For maybe the first time, mobile direct-to-site traffic has eclipsed traffic from Facebook – across all devices, highlighting a growing need: understanding the unique aspects of this audience and the true impact of mobile behavior.

Luckily, Chartbeat is in the unique position to empower you with the mobile analytics you need to do just that. In addition to research, we’re always working to make sure that our suite of tools can answer your most pressing questions around content, audience, and the industry at large.

Here are five questions that Chartbeat tools can answer to help publishers and editors get a handle on the ever-evolving mobile landscape.  

How can I understand where my audience is coming from, in this hyper-fractured mobile publishing space?

Chartbeat’s Real-Time Dashboard breaks out referrers by device (mobile, tablet, desktop) and origin like Facebook Instant Articles, Google Search, Reddit, and more. With a single click, you can filter the dashboard to see which articles your mobile audience is reading, how much they’re engaging, and where they’re arriving from all in real time — no matter whether it’s your site, app, or distributed content. Fully understanding the way mobile readers interact with your content translates to optimized design, returning audiences, and money. In addition, the article-level view gives a detailed description of which referrer and device are driving the most traffic helps you understand why a story is spiking, and where you have opportunities to further promote it.

How do I keep up with the role of platforms in mobile content performance?

Since January 2017, we’ve seen traffic from Google Search to publisher sites globally rise by more than 25% – driven by a 100% increase in mobile search traffic from Google AMP pages. We also saw Google Chrome Suggestions traffic grow a shocking 2,100% in 2017, and mobile direct-to-site traffic essentially replace traffic coming from Facebook at the beginning of 2018.

Given the ebb and flow of traffic from platforms, we know how important it is to keep up with your mobile audiences wherever they are. With the research we’re doing into platform referrals and our AMP and Facebook Instant Article integrations, you’ll be able to do just that. It’s important to not only make sure these integrations are set up correctly, but to continue to check the numbers for your own site – are the larger trends we’re seeing holding true for you?

How can I react quickly when I see an opportunity – and what do I do?

The Chartbeat Heads Up Display, a screen overlay that displays real-time visitor data on top of home, section, or article pages, enables teams to take the specific and immediate actions you need to optimize for mobile performance. For instance, if you’re seeing low engagement among your mobile visitors on a particular article, use the Heads Up Display to see how far down the mobile page readers are scrolling, so you can spot where engagement is coming to a halt. Break up the text with sub-headers or move around page elements in order to try and increase engagement.

Want to really experience your site through the eyes of your mobile readers? You can easily use your Heads Up Display to simulate the mobile experience. Find out how here.

How can I better connect with my mobile readers?

Identifying opportunities for quick action also allows you to take things further. For example, since email newsletters are typically consumed on mobile devices, you can utilize Chartbeat performance metrics around high mobile readership from the morning to inform the stories you curate into an afternoon newsletter.

For your mobile readers coming from social, Offsite Social, our integration with Facebook’s CrowdTangle, brings the social conversation front-and-center in your Real-Time Dashboard alongside your story performance data. Offsite Social not only shows you how much your content is being shared and discussed, but also offers an instant opportunity for you to join the conversation. This might trigger you to do a Q&A on a certain topic driving huge interest on Twitter or Facebook, or explore a partnership with certain influencers that are always sharing your content.

How do my apps factor in?

Track users of your native app with the Chartbeat mobile SDK to integrate that audience in your Real-Time Dashboard. After implementing it, you’ll start to see App traffic with iOS and Android as pivots under the Distribution section. This will enable you to see how your most loyal audiences – your app audiences – are consuming content in real time. It’ll also help you understand how to build custom strategies for this audience going forward. For more information on the Chartbeat SDK, reach out to your Account Manager.

In this landscape, it isn’t enough to simply manage the experience of your content for users as if they all access it in the same way. With such a decentralized web of access points spread across devices, platforms, and channels, it’s essential that your analytics solution can capture the complete story of your content and how your growing audience can be best served by what you publish. At Chartbeat, we’re here to help.

Want to learn more about what we can do for your mobile analytics needs? Talk to us.