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Usage Reports with App Store Connect (previously iTunes Connect) Analytics
App Store Connect enables access to a set of usage metrics metrics that's available natively for all iOS and macOS apps. We import the following metrics from App Store Connect: Sessions - The number of times the app has been used for at least two seconds. If the app is in the background and is later used again, that counts as another session. Totals are based on app users who agree to share their data with you. Daily active devices - The number of devices with at least one session during the day. Only devices with iOS 8 and tvOS 9 or later are included. Totals are based on app users who agree to share their data with you. Sessions/device - The average number of sessions that were started on a single device in a day. Crashes - The number of times the app crashed on a device. Paying Users - The number of unique users that paid for an app or an In-App Purchase. MAU - The total number of devices with at least one session in the last 30 days of the selected day. Pulled from App Analytics > "Active Last 30 Days" metric. Opt-in Rate - The percentage of users who agree to share their data with you. Under the hood, Apple provides a country breakdown in App Analytics, which is what we use to report this number. App Store Impressions are the total number of times your app was viewed in the Featured, Categories, Top Charts, and Search sections of the App Store. Product Page Views include the total number of times your app’s product page has been viewed on a device using iOS 8 or tvOS 9, or later. Includes views on the App Store and within apps that use the StoreKit API to load your app's product page. Unique App Store Impressions are the total number of users who viewed your app in the Featured, Categories, Top Charts, and Search sections of the App Store. Unique Page Views include the total number of users who saw your app’s product page on a device using iOS 8 or tvOS 9, or later. Includes views on the App Store and within apps that use the StoreKit API to load your app's product page. Visit the App Store Connect Analytics guide for more details and definitions. What's great about App Store Connect's usage analytics is that it does not require installing any additional SDKs and is available natively in all iOS and macOS apps. This means your reports will have data for your apps without the need to link any additional accounts. Important note: Data from App Store Connect usage analytics is only available from devices that have enabled sharing diagnostics data with the developer. This means that the data isn't representative of all of your users. You can read more here.
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Understanding Subscription Metrics
The Subscriptions report includes quite a few metrics. To make the report easier to understand, we created a few new metrics from the raw ones we import from the stores. The new metrics fall into two categories: aggregate metrics and calculated metrics. Aggregate metrics, which sum together several metrics with the same purpose (ex. Activations) Calculated metrics, which use two or more existing metrics to offer an easier way to look at the data (ex. Churn). Here are all the metrics the Subscriptions report offers: article.question.content ul { list-style-position: inherit!important; text-indent: 0!important; } Essential Metrics in this category are the core of your subscriptions business, and are available for apps sold through the App Store, the Mac App Store, Google Play, and Amazon. Paying subscriptions - The number of paying subscriptions that are active as of the last day of the period, including standard price and discounted subscriptions. Note: This is an Apple specific metric, so you'll see this metric when selecting only iOS subscriptions. If Google subscriptions are also included you'll default to All Active Subscriptions. Net revenue - The amount of money generated by subscriptions for the selected period, after the store's fee. Gross revenue - The total amount of revenue generated by subscriptions before the store's takes their 15/30% fee. Active subscriptions - The number of subscriptions paying full price. This is a legacy metric that will be removed in the future. Activations - The number subscriptions that have been activated in the period, including: activations from new subscriptions, re-activations, trials converting to paying subscriptions, and tier/plan changes. This is an aggregate metric. Cancellations - The number subscriptions that were not renewed directly by the customer, or as a result of moving to a different tier or plan. This is an aggregate metric. All Active Subscriptions - The total number of subscriptions that are currently active, including paying, free, and discounted subscriptions. This is the only active number provided by Google for Android apps. Advanced Metrics in this category offer more insight into the health of your subscription business. MRR (Monthly Recurring Revenue) - The amount of revenue subscriptions are earning in a month. MRR includes revenue generated from monthly subscriptions, as well as well as the monthly portion of longer term subscriptions. Example: Let's say your app offers two subscription levels: one is monthly, and costs $8/mo., and the other is yearly, and costs $60/yr. This month, 4 subscriptions were activated. Two were monthly and two annually. Your immediate revenue will be $136, and your MRR is going to be $26/mo. The calculation is: (2 x $8) + 2 x ($60/12) = $26 Gross MRR - The total amount of revenue the subscriptions earn in a month, prior to the store's fee of 15/30%. Churn - Subscriptions that have been cancelled as a percent of total active subscriptions. This is a calculated metric. Daily Churn is the sum of Cancellations over the last 31 days (including the current day) divided by the Active Subscriptions for the day, 30 days before the starting day. Example: Churn on April 30th = Cancellations from March 31st to April 30th (including the starting and ending days for a total of 31 days) divided by the Active Subscriptions on March 31st. Let's say you have 240 cancellations and 622 active subscriptions. The churn calculation is: (240 / 622 * 100) = 38.59% Monthly Churn is the sum of Cancellations within the month (from the first to last day) divided by the Active Subscriptions on the 1st day of the month. Example: April Monthly Churn = Cancellations from April 1st to April 30th divided by the Active Subscriptions on April 1st Let's say you have 236 cancellations and 625 active subscriptions. The churn calculation is: (236 / 625* 100) = 37.76% 1st year subscriptions - The number of subscriptions that have been active for less than a year. Stores deduct a higher fee for these subscriptions. This metric is only available for iOS and Mac apps. Non 1st year subscriptions - The number of subscriptions that have been active for more than a year. Stores deduct a lower fee for these subscriptions. This is a calculated metric, and is only available for iOS and Mac apps. New subscriptions - For iOS apps - The number of new subscriptions that were activated by new customers who did not participate in a trial. New subscriptions - For Google apps - The number of new subscriptions + trial activations. Trial Metrics in this category offer information about free trials. Trial subscriptions aren't included in your other metrics because they're not paying subscriptions. Apple and Amazon currently breakout information on trials. Active trials - The number of subscriptions that are currently active in trial. Note: Active Trials includes promo/intro pricing subscriptions as they are not subscriptions paying full price. Active Free trials - The number of subscriptions that are currently in a free trial, excluding any promo or intro pricing subscriptions. Only trials that are free are included. New trials - The number of new trial subscriptions that have been activated in the selected period. Cancelled trials - The number of trial subscriptions that chose not to convert to a paying subscription. This metric includes upgrades and downgrades. Detailed Metrics in this category offer an even deeper insight into the performance of your subscription business, but are already aggregated into either Activations or Cancellations above. Apple is the only store that currently provides these metrics. Transitions in - The total number of upgrades, downgrades, and crossgrades that resulted in a subscription activation. This is an aggregate metric. Transitions out - The total number of subscriptions that have been cancelled as a result of the customer upgrading, downgrading, or crossgrading to a different subscription tier/plan. This is an aggregate metric. Cancelled subscriptions - The number of subscriptions that have been cancelled. We include refunds in this metric (App Store Connect does not). We exclude trial cancellations from cancelled subscriptions as it's a completely separate metric. However, App Store Connect includes trial cancellations in subscription cancellations. This also includes cancelled subscriptions when the subscriber does not approve a price increase. Trial conversions - The number of subscriptions that have started as a trial and converted to a paying subscription. Reactivations - The number of subscriptions that were activated after having expired and not renewed immediately. Reactivations with an upgrade are include (App Store Connect does not include reactivations in upgrades). Renewals - When a subscription ends and is automatically renewed. Apple breaks out renewals separately where Google does not. Discounted Subscriptions - The number of active subscriptions that are paying a discounted price. All Subscriptions - The total number of active subscriptions, including those paying full price, discounted price, and free trials. Billing Apple is the only store that currently reports on these metrics. Currently in grace - The total number of subscriptions that couldn't be renewed automatically due to billing issues and are being retried. New in grace - The number of subscriptions that couldn't be renewed because of billing issues. These subscriptions will be retried a few times by the store. Recovered from grace - The number of subscriptions that were re-activated successfully after failing to be charged. Grace Expired - The number of subscriptions that were cancelled after being retried and failing several times. In grace from intro pricing - The number of subscriptions in the introductory pricing stage that couldn't be renewed automatically because of billing issues. They will be retried a few times by the store. Recovered from intro pricing - The number of subscriptions in the introductory pricing stage that were re-activated successfully after failing to be charged. Cancelled after intro pricing - the number of subscriptions in the introductory pricing stage which were cancelled after being retried and failing several times.
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Why is My Email Report Delayed?
Email reports are scheduled to send as soon as data is available for the apps, which in many cases is the next day (or week/month, depending on the report’s granularity). In some cases however, email reports may not be sent on the expected day. When a report is sent with a delay you'll see a notification alerting you to that. Here are a few reasons why an email report may be sent with a delay: Data delays from the store. This is the most common reason for delay, and happens when the store doesn’t provide new data at the normal time. Data delays can range from a few hours to a few days, and since the data isn’t there there isn’t much we can do but wait. The report was re-sent manually. Our support team can have older email reports re-sent on-demand. If you got in touch and asked for a re-send you’ll most likely see this notification. If you received a delayed email report and none of the reasons above apply please lets us know.
