Branch Releases State of App Growth Survey

Branch, a linking and measurement partner for enterprises, has released its State of App Growth survey report, highlighting challenges facing mobile marketers across attribution, user acquisition, privacy, and retention.

The research found that only 8% of surveyed companies have a fully unified view of app marketing performance across multiple channels. In addition, just 18% of respondents said they were very confident in their ability to accurately attribute app installs.

Unified Marketing Measurement Remains a Challenge

The findings indicate that many companies continue to face difficulties connecting marketing performance data across different channels.

Without a unified view, marketers can face challenges understanding which campaigns, channels, and customer interactions are contributing to app growth.

Branch said the research highlights the need for stronger measurement capabilities that connect performance information across the mobile marketing ecosystem.

User Acquisition Is a Major Growth Challenge

Scaling user acquisition while controlling costs was identified as the biggest acquisition challenge by 36% of respondents.

Other major challenges included:

• 24% cited converting advertising clicks into app installs.

• 23% identified reaching the right users through paid campaigns.

• 61% said deep linking is an important opportunity for improving advertising campaign performance.

The findings suggest that marketers are focused not only on generating traffic but also on improving the journey from an advertisement or marketing interaction to an actual app installation.

Privacy Changes Affect Attribution

Privacy developments continue to influence how companies approach mobile attribution and marketing measurement.

The research found that 41% of respondents are experiencing greater challenges with cross-channel attribution as a result of privacy changes.

Meanwhile, 40% said privacy changes have made contextual targeting more important, and another 40% reported increased costs associated with data collection and analysis.

Privacy Regulations Create Measurement Blind Spots

According to the survey, 74% of respondents believe privacy regulations are creating costly measurement blind spots.

Changes involving technologies and regulations such as SKAdNetwork, GDPR, and Apple's App Tracking Transparency (ATT) have affected the way marketers collect, connect, and analyze mobile marketing data.

These changes can make it more difficult for organizations to establish a complete picture of customer journeys across advertising, app installs, and other digital interactions.

Retention Remains a Key Mobile Marketing Issue

The research also identified user retention as a major concern for mobile marketers.

Respondents highlighted three leading retention challenges:

• 47% cited difficulty activating user data for personalization.

• 47% reported challenges tracking and measuring retention success.

• 43% said they lack visibility into user behavior after acquisition.

These findings show that mobile growth strategies increasingly need to address what happens after a user installs an application, rather than focusing solely on acquisition.

Focus on Retention and Engagement

Paula Mantle, VP of Marketing at Branch, said marketers can sometimes associate growth primarily with increased acquisition spending.

According to Mantle, brands can also drive growth by focusing on retention, engagement, and consistent customer experiences across platforms.

The company views an active and loyal user base as an important component of sustainable mobile growth.

Survey Covers Global Marketing and Product Leaders

Branch conducted the research in collaboration with GlobalSurveyz, collecting more than 700 survey responses from marketing and product executives at global companies.

The survey examined key challenges related to mobile attribution, user acquisition, user retention, and marketing measurement.

Implications for Mobile Marketing Teams

The research highlights several areas that mobile marketers continue to address, including cross-channel measurement, acquisition costs, attribution accuracy, privacy-related data limitations, personalization, and retention tracking.

Together, the findings indicate that mobile growth strategies are increasingly dependent on the ability to connect marketing data, understand customer behavior, and measure performance throughout the complete app lifecycle.