We’d like to pick up a question that was raised in the comments over at ReadWriteWeb and is one that we think is pretty relevant in general.

How are we different from other existing analytics products?

We think it is fair to say that there are iPhone analytics providers out there, which (some of them) have been around for as long as the App Store and are obviously doing a very good job at what they aim to do. Without stretching this post to a few pages, we consider ourselves different in that we focus on a different side of the same medal. These two sides are marketing and product (oversimplified).

Other analytics services focus on product. They try to (and do) answer questions like: How does the user actually use the app? How much time does a user spend with my product on average during how many sessions? Where (e.g. what level) do many users get stuck? When and why does the app crash? The list goes on.

Needless to say, product is of the highest importance when creating an app. Marketing will almost certainly get you nowhere in terms of usage or revenues if your product sucks. The product angle deserves its very own focus. So does marketing.

We try to (and do) answer questions like: Where do my users come from? Which marketing channels work for me and which do not? How much am I paying for customer acquisition? How should I time my marketing? Again, the list goes on.

Of course, product and marketing cannot entirely be looked at separately. They intertwine, not only because usage and revenues per user may vary depending on where the download came from, but also because communicating different product characteristics and features is essential to marketing an app. But generally both, product and marketing, call for different competences and thus deserve exclusive attention. To us that’s the major difference and the reason why we focus on marketing and performance optimization.

The list of possible things you could and can do to increase your sales performance is long but still appears somehow narrow.

No matter what you decide to do, one thing we know for sure is the big impact being listed in the overall and category rankings of the App Store can have on sales. This effect starts kicking in once you have entered the Top 100 of the respective list, as overall visibility and accessibility of your product increases. Of course, the higher you rise in the top lists, the more visibility and sales you gain.

So in our opinion it is of utmost importance for you to know not only when you have entered the top 100, but also how far you are away from entering it. Having an app ranked 105 or 405 makes a big difference in terms of how active you should get to increase your app sales – even if just for a day or two.

Being on the verge to enter a top list means it might just need a little push for your app sales to get exponentially more out of your marketing than you would have otherwise.

For this reason we include a TOP 400 ranking in our app reporting and connect it to your marketing efforts. With this, not only do you have the ability to better time your marketing activities, but also gain knowledge on which channels to focus on first to get the best performance out of your efforts. This is what it looks like:

The apprupt App Marketing Performance and Ranking Reporting

We hope you like it – let us know what you think!