Planning Event Tracking

Events are interactions or activities users perform within an app, such as clicks, screen views, purchases, and subscriptions. Tracking events allows you to understand user behavior and improve app performance.

Each event has a set of parameters, including additional data points collected from it, such as timestamp, user ID, event location, and other contextual information.

Correct event planning and data organization provide the foundation for informed decision-making, enhanced user experiences, and effective marketing strategies, ultimately leading to sustained growth and competitive advantage.

We recommend using the Object-Action framework when planning event tracking and naming. This structured approach to data organization helps ensure consistency, clarity, and effectiveness in tracking and analyzing user interactions within an app.

Defining Key App Objects

Identify the primary objects within your app that users interact with. These objects represent the core components of your app's functionality. Below, you can see widespread key app objects examples:

• User
• Subscription
• Product
• Order
• Screen
• Message

Depending on the app’s industry, key objects may differ:

• Health & Fitness: Training, Nutrition Plan, Progress Tracker, Task, Level, Course, Streak
• Education: Course, Lesson, Quiz, Exercise, Milestone, Level, Badge, Goal, Streak
• Fintech: Invoice, Estimate, Timetracker, Client, Payment Option, Business Entity
• Food and restaurants: Menu Item, Category, Map, Search, Review
• eCommerce: Product, Category, Cart, Order, Payment, Wishlist, Review, Search, Promo code
• Utilies VPN: Connection, Location

After defining a set of your app’s key objects, move to consider a set of basic actions connected to them.

Defining Actions Connected to Objects

Define the specific actions that users can perform on key objects. Each action represents a meaningful interaction that you want to track. Here are some examples of actions related to common objects:

• User: Logged in, Logged out, Signed Up, Updated, Deleted (full or partial), Added to group, Removed from group
• Subscription: Started, Renewed, Canceled, Refunded
• Product: Viewed, Added to Cart, Added to Wishlist, Purchased
• Order: Created, Canceled, Completed, Delivered, Updated, Rated
• Screen: Viewed, Scrolled, Clicked
• Goal: Set, Updated, Achieved
• Course: Enrolled, Unenrolled
• Lesson: Started, Completed, Skipped
• Quiz: Attempted, Completed, Passed, Failed
• Goal: Set, Changed, Achieved

To create a list of events to track, all you have to do is combine objects and actions in the CamelCase format.

Apps in various industries can effectively track user interactions by organizing key objects and their associated actions. However, you need to collect additional event data from their parameters to gather detailed analytics.

Collecting Event Data

Determine the key parameters that should be recorded with each event to provide context and detail. These parameters offer insights into the nature and circumstances of the actions.

Here are some standard parameters’ examples:

• timestamp — when the action occurred
• userId — who performed the action
• productId — which product was involved
• sessionId — context of the session
• screenName — where the action took place
• deviceType, operatingSystem — technical details

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Note

We recommend writing the parameter name by making the first letter of the first word lowercase and every subsequent word capitalized, not using spaces, underlines, and other special characters.

Additional materials:

• Reteno Standard Events >