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Simpler navigation with Pinned Views
Pinned Views simplify navigation and save time by letting you save shortcuts to reports and their settings. A view is made up of all of the options and filters a report has to offer (such as the selected apps, dates, type of graph, etc.). Once a view is pinned it becomes available from every report, making it easy to jump between views with a single click, much like a permalink. When pinning a view you'll be able to share it with other users in your account. This can be a great time saver if you have a lot of sub-users. You can use pinned views on every report on the site: simply open the pinned views menu at the top right hand corner of every report (), click the button, and name the view. Pinning a View Visit a report (Sales, Ads, Ranks, etc) and set it up as you wish (selecting apps and dates, changing graph toggles, etc) Click the pin button located at the top right corner of the report. Then, click the plus button and a dialog box will pop up Name your view- try to use a meaningful name so that you'll recognize it later If you have admin privileges, then you’ll have the option to share your view with the entire account. If selected, any user on the account will have access to this view Editing a View While there's no direct way to edit a view after it's been created, you can achieve the same result by creating copies of views and editing them: From the pinned views panel, choose the view that you'd like to edit and navigate to it Make changes Create a new view and name it accordingly You can now delete the original view, if you wish Jumping to a Pinned View Once you’ve pinned views, you can return to these views from the pinned views panel: Make sure you’re in the ‘Reports’ section of the system Press the pin button located at the top right corner of the page You’ll see a list of all the views pinned for the current report If there are other reports for which you’ve pinned a view, press the "other reports" button located at the bottom of the list to bring up these pinned views
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Every Sales Metric You Can Track with Appfigures
The sales report supports a variety of metrics. Appfigures supports several app stores, and the platform normalizes across stores where possible. Here are all of the metrics that are available for your apps and their definitions. Available for apps and in-app purchases from all stores Net Downloads represent the number of times an app has been downloaded from the store by someone who did not previously own the app. If a paid app, we'd automatically subtract any returns. Downloads do not include uninstalls or re-downloads, those are reported within their own metrics. Updates represent the number of times a newer version of an app has been downloaded by someone who already owns the app. For example, it's common to see a spike in updates when a new version of an app is released to the app store because many users have their devices set to automatically install updates. Net revenue is the amount earned, after subtracting refunds as well as the store’s cut Gross revenue is the total amount earned, prior to subtracting the store's fee and refund amount. Important note: Apple's gross number reports after refunds are deducted in App Store Connect. Returns represent the number of times an app was returned for a refund. This isn't common for free apps. Refunds represent the revenue from app sales and in-app purchases which are returned to a buyer. Uninstalls - The number of times the app was removed from user devices. Important note - Apple only counts uninstalls on devices with iOS 12.3+ and data is available from Apple beginning on 5/11/19. Uninstalls are also based on the users opt-in preferences. Standard Downloads The number of downloads after any educational downloads or business downloads are removed. Re-downloads represent the number of times an app was downloaded by a user that previously downloaded the app. This can be on a new device where the app was never installed, or on a device that had it but it was removed. If an app is removed and re-installed twice in one day, it will count as two re-downloads. Important: Google re-downloads begin on July 25th, 2019. Pre-orders - The number of orders for a pre-released app - this is the gross number. Pre-orders do not count towards downloads until the app is released, at which point the downloads (and subsequent revenue, if applicable) will count towards downloads and revenue separately. Only available for iOS and Mac apps Promo codes represent the number of downloads that were a result of a promo-code being redeemed. Gifts represent the number of downloads that were a result of a gift. We count a download as a gift when the actual download occurs, not when the gift is given. Educational downloads are downloads that originated through Apple's Volume Purchase for Education program. More Educational revenue is revenue from app sales and in-app purchases made by an educational institution (usually at a discounted price). Business download is when the app is downloaded by a qualifying company through Apple's Volume purchase for business program.
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Setting up email alerts for new reviews
Reading reviews is a great way to keep a finger on the pulse of your app and learn what your users want, what's broken, and maybe even find a few good quotes for your marketing site. The reviews report makes reading reviews very easy, and alerts make it even easier by coming directly into your inbox automatically! To get reviews sent to your Slack click here. Setting up an alert for reviews Apply any relevant filters to the report. These are the same filters that will be used to send new reviews. If you want all new reviews don't apply any filters at all. Click the Create an alert button at the top of the page. Verify that all of the filters match the reviews you want to receive by email. Select a frequency for your alert - by default we'll send you an email as soon as new reviews that match the filters you set are found. Alternatively, you can set your alert to only be sent once per day. We send those at midnight UTC (8pm Eastern time/5pm Pacific time) Click the Create button. You're all set! We'll take it from here. Turning an alert off Every email alert we send has a link at the footer that will immediately stop all future alerts from coming to your inbox.
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Replying to App Reviews with Appfigures
Using Appfigures you can easily monitor and analyze your reviews, and now also reply to them directly through the platform. This feature requires the Connect plan or above. It's a smooth and effortless experience that makes replying to your reviews a breeze. Replying To a Review Find the review you'd like to respond to in the Reviews report Click on "Reply", a popup will open showing the original review + any existing responses Type your response or update the existing response and click on "Save". Responses can use any character including emoji. Deleting an existing response Find the review you'd like to respond to in the Reviews report. Click "Respond", a new tab will open showing the review as well as the existing response and whether it's published or pending. Click "remove this response" to delete the response from the App Store. Published responses will be deleted with Apple's standard 24 hour delay. Note: Apple imposes a 24 hour delay on new responses as well as updates and deletions. You will see the status of the response if you open this tab again. Google does not, so replies appear immediately. Getting Permission To Reply If you are the account's owner you'll be able to reply to reviews right away. If you are a sub user however, you will need to request permission first. When you go to reply to a review but don't have the necessary permission you'll be presented with an option to request it directly from the owner. When you submit the request, the owner, as well as any other admin who has the permission, will get an email and have the ability to grant you the permission with a single click. You'll get an email one you're granted access, and will be able to reply right away. Setup for App Store Connect Replying to reviews requires that the linked App Store Connect account have the correct role. There are two options here: Using the "Admin" role Having the "Customer Support" role (in addition to any other roles necessary to import sales and other data). You can check and updated your role by going to the Users and Roles section of App Store Connect. Note: Role changes in App Store Connect may take several hours to reflect. Setup for Google Play Developer Console Replying to reviews requires that you have checked the box for "Reply to Reviews" under User Feedback in the Google Developer console. The account should also have Account Permissions with View App Info and View Financial Info
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The Mobile Market Index
Analyzing your app download and revenue trends is crucial to growing your mobile app or game, but when you only look at your trends it's hard to tell if changes are related to your actions or larger market trends. Historically, the scale of market data necessary to view trends hasn't been easy to access or affordable for most developers. That's why we've created the Mobile Market Index, which is available to all Appfigures members on any plan (including the free plan). The Mobile Market Index provides a normalized view of download and revenue growth across categories and countries for the iOS App Store and Google Play. It gives you the context you need to understand your trends and also provides insight into how different categories are growing (or shrinking) to help you make more informed product decisions. The Formula To create the daily index value we: Combine the estimated downloads (or revenue) of the top 25 apps in each category and country Compare the total to the total on January 1st, 2018 (see why below) Apply a trending algorithm to adjust for the strong seasonality that exists in both the App Store and Google Play. The result is a value that indicates growth quickly and without having to worry about actual download or revenue volumes, which are very large numbers that are hard to keep track of. The value starts at 100 and goes up as downloads and revenue grow, or down when they shrinks. Different categories and countries show different behavior patterns, where some such as Music have been shrinking over time (Index value 84.62), and others such as Entertainment have been growing (index value of 129.62). Using the Mobile Market Index to Benchmark Performance Monitoring the download trends in your category adds important context to your own trends by showing you whether changes you're seeing are specific to your app or larger market movements. For example, if you've noticed a downward trend in downloads for your app, without the index it'd be impossible to tell if that's a result of a market shift or something specific to your app such as a competitor spending more on ads and taking away new users. Take for example the Sport & Fitness category for Apple and Google in the US. It shifts quite a bit throughout the year: .examples { text-align: center; margin-bottom: 20px; } .examples img { max-width: 45%; margin: 0 10px; } Earlier in the year there are considerably more downloads across the entire category, so you can expect your app to also see more downloads. As new year's resolutions wear off however downloads drop considerably, so you can also expect your downloads to drop. If your apps have been in the store for more than a year you already know this. But, how do your peaks and drops compare to the rest of the category? Looking at the mobile Downloads Index you can quickly tell if you're outperforming (or underperforming), and if you're spending on user acquisition, when to push harder. The index provides insights that are essential to the success of every app business, which is why it's available for free to every Appfigures member. Not a member yet? Sign up for free Adjusting for Seasonality Different types of apps have different download patterns over the course of the week. Games are downloaded more over the weekend while business apps are downloaded more during the week. This is called seasonality and it makes being able to compare index values for different week days nearly impossible. To handle that we adjust the daily downloads volume to create a smoother trend line which removes the seasonality and makes it possible to compare days that aren't the same. Frequently Asked Question Where can I find the Mobile Market Index in my account? The Index is available for free on any plan as a widget in the Overview report as well as a full blown report in the Market Intelligence section. Can I use the Mobile Market Index for free? Yes! We're on a journey to help every developer make more informed decisioned. All you need to do is be an Appfigures member and track your apps with us. How often is the index updated? The index and the underlying data that's used to calculate it are updated daily. Why are downloads compared to January 1st, 2018? Stores have evolved a lot over the years, changing their interfaces and ways of promoting apps. January 1st, 2018 is a stable point after which both Apple and Google have not made large enough changes that would change download trends. Can I use the Mobile market Index if I don't have apps? Yes. If you're not tracking your apps with us you can still use the Index. Many investors and analysts do. Contact sales to get started. Can I access the Mobile Market Index programmatically? We're working on an API for the Mobile Market Index and will be rolling it out soon. Make sure you're subscribed to email updated to ensure you know when that happens.
