• Attribution clarity is still elusive; only 18% of marketers feel very confident they can tie installs to the right source.
• Acquisition costs are the No. 1 challenge, with 36% citing scale without overspending as their top hurdle.
• Marketers underutilize deep linking for retention. While 63% use it for onboarding, just 20% apply it to win back lapsed users.
• Multichannel strategies are now standard, with teams managing an average of 3.8 growth channels.
• Privacy is reshaping measurement, as 71% of marketers report revenue impact from blind spots, spurring adoption of server-side tracking and first-party data.
• Retention is where cracks show, with nearly half struggling to activate user data or measure post-install engagement.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere, powering predictive analytics, personalization, and creative optimization — but trust, brand safety, and workflow integration remain barriers.

Together, these findings show that sustainable app growth in 2025 requires smarter measurement, unified data strategies, and a sharper focus on retention and user experience.

About the survey

The 2025 State of App Growth survey was conducted in May 2025 in partnership with Global Surveyz. We collected responses from 750 senior leaders in marketing, product, and growth across the U.S., the U.K., EMEA, and APAC. Each respondent works at a company with more than 500 employees and plays a direct role in mobile initiatives, ensuring the insights reflect real-world enterprise practices.

The survey evenly represented industries, with participants from retail, finance, healthcare, and other verticals — making this one of the most comprehensive snapshots of how global teams are approaching mobile growth in a privacy-first era.

The new growth reality

Over the past two years, the rules of mobile app growth have been rewritten. Privacy regulations, platform changes like Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) and Google’s Privacy Sandbox, and the rise of SKAdNetwork (SKAN) have made it harder than ever for marketers to see where installs come from or measure return on investment (ROI) with certainty. At the same time, user journeys now span multiple devices and touchpoints, raising the bar for seamless, connected experiences.

With this backdrop, let’s take a deeper look at both the challenges and the creative strategies shaping mobile growth in 2025.

Attribution confidence is still low

Attribution remains one of the toughest nuts to crack. Only 18% of marketers feel very confident in their ability to tie installs to the right source, while the majority operate with partial or shaky visibility. This uncertainty often stems from inconsistent use of attributable links across channels. Without comprehensive tracking, installs are misclassified as “organic,” skewing results and making it harder to allocate budget wisely.

The silver lining? Teams are investing in broader link coverage and privacy-safe measurement infrastructure to close these gaps.

Acquisition: Scale without breaking the bank

The biggest acquisition challenge is cost. Thirty-six percent of marketers say scaling user growth without skyrocketing acquisition costs is their top concern. Converting ad clicks to installs (24%) and finding the right audiences (23%) follow closely behind.

This underscores a shift toward smarter, efficiency-driven strategies — optimizing what’s already measurable, rather than pouring budget into unproven tactics.

Deep linking: Essential, but underused for retention

Deep linking is a key element in acquisition: 63% use it for onboarding and 61% use it for ad campaign performance. By reducing friction and guiding users directly to in-app content, deep links boost conversions and first impressions.

But when it comes to retention, adoption lags. Only 20% use deep linking to reengage lapsed users and just 5% use it for referral programs. This gap represents a major opportunity. Extending deep linking across the full lifecycle could unlock more sustainable growth.

Channel mix: Multichannel is the new standard

Marketers now juggle an average of 3.8 channels. App store optimization (ASO) (56%) and Google Ads (50%) lead the pack, followed by paid social (44%), email (40%), and organic social (39%). More experimental plays — like QR (quick response) codes, influencer campaigns, and affiliate marketing — are also gaining traction.

Retail teams lead with four channels on average, while healthcare sits closer to 3.4, reflecting its focus on engagement rather than aggressive acquisition.

Privacy: The new growth engine

The impact of privacy changes is undeniable. Seventy-one percent of respondents say regulations have created blind spots that hurt revenue. Cross-channel attribution is harder (41%), contextual targeting is more important (40%), and data collection is pricier (39%).

In response, teams are embracing server-side tracking (38%) and first-party data (30%) to keep measurement accurate while staying compliant. The lesson: Privacy-first doesn’t have to mean growth-stalled — it just requires new tools and smarter infrastructure.

Retention: Where growth breaks down

Retention challenges loom large. Nearly half of marketers (47%) say they struggle to activate user data for personalization or even measure retention effectively. Fragmented engagement across channels (38%) and technical limitations (40%) make it even harder to keep users active past onboarding.

Here again, unifying data and investing in post-onboarding experiences stand out as key opportunities.

AI: From buzzword to growth stack

AI has moved beyond hype to daily practice. Every respondent uses AI in some capacity, most often for predictive analytics (48%), personalization (46%), and creative optimization (46%). Large language models are also gaining ground in content ideation (44%).

Still, obstacles remain. The biggest concerns are trust and privacy (55%), ensuring brand-safe content (51%), and integrating AI into existing workflows (51%). Internal adoption hurdles add another layer.

The bottom line

The 2025 State of App Growth survey reveals an industry at a crossroads. Marketers are grappling with signal loss and rising costs, but they’re also building smarter, privacy-safe measurement strategies, leaning into deep linking, experimenting across channels, and embracing AI.

The message is clear: Growth in 2025 is no longer about chasing every install; it’s about doing more with the signals you can trust, building unified views of performance, and creating experiences that keep users coming back.

