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Sheldon Singh is an experienced digital performance marketing professional and a Google Analytics specialist with a wealth of technical expertise. Sheldon is Google Adwords certified and has a BCOM Honours in Marketing and Psychology from Wits.
Webinar: App tracking how to use Firebase and Google Analytics 4 - transcript
Speaker 1 00:00
digital for 12 13 years and he was one of those people that jellyfish and he's done multiple politics 360 and now to 84 and 50 relations only the most knowledgeable person I know and I'm firebase so out of there by 7:00
Speaker 1 00:27
or so tell everybody in your family so please stop by at any time there's no such thing as a stupid question I'm here to answer your questions and we want to make this as a contractor was possible but we do have a little bit of an agenda so what will be coming today is where does up tracking 413 I realise that sound like a stupid question but
Speaker 1 00:55
I've been asking so we will cover it then we have the setup process which I think everybody is quite interested in then we'll talk about implementation funny enough it is actually two different things then we can talk about the Benson parameters how the Saltford Santa GTA 4 and then I'm gonna go to the light demo which is often after
Speaker 1 01:13
for instance that has data from an app that Google has so where does that tracking fit in stop tracking is half of Google Analytics and I'm focusing in google analytics for because it is the most robust robust version of app tracking at the moment he
Speaker 1 01:33
also has obviously a lot of Legacy with Google Analytics web so what they've done is cheerful or Google underscore in the future as the way everything is probably going to go into new things like a Dolby and other platforms but it did it was now moved to an event based data model so what that means is
Speaker 1 01:56
on web used to have a different interaction used have a dream in an app you then have a screen but what Google has done before is that they've made them both events so you will have a wee bit and it's green blue red and any interactions is there an annual so where does that truck if it again
Speaker 1 02:15
it's half of this view so you would have tracking set up on the website which you generally would use gtm2 by occupants into gfo and when you go to Upside we then use the firebase SDK which would then have to configure custom events anthem automatic guns which then feed into jail for
Speaker 1 02:34
those two parts are separate but lead to the same Endpoint of to you I'm sure you would have seen that BS dk45se is part of this journey and it is essential there is no other way to get Analytics update appomattox data into J4
Speaker 1 02:55
ultra fibre Google owns firebase that is why it is part of this process they have invested a lot in the Snapple and that is it's a requirement and to be honest it's actually not about requirement is one of the simpler in
Speaker 1 03:08
installations and implementations to do provided you up is based on more generic or normal in inverted commas According SO3 my say that is we do have our experienced some apps that are based on quite the spoke code and that does get a little complicated by bass but the majority of people
Speaker 1 03:30
say they still work 100% setup process is mostly you need to have an app you need to create a log in with a Google account obviously Google wants you to use their the platform will you would use Google account he will login or sign-in and it will take you to something like this
Speaker 1 03:50
which is the firebase console once you get cure you will kill you create a new project apps is only a one-to-one ratio of up to project so you'll creative if you have a list of example of me to be using is cold-blooded it is an app that is in US and Android but it is the same up so they have the same project meaning it's the same source of data
Speaker 1 04:18
once to you create a project you will then be given two screens and consume in here but you can see it you'll then have a screen that says add add 5 hours to your apple up so you will need to have the app already registered in a store they will then need to give the
Speaker 1 04:47
details of that up to firebase it will then give you the ability to download a config file and that file will then be allowed to be installed into your app so still download master kg and then you do need to leave at least you're up into the app store with can you call best this is a step dad funny and a whole lot of people take for granted because
Speaker 1 05:15
GTA and can be deployed without breaking chains of the website so it is an important step dad once you install the SDK you do need to relieve relieve your app through the app store so he would generally create a new version of the app
Speaker 1 05:29
what happens after that is firebase automatically collects around 30 people over that even smell if the data point of attachment exists so what that means is if you don't have any gas in your app you won't get an ad engagement even
Speaker 1 05:47
if you don't have purchased as you wouldn't get an automatic clutch is slipping but some of the useful baby instead of creative and engaging so obviously if you do monetize your up with advertising you would be able to report that when an app is removed you do get a notice if it's an Android app it doesn't apply to iOS app store subscription or purchase this happens football does an Android and up update dynamic link so this is an interesting thing that vibrates allows it is a
