What's the biggest challenge of mobile analytics?

In the latest in a series looking at web analytics trends, The Drum speaks to key industry players to take a look at some of the issues around mobile analytics.

With the continued trend of consumers using multiple devices to access content, brands and businesses must be aware of the insights to be gained from mobile data. But what are the challenges and implications of mobile tracking?Conrad Bennett, VP of Technical Services EMEA, WebtrendsTo respond to consumer behaviour on mobile devices, brands need to be able to quickly analyse and improve mobile engagement. Unfortunately, this hasn’t always been easy, at least partly because mobile offerings often have different development teams and priorities and analytics can still be seen as an after-thought. Mobile channels are adding another dimension for analytics, and brands need to be aware of the different customer experience expectations on these devices versus the traditional desktop. Just because analytics on desktop leads to one conclusion, doesn’t mean the same learning can be applied to mobile. As mobile adoption rates soar, consumers are becoming accustomed to stress-free experiences on their devices. The challenge for brands is being able to keep up. Michael Plimsoll, industry marketing director, AdobeFor mobile, it can be challenging to collect data on events that track user touch interactions such as swipes, pinch+zoom, or portrait vs landscape. With marketers having to answer questions such as: how are customers interacting with the site; which conversion events are taking place; and what is the ROI of mobile versus standard web channels; it’s becoming increasingly important to have a solution in place that is able to measure any mobile content on any mobile device (both apps and web). Steve Dalgleish, director, Lynchpin The same as any channel but with a few added twists: when does a tablet or pad become a mobile and vice versa? Are we measuring apps or sites? What about mobiles that browse the main site rather than the mobile site; do we count that as mobile in the analysis? Is location, screen size, operating system and software relevant to analysis? Arguably mobile’s main role is a vital segmentation for any type of campaign or funnel analysis. Matt Camps, head of digital strategy, The Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing Traditional web analytics platforms are not yet as tightly optimised for mobile as they could be. I try to avoid data siloing whenever possible, yet with mobile it’s often unavoidable, having to make use of multiple analytics tools in order to gain further insight into our mobile customer’s interactions. Multi-device fragmentation can play havoc with attribution and is a key challenge facing marketers. Sponsored by:Mobile image via Shutterstock