Download for the full lowdown: 2025 State of App Growth 

The post The 2025 State of App Growth: Signal Loss, Smarter Strategies, and the Road Ahead appeared first on Branch.

The future of marketing belongs to brands that can:

• Deliver seamless, connected experiences across channels
• Accurately measure outcomes while navigating evolving privacy regulations
• Prioritize retention and engagement over costly, perpetual customer acquisition
• Leverage data-driven insights to drive efficiency and personalization

All of which can be achieved with the right MMP.

The post A Marketer’s Guide to Upgrading Your Mobile Measurement Partner appeared first on Branch.

So, how do you bridge this gap and deliver the kind of dynamic, 1:1 experiences that users desire — and, more importantly, act on? The answer lies in three somewhat obvious yet still elusive core pillars: messaging, segmentation, and behavioral data. Together, these create the golden ticket to achieving personalization at scale, and when executed correctly, they open the door to lasting loyalty, higher conversions, and elevated customer satisfaction.

Messaging: Speak to the individual

Personalized messaging is more than just auto-filling a customer’s name at the top of an email. It’s about crafting content and messages that resonate with a person’s likes, preferences, and behaviors. Whether it’s through email, app notifications, or even texts, the message should feel contextual, relevant, timely — and, well, personal.

Take the case of Bloom & Wild, a leading flower delivery service. It leveraged personalized messaging to connect with users on a deeper level. By integrating customer data into communications, it was able to send messages that really resonated — such as offering personalized product recommendations or reminding users of their anniversary and birthday. This led to a 2x increase in app conversions, proving that a targeted, individualized approach can go beyond simple transactional messaging.

The key to optimizing personalized messaging is integrating it across your various channels, ensuring that every interaction feels part of a seamless narrative. Whether a user is browsing your site, receiving an email, or interacting via your app, the messaging should feel like a continuation of their journey, not a disconnected, one-off interaction.

Segmentation: Understand your audience

Effective segmentation extends well beyond basic demographics. It’s about grouping customers based on shared behaviors, preferences, and actions — creating distinct profiles that allow you to share more relatable content. As you’d expect, this approach goes hand-in-hand with messaging as you gain deeper insights into your customers, which then results in content tailored to that specific segment or group.

A leading online marketplace operating in 45 countries, OLX, used a segmentation strategy to deliver personalized app install banners tailored to unique sets of mobile web visitors. Its approach included:

• Targeting only users who didn’t already have the app installed
• Serving different banner designs and messaging based on user context
• A/B testing each banner version to see which resonated best

As a result, it saw 75,000+ high-quality app installs in just two months, with a 10× higher conversion rate than standard install campaigns.

When you segment your users, you can deliver content or offers that match their behaviors. For example, if a user browses a category of products but doesn’t buy, you could send them a targeted email offering a discount on those exact same products. Companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue from these activities than their slower-to-adopt competitors.

Behavioral data: The backbone of personalization

Now let’s dive into the real linchpin of personalization. Behavioral data provides eye-opening insights into how customers engage with your brand, paving the way to predicting future behaviors and creating experiences that practically anticipate a user’s next move. When analyzed correctly, behavioral data has the potential to turn every individual exchange into a positive, profitable, and relevant customer action.

That’s exactly what happened to MyFitnessPal, a popular health and fitness app that used behavioral data to suggest workout routines and meal plans and even track progress based on a customer’s activity. The app doesn’t just rely on basic data such as age and weight. It delves deeper into how the user interacts with the app, tracking which exercises they prefer, what meals they log most often, and even when they are most active. As a result, the company successfully reduced customer acquisition costs (CACs) by 4% YoY while scaling customer spend 20%.

With data privacy already important to customers and regulatory bodies, integrating behavioral data responsibly is essential. Ensuring transparent communication about how their data is used will help foster long-term trust with your audience. But there’s no doubt behavioral data enables brands to deliver highly relevant, personalized offers and content, increasing the odds of conversion and long-term engagement.

The tech behind seamless personalization

Now that you know the “what” and “why” of personalization, let’s focus on the “how.”  To implement personalization most effectively, brands must have the right technology at their disposal. More specifically, look for a platform with these tools that can deliver personalized experiences at scale:

• Deep linking that supports direct, deferred, and universal/app link formats, seamlessly connecting users from emails, ads, web, or QR (quick response) codes directly to the precise content within your app — no matter what device or channel they use.
• Cross‑channel attribution that captures accurate attribution across paid, owned, and earned channels, providing a unified view of every customer journey to help you make reliable, data-driven decisions.
• Advanced analytics and segmentation that support robust cohort analysis and behavior-based segmentation, enabling you to target users based on specific behaviors — like app installs, purchases, or inactivity — and craft campaigns accordingly.
• A/B testing that can be run on banners, deep links, and messaging tailored to different segments for continuous optimization and audience relevance.

When you can leverage these innovative tools (ideally from one platform), you’re well on your way to building seamless, personalized journeys that not only meet but exceed your customers’ expectations.

Get to know your customers on a more personal level

According to an Adobe survey summarized across marketing research outlets, 89% of marketers report that personalized campaigns yield a positive return on investment, with many seeing significant revenue boosts from their targeted efforts. When personalized campaigns are executed across multiple touchpoints, whether through email, push notifications, texts, or in-app messaging, the results are often exponentially beneficial.