Speaker 1 06:17
link that you can create created in the platform that if a user clicks on an ad adstop it'll take them to a webpage or if they cook it on a mobile device it will take them to the respective app stores iOS for iPhone in the Google Play Store for Android
Speaker 1 06:34
if a link is clicked a specific event is fired in firebase when the user opens the app you can also track in a message on your first open so if you are measuring a little the campaign to see how many people downloaded app you would measure your first opened because as much as
Speaker 1 06:53
download support new do need you just triggered it first opened to know that we've actually open the notification engagement if a user clicks on a notification from your house it will you can check out of it will be tracked automatically but you can add additional information to it
Speaker 1 07:10
then screen view like I said is a woman that's where my screen is showing in them in and if you have multiple screens you will then automatically get this if you're using something like a PW very or thereabout he would then need to trigger this manually that's why it's got the last year and then campaigns so if you are sending media did you are using media to send truck into your app store you will then automatically get some information if it is through the Google
Speaker 1 07:41
map to couple big is a full list of the events those are the ones I think are quite important but you do get adclick at exposure education add crew leaders there's quite a bit of it you can see there's quite a lot here
Speaker 1 08:00
the ones that are quite important it is you'll see that there's a difference between web and app the reason for that is this is Aga for schema meaning it's built web and app and you can decide what you want to use a crossbow so if you're up for example of a file download function where users can download while you're here it's automatic four-wheel he would then need to configure it for your app she will need to specify that there's a special event
Speaker 1 08:28
so while your dad is busy installing if the SDK and you're going through the process of getting it through your truth in the App Store of recommendation is that you should try and what else you want to track in your application so this is very bespoke to your house now to apply exactly the same so
Speaker 1 08:52
and no two measurements are exactly the same so you would want to decide what you want me to track and what about the user you'll also want to know so an example is this game again I've got a couple examples
Speaker 1 09:07
for example if you wanted a a user to open the app and play game he wouldn't rock the opening of the app starting with level the successful level now got some examples just now but the overall plan would be to do something that commission Kramer Court rocking chair because the automatic event only gonna get you so far any other using catchment needs to be dropped as against and it does require setup so there is installation and then there's implementation which
Speaker 1 09:37
will also depend on what app you use language it's called again so the top recommendations for G4S dropped objects in java Android and cottman reviews of the for recommendation that I've got examples of what your code would look like
Speaker 1 09:55
four individual events so in an iOS app which is using the name Swift your event name would be dynamic and then you would sending parameters like this so that's the language used and what you can do is because it's just such a generic or
Speaker 1 10:18
robust approach to parameters and events you can send anything you want and you can have as many parameters you know if you wanted to know anything about the user or something that they've done in India selection or anything about the use of all day then you can send it in a parameter it just requires configuration in the app integration engineer quarterly seat so I
Speaker 1 10:42
will send you for because that is the Endpoint that you'll report out of my base is just the throughput from the app into firebase interview for I've been using GTA 4 for a year-and-a-half now I am only use firebase wants to create a report everything comes out to you for one of Michelle you could have went to bed just now
Speaker 1 11:03
the other version of ios tracking is objectivity for you'll see it's also you can create a dynamic you meant me and you would send parameters of this item name and content that you can choose how you send your information
Speaker 1 11:21
I've been told that objective seekers and used as much are it is mendis watch fireworks and then Android so java Android you'll see as well there's a dynamic event name and various parameters that can be said so depending on what you want to track and this is why we recommend doing the measurement framework of some sort his you need to plan what you want to install
Speaker 1 11:43
new enter clam what you want to truck so that you can install the cold to send that information to 25 years and then to the results of Tottenham which also has a dynamic event name and parameters and values the overall approach is more or less the same in that we do need to choose the right name specified
Speaker 1 12:05
and then obviously choose the trigger that would be dependent on your app and then send him the climate is as you want they are some limits 20445 it is you can send up to 500 different events that happens don't know what that means is you could specify 500 individual engagement points outside of the automatically collected against the things that first open in in-app purchase it was on the counter so you can have technically 548