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Firebase Analytics
The Firebase SDK, replacing the earlier Google Analytics SDK, is a web and mobile analytics platform that tracks a variety of usage metrics that's available to iOS and Android apps. We import the following metrics from Firebase: Sessions - The number of times a user started the app in the given day. Multiple times count as multiple sessions. Active Users - The number of users who interacted with the app by starting at least one session. Multiple sessions only count as a single user. New Users - The number of users who have launched your app for the first time. Monthly Active Users - Number of active users over a 28 day period. Weekly Active Users - Number of active users over a 7 day period. Conversions - The number of conversion events. Engaged Sessions - The number of sessions, lasting more than 10 seconds, having a conversion event, or more than two screen views. Engagement Rate - Percentage of engaged sessions. Average Session Length - The average duration of a session. Session/User - Number of sessions per user. Views - The number of screens viewed. Views/User - Average number of viewed screens per user. Total Session Length - Total duration of all sessions. Bring your Firebase Analytics data into Appfigures by connecting your Firebase account. Once linked we'll import all available history.
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Usage reports overview
Usage (aka. in-app analytics) are a suite or reports that give you insight into how your app is used. We collect an report on a variety of metrics that include sessions and active users/devices (depending on the integration) to help you visualize important metrics easily using the same reports you're already used to. In addition, we provide the ability to merge usage metrics with many other metrics from the app store including downloads and revenue. Integrations We import usage data from three sources: iTunes Analytics (for iOS and tvOS apps), as well as through Google Analytics (any app that's integrated the SDK) and Flurry Analytics (for any app that's integrated the SDK). These provide us access to a wealth of usage information that we then provide in three different reports, including: by date, country, and app. More details: App Analytics | Firebase | Flurry Analytics As with other reporting suits, usage can be reported for any number of apps at once and for any given date range. Overlays In addition to the standard flexibility, the usage reporting suit incorporates a new platform feature we call overlays. Overlays let you display two different data sets in a single chart so you can compare and correlate trends easily. With overlays you can easily answer questions such as: What's my usage conversion rate? (Downloads vs. Active users) How engaged are my users? (Sessions vs. Active users) Does my ad revenue scale? (Sessions vs. Ad revenue) How does revenue scale with engagement? (Avg. session length vs. In-app purchases) Availability Usage reports are available to all members on all plans. If your apps are for iOS or tvOS you already have some usage data available through our integration with iTunes Analytics. If your apps are for other platforms, or if you want deeper usage information you can link your Google Analytics or Flurry Analytics account. If you're using an analytics platform we haven't integrated yet please let us know.
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Setting up a daily or weekly email report
Get a summary report for your entire portfolio by email every day or every week. Email reports include a summary of your downloads and revenue, ranks, reviews, and featured placement. To create a new email report: Head into Account setting → Email Reports. Click the Create Email Report button. Select the frequency of the reports. Daily reports come out as soon as new reports are available. Weekly reports go out every Monday. Select the apps to include. Here you can choose one, some, or all apps. Select your recipients. A recipient can be any email address and does not require linking the email to your account. Customize the report with options. We did our best to pick the most appropriate defaults, but you have the ability to change them all. Click Save.
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Advertiser Analytics - Tracking Ad Spend with Appfigures
Paid advertising is a great way to promote your app, but also makes it really easy to burn money with little to no results if it isn't managed correctly. To give you better visibility into how much you are spending for advertising across all of your campaigns, and show you how that's impacting downloads, revenue, and other performance metrics, we've built the Advertiser Analytics suite of reports. Currently, our Advertiser Analytics support the following ad networks: Apple Search Ads (special linking instructions) AppLovin Facebook Audience Google AdWords Unity Ads Any and all accounts can be linked through the Linked Accounts tab inside your Account settings. Once set up, you'll have access to the following spend metrics which can be aggregated across all networks and campaigns, as well as combined with non spend data like app downloads, MRR, ranks, and many others. Impressions - The number of times an ad for your app was displayed to a potential customer. Clicks - The number of times an ad for your app was clicked/tapped on. Cost - The total amount of money you spent on advertising. Installs - The number of times the app was downloaded as a result of an ad click. Note, this isn't available from all networks. CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) - The average cost for a single install. CPC (Cost Per Click/Tap) - The average cost for a single click. CTR (Click/Tap Through Rate) - The average rate at which ad views turn into clicks or taps. The Google Ads API does not offer country level data, therefore all data will be combined into one number. These metrics are updating daily, and available by date, country, and app.
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Tracking App Subscriptions with Appfigures
Appfigures automatically starts tracking subscriptions for any apps sold through the App Store, Mac App Store, and Google Play as soon as you link your App Store Connect or Google Play account. Manage Your Linked Accounts Once a subscription is discovered, we will automatically import all available metrics (which depend on the store) on a daily basis. More about subscription metrics If your subscriptions aren't showing up after you've linked your account please let us know.
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Calculating Active Subscriptions, Activations, and Cancellations with App Store Connect
The subscriptions report provides a vast amount of information, including several calculated metrics. In this article we'll walk you through how we calculate Active Subscriptions, Activations, and Cancellations Active Subscriptions The number of paying subscriptions that are active at the end of the period. Formula: Active subscriptions = active subscriptions from the previous day + activations from the current day - cancellations from the current day Example: Let's use the date, June 3rd, as the example for our calculation. Take the active subscriptions on June 2nd and then add in activations for the current day, June 3rd. And lastly, subtract the cancellations reported on June 3rd. Active Subscriptions (June 2nd) = 1,683 Activations (June 3rd) = 27 Cancellations (June 3rd) = 5 Active Subscriptions = 1,683 + 27 - 5 = 1,705 Activations The number of subscriptions that have been activated during the period. Formula: Activations = new subscriptions + reactivations + trial conversions + transitions in + grace recovery Example: New Subscriptions = 4 Re-activations = 15 Trial Conversions = 20 Transitions In = 1 Grace Recovery = 2 Activations = 4 + 15 + 20 + 1 + 2 = 42 Cancellations Any subscription not renewed directly by the customer or as a result of a plan/tier change. Formula: Cancellations = cancelled subscriptions + transitions out + new grace Example: Cancelled subscriptions = 18 Transitions Out = 3 New Grace = 7 Cancellation = 18 + 3 + 7 = 28 Note: Based on time zone differences, Apple's active subscription total can differ slightly day to day when calculating with activations and cancellations.
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How do I export a sales report?
Once you've created a report in your sales page that includes the apps and dates that you wish to export, scroll down below the graph, and click the "export" button. Reports can be exported to CSV (Excel or Numbers), JSON, or TSV. Additional information on these export options can be found on this blog post.
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The Payments Report
Accounting for your app and ad network payments is a time-consuming task. Multiply that by several stores and ad networks + Apple's unfriendly fiscal calendar and you got a small headache on your hands. The Payments report eliminates the headache by taking care of all of that for you. Automatically. The Payments report aggregates all available information for all of your linked accounts into a single report. It automatically adjusts the date range to fit the data source's correct fiscal month (if applicable) and shows estimated, actual, and paid amounts (* where possible). For Apple developers, in addition to showing total amount paid, the report also breaks down the paid amount into each app and in-app, using accurate Apple exchange rates. Apple (iOS and Mac) Estimated: derived from estimated daily reports Actual: derived from financial reports Paid: derived from payment reports (+ financial reports to break those down by app) Google Play Estimated: derived from the estimated reports. Amazon Appstore Estimated: derived from daily reports. Ad networks Estimated: derived from estimated daily reports.