But real personalization takes a concerted effort. By focusing on messaging, segmentation, and behavioral data, you can begin to map out a plan that goes beyond surface-level interactions to one that truly resonates with your customers. The good news is there are solutions available now to execute your personalization strategy with confidence. When you can leverage platforms that provide AI-driven solutions, cross-channel messaging, and real-time behavioral data integration, you can deliver the kind of 1:1 experiences that customers crave.

Want to turn these strategies into action? Reach out to learn how Branch’s personalization solutions help you achieve measurable results while still respecting your customers’ privacy.

The post Get Personal With Customers — That’s What They Want appeared first on Branch.

You won’t see it featured in conference keynotes or at the heart of expensive digital campaigns. Most people won’t brag about their deep linking strategy at cocktail parties. Yet it may be the most critical piece of mobile infrastructure you’re not thinking about. And that’s exactly the problem.

This often-overlooked technology could be the difference between a seamless, fully functional funnel and a leaky one that loses a returning customer or an important transaction. In a privacy-first, multidevice, multichannel world, deep linking isn’t optional. It’s foundational.

Deep linking defined

At its core, deep linking is the ability to send a user directly to specific content inside your app. This could be a product page, a promo, a saved cart, or a referral reward. Instead of simply dropping someone on your app’s homepage and hoping they find their way, deep links provide guided, no-disruption tours.

There are two key types:

• Deferred deep links (which work even if the app isn’t installed). The user installs the app and then lands exactly where they were supposed to.
• Contextual deep links, which carry information like campaign source, referral data, or user ID along the way.

In both cases, deep linking is about preserving context so users never feel lost or abandoned. They’re picking up right where they left off, as expected.

Why deep linking deserves more credit

When executed well, deep linking solves one of the most painful, annoying problems in mobile marketing: friction. As it implies, friction can be any obstacle, delay, or confusion a customer encounters while trying to complete a desired action.

Mobile funnels are notoriously brittle and fraught with friction. Case in point: A user clicks an Instagram ad touting new running shoes. They’re asked to install the app, and after they do they land on a homepage where there are no shoes and no promo. You can bet there’s no sale either.

Now imagine that same journey with deep linking: A user clicks an Instagram ad touting new running shoes. They’re asked to install the app, and after they do they land on a page with that exact shoe. Voila!

That difference isn’t just about convenience. It’s about conversion.

A recent study found that generic user journeys, which have a CTI (click-to-install) rate of about 5%, while app deep-linked journeys deliver up to 6X higher conversion rates. And deep-linked users are more likely to return because the experience feels personal and more connected.

And it’s not just paid campaigns that benefit. Owned and earned channels — email, SMS, QR (quick response) codes, referral programs — all can see significant gains from deep links. According to industry reports, deep linking can increase the conversion rate of your app by over 50%.

What happens when you ignore it

On the flip side, failing to invest in deep linking can quietly tank your growth and customer satisfaction. Consider these consequences when links go awry:

• Broken user experience. Customers lose trust when they don’t end up where they expected. Drop-offs, confusion, and abandoned carts soon follow.
• Channel-level blindness. Without links that carry source/context data, attribution crumbles, resulting in ad campaigns with no measurement clarity.
• Retention issues. Good first impressions vanish when users don’t find their content or product offer fast enough — and then users vanish, too.

And because broken links don’t trigger alarms, you often don’t know it’s happening until you see flat usage numbers and rising acquisition costs.

Real results: Deep linking in action

Smart brands and marketers know the inherent value of deep linking and quietly put it to work as part of their mobile strategy. Here are just a few real-world case studies:

• Anghami, the leading music app in the Middle East, used contextual deep links across SMS and push campaigns to drive a 218% lift in subscriptions.
• Max Fashion deployed QR codes embedded with deep links during in-store campaigns, boosting app installs by 92% and online orders by 85%.
• END., a high-end streetwear brand, increased revenue 44% quarter-over-quarter by using smart banners with deep links to drive app adoption.
• OSN+, a streaming platform, generated 57% of new subscriptions from deep-linked owned media channels.

All of these brands share a common understanding: They realize that by removing friction in their user experiences — and keeping every link and action in context — they build retention, loyalty, and revenue.

The backbone of modern growth stacks

As basic as the concept of deep linking seems, it’s much more than a utility. Deep linking serves as the connective tissue that holds your entire growth stack together. Think about how it touches everything you care about and measure:

• Attribution. Accurate links tell you which channels work.
• Personalization. Route users to custom content or offers.
• Lifecycle marketing. Emails and SMS open exact experiences inside the app.
• Omni-channel strategy. From QR codes to social ads to affiliate links, deep links unify the journey.

Simply put, without deep linking, each channel becomes a silo — and each click becomes a roll of the dice.

Deep linking as a first-party data engine

There’s an emerging trend that also puts deep linking front and center. As Google begins to phase out third-party cookies and Apple tightens tracking restrictions, first-party data has become the new gold standard for mobile marketers.

Enter deep linking, which helps you capture this valuable data by embedding contextual parameters — like campaign source, referral IDs, or user preferences — directly into the link. These parameters remain even through app installs, allowing you to preserve user intent across platforms from the first interaction, all while remaining privacy-compliant.