Speaker 1 12:35
530 them in your house it is unlikely that you'll never reach that amount because if you're going back granular there possibly is better ways for you to group your daddy together so if you were doing something has a
Speaker 1 12:49
booking engine something like booking.com you wouldn't need an event for every single hotel you would have an eventful booking at a hotel and then the parameter would be the name of the hotel for example there's a limit on the number of characters for the event so then that name how many event parameters can be sent her an email so you can have up to 25 different
Speaker 1 13:15
parameters or details about Delhi when there's also a limit on the character the length of the character and then you can also send in addition to the 25 event parameters you can send 25 user properties
Speaker 1 13:30
what that is you could have go back to the book example that is if you've got an identifier in your app for when a user logs in that specifies this user is in the gold and platinum tier you could dance a
Speaker 1 13:44
recipient was triggered by a user who has the property of platinum and that could be applied to anything that is a demo account that you can have access to and the devil have a link to it but it takes you to this
Speaker 1 13:59
app's data set which is in Sheffield steel city flooded as gonna go to the screenshots before I go into the app YouTube in space so flooded is a game it's got a couple screen that's the main point is obviously the game so there's a menu when you open the app there's a how to play description under the actual gaming will see doesn't add up stopped so this is what you do word count as eventual want to send to Analytics
Speaker 1 14:31
but some of them would be automatically tracked so screen video would be when the screen is Sean screen will be this and then little starts which is always in the starting of a game is the recommended name for game so there is a schema by
Speaker 1 14:46
industry that you can use all you can use something that's up to you nicely would you get what is that there is any freedom in the way your truck in the way you name think there's also a way to rename
Speaker 1 14:59
even settled automatically tracked which is quite na so tell them to 13358 is incredibly like that awful because you basically coding the event you know on unit in the US so it's like you have to you have to enable power and flexibility but it's like it is it's it's
Speaker 1 15:27
difficult to send weather Friday when it is suitable for GF or is a hugely from Jay clasico universal which is the reason for that is because you specify what you want to track you can name it to how you want to report on it as well so that's why I did that measurement framework that is quite useful to specify what you want to try
Speaker 1 15:53
to just explain they may just go into and into a workshop with other developers all the all the product owners to decide what's important and what is the sort of the flow of what uses take and then to document that so it's like it's like almost having a master plan before actually
Speaker 1 16:20
started digging into the code installing fireplaces that so it's like you know let's to find what we wanna do in English post that everybody understands have a plan and then we going to the development of timing of events
Speaker 1 16:34
exactly exactly that this could be both these two screens these two slides could be considered as my friend and that we know that there's a menu we know there's a how to play we know there's a level start we also know that if you successfully level you'll get a success you could buy in the app and there's game over so we have identified six different events here but they would need to be translated into a tracfone that make clothes
Speaker 1 17:03
so instead of success if you could actually successfully level complete instead of in-app purchase you could call it use extra steps because that's actually do in the game you can buy additional steps and then instead of came over you have never felt so there is there does need to be a consistency and the logic that you use with name in your events
Speaker 1 17:28
that's where the minimum payment is coming quite a few questions are flown through quite a few slides and said a lot of things does anybody have any questions or I'm good okay so cheerful the interface in
Speaker 1 17:55
gf002 is exactly what you will find in the 5s interface in firebase it is a call reporting and that is dga for intake done that so that there's a correlation between the two platforms and that you do if you do one in one in I bet you know exactly where to find that injured people
Speaker 1 18:19
there's also a really cool section called Explorer to do a lot of them as well and then there is an event report which I'm going to trip so that is cool that this is the Fibres in space or did you phone cases for 5S
Speaker 1 18:39
in the reporting section guilty does homegoods reports that explore advertising and configure home there is a general screen to show you how many people were on the user using any new years is how much revenue you're receiving from your advertising or from you in a purchase
Speaker 1 19:00
depending on which model you're going with me you can report and bulk I would require would recommend choosing one or the other to determine which one's more valuable to you generally it will be in app purchases because that should give you more Avenue average engagement time so