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Tracking Where Apps Are Promoted in the App Store and Google Play with the Featured Report
Appfigures scans the App Store, Google Play, and the Mac App Store constantly looking for apps that are featured by Apple and Google. We scan the Today page, all categories, and custom curated lists so you know when and when your apps or competitors are featured. All of this is done automatically. You can see where any app is featured right now or has been in the past in several ways: On the site and mobile apps Programmatically via the API Getting real-time alerts The Featured Report The Featured report gives you an overview of every app you're tracking that's featured at a glance, and a way to dig into where the app is featured and at what rank. By default, the report shows the latest data and the last week, but the date range can be changed to any range. Here's everything you can do in the report: Smart date selector - The Featured report shows current and historical data which you can control using the dat selector by typing the date range, as numbers (ex. 9/17/2020 - 10/24/2024) or as a sentence (ex. last three years or last Christmas). Featured right now - This is a summary of all of the app you're currently tracking that are featured. Click on an app to see where it's featured. Placement count - This is the number of lists the app is currently featured in across all countries. The list is sorted by this count starting with the most featured app. Every app you track - Long lists are truncated by default to only show the top featured apps. Click "show more" to extend it to all apps. Historical data - This is a summary of where app were featured in the past. By default you'll see the last few weeks. Scrolling down will show more weeks and you can continue scrolling until the beginning of time. It's probably easier to use the smart date selector though. Detailed view selector - Clicking an app will load its details where you can see all the places it's featured in. You can toggle between the countries the app is featured in or the lists it's featured in using this selector. List sorting - Once your list is loaded, use this selector to sort the list in the way that fits your flow better, either by name or count of features. Detailed breakdown - You can go deeper, depending on the view you selected, and see which countries the app is featured in for a particular list, or which lists the app is featured in a specific country, along with the rank as of the last scan. It's very detailed. Accessing featured app placement via the API All of the data available through the Featured report can also be accessed programmatically for any app in the App Store, Mac App store, and Google Play using the Appfigures API. View the API documentation for more details. Real-Time Alerts Seeing where apps are featured on-demand is great, but wouldn't it be even better if Appfigures told you when apps are featured automatically? You're in luck! Featured alerts do exactly that, sending a list of places apps you're tracking are featured every day. And it gets even better! Your account comes built-in with two featured alerts, one for your own apps and another for competitors you're tracking, which means you don't have to set up anything to know when and where apps are featured. But you can also customize your alerts, selecting specific apps or countries by going into your Alert Management page.
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How VAT is handled by Apple and Google Play
Apple and Google report on Value Added Tax (VAT) differently, and that impacts the Gross Revenue number we report. The Gist Apple's Gross Revenue includes VAT. Apple's Net Revenue does not include VAT. Google's Gross Revenue does not include VAT. Google's Net Revenue does not include VAT. Example Let's start with the app purchaser based in Denmark, a country that requires VAT. VAT on the Apple App Store On the App Store, the purchaser downloads the app and pays 1.00 kr. (that's Danish Krone) VAT is built into this price, so the Gross Revenue will be reported as 1.00 kr. The Net Revenue deducts both VAT and Apple's fee. If VAT is 20% and Apple's fee is 15% Net Revenue will be 0.68 Kr. VAT on Google Play On Google Play, the purchaser downloads the app and pays 1.00 kr. (that's Danish Krone) VAT is built into this price but the number Google reports to developers is what remains after VAT is removed, so in this case, the Gross Revenue will be reported as 0.80 kr. The Net Revenue deducts both VAT and Google's fee. If VAT is 20% and Google's fee is 15% Net Revenue will be 0.68 Kr.
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How are App Bundles tracked?
App Bundles are an iOS App Store marketing feature that lets developers package multiple apps together for a lower price. App Bundles behave much like apps in how they are tracked on Appfigures and even have independent reviews and ranks. Available metrics: App Bundle downloads and revenue Each App Bundle is treated as product and gets the full range of metrics that apps get. This includes: downloads, revenue, returns, gifts, promos, educational downloads, and re-downloads. App Bundle downloads are not added to the downloads of the component apps. Tip: To see total downloads for an app that's also sold in an App Bundle, we suggest selecting both the app as well as any App Bundle the app is available in when running reports. Bundle Completions (CMBs) A bundle completion occurs when a user that has already purchased an app that's also available in an App Bundle downloads the entire bundle. Because the App Bundle is sold at a discounted rate, several things are recorded for each bundle completion: A download for the App Bundle (at the App Bundle's full price). A return for each of the apps that the user already owned before downloading the App Bundle. Important: While iTunes Connect subtracts CMBs from downloads, we do not. We keep track of all downloads because a CMB doesn't mean there was no download but rather that the account for it is a bit different. That part we handle separately. Ranks Hourly ranks are tracked for all App Bundles in all countries and categories. Reviews Reviews are tracked for all App Bundles from all countries.
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Understanding Sales Metrics
The sales report supports a variety of metrics. Appfigures supports several app stores, and the platform normalizes across stores where possible. Here are all of the metrics that are available and their definitions. Available for apps and in-app purchases from all stores App Downloads represent the total number of times the app was downloaded. If multiple apps are selected, this will be the sum of all of those. If apps and in-app purchases are selected, only app downloads will be counted. In-App Purchases represent the number of times a purchase was made within the app. If multiple apps and in-app purchases are selected, this will be the sum of all purchases. The sum does not include recurring purchases (subscriptions) which are you can find the Subscriptions report. Net Downloads represent the number of times an app has been downloaded from the store by someone who did not previously own the app. This includes the number of times the selected products were returned/refunded. This amount is relevant for both free and paid apps. Legacy metric no longer available to all. Updates represent the number of times a newer version of an app has been downloaded by someone who already owns the app. For example, it's common to see a spike in updates when a new version of an app is released to the app store because many users have their devices set to automatically install updates. Net revenue is the amount earned, after subtracting refunds as well as the store’s fee (and taxes). Apple's Small Business program is handled automatically and Google's 15% tier is handled automatically for some accounts. Gross revenue is the total amount earned, prior to subtracting the store's fee and refund amount. Returns represent the number of times an app was returned for a refund. This isn't common for free apps. Refunds represent the revenue from app sales and in-app purchases which are returned to a buyer. Re-downloads represent the number of times an app was downloaded by a user that previously downloaded the app. This can be on a new device where the app was never installed, or on a device that had it but it was removed. If an app is removed and re-installed twice in one day, it will count as two re-downloads. Important: Google re-downloads begin on July 25th, 2019. Uninstalls - The number of times the app was removed from user devices. Important note - Apple only counts uninstalls on devices with iOS 12.3+ and data is available from Apple beginning on 5/11/19. Uninstalls are also based on the users opt-in preferences. Pre-orders - The number of orders for a pre-released app - this is the gross number. Pre-orders do not count towards downloads until the app is released, at which point the downloads (and subsequent revenue, if applicable) will count towards downloads and revenue separately. Only available for iOS and Mac apps Promo codes represent the number of downloads that were a result of a promo-code being redeemed. Gifts represent the number of downloads that were a result of a gift. We count a download as a gift when the actual download occurs, not when the gift is given. Educational downloads are downloads that originated from a bulk purchase by an educational institution. Paid apps that are purchased in bulk are usually discounted. Educational revenue is revenue from app sales and in-app purchases made by an educational institution (usually at a discounted price). Business downloads are downloads that originated from a bulk purchase by a corporation. Business revenue is revenue from app sales and in-app purchases made by a corporation. App Store Impressions are the total number of times your app was viewed in the Featured, Categories, Top Charts, and Search sections of the App Store. Product Page Views include the total number of times your app’s product page has been viewed on a device using iOS 8 or tvOS 9, or later. Includes views on the App Store and within apps that use the StoreKit API to load your app's product page. Unique App Store Impressions are the total number of users who viewed your app in the Featured, Categories, Top Charts, and Search sections of the App Store. Unique Page Views include the total number of users who saw your app’s product page on a device using iOS 8 or tvOS 9, or later. Includes views on the App Store and within apps that use the StoreKit API to load your app's product page.
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In the featured report, what is the difference between
While there is only one iOS App Store, there are actually three ways to browse it: Through iTunes on a desktop, or laptop Through the App Store app on an iPhone Through the App Store app on an iPad Apple has set this up so that an app can be featured in one storefront, but not the other, despite the fact that they're all the same App Store. To avoid ambiguity, the featured report differentiates between storefronts when displaying the location in which an app is featured.
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Getting started with Public Data Access
Now that you've enabled the Public Data API add-on you're ready to look up data for any of the 5,000,000+ apps we keep track of. With the Public Data API you can: Search for apps by name Get meta data for an app (name, categories, etc.) Get the current and historic ranks for an app See where and when an app was featured Read all of the reviews for an app See current and historic ratings for an app The easiest way to get started is by looking up an app through the product search route. Here's a quick example: https://api.appfigures.com/v2/products/search/snapchat?client_key=[your-client-key] This will return a list of products that have the term "snapchat" in their name with metadata for each. From there you can take the product_id for the app you want and use it with any of the other routes. Here's a quick example for getting all the reviews for Snapchat (Android): https://api.appfigures.com/v2/reviews?products= 213940691&client_key=[your-client-key] With the product_id on hand you can also look up ranks, see when/where is was featured, and get a breakdown of its ratings. Looking for an easy to use search platform for apps? Check out Explorer.
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Getting Public Data API credits
The Public Data API works by charging one (or more) credits for every request you make. Credits are pre-purchased in packages, and never expire. If you're looking for a few test credits contact us. On-Demand Start by going into the Public Data API add-on's settings page. There you'll see your recent usage and how many credits you have available. Click on Add More to open the list of available packages. We have a few that get progressively more cost efficient (per request) as you purchase more. Select the package, your method of payment, and click on Add Credits. Automatically For mission-critical applications, or if you'd rather not be bothered with adding more credits, you can use the Auto Recharge feature, also available in the add-on's settings page. First, enable Auto Recharge, then select the number of credits you want to add and the threshold at which to get the credits. There are a few packages and a few thresholds to choose from.