Time to look under the hood

Growth doesn’t always come from what’s flashy. The biggest wins often come from the infrastructure no one talks about — like the links powering your best campaigns behind the scenes. If you’re serious about optimizing funnels, lifting lifetime value (LTV), and reducing waste, it might be time to stop treating deep linking like a checkbox and start treating it like the growth engine it truly is.

Interested in what that could look like for you? Check out how Branch powers deep linking for leading brands and marketers.

The post Deep Linking: The Unsung Hero of Mobile Growth appeared first on Branch.

Recently, Reed Kuhn, Branch’s Head of Business Strategy, sat down with the “Business of Apps” podcast to share some of the sharp lessons and best practices he’s gleaned being at the forefront of this rapidly evolving industry. Here’s an excerpt from that interview, which has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: You’ve seen a lot of different apps and approaches. Have you developed a guiding principle for what actually delivers value to users?

A: Yes, over the years, most of our customers’ apps fall into two buckets based on what they’re trying to achieve in terms of value:

1. Commerce apps. These are your retailers, fast food chains, big box retailers like Best Buy, and even department stores like Nordstrom. Users are going there to shop, and we know that conversion rates are much higher in these apps than on mobile web or even desktop. The app makes it easier for the user to shop and in some cases get support. If you want to manage a delivery or send something back, you can do that in the app rather than having to call someone.
2. Companion apps. On the flip side, you have apps that don’t really sell anything, but they still serve a very important purpose to the user. Whereas commerce apps are conversion focused, companion apps are more feature focused. “Am I able to access information?” For example, almost everybody has a banking app on their phone, so you’re able to access your balance, manage your account, etc., and those would count as conversions. But mainly you’re there to interact, and the app plays a role of self-service.

I think entertainment apps fall into the companion category because you’re not subscribing or upgrading every month. For example, I’m on Spotify and I upgraded once probably a decade ago, so I’m a very high lifetime value (LTV) customer for them. If I didn’t have the app and I wasn’t able to play music through my smart speakers, I might not see that brand as worth the monthly subscription. I might eventually churn. Spotify’s app is a churn prevention tool for them.

It’s weird to consider a bank app and a streaming app as functionally similar, but they are. Their mission is to drive 100% app adoption among their paying customers. And where I might only have one or two financial institutions that I interact with, or one streaming music platform, I might shop at 10 different brands throughout the year, so it’s harder to justify downloading another commerce app, registering, and onboarding. That’s why I think companion apps have the real value. The cost to serve the average customer is just so much less when the user can self-service in the app.

Q: When mobile growth goes wrong, what actually trips people up? Are there common mistakes you keep seeing?

A: One situation sticks out early in my career. A mobile team on the app product side was running a campaign to migrate users from mobile web to the app via banners. We saw very positive results. Thousands of people were installing the app, but our mobile web team was raising hell. They were mad that the app was stealing all these customers from the web. I was dumbfounded. I’m like, “You guys have the same stock price. Why are you arguing over where these users convert?” It’s okay to see the web side go down as long as the app goes up.

When you have siloed teams, that is fundamentally the problem; they don’t have a single North Star key performance indicator (KPI), which should be just total revenue growth or customer experience. So, I think that’s the big trip up that prevents certain teams from keeping up with their competitors who, conversely, may have one product team for all mobile that includes app and web. They have a singular objective measured on one KPI, not two. And that’s where I see those brands really hustling and getting ahead.

Q: Now, if someone wanted a quick win, something simple that actually works, where would you direct them?

A: Here again, I would divide brands into two groups:

• Brands that already have a critical mass of app adoption.
• Brands that are playing catch-up with less than 10% of mobile traffic in the app.

Just compare app monthly active users (MAU) to mobile web MAU and you can quickly assess where a company is on this curve. So, if you have very low app adoption and you suddenly start deep linking all of your email, which is a big effort, nothing much happens. Only a few users are now deep linked in. And yes, that’s a benefit. But if you want to move the needle, you need to do the early work of driving app adoption.

That’s where smart banners come in and QR (quick response) codes. How do you get people on your owned channels to download your app? You already have traffic. You have in-store traffic. You have web traffic, desktop and mobile. Those are all sources where you can migrate users into the app effectively for free. And then you have all your paid channels. You have ad campaigns to try to get people to install the app, even Apple search ads. So that’s where the work needs to be done early on. Get a critical mass of app adoption. And leverage owned channels because it’s so efficient and so cheap. That’s where the quickest win is.

Q: Now, on the flip side, what are some of the smartest strategies you’ve seen lately that really impressed you?

A: For me, it’s all about efficiency. I had a webinar years ago titled “Your Next Source of Growth Is Already Your Customer.” How do you turn customers into your own marketer? So, going back to Spotify, they effectively have made their app viral. Trying to find a song or a playlist is actually quite difficult. They have such a vast library. But by adding a share link, they allow users to text a friend with a song or playlist. Same goes for a retail site where you want to share a particular product. These are one-to-one sharing links where the user initiates the action. Hopefully these sites are deep linking that, so the brand gets the attribution. They get viral growth. That is a great use case.

I’ve got some great screenshots of LeBron James sharing a Pandora playlist that he plays before games and one of former President Obama sharing a podcast that he did. And they’re sharing it on social media with millions of followers. If people click on that, it opens the app, takes them directly to that content. That is free growth, free MAU for the brand because they enabled that feature.