Speaker 1 19:19
ga4 has moved away from session level metrics it back into the interface that they've moved away from making up the primary way of looking at it you want to measure the time between engagement rather than just a session that could have engagement or not having patience so
Speaker 1 19:36
in general what this means is between the first and the last engagement has around 5 minutes so people are playing this game for 15 minutes the country's obviously is quite similar to normal Analytics
Speaker 1 19:50
and then I'm going to jump in 20 minutes to insert gfo because it is an event based data model it allows Analytics to estimate if you're using a naming convention thing like a level stock level and they will finish they will fail in a purchase is because those are fairly standard naming conventions
Speaker 1 20:15
G4 will estimate and try to give you some insight automatically do you think these are they've got this little stocking which means it is based on machine learning so from this inside that consistently had issues in the past four weeks so what that means and to take an inside and to attempt to activated his if you have a shopping apple looking up or something where you want people to continue music up again is interesting but if you have a minute ization strategy you could then say ok Mondays have consistently at least amount of users in this week's how do we activate the Debt increased our campaign spending or do more display advertising or
Speaker 1 20:59
send push notifications on Monday to try and get people back into their so that's the sort of where you take it inside and try and activated to get you back into your app users who triggered first open its first open is the first time a user
Speaker 1 21:16
so that would be useful to know what what was done on Thursday to see that it was done with this day to cause this that's the sort of inside you could do the new users in India speak so was their campaign and
Speaker 1 21:33
then going into the normal report you'll see if you'd actually does Safeway have to build a nest and this will give you a view of what firebase would show you from an app developer standpoint so you'll see that uses of time which is fairly standard using the last 10 minutes and then there's uses by Appalachian this is something that is becoming more and more important is
Speaker 1 22:03
we aren't we aren't a lot of users that have automatic app updates so instead of situations you want your in certain situations peaches only come out in certain versions a user doesn't have a virgin but you telling them to do something and you have they aren't able to do it and make it a frustrated so
Speaker 1 22:25
by doing this sort of analysis to see okay this version but she's worried to 1615 as very high penetration but it does say that it needs investigation can cook it was pretty good actually with a 9% of active users are using this version and 99.38 having Crush experiences
Speaker 1 22:51
they've been out in 87 crash that it needs investigation this is it is just an estimate to say have a look at this D R Us is not mistaken look pretty good so successful this year specifically for developers to see what is happening in the app from
Speaker 1 23:13
versioning crashing crash Analytics arm and you said you can see how frequent for how long you keep using the app for and because this is a game he would expected to have a low low retention and that people have goldfish identities and
Speaker 1 23:33
you can hold them fee in the weeks that I passed with hypertension and then it sucks going into Analytics around the app itself to see what people are engaging with this is a game so the game board would be the most probably the most important screaming game over the
Speaker 1 23:53
main menu in finished so something to take into account is in this situation if your app is based on a key so this is a game your game board should be the most of you think not the homepage not the menu you want people to continually be in the game of the game over was super high
Speaker 1 24:13
new game warden always be happy cuz you have to start again to get pimples if your game over was hired the new game board these are questions where why how is that even possible is there something going wrong people reaching their failure to appoint with an automatic Eagles game over those sort of things you can check
Speaker 1 24:32
through Wells Fargo today against civilians who was the primary way of measuring girl is using gate one so that is when the app is active in the front of in front of all the other apps on phone when you've got levels start quickly and level and quickly saw these adjust engagement in the game that you can measure and you can see this is very specific
Speaker 1 24:57
800 all up should have that sort of naming convention and its revenue so you can see it all the time so on the 14th on the 19 something clearly happened to sleep to investigate and if you are using ads in your app to monetize that you were there and get this publisher ad
Speaker 1 25:18
impressions where you could go and report on the dad's gonna be able to see which ad unit was giving you the most operations as well as if it was so that's a fibre section but if you are doing any sort of Engagement reporting you be looking at you again so I did touch on it just not about the people starting their way in but you can see that this app has
Speaker 1 25:52