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App Permissions
Explorer enables you to identify apps by the permissions they require (ex. access to the user's location, contacts, etc), and also lets you see the full set of permissions and capabilities for every app. How it works We run every iOS and Android app through an analysis process that extracts a list containing every permission and capability the app requires. We automatically keep track of all types, those defined by the stores (location, contacts, etc.) as well as custom app-to-app ones defined by the developer. Every time an app is updated we analyze it again so searches run on the most up-to-date data and returns the most accurate results. Available permissions Explorer's robust automatic tracking can identify every permission an app uses, even ones that are brand new. Currently there are 120+ store permissions (ex. location/GPS, bluetooth, contacts, etc.) and 5,000+ custom permissions and app-to-app permissions. Update frequency We keep a close watch on app stores and detect new app releases and app updates as soon as they happen. When we see a new app or update we analyze it right away. Between new releases and updates, we analyze roughly 50,000 iOS and Android apps every week.
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What are Educational Downloads?
For iOS and Mac apps, a download is marked as educational when the app is downloaded by a qualifying educational institution through Apple's Volume purchase for education program. All apps are eligible to be sold through the Volume purchase for education program unless the developer opts out of the program through App Store Connect. Educational downloads are usually downloaded in bulk, and may result in spikes in your download trend for the day. For paid apps, educational downloads are usually purchased at a discount so revenue will be lower than you'd expect. Related: What are Business Downloads?
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How Appfigures Estimates Downloads and Revenue for iOS and Android Apps
Every day, Appfigures estimates data for 1,500,000 iOS and Android apps to provide app makers, marketers, investors, and analysts visibility into the mobile market. When estimating, we have two critical focuses: accuracy and privacy: Accuracy is essential because we know our members rely on our app intelligence to make real-world decisions. Whether it's spending on ads to beat a competitor or investing in a new game developer, the data you use will make (or break) your potential for success. Privacy is important to us because we know that we can produce accurate estimates without using any data that can identify its owner or give a competitor any information they can't have otherwise. We're obsessed with both, and that why so many app and game developers, marketers, analysts, investors, and journalists rely on our app intelligence every day. Not using App Intelligence yet? Check out what we have to offer, and see our insights in action High Accuracy Appfigures uses sophisticated models that turn app performance, which can be observed in the store, into download and revenue estimates by training our models with data from hundreds of thousands of apps. Statistical modeling means making assumptions. Because we're estimating, we have to make assumptions, but the fewer assumptions we make, the more accurate the estimates are. We minimize the number of assumptions in our models by training our models with data from hundreds of thousands of apps at a very granular level, which goes as deep as the day of the week, the app's category, and trends in the store. Such granularity allows us to fine-tune our models, update them daily, and continue to refine them as trends evolve. Extra Privacy When estimating, we apply a double-opt-out process, which ensures every estimate we produce is actually an estimate. This makes it impossible for any of the data we used for training to "leak" out as an estimate, which is why many popular app developers are included in our training pool, enabling us to have high accuracy. Adapting to Trends In addition to all of the above, our team constantly updates our models to fit trends that are going on in the store. For example, 2020 was full of megatrend shifts due to COVID, working from home, and lockdowns. We've made more than 20 changes during 2020 to ensure our accuracy remains at our expected levels. Related Articles How to Compare Your Downloads and Revenue with Estimates in Competitor Intelligence * Countries Included in Competitor Intelligence for Downloads and Revenue Estimates --> [kb id="680" format="link"] [kb id="681" format="link"]
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Mastering Top Apps
The Top Apps report show the current top charts for a selected app store, country, and category. All major app stores are supported, and all charts update hourly. Set up a list by clicking the "+ Add List" button. We have a few shortcuts for commonly used lists. If you're interested in one of those simply click on them and the list will appear. If you're looking for anything else click on "Custom". Select the app store Select a country Select a category (and subcategory, if applicable) Tada! Your list should now be ready. By default, the list will be for paid apps. You can easily change to either Free or Grossing at the top of the list. You can easily modify the list by clicking on the header part that you'd like to change. All three components (App store, country, and category) can be changed at any time. Tip: Use Pinned Views to predefine as many lists as you'd like.
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How to Connect Your Firebase Account
One of the (many) benefits of Appfigures is having access to all of the data you need to make more informed decisions in a single place. Connecting your Firebase account to your Appfigures accounts enables you to track in-app usage metrics such as active users Note: If you already have a Google Analytics account connected to your Appfigures account you don't need to link a Firebase account. [kb id="685" format="content"] Requirements Before connecting your Firebase account you need to make sure the following: The "Google Analytics" integration options is enabled in your Firebase account. To check if it is, or to enable it, head into Project settings → Integrations in your Firebase account The email of the account you'll be connecting has access to the Google Analytics account. To check if it is, or to add it, head into Admin → Account User Management in your Google Analytics account. Linking Your Firebase Account Once these requirements have been met, follow these steps to connect your Firebase account: Log into your Appfigures account and navigate to the Linked Accounts tab inside your Account settings. Click Link an Account at the top of the page. Select Firebase from the list of accounts. Click Connect with Google and follow the instructions presented by Google. Optional: Give this account a label. This is a label you will use internally to identify the account and can be anything you'd like. Save the new account. Once linked we'll automatically look for all available data and import it into your account. This process usually take a few minutes, but can take up to an hour if you track many apps.
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What are Business Downloads?
For iOS and Mac apps, a download is marked a business download when the app is downloaded by a qualifying company through Apple's Volume purchase for business program. All apps are eligible to be sold through the Volume purchase for business program unless the developer opts out of the program through App Store Connect. Business downloads are usually downloaded in bulk, and may result in spikes in your download trend for the day. For paid apps, business downloads are usually purchased at a discount so revenue will be lower than you'd expect. Related: What are Educational Downloads?
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Can I export a sales report broken down by multiple pivots?
Yes. By default, exported sales and ad reports will be broken down based on the report's type. You can easily break it down by any other supported pivot by selecting the desired option from the Additional Breakdown menu at the bottom of the export panel.
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How Much Does it Cost to Use the Appfigures API
The Appfigures API offers programmatic access to a wealth of data, from app performance to store performance and metadata. Everyone with an Appfigures account can use the API to access data on apps they track for free. The same data that’s available in their Appfigures reports will also be available through the API. There are several use-cases that are not free: App Lookup and Getting Data for Apps You're Not Tracking The Appfigures API provides access to all apps, including a powerful search for apps by metadata. With it you can find apps, get their ratings and ranks, see where they’re featured, read their reviews, and much more. Accessing data for apps that aren’t tracked in your account is billed with credits, where every request costs one or more credits and credits are purchased in packages. If a request requires credits and you don’t have any in your account you will get a response that specifies that credits are necessary and how many. You can purchase credit packages by enabling the Public Data API Add-on. There you can also set up automatic addition of credits. Reply to Reviews Replying to App Store and Google Play reviews programmatically requires an add-on that’s available on the Grow plan. Contact us to enable programmatic reply to reviews functionality. More than 1,000 Requests/Day By default, all accounts can make up to 1,000 requests to the API in a given day. You can increase this limit by going into Account settings -> API and selecting a limit that suits your needs. Data Processors and Resellers The Appfigures API can be used by any member internally, but to use it to resell App Store data you’ll need a partnership agreement. Contact us to learn more about using the Appfigures API commercially.
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How Google's Active Subscriptions, Activations, and Cancellations Numbers are Calculated
Our Subscriptions report provides a ton of metric information, specific to each store. To make the report as easy as possible to dive into, we'll walk you through how we calculate Active Subscriptions, Activations, and Cancellations based on Google's reporting as best as possible. Active Subscriptions The number of subscriptions that are active at the end of the period. Formula: Active subscriptions = active subscriptions from the previous day + activations from the current day - cancellations from the current day Example: For this example we'll calculation active subscriptions for May 1st. You will take the active subscriptions on April 30th and then add in activations for the current day, May 1st. And lastly, subtract the cancellations reported on May 1st. Active Subscriptions (April 30th) = 2,001 Activations (May 1st) = 27 Cancellations (May 1st) = 5 Active Subscriptions = 2,001 + 27 - 5 = 2,023 Activations The number of subscriptions that have been activated during the period. Formula: Activations = new subscriptions For Google, Activations and New Subscriptions cover trial activations and new purchases. Trial activations and new purchases are not available as individual breakdowns - Google combines them all under 'new subscriptions'. Example: New Subscriptions = Trial Activations = 4 New Purchases = 15 Activations = 4 + 15 = 19 Cancellations Any subscription not renewed directly by the customer. Formula: Cancellations = cancelled subscriptions Example: Google combines cancellations of subscriptions and trials into one metric, Cancellations. Cancellations = Cancelled subscriptions = 18 Trial cancellations = 3 Cancellations = 18 + 3 = 21 Note: Based on time zone differences, Google's active subscription total can differ slightly day to day when calculating with activations and cancellations.