Q: Shifting gears, what’s been coming up more often in conversations with clients lately? Maybe something that wasn’t on the radar a few years back?

A: Yeah, I do think there’s been an evolution. I talked about companion apps and how they’re very much about self-service and just allowing users to engage. What it really translates into in terms of value is reduced cost to serve. And we have worked with brands that really have this down to a particular number. They know that the users who use the app and engage with the app make fewer phone calls on average per year. And this call center deflection is hugely important right now.

First of all, saving costs is more important than raising revenues. As much as we love to report growth, margin is way more important just from a management perspective. And it was not really being affected by mobile apps until recently. But now brands are getting that, and we have all these different channels to play with that will bring costs down. And when you do that at scale for a massive company, even a 1% savings off of an annual call center could add up to tens, hundreds of millions of dollars.

Q: Any gut predictions about what might shift in the next couple of years? Anything farther out that feels big, even if it feels a bit sci-fi?

A: In the future I think we’ll see two things:

1. We all know that ads in AI search results are coming. You’re going to start seeing more promoted results or listings within the AI result. And so, there’s going to be a bit of a land grab as brands try to get into that game. It’s going to get monetized very quickly.
2.  Also, you’re going to see how we allow AI agents to interact with brands. I ran an experiment through AI asking, “Does this fast-food chain deliver?” I clicked on the link and it took me to a 404 webpage on the brand’s website. So, not only did I not get what I was looking for, I was put in a dead end. But had that link opened the app, which I have, and dropped me on the order flow, I would have gotten exactly what I was looking for. Do they deliver? Yes. Do you want to order right now? Boom, I’m ready to go. I think brands need to optimize their own search results to feed these AI agents so that they link to the right place.

The really forward-looking step is enabling AI agents to actually interact with the apps themselves. So, you’re going to probably have user approval, set credentials, etc., and then say, “Next time I want to order from this brand, just go ahead and do it. I want you to order this item and have it delivered.” And AI will open the app and effectively do it for you.

You can listen to the full podcast here, and download the Do’s and Don’ts to Supercharge Your Mobile Growth Strategy checklist. Consider this handy checklist when looking to boost
conversions, optimize campaigns, and increase revenue.

Download the checklist

The post Lessons From Consulting Hundreds of Apps: Q&A With Branch’s Head of Business Strategy appeared first on Branch.

That ends now.

MetricWorks, Roku, and Branch have partnered to unlock accurate, scalable, and privacy-safe performance measurement on CTV — for the first time.

Why CTV deserves more attention

CTV is no longer a branding-only play. With consumers spending more time streaming than watching cable, marketers are increasingly turning to CTV to reach real audiences at scale. But reach means little without understanding what actually drives outcomes.

Performance marketers need more than a CPM; they need to know:

• Which CTV impressions lead to app installs?
• Which campaigns drive real re-engagements and revenue?
• What spend is wasted and what spend deserves more budget?

They need attribution. They need incrementality. They need proof.

Until now, these answers have been out of reach.

Why Roku is the platform to bet on

Roku isn’t just another streaming platform. It’s the #1 TV streaming platform in the U.S. by hours streamed, with a robust native ad ecosystem, deep audience segmentation, and end-to-end control of the viewing experience.

With Roku, advertisers can reach highly engaged viewers in a premium environment. And now, for the first time, they can measure the mobile impact of those campaigns directly with Branch.

Branch: The first mobile measurement partner (MMP) to provide Roku attribution

That’s where Branch comes in. Branch is now available to provide attribution for Roku campaigns.

This means marketers can now connect ad exposures on Roku to mobile app installs, re-engagements, and downstream events — unlocking true cross-platform performance insights.

It’s a breakthrough for any team that runs user acquisition or re-engagement across channels.

MetricWorks: Closing the loop with incrementality

And finally, MetricWorks ties it all together with AI-powered, MMM-based incrementality measurement, giving marketers the ability to understand what’s truly driving value, not just what gets credit.

By ingesting Roku impression data and Branch-attributed outcomes, MetricWorks allows you to quantify CTV’s lift and optimize accordingly.

The bottom line

With Roku reach, Branch attribution, and MetricWorks incrementality, the performance equation is finally complete — so now you can measure, optimize, and grow.

Want to understand what Roku CTV can do for your business?

Book a meeting with MetricWorks and Branch and start measuring what matters.

The post CTV Attribution, Solved: Why Advertisers Should Care About Roku, Branch, and MetricWorks appeared first on Branch.

You can pump up your DAUs with push notifications, retargeting ads, and paid installs as much as you like. None of it will matter if users abandon or ghost your website or app (the average mobile app loses 71% of users one day after they download and close to 90% of users after a month). Growth that doesn’t stick isn’t really growth — it’s noise.

Vanity metrics are easy to manipulate

DAUs and MAUs tell you how many people showed up on your app or website, but they don’t tell you why, or if they’ll ever come back. Worse, they can be dangerously, even illegally misleading if they mask churn, low engagement, or a poor product-market fit.

With enough ad spend and clever tricks, you can make any app or website look successful on paper. But the market eventually sees through the façade. Investors, partners, and — most importantly — customers want something deeper and more meaningful: a product people return to because they actually care.

Retention is the real growth catalyst

What if you flipped the script. Instead of obsessing over how many people show up on your app or website, you focus on how many users stick around? Because here’s the kicker: retention compounds.