40 you've been struck the ball and they will retry level up level complete these are all very specific to the app and one of the things you'd want to do is once you have engagement trapped in the app you're obviously want to choose
Speaker 1 26:14
engagement that's valuable to you and that's where conversions coming so a conversion is a selected event that you deem valuable and the reason why you need to specify it out as a conversion is in something like Google ads where you are busier spending money you need to optimise to a specific
Speaker 1 26:35
goal that goal is the conversion and that converted can be any event you've been valuable so this app has chosen completed five games as the complete five levels as their conversion so what they can then do is pick and choose
Speaker 1 26:55
in Google has to optimise their campaigns to find users that are more likely to complete five levels how they do that is they go into the behaviour of the users who've achieved this event to complete the student and then find uses similar to them
Speaker 1 27:13
then you get the monetization page Sheldon Sheldon so I'll give you give examples for you up and there's a certain point we went in the app that's very useful to you like they registered or they submitted video or like they did something that showed their first engagement
Speaker 1 27:42
you come and do it if you can do anything you can make with a conclusion was like you know it's almost like a like a softail almost like an indication of this is the start of users that the one then what you do if you push that back into Google ads
Speaker 1 27:59
and then you can tell Google app store and find me more of these users but that's where my available right thanks buddy and monetization to your see that both stars have total revenue increased Revenue and ad revenue so
Speaker 1 28:23
if it is a little tricky to get both of them together because there is a scaling difference between a Duchess and a an ad revenue depending on obviously your business model but you'll see that here you can do purchases
Speaker 1 28:37
and there should be an event for WWE pro User pigeon sticking up this shows that this specific app isn't focusing on such thing but it also has added revenue which is quite cool if you can Android into your normal demographics as you would for lunch if
Speaker 1 29:00
you can go into your normal analytics for the demographics where people are coming from the different cities genders this is reliant on a user being signed in an estimated based on their previous behaviour and there's interest as well which obviously Google has access to that information
Speaker 1 29:19
a breakdown language and if you go into demographic details you can drill down in a table form and it works you can choose one of the demographics and then you'll split that you're on your deathbed he's been
Speaker 1 29:43
out to look at the technology so these are important for G4 because as users go between screens you'll want to know which buttons do on Android iOS so obviously being an important and useful piece of all of this is something called the user ID which this app doesn't have installed because you don't sign in but if you were an app developer and your
Speaker 1 30:08
app has a login function and your website has a login function if you have a user ID the really cool thing would you call that you can connect a user's behaviour and your app and website into a single stream of information for that use
Speaker 1 30:24
provided they signed in and the values user ID is lost between the two black holes what does damn means is if it's setup correctly and unfortunately is demo account doesn't have it but if it's setup correctly you can then view when I use it on your website
Speaker 1 30:39
switches over to an app that switches back from into the website and then you'll see the girl be an overlap between the different travel in one of the accounts of worked on it was a group of users because I could be a 4% of the users had all three devices so they are an Android that an iPad it's technically counts as a rest and
Speaker 1 31:04
reaches a browser so big it is it is a lot of combinations with that can happen really cool part and possibly my favourite part is there's this explore section which makes your reporting really interesting and that you can do free for which is a stable and it looks good looks very similar you can do Funnel expiration when you choose of how people move between steps and then you have PT education which is my favourite which I'm pretty sure there's you can choose you
Speaker 1 31:38
can choose the different banks and because everything else me again it is a given to me then to event model meaning seven starters new event screen view as me when you can then drill deeper into it to see
Speaker 1 31:58
when it loads of users then select the content didn't build a screen or started a level and you can go down to an impression you're really really cool Park which is why I love it so much as you can go and Google is
Speaker 1 32:24
so if you chose it will complete the China produce you can and see how you just got to your specific event and then that's goes back to your measurement framework with your tracking plan is that if you identify this last job you can and see what all the steps are before using complete that is that okay if
Speaker 1 32:59
you going to advertising so this will show you where people are coming from to your app what to do at mission all model comparison which occurs when a user comes on different channels for the time you can then compare what is it just clicks for the last cricket match India revenue
Speaker 1 33:25
