When you create a new app and submit it via itunesconnect.apple.com, Apple will send you performance data of how your app is doing. If your app is free, you’ll receive download statistics by Apple, if your app has a price or contains paid content, Apple will also transfer you money (minus the 30% commission). And of course the starting page of e.g. App Studio also gets you some download data.
Just, is that all the data you need to find out how you app is performing?
One additional measure is in-app analytics, this way you can find out what your readers are doing with the app. I have covered that here: http://www.planetquark.com/2012/07/23/analytics-in-apps/
However it can also be interesting, where your app stands in the download ranking in the app store. I can see several reasons, most notable:
- You have a competitor that you are tracking and you want to know which app is more successful
- You want to track over time where your app stands and whether its popularity is increasing or decreasing
- You want to track impact of marketing instruments you are using, like Twitter or Facebook posts or viral marketing efforts and whether this has an impact on app downloads
- You want to make sure that your app stays in the Top 20 to be able to use the Ranks as a marketing instrument
- You want to track whether price changes have an effect on app store ranking
- etc.
Just, how do you track that, the rank of your app? Sure, you could go into iTunes and click on the rank everyday and make a screenshot. Which is tedious and time-intensive, especially if you are tracking your app in different stores (countries).
As you might expect, there are several services that allow you to track performance of your app over time. Some are very expensive, some are inexpensive, some are free (and have restrictions to get you to subscribe to a premium service).
Here are some services that I can recommend checking whether they suit your need. Most give you reports of any app, over all countries, over all app categories (or a very specific one, or both), and over a longer period of time. You can even find out where your app ranks even if it is lower than the top 200. And you can even track competitor’s apps or apps of the large, global players. And except for the native app, there’s no need to run it constantly to get historic data.
Web Services (Apple’s App Store)
- App Annie: http://www.appannie.com/
- App Data: http://www.appdata.com/
- Applyzer: http://www.applyzer.com/
- App Trace: http://www.apptrace.com/
- Mobclix: http://www.mobclix.com/apprank.html/
- Top App Charts: http://www.topappcharts.com/
Native Apps (Apple’s App Store)
Web Services (Android)
And I am sure there are more, let me know please when you found a good service that I should list.