Boosting customer retention by a mere 5% can amplify profits by as much as 95%, according to research from Bain & Company. When customers stick around, it’s a clear signal that your product delivers sustained value, which in turn significantly enhances customer lifetime value (LTV). Maybe more significantly, customers who stick become power users, advocates, and sources of sustainable growth.

Why do users stay?

The most successful digital experiences in the world didn’t win the battle because they had flashy ads. They grew because they consistently solved real problems and made people’s lives better. Brands like Reddit, La Redoute, and Makemytrip built their platforms not on hype but on community autonomy, exquisite design, and affordable travel, respectively.

To drive retention, you need to deliver the right experience at the right time in the right context. Here’s a great start.

3 steps to turn DAUs into devoted users

To improve user retention and move beyond surface-level metrics like DAUs, you must create smooth, contextual, and effortless user journeys. Get started with these three steps.

1. Deliver on intent with deep linking

Most user churn happens when there’s friction between what customers expect and what they actually get. Today’s deep linking ensures users land exactly where they meant to go — whether they’re opening your app or visiting your site for the first time or the fiftieth. We do this through:

• Deferred deep linking: Even if the user installs your app after clicking a link, Branch remembers where they were headed and drops them right into that in-app experience after install.
• Cross-platform compatibility: Whether it’s SMS, email, social, or web, Branch links deliver a seamless experience across all platforms and channels.

Case in point: Dailymotion used deep links to create smooth user journeys and saw a 71% increase in 30-day user retention.

2. Personalize experiences through behavioral analytics

Once users are in the door (or on your platform), retention depends on relevance. Now you’re able to understand and act on customer behavior through powerful analytics and user-level data, including:

• Tracking the entire user journey from first click to long-term usage.
• Segmenting users based on behavior and context to personalize their experience.

Case in point: IMDb used analytics to streamline A/B testing, resulting in a 443% increase in app downloads.

3. Reengage without being spammy

Say goodbye to those generic push notifications that no one really likes. Instead, there are smarter ways to bring your users back without annoying them:

• Smart banners on your mobile site that guide customers into your app.
• QR codes that connect offline experiences to relevant, consistent digital actions.
• Referrals and invites that track engagement across your channels.

These tools allow you to reengage users at the right moment, with the right message — and measure what actually works.

Case in point: KFC launched a pop-up pub campaign featuring QR codes and achieved an 85% uplift in app installs.

Loyalty can’t be bought

Let’s face it: people don’t become loyal users because you tricked them into opening the app with a pop-up ad. Loyalty is earned. It’s the result of consistent value, seamless experiences, and respectful reengagement. That’s why smart marketing teams are moving from surface-level stats to meaningful usage data.

Instead of asking “How many people opened the app today?” they’re asking questions like:

•  “How many completed onboarding?”
•  “Are users discovering the key features?”
•  “Who’s coming back in week two? And why?”

Today’s innovative tools let you go deep into these questions, tracking cohorts, journeys, and LTV across platforms and campaigns.

Better metrics lead to smarter growth

We understand that tracking DAUs, number of impressions, click-through rates (CTR), and other metrics will always count for something. They certainly show signs of life on your app or website. But they’re just the first step. If you’re serious about building something enduring, it’s time to optimize for the moments after a user takes action. That’s where real growth begins.

With Branch solutions, you can do more than attract users — you can guide them, engage them, and keep them coming back. After all, retention isn’t just a feature; it’s your most important KPI. Ready to start building retention-first growth? We’re here to help.

The post Chasing DAUs? Real Growth Starts When People Actually Care appeared first on Branch.

What is call center deflection?

Call center deflection is the process of reducing inbound calls by guiding customers to self-service options — usually through mobile apps or digital channels — before they ever speak to a human agent. It’s not about avoiding service; it’s about providing faster, more convenient support while cutting cost-to-serve.

Whether you’re in healthcare, e-commerce, telecom, or banking, driving customers toward self-service is a win-win. And with deep linking technology from Branch, you can make those transitions effortless.

Deflect calls with smarter support links

Branch makes it easy to route users from any channel — SMS, email, chatbot, push notifications, QR codes, or even during a live call — directly to the right place inside your app. Think of it as a shortcut that eliminates frustration and confusion.

We’ve seen brands effectively utilize call center deflection in a variety of ways, including:

• Account management
• Card or product activation
• Document uploads
• Billing and payment screens
• Family member additions
• Promotion or referral activations

By meeting users where they are, and guiding them to the exact screen they need, you eliminate the steps (and friction) that would otherwise land them in your call queue.

Understand what’s working with attribution for support links

Branch’s attribution tracks which support messages and channels are actually reducing calls so you can optimize your customer support strategy over time.

Want to know if your SMS with a deep link is more effective than your email? Or which chatbot flows lead to resolved issues without human intervention? Branch gives you the insights to find out.

And it doesn’t stop there. Branch also shows how users move among channels, where they drop off, and which journeys lead to resolution or conversion. That means you’re not just deflecting calls; you’re actually building better customer experiences.

A mobile-first strategy that saves money

Mobile apps offer 24/7 convenience and are far more scalable than call centers. With Branch, you can drive app adoption and increase engagement with deep links that:

• Drive pre-call education or onboarding
• Provide real-time assistance during a call via SMS or push
• Promote new features post-call to build long-term relationships

Companies that adopt a mobile-first approach see major savings by minimizing call center volume, eliminating paper mailings, and reducing agent intervention — especially in high-cost scenarios like account management, identity verification, and application processing.

