How to Use Google Analytics for Mobile Apps

If you're trying to use Google Analytics for your mobile app, you've likely discovered that the process has completely changed. Unlike website tracking, you can't just drop in a simple tracking code. Mobile app analytics in Google Analytics 4 now runs through a platform called Firebase. This article will guide you through setting up and using Google Analytics for your mobile app, from creating your Firebase project to tracking the key metrics that truly matter for app growth.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Goodbye Universal Analytics, Hello GA4 + Firebase

For years, marketers and developers used the Google Analytics Services SDK to track mobile apps in Universal Analytics. This setup felt similar to web tracking, focusing on sessions and screenviews. However, this approach is now obsolete. Google has fully transitioned to Google Analytics 4, which uses a more flexible, event-based data model.

For mobile apps, GA4's backbone is Firebase. Firebase is Google's comprehensive platform for building and growing mobile and web applications. It includes tools for crash reporting, authentication, cloud storage, and, most importantly for us, analytics.

When you use Google Analytics for a mobile app today, you are actually using the "Google Analytics for Firebase" SDK. All your app data - from the first time a user opens it to in-app purchases - is collected as events and sent to Firebase, which then populates your reports in the Google Analytics 4 interface. This integration provides a unified view of your user behavior across your website and mobile apps if you have both.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Setting Up Google Analytics for Your App: A Step-by-Step Guide

Getting your mobile app connected to Google Analytics involves a few technical steps. While you may need a developer to implement the code, understanding the process is essential for any marketer or business owner.

Step 1: Create a Firebase Project

Your journey begins in the Firebase console. If you don’t have one already, you’ll need to create a new Firebase project.

• Go to the Firebase Console and click "Add project."
• Give your project a name - this might be the name of your app.
• When prompted, it’s highly recommended to enable Google Analytics for the project. This will automatically create a new GA4 property for you or allow you to link to an existing one.
• Follow the prompts to create the project. This only takes a minute.

Step 2: Add Firebase to Your App (for iOS & Android)

Once your project is ready, you need to register your app(s) with it. You'll do this separately for each platform (iOS, Android).

Inside your Firebase project dashboard, you'll see icons to "Add an app."

For iOS:

• Click the iOS icon.
• You’ll need to provide your app's iOS bundle ID. You can find this in your project’s general settings in Xcode.
• Download the configuration file: GoogleService-Info.plist. Your developer will need to add this file to the root of your app's project in Xcode.
• Firebase will then provide instructions for adding the Firebase SDK to your app using Swift Package Manager or CocoaPods. This is a critical developer task.

For Android:

• Click the Android icon.
• Provide your app's Android package name, which can be found in the build.gradle file of your app.
• Download the configuration file: google-services.json. Your developer will move this file into the app module's root directory.
• Firebase will show instructions for adding the necessary dependencies and plugins to your project's build.gradle files.

Step 3: Verify the Connection with DebugView

After your developer has integrated the SDK and configuration files, how do you know if it's working? The most effective tool for this is DebugView.

In the Firebase console, navigate to the "DebugView" section in the left-hand menu. This tool provides a real-time stream of the events being sent from your app as you use it on a test device or simulator. It’s the perfect way to confirm that automatic events like first_open, session_start, and screen_view are being captured correctly before moving on to custom tracking.

Key Mobile App Metrics to Track in Google Analytics 4

With tracking implemented, your GA4 property will automatically start collecting data. But raw data isn’t useful without context. Here are the essential metrics you need to watch to understand your app's performance.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

1. Acquisition Metrics: How Users Find You

Understanding which channels drive a high volume of quality installs is the first step to scaling user growth.

• First opens: This is the primary metric for new user acquisition, logged the first time a user launches your app after installing it. It’s the app equivalent of "New users" on the web.
• Source / Medium / Campaign: Just like with web analytics, you need to know where your users are coming from. This data is populated by integrating with ad networks and using correctly tagged URLs for your marketing campaigns. It allows you to answer questions like, "Are my Facebook Ad campaigns or my organic search efforts driving more valuable installs?"

2. Engagement Metrics: Are Users Finding Value?

It's not enough to get users to install your app, you need them to use it actively. Low engagement is a clear sign that users aren't finding the value they expected.