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The Overview Report Simplified
Handling an app portfolio is a demanding task. Keeping an eye on your download and revenue trends, assessing user sentiment and replying to reviews, and optimizing your KPIs, requires looking at a lot of different sets of data. To simplify all of it we introduced the Overview report. A single dashboard that showcases all the highlights (and sometimes actions) you need to monitor your app portfolio. The Widgets We built the Overview report to answer questions you have about your apps across different datasets, from revenue to reviews and usage. To make the answers as helpful as possible we created a variety of widgets, and will show you the ones that are the most relevant. For example, if any of your apps sell subscriptions the Overview report will include a subscription widget showing important metrics like MRR and Churn. If you do not work with subscriptions, we will not show that widget at all. Important note:The trend line (dotted line) in the below graphs will define the prior period numbers. KPIs - A snapshot and trends for the top level metrics for your apps. This is a dynamic list that will include the first five relevant metrics from the sales, revenue, ad spend, usage, ad revenue, subscriptions, or ratings report. Downloads by Country - The top 6 countries where your apps were downloaded the most in percentages. Top Apps - Your top 5 apps, reporting on Revenue, Downloads, New Ratings, and Avg. Rating and Active Subscriptions (when possible). You can select which metric to sort the list by by clicking on its name. Revenue Revenue by Product - Your top 4 returning the most revenue. You can hover over the graph for a daily breakdown of each app. Revenue by Ad Network - Your top 4 best performing Ad networks, by network. Moving to hover over the graph will report a breakdown by day and app. Subscriptions Performance - All subscriptions would be combined, with metrics reporting for MRR, Active Subscriptions, Churn, and Activations. Revenue by Country - The top 6 countries which the highest share of revenue, broken down by country. Sentiment Reviews - Your 25 latest reviews. You can filter this list by positive/negative ratings, you can translate reviews, and reply to reviews right away. Ratings - The top 4 apps with the newest ratings to report. Users Usage -All products selected for the dashboard would combine in this report to return all metrics. If multiple usage accounts are linked, you can switch between those available (Apple Analytics, Google Analytics, and Flurry Analytics). Demographics - (coming soon) Popularity Ranks - (coming soon) Featured - A list of apps that are currently featured on the store along with with the number of features. Any suggestions for widgets? Let us know
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How to Generate a Personal Access Token
You can use one of several methods to authenticate to the Appfigures API to make requests. Personal Access Tokens are an easy way to integrate with the API without the need for heavy OAuth libraries, making this method ideal for testing or for personal applications. Important: Personal Access Tokens aren't enabled by default for all accounts yet. To have that enabled please contact us. Generating a Personal Access Token Create a new API client here: https://appfigures.com/developers/keys Give the client a name you'll remember and select which data sets this client will have access to. Click "Make me an app" to create the client. Once saved, you'll be presented with the client's information. Take the "client key", you'll need it later. Then, click on "Create Personal Access Token" and save the result. You'll need that as well.
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User Roles in Appfigures
With Appfigures your entire team can access analytics, optimization, and app intelligence individually. When you invite a new user to access your account you can choose their role. Here are all the features each role can access: table{margin-bottom:30px;width:100%;font-size:15px;width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border:1px solid #444}table th,table td{padding:6px;border:1px solid #c8c8c8}table td:not(:first-child){text-align:center} Feature Viewer Admin Owner Access to Analytics reports Access to ASO reports Access to Competitor reports Reply to reviews * Create & manage email reports ** Create & manage alerts ** Grant permission to reply to reviews * Track competitors *** Connect new accounts Activate add-ons Manage users Share data with other accounts Create API keys Change billing information View invoices Change plans Close account * Replying to reviews requires permission from the account's owner or an admin that has been granted permission to reply to reviews by the owner. ** Viewers can set up email reports and for their own email only, and cannot see email reports or alerts set up by other users. *** Requires having access to all account apps. Limiting App Access In addition to features, users can be set up to only have access to some apps in the account. You can select those when inviting the user. As an Admin with limited app access, the admin may not see all information in the management pages such as Linked Accounts or Ad Unit Matching pages. Billing Recipients By default, invoices and other billing emails go to the account's owner. You can add additional recipients, which don't have to be connected to the account, by going into Account settings → Invoices
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Keyword Insights & App Intelligence for App Store Optimization
Effective optimization requires accurate data and deep insights that go beyond what’s available in the store. Appfigures provides accurate and actionable data, some of which is collected directly from the store and other is proprietary, which you can rely on to make informed decisions quickly. Here’s a list of all of the metrics you’ll find throughout our ASO reports, what they mean, and where they come from. Keyword Rank - Where the app is positioned when searching for the keyword. This data updates every hour. Category Rank - Where the app is positioned when viewing the category list. This data updates every hour. Keyword Popularity - A measure of how many times the app is searched for, on a scale of 0 - 100, in the store that uses data from Apple Search Ads in combination with other information we collect. Only mobile data is used to calculate this number. Keyword Competitiveness - A measure of how strong the current top results are for a keyword, on a scale of 1 - 100. This is generated using a proprietary algorithm that considers the metrics that are directly related to ASO for the top 10 results including keyword density, category rank, ratings, and other factors. Keyword Density - The number of times a keyword is present in the name, subtitle, or description of an app. Apple and Google handle density a bit differently, but the rule of thumb is that the keyword should be present in as many places as possible to help improve ASO. Estimated Daily Downloads - An estimate of the total number of downloads the app gets in an average day. We calculate this using a sophisticated algorithm developed in-house. User Acquisition - Whether we've seen ads for the app through on of the paid ad networks we monitor (Google Ads, Unity, Applovin, Chartboost, ironSource). Facebook and Apple Search Ads integrations are coming soon. Last Update - The last time the app was updated in the store. It's known that apps that update more frequently rank better. App’s Age - The relative amount of time since the app was released. Apps that have been around for longer tend to do better, but that's only a tiny factor in an app's ASO mix.
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Top SDK Charts
As a developer, selecting a 3rd party SDK is always a guessing game. Whether you're trying to figure out which analytics provider to use for your existing app or which game engine you should build your next game with, guessing is never a good strategy. That's why we built the Top SDK Charts. We already know which SDKs are in use by millions of apps, so we count them all and rank the SDKs by category. We also put together this brief FAQ to answer common questions we know you may have: How often is the data refreshed? The charts update in real time. We scan new apps with a few days of their releases or when they update, so the data is always up to date. Can I see more than 10 SDKs? Yes. Explorer subscribers can see the entire list, as well as the market share % and actual number of installs. Get started → Can I see the actual apps an SDK is installed in? Yes! Using Explorer you can list all the apps that have a certain SDK installed in a few clicks. You can also filter the list down further by perfromance, audience, and metadata to generate leads, competitor lists, acquisition targets, etc. Check it out → Why is SDK X in category Y? We manually categorize SDKs by the features they offer as described on their homepage. Some SDKs can be in multiple categories. If you think one of our tags needs to be updated please let us know. How does the scanning work? We manually fingerprint SDKs, then download apps and see if any of the SDK fingerprints are visible in the app. Our process ensures that we don't have any false positives, so when we say an app has an SDK installed it has that SDK installed. Which apps are scanned? We scan all free (and some paid) iOS and Android apps available in the US App Store and Google Play.
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How Does Discover (ASO Tool) Work?
Discover lets you see keywords where your app is currently ranked that you may not be aware of or tracking ranks for. It's a very convenient way to learn about your app's search performance quickly, and also to stay on top of new keywords you're ranking for before you track them. Even better—Discover is completely automatic. We scan Apple's and Google's search results every day using our ever growing list of keywords and when we see your app in any of those results we immediately add them to your Discover report. How to Use Discover in your ASO Strategy Being able to see where Apple and Google are ranking your app gives you a glimpse into whether your current keyword strategy is working, or if it isn't why. It allows you see long-tail keywords that you may have not thought about, and alternative keywords that you may have not even be optimizing for. Use this intelligence to: Track the keywords that have a high popularity and see how your rank changes over time. If you're not actively optimizing for those keywords start using them in your next update, providing they're within reach. Important: Your app may be ranked in more keywords that Discover lists. This is due to the how keyword tracking works. Because there's no "master list" of keyword and keyword combinations we track ranks by searching for each keyword individually, every hour, and saving the results. This means that our reach is as wide as the list of keywords we're tracking. This list grows every day, so with time your Discover results may grow as well.
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Where Do Keyword Suggestions Come From?
Keyword suggestions can really simplify the amount of work you have to invest into keyword research when doing App Store Optimization, and can uncover keywords you haven't thought of yourself that offer a great opportunity. Appfigures generates keywords suggestions for an app using a proprietary algorithm that looks at the app, its competitors, and all the keywords our database contains. We map how all keywords connect and filter out ones that aren't relevant or aren't very popular for similar apps as well as competitors. The result is hundreds of relevant keywords for you to consider when optimizing, and since Keyword Insights are built into all reports you can see which keywords could have the biggest impact on your downloads quickly.