According to industry data, each call center interaction can cost over $5 per call. Multiply that by thousands of calls a month, and the savings from call deflection become massive.

Use case examples from top brands

Global brands like Reddit, Instacart, Zocdoc, and Western Union use Branch to streamline their support and engagement efforts. Here’s how companies put Branch to work:

• QR codes on mail or packaging drive users to paperless opt-ins or activation screens
• Deferred deep links in SMS drive app installs and immediately open relevant support content
• Email or push notifications link directly to features like check deposits, billing info, or status updates

Make support seamless and scalable

If you want to improve digital KPIs, reduce your support costs, and deliver customer service that actually delights, Branch is a no-brainer. Our powerful deep linking and attribution tools are built for enterprise scale and support over 100,000 brands worldwide.

Whether you’re a fintech company trying to reduce loan application call volume or an online retailer guiding returns through your app — Branch helps you deflect calls, reduce friction, and grow revenue.

Ready to optimize your call center strategy? Connect with us!

The post Cut Call Center Costs and Improve Customer Experience with Branch Deep Linking appeared first on Branch.

In a previous blog, we covered what deep linking is and why it matters. Now, let’s focus on how to evaluate your deep linking options, along with what capabilities actually matter when it comes to growth, engagement, and ROI.

What should a deep linking platform do?

• Cover every channel — not just paid ads, but also email, social, SEO, and QR codes
• Drive seamless user experiences — even across platforms, devices, and operating systems
• Provide reliable attribution — for paid, owned, and earned campaigns
• Uphold privacy and compliance — with security certifications and strong privacy principles
• Promote operational efficiency — for teams managing links and analyzing performance at scale

If your deep linking platform can’t deliver on these, you’re leaving growth and insights on the table.

Evaluate based on your channels and goals

Let’s break it down by key use cases to help you evaluate solutions based on what you need to achieve.

Paid campaigns: ads to app

For paid advertising, the stakes are high — you’ve already invested to get the click, so every broken link or missed attribution opportunity costs you. The right solution should offer seamless routing from ad to app, ensuring that users land exactly where you want them, regardless of device or platform. It should also support SKAdNetwork (SKAN) for iOS, handle postbacks, and integrate with major ad networks. When done right, deep linking not only improves user experience but also gives you a clearer picture of which campaigns are driving conversions and ROI.

Owned channels: email, website, push, SMS

Owned channels like email, push notifications, SMS, and your website are critical for driving engagement — as are the links that power these communications. These channels are some of your most cost-effective ways to re-engage users and drive repeat actions. You need a platform that enables quick link creation, supports user-level personalization, and offers smart routing based on whether the user has your app installed or not. Most importantly, it should empower your marketing team to create and manage these links without relying on developers for every update.

Social & organic: SEO, social posts

Social and organic channels can be unpredictable — especially with walled gardens, in-app browsers, and constant algorithm changes. That’s why your deep links need to be robust enough to handle all those edge cases. Whether someone is clicking a link in Instagram Stories or finding your content through a search engine, your platform should be able to route them to the best possible in-app experience. Bonus points if it also gives you visibility into how your organic efforts are contributing to app growth, engagement, and retention.

Offline to app: QR codes, desktop, packaging

Offline channels — including QR codes, desktop banners, connected TV (CTV), and physical packaging — present unique opportunities to drive users into your app. But bridging the gap from physical to digital isn’t always straightforward. You need a deep linking solution that supports cross-platform journeys, allows for branded and dynamic QR codes, and gives you the analytics to measure performance. Whether someone scans a code in-store or clicks a banner on their laptop, they should land in the right place inside your app — and you should be able to track it.

Partner & affiliate marketing

For affiliate and partner programs, accurate deep linking is essential. You want to make sure each partner’s traffic is routed correctly and credited properly — and that users have a frictionless experience along the way. That means using a solution that simplifies link creation for partners, offers partner-level attribution, and includes built-in protections against fraud or manipulation. As your program scales, the ability to manage and track these links centrally will save time and protect your ROI.

The power of combining deep linking and measurement

To truly understand and optimize user journeys, you need more than links — you need data. When deep linking and attribution live in the same platform, everything gets easier:

• Use one link for every campaign — across paid, owned, and earned
• Capture accurate attribution and SKAN conversions without extra tools
• Unify performance reporting in one place
• Quickly spot what’s working and double down

Branch brings all of this together in a single platform — helping you grow smarter, faster, and more efficiently. And as privacy regulations and platform policies evolve, your deep linking solution needs to keep up. Branch is built to be future-proof, with privacy-safe measurement like Predictive Aggregate Measurement and support for SKAN and other compliance frameworks. That means you stay compliant and competitive.

Because Branch is a cloud-based platform, you can be sure your links will always work — no matter what changes occur on your website or app. Furthermore, in every edge case, your deep links will route users to the best destination.

Branch combines every deep linking standard into a single, simple package. It’s easy to implement and always up to date.

Want to learn even more about Branch deep links can help you grow your mobile app? Check out our Definitive Guide to Deep Linking white paper.

The post How to Choose the Right Deep Linking Solution for Your Marketing Strategy appeared first on Branch.

