <50%. На когорты с высокой вероятностью оттока можно запустить пуш-кампании с персональными предложениями — это легко сделать прямо из интерфейса AppMetrica.

2023

Addition of A-B Experiments

In AppMetrica, you can not only analyze data the work of the application, but also conduct A/B tests of product marketing and hypotheses, as well as immediately implement changes in the interface. This was Yandex announced on August 31, 2023.

Thanks to this functionality of AppMetrica, application developers, product designers and marketers can test hypotheses, determine the impact on product indicators, for example, such as ARPU, Retention, Time Spent, and make statistically significant decisions based on the data obtained. If the figures grow, the change can be included from the AppMetrica interface, and it will be immediately visible to all users of the application. This will save time updating the application in curtains.

The A/B Experiments are based on the Flag Configuration. It allows you to set specific test parameters: make a flag for a new advertising banner, a section in the interface, and more. Flags can be included on all users of the application or on specific segments. For example, show a special offer for children's products to those who indicated in their profile that they are a parent, or customize advertising banners for specific marketing actions.

AppMetrica is able to analyze the connections between different collected application data, so within the framework of "A/B experiments" it is possible to carry out not only simple, but also complex tests with the inclusion of several flags and conditions.

You can start using A/B Experiments and Flag Configuration for free. In the Free tariff, two simultaneous A/B tests are available with two flags displayed. In the extended version, you can configure up to 2,000 different flags and up to a hundred experiments at a time.

A/B Experiments is based on Varioqub technology - this is a separate SDK integrated with the AppMetrica platform.

Add Workspaces Solution

AppMetrica, a service for tracking and product analytics applications from Yandex, has a Workspaces solution for quickly configuring the visualization of data on the performance of a mobile application. Yandex announced this on June 28, 2023. With Workspaces, you can create stand-alone dashboards with a visual representation of the financial, product or marketing metrics of the application. Users can quickly set up the presentation of any data from AppMertica to monitor metrics at all times, or when an online analysis is needed.

For example, a marketing specialist can set up continuous monitoring of the effectiveness of traffic, LTV and ROI indicators in Workspace in a few clicks. A financial analyst from his team will simultaneously create his own dashboard to assess the impact of purchases, subscriptions, advertising and time spent on the app's total revenue.

Dashboards in Workspaces can be accessed by an unlimited number of users, and viewing and editing rights can be adjusted. Workspaces allows you to create and configure up to 100 stand-alone dashboards, each of which can add up to 20 widgets with AppMetrica data. This functionality is available to AppMetrica users on Pro and Custom tariffs.

Data Stream API Tool Availability

On June 13, 2023, Yandex announced that an additional tool for working with Data Stream API data became available in AppMetrica. With its help, you can upload gigabytes of data on events, installations, session starts, push tokens, crashes and errors in the application in real time in a few minutes.

For example, uploading application data with an average monthly audience (MAU) of 10 million users using the Data Stream API will take 1-2 minutes. The result will be presented in csv and json format so that it can be easily exported to the user database and processed in the BI system. This allows you to analyze product metrics of applications in real time, combine them with technical and commercial data.

The Data Stream API is primarily in demand for operational analysis of high-load applications in the fields of financial services, games, retail and streaming platforms. One of the first users of the Data Stream API was the KION online cinema.

The Data Stream API is already available to AppMetrica users on the PRO tariff. Users of other tariff plans can connect the tool on demand.

Ability to analyze subscription revenue

App owners can analyze subscription revenue using AppMetrica. This was announced on May 23, 2023 by Yandex.

With its help, you can quickly analyze the quantitative indicators of subscriptions, combine them with information about the product and user behavior.

The analysis of subscription income complements the existing AppMetrica tools for controlling application revenue: in-app purchases, advertizing monetization and subscriptions - each indicator can be viewed separately or in conjunction with others.

Income analysis helps to work with data on the design and renewal of subscriptions, conversion rates - for example, from installation to subscription, the transition of users from trial to paid mode. This functionality gives quick access to information about financial indicators: the share of subscriptions in average user income (ARPU) and monthly renewable income (MRR). Also, income analysis allows you to simply segment the audience and send targeted push mailings to individual groups of subscribers.

2022: Collecting User Data with AppMetrica SDK

On March 29, 2022, it became known that the Russian web company Yandex had introduced code into applications for mobile devices, which allows sending data on tens of millions of users to servers located in the Russian Federation.

Illustration: securitylab.ru

Yandex has an SDK called AppMetrica. SDKs are blocks used by developers to create applications. Many SDKs are provided "free of charge" to access user information that promotes campaigns. Among the many apps AppMetrica is embedded in are video games, messaging apps, location tools and virtual private networks (VPNs).

The situation concerns this application, which allows developers to create software for devices running iOS from Apple and Android from Google. The problem was discovered by cybersecurity researcher Zuk Edwards during a marketing campaign to audit applications for the non-profit organization Me2B Alliance.

"AppMetrica SDK offers acceptable conditions for companies, but at the same time transfers metadata to Moscow, which can be used to track people on websites and ​​v applications," - commented on Edwards' situation.

Yandex representatives admitted that the software collects data on "devices, communities and IP addresses" that are stored "both in Finland and Russia," but called this information "non-personalized and really limited."

According to former Apple engineer Cher Scarlett, as soon as consumer data is collected on Russian servers, Yandex may well be obliged to provide it to the federal government in accordance with local legal norms. Such metadata may presumably be used to identify users.

Yandex representatives said that the company collects information only "after the application receives user consent" through applications for Android and iOS. As noted by Patrick Jackson, chief specialist at Disconnect, the SDKs can be dangerous precisely because they do not request permission. Instead, they "use the permissions that the consumer has granted to the app."

Some application developers began removing AppMetrica after the outbreak of a military conflict in Ukraine.^[1]

Notes