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Countries Included in Competitor Intelligence for Downloads and Revenue Estimates
Downloads Appfigures offers high-accuracy download estimates in 99 countries for iOS and Android apps through our Competitor Intelligence tools. Here are all the countries we support, with more coming soon. Africa Algeria Angola Egypt Ghana Senegal South Africa Asia Bahrain Bhutan Brunei Darussalam Cambodia China Hong Kong India Indonesia Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Sri Lanka Taiwan Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen Australia Australia New Zealand Europe Albania Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom North America Bolivia Canada Costa Rica Dominican Republic El Salvador Guatemala Jamaica Mexico Panama United States South America Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia Paraguay Peru Uruguay Revenue Appfigures offers high-accuracy revenue estimates in 53 countries for iOS and Android apps through our Competitor Intelligence tools. Here are all the countries we support, with more coming soon. Africa Egypt South Africa Asia Bahrain China India Indonesia Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Lebanon Oman Pakistan Philippines Saudi Arabia South Korea Sri Lanka Thailand Turkey United Arab Emirates Vietnam Australia Australia Europe Austria Belarus Cyprus Czech Republic Estonia France Germany Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Netherlands Poland Romania Russia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom North America Bolivia Canada Mexico United States South America Argentina Brazil Chile Colombia .continent h3 { margin-top: 40px; margin-bottom: 15px; } .continent .country { margin-bottom: 25px; } .continent .country img { max-width: 20px; margin-bottom: 5px; border: 1px solid #ddd; border-radius: 2px; } .continent .country span { margin-top: 7px; margin-left: 5px; }
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How Does Appfigures Find Related Keywords (for App Store Optimization)
Using Appfigures you can expand your app's keyword list by finding keywords that are related and relevant quickly, then use Keyword Insights to evaluate whether you should use them in your ASO. Appfigures provides a rich list full of relevant and actionable keywords by using a proprietary AI algorithm we developed in-house that extracts keywords used by other apps competing over the same audience, ranking them by how likely we believe they are to fit your app and audience. The results, as you can see below, go beyond words that are similar and includes keywords that are used in the store to generate real results. They may not even sound similar, but generally share the same meaning and intent. To explore related keywords head into Keyword Inspector, type in a base keyword, and select the "Related Keywords" tab. The algorithm runs in real-time, searching through all keyword combinations in our database to find the ones that are most relevant. Related: Learn more about our ASO tools → How to Choose the Right Keywords for App Store Optimization Optimizing Your App’s Name to Get More Downloads
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Creating and using templates for replying to reviews
Reply templates help you reply to reviews faster and more efficiently by allowing you to save complete or partial replies that you use regularly, and reload them when replying to a new review. Appfigures lets you create as many templates as you'd like, and also share them with your team for a consistent brand voice. Reply template are available on the Optimize plan and above. Creating Reply Templates Reply templates are created inline, meaning as you reply to a review you can save that reply as a template. Before you hit the "Reply" button, check the "Save this reply as a template" box, then: Give a name to the template. This is how you'll pick the template later, when you want to use it. Choose whether to share this template with other users in the account. They will not be able to make any changes to the template, just use it. If you intend to have a large selection of template across several apps click the "More options" button to reveal: Products - Select the app or apps this reply applies to. When you open the template selector this template will jump to the top of the list for those apps. Rating Group - Select the star-rating this reply applies to. When you open the template selector this template will jump to the top of the list for reviews with that star-rating. That's it. Once you reply the template will be saved. Using Reply Templates To use a template open the reply popup and select the template from the list. Once a template is selected the text will be inserted automatically into the reply area where you can modify it to fit the specific review. Changes to the reply will not overwrite your template.
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We're Sunsetting the Classic Reviews Report
The Classic Reviews report will be removed from the platform on December 31st 2019. The new Reviews Dashboard, which was launched in 2017, is considerably faster and contains many more features. With the new Reviews Dashboard you can: Reply to reviews. Search through reviews and filter them by different parameters. Get alerts about your reviews via email or to Slack. Browse reviews for multiple apps from different stores together. Export reviews into Excel and CSV Better yet, you can get all of these features (with the exception of replying) for your competitors as well so you can learn from their user feedback and get more downloads. If you haven't switched already please do so before the end of the year. If there's a feature you want to see in the new Reviews Dashboard please let us know.
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Apple's Fiscal (Payment) Calendar for 2022 - 2023
Apple, unlike other app stores, uses a custom payment calendar where months don't start on the 1st and don't end end 30/31 days later. Instead of using standard calendar months, Apple set up its own fiscal calendar and uses it to pay developers. FYI - the Payments Report automatically uses this calendar to report estimated and actual payments, so you don't have to change anything. Here's the calendar for 2023: In case you're curious how this calendar works: Every month starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. The first quarter starts at the end of September. Every quarter starts with a 5-week month, followed by two 4-week months. Every 5th or 6th year, depending on Apple, an extra week is added to Q1. The next year to have the additional week is 2023. And, Apple usually pays 33 days after the end of the fiscal month. View Apple's version, in App Store Connect (login required) Previous Calendars: Apple's Fiscal Calendar 2021 - 2022
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Every Metric Appfigures Supports
Appfigures is the hub for a wide variety of metrics, making it possible for you to see everything you need in a single place and make smarter business decisions with ease. Your Apps Downloads Downloads Uninstalls Re-downloads Updates Business downloads Educational downloads Returns Page views Impressions Revenue Grows revenue Net revenue Gross Educational revenue Educational revenue Gross business revenue Business revenue Refunds Subscriptions Active subscriptions New subscriptions Active trials New trials Crossgrades Upgrades Downgrades Cancellations Ad publisher Ad revenue Impressions Fill rate Clicks eCPM CTR Advertiser Ad spend Impressions Clicks eCPM CTR CPI CPA Usage Active devices Sessions Sessions/device Crashes Opt-in rate Payments Estimated payment Expected payment Actual payment Ratings Ratings count Average star rating Ratings count by star Country Date Reviews Title Review body Translated title Translate review body Star rating Author Country Language Date Reply Category Ranks Rank (updated hourly) Category Country Device Features Country Feature path Date feature started Date feature ended Feature position ASO Keyword rank (updates hourly) Rank change Keywords app is ranked in Keyword suggestions Keyword popularity Keyword competitiveness Related keywords Keyword results News Mentions (soon) Article Publication Date Competitors Performance Estimated downloads Estimated revenue Tech Stack Installed SDKs Uninstalled SDKs Demographics Audience gender breakdown Audience age breakdown by group Ad Gallery (soon) Explore ads competitors run to acquire new users Ad creative Ad network First time seen Last time seen Ratings Ratings count Average star rating Ratings count by star Country Date Reviews Title Review body Translated title Translate review body Star rating Author Country Language Date Reply Category Ranks Rank (updated hourly) Category Country Device Features Country Feature path Date feature started Date feature ended Feature position ASO Keyword rank (updates hourly) Rank change Keywords app is ranked in Keyword suggestions Keyword popularity Keyword competitiveness Related keywords Keyword results News Mentions (soon) Article Publication Date
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How to Flag a Review for Removal on the App Store and on Google Play
As a developer, you might come across a review for your app or game that looks like, feels like, and sounds like spam. It could be a bot, an unhappy competitor, or just a mistake by a user. Thankfully, you can do something about it! Apple and Google let you flag reviews for removal. Here's how to do that. Reporting a Review Through App Store Connect: Log into App Store Connect Go to the "My Apps" section Select the app you want to flag a review for Select "Ratings and Reviews" from the menu on the left Find the review you want to report Click "Report a Concern" A popup will open for you to select a concern and submit additional details. This is an important step. First, select the most relevant reason: It Contains Offensive Content - Things that shouldn't be said in public fall into this category. It Looks Like Spam - Reviews that promote something irrelevant tend to fall into this category. It's Off-Topic - Choose this concern if the review has absolutely nothing to do with the app. This is the case for bot reviews. Something Else - If your concern isn't covered by any other topic choose this one. But it's best to choose a defined topic if possible. Enter your reasoning for why this should be removed in the comments field. Don't skip this part and be as direct and concise as you can. Click "Submit" Note: This process will flag the review for Apple but will not immediately remove it from the App Store. If Apple chooses to take action then it will be removed, but flagging alone isn't a guarantee for removal. Flagging a Review through the Google Play Developer Console Log into the Google Play Developer Console Select the app you'd like to report a review for Navigate to the Reviews page by selecting Quality → Ratings and reviews → Reviews Find the review you want to flag Click the flag icon next to the review Click "Report" Note: This process will flag the review for Google but will not immediately remove it from Google Play. If Google chooses to take action then it will be removed, but flagging alone isn't a guarantee for removal.
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Comparing Ratings in Appfigures to Google's Developer Account
Ratings, like all public data such as reviews, ranks, and featured, are pulled directly from the app stores. Which means comparing data directly to your developer account can provide for discrepancies as ratings are calculated differently in Google's developer console. How we collect ratings: We snapshot ratings from the store a handful of times each day, recording the changes. Those changes are reported in the "New" toggle off your Ratings report. You'll also see changes day to day where the total ratings count can increase (or decrease). The total count of ratings is reported in the "Overall" toggle of the report. The reason you can see differences between the developer console and Appfigures: We snapshot ratings over time and record the differences day to day Google records any ratings as a new rating and does not deduct changes How would that look? Let's say someone leaves a four star rating yesterday and the same user updates the rating today to a five star. In Appfigures it would look like this: Yesterday: New 4 star rating ⭐ = 0 ⭐⭐ = 0 ⭐⭐⭐= 0 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ = 1 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ = 0 Today: Changes the earlier 4 star rating to a 5 star rating ⭐ = 0 ⭐⭐ = 0 ⭐⭐⭐ = 0 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ = -1 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ = 1 In Google's developer console, Google would keep both, despite the change. That would look like this in your developer console: Yesterday: New four star rating in Google's developer console ⭐ = 0 ⭐⭐= 0 ⭐⭐⭐ = 0 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ = 1 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ = 0 Today: Changes the earlier four star change to five star rating ⭐ = 0 ⭐⭐ = 0 ⭐⭐⭐ = 0 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ = 1 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ = 1 So in Appfigures you see the cumulative ratings where in Google you'd see the sum of any rating.