This is the frustrating reality of the mobile funnel — the path users take from discovery (e.g., reading a blog post or clicking a QR code) to action (e.g., installing your app or making a purchase) often gets lost. In fact, most mobile funnels are downright broken. They’re messy, unpredictable, and full of friction that kills conversions.

The good news? You can fix yours. Read on to discover where most mobile funnels fall apart, what a high-performing funnel looks like, and how Branch can help you get there with the right strategy.

Why your mobile funnel isn’t converting

In our conversations with customers, we consistently hear three reasons why mobile funnels underperform or fail to convert:

Your user flow is “leaky”

An ideal mobile funnel should be seamless. A user discovers your brand via a blog post, taps a CTA to “download the app to continue,” installs the app, and lands on the exact content they started with. Sounds ideal, right?

In reality, it’s rarely that smooth. Here’s what typically happens:

• A user clicks a link from an Instagram story, which opens in an in-app browser.
• The link redirects through multiple pages before landing in the App Store.
• After install, the user opens the app… to a generic home screen with no trace of why they came there in the first place.

That’s a broken user flow — and it’s one of the top reasons mobile funnels fail. Every delay, redirect, or lost context increases the chance of abandonment. It’s annoying for your customers and even more aggravating for you. But there are more problems ahead.

Cross-platform friction is killing your conversions

Mobile journeys are inherently cross-platform. Users bounce between desktop and mobile, from web to app, and across operating systems. When those transitions aren’t smooth, users lose patience, get frustrated — or worse, they give up and abandon the journey.

Here’s an example: 

A user receives a promotional email on their Android phone, clicks a link, and gets redirected to your mobile website. They get busy or distracted and stop engaging. Later that evening, they try to open the link on their iPad — but it breaks. The link wasn’t optimized for iOS or cross-device handoffs.

This friction among platforms essentially erases the user’s intent. They didn’t get what they expected, and now, they’re gone, possibly never to return.

This kind of cross-platform friction is conversion’s worst enemy. It introduces confusion, breaks momentum, and undermines trust. And yet, there is still another big reason mobile funnels fail.

You can’t optimize what you can’t see

If your funnel leaks, of course, you want to fix it. But to do that, you need data. Unfortunately, most mobile funnels are black boxes. Traditional links and app stores don’t preserve attribution or user-journey data. That means you don’t know where users came from, what content drove them, or where they dropped off.

Without these critical insights, you can’t A/B test flows, attribute conversions, or double down on what’s working. And that makes real, consistent funnel optimization nearly impossible.

What a healthy mobile funnel looks like

Conversely, when mobile funnels are operating at peak efficiency, you’ll notice these common, beneficial characteristics that create an air-tight conversion capability:   

Preserves intent

Every click carries a story. Maybe it’s a product someone wants, a promo they care about, or a recommendation from a creator they trust. A healthy funnel respects that intent. Whether the user installs your app or switches devices, they land exactly where they expected — on the content or action that originally caught their interest.

Minimizes friction

The more hoops a user jumps through, the more likely they’ll leave. A good mobile funnel reduces redirects, adapts to different platforms, and ensures users don’t feel like they’re starting over with every step.

The best funnels perform as the user expects: one tap, one action, one smooth journey.

Delivers personalization and continuity

Smart, effective funnels don’t just drop users into the app — they pick up where the web or the last part of the experience left off. That could mean:

• Opening a detailed product page the user was browsing
• Continuing a sign-up flow from mobile web
• Loading a saved cart after install

This kind of predictable continuity increases engagement and improves retention. Users feel understood — and that feeling drives loyalty, not to mention long-term revenue.

3 keys to building a mobile funnel that works – consistently

Now that you know what a well-performing funnel looks like, here are three steps you can take to power up your own high-conversion mobile funnel:

1. Use smart linking across every channel

Smart links or quick links are built for today’s mobile journeys. Whether a user clicks from a blog, social post, QR code, or email, these links adapt to the platform, OS, and app install status. The result? Less cross-platform friction, better routing, and a consistent user experience from start to finish.

2. Apply deferred deep linking

Deferred deep linking technology ensures users land on the right content — even if they need to install the app first. If someone taps a product link in an email but doesn’t have the app installed, they’ll go to the App Store. Once they open the app, deep linking brings them right to that product page. Intent preserved. Conversion unlocked.

3. Unify funnel insights

Understand the real impact of your campaigns and make better decisions with data in one place. With full-funnel attribution, you’ll know:

• Which content or channel drove each conversion
• Where users dropped off
• How to improve performance over time

This means you can iterate, test, and optimize your funnel with confidence — especially if you’re using a mobile measurement or deep linking platform that unifies cross-channel data into a single view.

Create a mobile funnel that thinks like your users do

Your users don’t set out on their journey thinking about platforms, channels, or devices. They just want things to work as expected.

When you optimize your mobile funnel — by reducing friction, preserving intent, and creating seamless transitions — you don’t just improve conversion rates. You build trust, drive engagement, and create better experiences, which leads to long-term value.

Even if you don’t use Branch, now you know what to look for: smarter links, cleaner flows, and better data. But if you want a faster way to get there, we recommend you learn more about Branch  or reach out to start building smarter mobile funnels today.

The post Mobile Funnels Are a Hot Mess, But Yours Doesn’t Have to Be appeared first on Branch.