• Active Users (DAU/WAU/MAU): These are your Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Active Users. This metric gives you a high-level view of how many people are using your app within a given timeframe. Looking at the DAU/MAU ratio can be a quick indicator of "stickiness."
• User engagement: GA4 calculates an "engaged session" as a session that lasts longer than 10 seconds, has a conversion event, or has at least 2 screenviews. The average engagement time shows how long your app is in the foreground and actively being used, which is far more insightful than the old "session duration" metric.
• Screen views: This event tracks every time a user views a screen in your app. High screen views per user can indicate healthy exploration, while low numbers might signal that users are getting stuck or leaving quickly.

3. Retention Metrics: Are Users Coming Back?

User retention is arguably the most critical metric for long-term app success. You could have fantastic acquisition numbers, but if no one sticks around past the first day, your app is a "leaky bucket."

• User retention / Cohort analysis: The Cohort Exploration report is your best friend here. It groups users by the day or week they signed up (their "cohort") and shows you what percentage of them return to use the app over subsequent days and weeks. A healthy, flattening retention curve indicates you’ve built a valuable app that becomes part of your users' routine. Low retention signals you may have onboarding issues or a weak value proposition. A strong Day 1 retention (over 30-40%) is a great starting benchmark for many apps.

4. Monetization Metrics: Are You Generating Revenue?

Whether your app relies on one-time purchases, subscriptions, or ads, tracking revenue is essential.

• in_app_purchase: This is an automatically collected event if you're using the standard App Store or Google Play billing APIs. Watch this to track spending on things like premium features or in-game currency.
• purchase: This is the recommended event for ecommerce apps. It captures revenue data for transactions and can be supplemented with item-level details.
• ad_impression: If you monetize through ads, this recommended event helps you measure ad revenue when integrated with an ad network like Google AdMob.

Tracking What Matters Most: Custom Events & Conversions

The automatically collected data gives you a good starting point, but the real power of GA4 comes from custom tracking. You can - and should - create events that reflect the unique user journey within your app.

Custom Events

A custom event is any interaction you want to measure that isn’t covered by the default events. The concept is simple: your developer adds a piece of code to log an event whenever a user performs a key action. Here are a few examples:

• A gaming app might track a level_complete event with parameters for level_number and score.
• A social media app could track a post_shared event with a parameter for the sharing_platform (e.g., 'messages', 'instagram').
• A mindfulness app might track a meditation_started event and a meditation_completed event, allowing them to measure drop-off.

By defining your own events, you get a tailored analytics setup that measures what progress and success look like within your specific app.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Conversions

Once you are tracking a key event, you can mark it as a "Conversion" in the GA4 interface. To do this, go to Admin > Conversions and simply toggle on the event name you want to track as a goal. For example, you would definitely want to mark events like purchase or trial_started as conversions.

Your conversion events then appear in key reports and become the focal point for measuring the success of your app and marketing campaigns. It shifts your focus from vanity metrics like installs to a core business goal like new subscriptions.

Using GA4 Reports for Your Mobile App

Your Firebase event data is surfaced in the familiar Google Analytics interface. The layout is optimized to follow the user journey:

• Realtime report: See what's happening in your app right now. Perfect for verifying new event tracking or monitoring the immediate impact of a marketing push.
• Acquisition reports: See your user and traffic acquisition reports to understand which channels are performing best.
• Engagement reports: Dive into events, screens, and conversions to see what users are doing once they're in your app.
• Monetization reports: Get a summary of your app's revenue from in-app purchases, ecommerce retail, and advertising.
• Retention report: Track your user 'stickiness' by cohort at a glance.
• Explorations: This is where advanced analysis happens. You can build custom Funnel explorations as a user completes a multi-step onboarding flow or a Freeform exploration to slice and dice your custom event data in a table or visualization.

Final Thoughts

Google Analytics 4, powered by Firebase, is a sophisticated and highly flexible platform for understanding your mobile app's users. Moving past the automatic tracking to implement custom events and monitor key reports for acquisition, engagement, and retention will give you the crucial insights needed to grow your app effectively.

Of course, this data often only tells part of the story. Your app analytics live alongside channel data from Facebook Ads, campaign data from your email platform, and revenue data from Stripe. At Graphed , we help you connect all these sources in one place. You can use simple natural language prompts to instantly build dashboards that show your entire marketing funnel, from ad click to app install to subscription, without spending hours manually pulling reports.