Branch has released its State of App Growth report that show companies struggling to have a fully unified view of their app marketing performance across multiple channels as well as their ability to accurately attribute app installs.
Only 8% of marketers report having a fully unified view of app performance across channels, while the majority are working with either mostly unified (54%) or partially unified (39%) data. With continued investment in consolidation and collaboration, more teams are laying the groundwork for a connected, cross-channel view.
Attribution remains a work in progress as just 18% of marketers say they feel very confident in their ability to match installs to the correct source, while 82% report only partial clarity. Respondents reported they are actively exploring new approaches to improve visibility and make more informed decisions.
Growth Depends on Base
Branch, the industry’s leading linking and measurement partner for the enterprise, and GlobalSurveyz collected over 700 survey responses from marketing and product executives at global companies to learn their top mobile attribution, user acquisition, retention and measurement challenges.
Paula Mantle, VP of Marketing at Branch, said too often, marketers think growth comes from pouring more money into acquisition. “But the brands breaking through are the ones doubling down on retention, engagement and consistency across every platform,” said Mantle. “An active, loyal user base is the real growth engine.”
Key Report Findings
Marketers continued to be focused on achieving scale without driving up costs as 36% say this is their biggest challenge, followed by converting ad clicks into installs (24%) and reaching the right users (23%).
Deep linking is widely used for onboarding (63%) and campaign performance (61%), but its role in retention is still emerging. Only 20% use it to re-engage lapsed users, and 5% apply it to referral programs. According to Mantle, this gap presents a clear opportunity to extend deep linking’s value across the full user journey.
Privacy regulations are accelerating innovation in attribution and data strategy— 41% of marketers say cross-channel attribution has become more difficult, while 40% report an increased focus on contextual targeting and 39% point to rising costs of data collection and analysis. As a result, new technical approaches being adopting include server-side tracking (38%) and first-party data strategies (30%).
To access the full survey results, download the State of App Growth report here.
