Businesses today heavily rely on marketing analytics tools to understand user behavior, track key metrics, and at the end of the day, make data-driven decisions. In this review series about analytics tools, we reviewed Tableau last time, which is a major player in the industry.
Today, we have got another one for you - Mixpanel Analytics. Maybe you have heard about it, maybe not. Either way, in this in-depth review, we will take you through its features and capabilities, pros and cons, pricing, and all that. By the time you reach the end, you must be able to make up your mind about whether this tool is for your business or not.
So, without any further delay, let's jump into it.
What is Mixpanel Analytics?
Mixpanel Analytics is a robust and feature-rich tool designed for businesses to gain deep insights into user behavior, optimize user experiences, and make informed business decisions. Because of its event tracking, funnel analysis, and segmentation capabilities, it is a popular choice among many businesses and organizations. On their website, the company claims to have 8000+ paying customers, which is impressive.
The platform has a clean and user-friendly interface - relatively easy to navigate and set up. The dashboard provides an overview of your key metrics, and you can drill down into specific reports and data segments. The UI is intuitive, which is essential for users with varying levels of technical expertise.
It is worth mentioning here that, unlike tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel Analytics leans more toward product analytics. With this little introduction out of the way, let’s take a gander at its features and functionalities.
User Segmentation
Mixpanel Analytics stands out with its impressive user segmentation features. You get access to countless segmentation possibilities about attributes, user characteristics, and groups - all of which offer an enhanced understanding of your customers and their engagement.
What sets Mixpanel Analytics' user segmentation apart is its capacity to comprehend users' overall behavior comprehensively, delving beyond mere averages. This approach gives you a deeper understanding of how various users interact with your product.
Besides, you have the flexibility to deconstruct your analysis based on event or user property, with the option to add or modify these breakdowns. And here comes the best part – you can do all of it in real-time, with no need for any pre-computed data.
Event Tracking
When it comes to tracking events with Mixpanel, it barely takes 5 minutes. Now, an event can be anything, for example, when a user signs up for an account, buys a product, watches a video, or refers a friend. You can define and track custom events to gain insights into how users interact with your products or services. If you want, you can also add properties to give further context to an event.
There are two ways of event tracking on the Mixpanel platform – Server-side and Client-side. If you choose Server-side, events are sent from your servers to Mixpanel. This approach has added perks – it works in an environment that you control, so it is most dependable and easy to handle.
On the other hand, if you choose Client-side, events are first created on the client device and then sent to Mixpanel. Now, be warned though, this approach is not as reliable as Server-side, well, because of ad-blockers. So, we recommend you track all events via your servers and use client-side tracking only to supplement the results.
User Cohorts
Another Mixpanel functionality worth looking into is user cohorts. It gives you the flexibility to categorize your users based on how they interact with your product. This approach lets you examine the behaviors of distinct user groups and assess how these behaviors influence conversion rates, engagement levels, and customer retention.
You can define cohorts based on various criteria, such as the frequency of user logins, among others. Then, you can create distinct cohorts for different user types, such as primary users, occasional users, and power users.
In Mixpanel, cohorts also facilitate the analysis of user funnels, enabling you to identify underperforming sections of the user funnel and make optimizations accordingly.
Analysis and Reporting
Mixpanel has some comprehensive analysis built within its platform. It allows you to do group analysis, giving you in-depth insights into user behavioral data from a collective standpoint. This feature also complements other tools within Mixpanel, such as user segmentation and cohort analysis.
With Group Analytics, you can measure metrics at the account or company level - empowering you to track progression through user journeys and identify areas of friction. Once these pain points are identified, you can take proactive measures to alleviate them, thus, enhancing the user experience.
Another form of analysis available is retention analysis, which scrutinizes drop-off patterns in customer behavior. To investigate what users do before dropping off, you can adjust Mixpanel's filter to "Did not Convert." This will give you a user action funnel leading all the way to the point of drop-off.
Besides, Mixpanel Analytics boasts interactive reporting, which means queries and data visualization in a matter of seconds. In-depth reports allow you to gauge how frequently users engage in favorable actions and how engagement patterns vary across different user groups.
A/B Testing
Mixpanel’s A/B testing feature helps you experiment with different versions of your product or website and measure their impact on user behavior. It is perfect for identifying the product or feature versions that are most effective in achieving your goals.
By utilizing A/B testing, you can build multiple product variants, each with its distinct features or design elements. Mixpanel then monitors user interactions with these variants, delivering comprehensive insights.
Another significant advantage of A/B testing within Mixpanel is the ability to pinpoint experiments with the most substantial influence on users.
Third-Party Integration
Mixpanel offers integrations with a wide range of third-party tools and platforms, including popular marketing automation tools, CRMs, and data warehouses. This gives you the flexibility to centralize your data and streamline your analytics workflow.
Also, you can deploy a customer data platform (CDP) or Mixpanel SDKs to stream events straight from any apps or servers.
Pros and Cons
As is the case with all the tools, Mixpanel Analytics also has its pros and cons. Let’s take a quick look -
Pros:
Feature-rich
Intuitive interface
In-depth analysis
Customization
Excellent data visualization
Interactive reports
Cons:
Limits of Free plan
Requires advanced set-up and configuration
Pricing
Mixpanel offers three pricing plans – Starter (free), Growth ($20+/mo), and Enterprise ($833+/mo). The Starter pack is great to start with as it gives access to 20M monthly events, all core reports, templates, unlimited integrations, and collaborators – all of it is pretty impressive and free. If you need to go over the 20M-monthly-event limit, you can choose either of the paid plans.
Another interesting part about the Mixpanel pricing is the flexibility to build your own plan as per your requirements and budget.
Final Thoughts
Overall, Mixpanel is an excellent analytics platform. Once set up and configured, it is easy to use, fast, and customizable. What makes this tool so accessible to individuals and businesses alike is the pricing model.
You rarely come across a tool that offers so much access within a free plan. The interactive reporting feature can pull up valuable insights in seconds. What is not to like? But if you still feel you need to understand the platform well before deciding to make a purchase, go play around with the free Starter plan as long as you like.