generation of revenue came from the cleaning it wasn't a direct paid activity the site then the last thing I want to show is custom definitions which is the equivalent of custom dimensions so what you do now is the parameters that you mean we spoke about Syria
Speaker 1 33:50
to be configured in to receive the information from the YouTuber name there so once you set it up for you don't use different parameters and you cannot send the information into the parameters you just need to specify the scope the only two scopes you get a user and even if it said of the users and it'll come as a used property listed as you can come today
Speaker 1 34:21
and you can print it and that is what you thought I wanted to see if there are a couple new features coming soon there is conversion modelling paste on machine learning so you can provided you have enough conversions in 8:30 I think it's 1,000 conversions in a 30-day window
Speaker 1 34:45
emission emission money will be able to predict how many controllers do you get per day going forward is also predicting audiences based on two really cool things so conversion probability meaning you can pick out based on previous engagement by other users which users are likely to convert or
Speaker 1 35:05
likely to jump so you can build audiences based on that meaning you can use the train audience meaning uses that on Mark ranch come back you can use them as exclusions in your advertising if you want to save money you could do that and there's user lifetime value Productions which then takes
Speaker 1 35:25
revenue as well as e-commerce revenue as well as ad Revenue and predict how long over time are youse all of the value of the use of there any questions comments I realised she was expecting you to be
Speaker 1 35:43
there for me so I'm good to go for something that I haven't seen before I learnt a bit just on that you know questions comments or was it useful but yes yes was you forgetting things actually thank Sheldon and
Speaker 1 36:15
Steven I like I know but your husband thinking about up while but I think she shared some stuff that I can get you going to sort play the album an app where you can apply this doesn't look like to call us
Speaker 1 36:52
working I must have a good question I'm writing a react native application is it all possible in the same number akinator so react-native would you need to possibly use the GAA 44 web because the XX kind of like our progressive web app treated so you wouldn't specify automatic screen views we would need to use something like GTM for day-to-day operations to identify windscreen Busey changed
Speaker 1 37:27
okay I'm just not even take a look into it we we we we have identified that react and PW raised and disorderly bit more tricky because it's technically a hybrid rather than making sure of that for example
Speaker 1 37:49
showing that the 5s will work across Android and iOS devices it's not specific tires for example that works across milk so you get Android Java which is the recommended language but it will work provider so I think the biggest the biggest check to start the process is as you're up in an
Speaker 1 38:18
apra why did it is accepted by a nap because you do need to register the project for 5 days and that needs to come out of the App Store the app store needs to say that it is an actual up and wanted to update work
Speaker 1 38:31
sorry Asians between Android and iOS apps that account that was so you did me to call the bins individually for iOS and individually for Android and then they would then be treated its treated as two separate data streams
Speaker 1 38:55
15 is project Android and iOS apps don't share that do obviously Cher concerts for the owner said Richard same language so it does need to be specified one or the other guy that's the origin of the question
Speaker 1 39:19
not gonna lie where was easier HTML was a lot easier but we are here now but it is very powerful but didn't super girly is there is a lot of room for customisation I think that stick pictures because not all apps exactly the same not all apps do the same thing so there is there is a need for customisation that
Speaker 1 39:50
specific approach to tracking numbers does allow for that any other questions is that the language that the app is called again or the language of the app itself Ireland allowed to go outside if it's the language of the app to the coding language of the word is just a bit cold
Speaker 1 40:33
snippets for sending your pants like the examples that I had in the in the back where she worked as a different mission Australia soeun Swift which is I will theaters log event there where is an Android
Speaker 1 41:00
it goes in my base because in Empire Bay sendatext.co given prison here it's just I'm looking so it's like nuances in the different languages that need to be account so if you're developing your developers know which language to you and what
Speaker 1 41:26
events are the event you because I think maybe you say anything from you Mark anything for you thanks guys so shall my notes quote dicky topic for summer so it's great to be able to get someone else's experience it's not something that lot of people have
Speaker 1 41:49
experience with thanks market is also like me and you're right there's a small workshops what's happening at the end of April and then to mourn and may just have a look on the on the website and all available before the linking verb she's already posting
Speaker 1 42:19
that says thank you so much for joining us and I do thank you goodbye
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