Why do you need app analytics?
Before we start the battle of firebase vs branch, let’s understand the need for analytics. In a world full of Mobile Applications, there is an urge to develop the marketing campaigns around them which requires access to the right data at the right time and then using it wisely for the success of the app. The competition in the market is tough, dissatisfaction with any tiny aspect of the app is more than enough to churn a user and then lose them to the competition.
App analytics tools work in the background towards enhancement and optimization of the app marketing efforts, allowing the user to achieve better growth, higher ROI, and happier customers.
A few App Analytics Tools available:
- Firebase
- Branch
- Appsflyer
Let’s start with Firebase vs Branch :
Firebase
Firebase is very useful for specifically utilizing the Funnel, Events, Retention, and MAU features. Product development teams use Firebase for their crash reporting (Crashlytics). Features like Dynamic Links, Predictions, A/B Testing, and Remote Configurations are useful for growth.
Backed by Google, Firebase has superior capabilities that can give much better insights on app installs, overall user growth & engagement. (Source: https://firebase.googleblog.com)
Benefits of using Firebase
- Retention: is extremely important to an app for analytics, therefore the user can take advantage of cohort analysis, affecting the percent of users that come back. Firebase lets the user easily slice data and look at a running average based on certain dates.
- Deep linking: In mobile apps, deep linking strategies are essential to the app’s success. With Firebase, the user can share the dynamic links (recognize user devices) that are able to redirect to in-app content. These deep links allow the user to share other deep-linked content.
- Event Tracking: Firebase enables users to track events, funnels & MAUs. The user can organize these events into funnels of the user flows (checkout flows, onboarding flows, etc.), and are able to understand the decline in the funnel and then prioritize the area of the funnel to fix.
Drawbacks of using Firebase
- If the user is looking for a mobile app analytics platform that has very high-quality tracking, then Firebase may not be very useful. While Firebase does track basic UTMs source, medium, and campaign, Firebase’s attribution only scratches the surface of what other competitors are able to do.
- Firebase has room for improvement when it comes to its Push Notifications in its user segmentation capabilities. The platform users are allowed to segment app users based on in-app events, except for their predictive user events. Firebase primarily allows app user segmentation based on locations and demographics. Also, Firebase does not allow automated push notifications or adding images to push notifications.
- While the user can export data into Google Analytics through Firebase, it’s free version does not allow direct data exports to the data visualization tools like Google Data Studio.
Why should you choose Firebase?
Firebase helps in understanding the drop-off in the user flows with their funnel feature. This makes it easy for users to be able to pinpoint the weaknesses in the funnel and test and optimize with data as the dependent variable.
The users don’t have to pay for Firebase which is good from an economic standpoint, but as the saying goes “You get what you pay for” also holds true in this context.
From a developer resource standpoint, Firebase is easy to integrate into an app. Whether it be the dynamic links, event tracking, or crash reporting.
Branch
Branch is used by various departments, for addressing the problems – click tracking, sale attribution, user funnel optimization, and referrals.
Branch’s Dynamic Links can provide in-depth data on views, clicks, installs, attribution, and referrals provided by users. (Source: https://branch.io)
Benefits of using Branch
- Click tracking: Branch integrates well with Google, Facebook, Clevertap, product, etc., and allows multiple users to use this one platform for tracking.
- Sale attribution: Branch has the event deduplication in place to aspect sales correctly.
- Smart URL: Branch offers distinctive deep links to support the user platforms, thus making URL behavior personalized and smart for users.
- Referrals: Branch is a built-in platform to easily launch the refer and earn program.
- Social sharing: Branch offers a variety of cards for how a link will appear on any social media channel, which particularly helps marketing teams.
- All in one: The user could integrate CRM as part of the tool, which ensures marketers only need one tool for all their needs.
Drawbacks of using Branch
- Branch uses the last touch attribution method. It would be extremely useful if the users are able to change this setting or view the data between different attribution models(first click, linear, time decay, etc).
- Running totals for attrition rate and daily active users (DAU) is a huge miss for Branch.
Why should you choose Branch?
It can help in improving sales attribution, which allows the user to spend on more effective channels and decrease spends on less effective channels.
Branch links are ideal for embedding into a user’s email service provider, organic media, paid media channels, and push notification platform to be able to evaluate the actions taken from users who clicked on those branch links. The Links are accurate and can be easily exported to a CRM/Database to determine ROI and find the weak points in major funnels.
Conclusion ( Firebase vs Branch )
It totally depends on the goal that you want to achieve, if your goal is to track the funnel behavior of the user then you should go for Firebase but if your goal is to track sales attribution then Branch is the right analytics tool.