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Annotating Your Charts with Events
You can annotate your charts to add context, explain spikes and dips, or denote important events. Adding an Events Head into Manage → Events Click on Add an Event Give the event a name. This is the title that will popup when you hover over the event on the chart. Select which app(s) this event applies to.
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The Ad Gallery
The Ad Gallery offers insight into the ad creatives mobile apps and games run in other apps and games. NOTE: The Ad Gallery is currently available as an Early Preview as we continue to increase the amount of ads we track and collect feedback. What's Available The Ad Gallery collects ad creatives, which include videos, banners, and playable ads, from the following ad networks: AdMob/Google Ads AppLovin ironSource Unity Ads Vungle FYI - We collect ads for both iOS and Android apps and games, but have more ads for games on the App Store at the moment. As we grow our coverage, ads for more apps and games across both platforms will become available. Early Preview The Ad Gallery is currently available as an Early Preview as we continue to increase the amount of ads we track and collect feedback from members. Which means that we may not be tracking ads for some apps and games even if they are running campaigns, and that we're not capturing ads from some popular sources like Facebook. We're actively working to grow our coverage so we can observe more ads from more mobile apps and games, and will officially launch this feature as soon as we hit a large enough number. Important - The Ad Gallery works by observing ads that are displayed in the wild, which means the more our coverage grows the more ads we'll be able to track. However, that also means that we can't see every ad campaign that's being run. Please keep that in mind.
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Which Platforms Are Supported for ASO?
All of our ASO tools, including keyword rank tracking with hourly updates, keyword discovery, inspector, suggestions, and insights, are available for apps on the iOS App Store and Google Play. Support for the Mac App Store is currently under development and will be rolling out in early 2023. Contact us directly if you'd like to join our early preview program, so you can be the first to get access.
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Understanding Your Users with Age and Gender Demographics
Appfigures offers Audience Demographics for your apps and games as well as for your competitors. You can find Audience Demographics in the Overview report in you Appfigures account and it includes a breakdown of your users' age, split into groups, and their gender expression. Why is Audience Demographics Important? Knowing who's using your mobile apps is incredibly helpful. This knowledge will support your user acquisition campaigns by allowing you to target them towards the type of users who are most likely to convert, saving you money. Knowing your audience demographics can also help you with answering development questions. We believe every app maker should know who's using their apps so we've made audience demographics available for free for all apps you track in your account. How Does Appfigures Determine Audience Demographics? We use a proprietary Machine Learning (ML) to determine the age and gender expression of each review for your app. We then aggregate those to determine the app's audience. Our ML is trained on 2B+ app reviews, making our Audience Demographics as accurate as possible. This is very different than more generalized AI (like ChatGPT). Note: You will see how many reviews your Audience Demographics is based on below the charts. We need at least 50 reviews to provide audience demographics. What's Gender Expression? Gender expression reflects a person's gender identity (their internal sense of their own gender). We break gender into three groups: feminine, masculine, and neutral. This isn't the traditional metric you'll find in audience demographics. Traditionally, audience demographics is limited to a binary "gender". Our AI offers more granularity which we use to determine the gender expressed by the user, beyond the binary gender. Frequently Asked Questions Do I need to install an SDK to collect Audience Demographics? No. Audience Demographics does not require collecting private user data from within your app. That means you'll have insights right away. Can I see Audience Demographics for any app or just mine? Any app. Audience Demographics is available for all of your apps right in your dashboard and for any other app or game in the app's panel as well as in the Competitors report. Can I see demographics for individual users? No. Audience Demographics are aggregated across your entire user-base and is not available for individual users.
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Every Revenue Metric You Can Track with Appfigures
The revenue report supports a variety of metrics. Appfigures supports several app stores, and the platform normalizes across stores where possible. Here are all of the metrics that are available for your apps and their definitions. Available for apps and in-app purchases from all stores App Sales: revenue from paid app downloads after the store takes its fee Total Net Revenue: revenue from app sales, in-app purchases, ads, and educational downloads (after returns and the store's fee) Ad Revenue: revenue from all ad units in the app Refunds: the amount of money that was returned to unsatisfied buyers, not including the store's fee Total Gross Revenue: the total revenue from app sales, in-app purchases, ads, and educational downloads before the store takes its fee or refunds Gross App Sales: the revenue from paid app downloads before the store takes its fee Gross In-App Purchases: the revenue from all in app purchases before the store takes its fee Gross Subscriptions: the total amount of revenue generated by subscriptions before the store takes its 15/30% fee Gross Refunds: the amount of money refunded to unsatisfied buyers, including the store's fee Only available for iOS and Mac apps Education Purchases: revenue generated by purchases through the Volume Purchase for Education program More Business Purchases: revenue generated by purchases through the Volume Purchase for Business program More Gross Educational Purchases: revenue generated from purchases through the Volume Purchase Program for Education, before the store takes its fee Gross Business Purchases: revenue generated from purchases through the Volume Purchase Program for Business, before the store takes its fee
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Apple's Fiscal & Payout Calendar 2023 - 2024
Apple, unlike other app stores, uses a custom payment calendar where months don't start on the 1st and don't end end 30/31 days later. Instead of using standard calendar months, Apple set up its own fiscal calendar and uses it to pay developers. FYI - the Payments Report automatically uses this calendar to report estimated and actual payments, so you don't have to change anything. Here's the calendar for 2023 - 2024: Expected Apple's Payout Dates As a developer, you can expect to see money in your bank on the following dates: October 5th, 2023 November 2nd, 2023 December 7th, 2023 January 4th, 2024 February 1st, 2024 March 7th, 2024 April 4th, 2024 May 2nd, 2024 June 6th, 2024 July 4th, 2024 August 1st, 2024 September 5th, 2024 How Does Apple's Fiscal Calendar Work? In case you're curious how this calendar works: Every month starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday. The first quarter starts at the end of September. Every quarter starts with a 5-week month, followed by two 4-week months. Every 5th or 6th year, depending on Apple, an extra week is added to Q1. And, Apple usually pays 33 days after the end of the fiscal month. View Apple's version, in App Store Connect (login required) Previous Calendars: Apple's Fiscal Calendar 2022 - 2023 Apple's Fiscal Calendar 2021 - 2022
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How Are Time Zones Handled in Appfigures?
Handling time zones for analytics sounds like an easy task but having to handle multiple sources, each with their own different way of defining time, gets a bit... messy. We try to normalize all of the data we import so it's always consistent in reports, but not all sources enable doing that. For that reason, some of our data sets are normalized, some can be adjusted, and some can't. Here's what you can expect: What you have control over The time of the Ranks report can be set from your Profile. Changes affect both daily and hourly granularity and are applied immediately. The time used to send alerts can be set from your Profile. What "just works" The times displayed in all store status reports is set automatically based on your current time zone (as reported by your browse). What you don't have control over Apple reports its data by days so a time zone isn't really needed. Under the hood, Apple set up a cut off for a day from each region it supports which it uses to call a day. There is no way to change that in Appfigures. Note: If you are comparing data between Appfigures and App Store Connect make sure to select the PST option in App Store Connect as it's what the reports we import from Apple are in. They're not really in PST, but that's what Apple calls it. Google reports its install data using PST and Financial reports are in UTC. There is no way to change that within Appfigures at the moment. Amazon reports its data in UTC. There is no way to change that within Appfigures at the moment. Note: If you are comparing your data between Appfigures and Amazon's dashboard your data may not align because Amazon shows reports in your time zone as reported by your browser.
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How Appfigures Calculates New Average Ratings
To provide clarity and insight to how the new average ratings metric is calculated we're breaking down an example of Apple ratings. Google does not support new ratings as Apple does so this count breakdown is Apple specific, therefore Average New Ratings is an Apple specific metric. iOS app store ratings: 1. ⭐ = 20 ⭐⭐ = 15 ⭐⭐⭐ = 25 ⭐⭐⭐⭐ = 39 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ = 51 Add up all star counts for the full number of available ratings. star count = 20 + 15 + 25 + 39 + 15 = 150 We'll come back to the total star count in a bit. 2. 1 x 20 = 20 2 x 15 = 30 3 x 25 = 75 4 x 39 = 156 5 x 51 = 255 Now we'll sum each multiplied row: 20 + 30 + 75 + 156 + 255 = 536 Lastly, divide the the total in #2 by the total in #1. 536 / 150 = 3.57 Average new rating = 3.57