Choosing the right mobile measurement partner (MMP) is a critical decision for any business looking to optimize its mobile marketing efforts. An MMP helps you measure, analyze, and improve your campaigns by providing valuable insights into user behavior, campaign performance, and attribution. However, with many options available, each providing different features and capabilities, it can be challenging to determine which MMP best suits your needs.

To make an informed choice, it’s important to consider several key factors, such as how the MMP will integrate into your tech stack, handle mobile attribution, support an omni-channel, cross-device approach, and comply with evolving privacy regulations.

In this blog, we’ll explore the top questions you should consider when selecting an MMP to ensure that you have the right tools to drive your mobile marketing success.

Here’s a quick summary of features you should be on the lookout for:

High API thresholds
Custom webhooks
Unlimited seats
Open software development kit (SDK)
Easy integrations
Last-touch attribution
Holistic view of data
In-app event tracking
Complete user-journey performance
Link-level analytics
A/B testing on smart banners
Multiple parameters and custom link logic
Personalization options
SKAdNetwork (SKAN) expertise
Privacy-preserving attribution techniques
Cross-device household measurement
Cost data aggregation and insights
Comprehensive onboarding
Continued support

How will an MMP fit into your tech stack?

It’s important to think through how well an MMP will interact with your existing tools and processes. What other systems need access to MMP data? What integrations will you need? How many people on your team will need access to set up campaigns, look at data, and build reports?

Once you understand how an MMP will fit into your existing workflows and tools, there are a few MMP features to be mindful of when it comes to data access and tech-stack integration:

High API thresholds: Only some MMPs offer high API thresholds, but this will allow you to access your data freely without worrying about overage charges. High thresholds enable you to scale your data usage according to your needs, maintaining control over your data and avoiding unexpected costs.
Custom webhooks: With the ability to set up custom webhooks, MMPs allow you to tailor data flows to your specific business needs. This customization ensures that data is routed precisely where it needs to go within your tech stack, whether to analytics tools, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, or other marketing platforms.
Unlimited seats: Some MMPs offer unlimited seats, allowing all relevant teams — such as marketing, product, and analytics — to access and benefit from the data. This inclusive approach ensures that insights are widely available across your organization, facilitating better collaboration and decision-making.
Open SDK: An open SDK provides the customization, flexibility, and transparency necessary to adapt the MMP to your unique requirements. This helps avoid vendor lock-in and gives you the ability to maintain greater control over how the MMP fits into your tech stack.
Easy integrations with your marketing ecosystem: Your MMP should offer easy integrations with various marketing tools like Braze and Amplitude, as well as email service providers. These integrations help connect attribution data with other key parts of your tech stack, providing valuable insights that inform your overall marketing strategy and offering a holistic view of user behavior and campaign performance.

With these features an MMP can be a powerful ally in measuring, analyzing, and optimizing your marketing efforts across channels.

How should you attribute data?

Attribution is a major consideration when it comes to choosing an MMP. Different MMPs have different attribution methodologies, which could greatly affect the insights you receive.

You’ll likely want to understand in-app events and what a user does after they install your mobile app. Some MMPs don’t get to this level of data and, instead, stop measuring anything at install. But mobile marketers know that engagement is often more important than acquisition for app growth, and engagement doesn’t end at install — so why should your measurement solution? Better MMPs will have more attributable events and allow marketers to understand a wider breadth of user behaviors.

In addition, some MMPs tout multi-touch attribution, which is extremely difficult in today’s privacy-centric world, while others suggest that app-install touch is the best way to understand how well marketing campaigns are performing. Ideally, an MMP would provide at the very least both install-touch and last-touch attribution to allow marketers the flexibility to really understand the effectiveness of various campaigns and return on ad spend (ROAS) as well as use data-driven insights to optimize campaigns, boost user acquisition, and increase lifetime value (LTV) over time. Specifically, last-touch attribution helps marketers understand what drove conversions after the install, which is especially important for lifecycle marketers who want to measure important events like purchases, add to carts, registrations, etc.

How are you going to balance an omni-channel, cross-device approach?

Modern marketers know that you can’t do only paid advertising. Omni-channel campaigns are essential, but historically, it’s been hard to compare your organic marketing channels like social or email to paid ads — not only because the data tends to live in two different places, but also because many MMPs don’t perform deduplication to ensure your ads don’t cannibalize organic traffic. So it’s important for an MMP to be able to combine attribution for all your channels into one holistic view as well as deduplicate your data for ad performance across all household devices, including connected TV (CTV).

Alongside deduplication and a holistic view, a better understanding of owned and earned attribution helps marketers better understand incremental advertising impact. This data is also helpful with fraud detection. The more owned and earned data you have, the better algorithms are able to identify fraud on paid ad spend because the data models learn from all the imputed data.

A great MMP should also be able to measure performance throughout the entire user journey, from initial brand exposure to last touch. Being able to capture every interaction across paid channels with cross-platform, cross-device, and cross-channel views as well as build custom audiences in the MMP will help you understand who your best users are and retain them.

So as you’re considering an MMP that can balance your omni-channel, cross-device approach, you will need:

Holistic view: A holistic view that combines ad performance data with owned and earned data not only provides superior insights but is also better for fraud detection.
Deduplication: Deduplication gives you peace of mind that your ads aren’t cannibalizing your organic traffic and you’re spending correctly.
In-app event tracking: Make sure your MMP can measure beyond install so you can understand in-app events and user behavior better.
Complete user-journey performance: The ability to measure performance across the entire lifecycle of a customer, including across household devices if channels like CTV are important in your marketing strategy, is key. Custom audience creation will also help you keep the customers you have and understand how to efficiently acquire more.

These features will ensure that you have the most accurate attribution data possible, which should ultimately be the main goal of any good MMP.

How are you going to make the most impact with your links?

While historically MMPs have been focused on ads, great MMPs also offer support for organic channels through deep linking. By combining the power of deep linking to transform organic traffic into high-value, loyal users with the sophisticated attribution and performance insights of the right MMP, mobile marketers can drive outsized value.

But not just any deep links will do. How are you going to personalize them? What information can you use for custom logic? What is your end goal when a user is clicking on the link? How can you use smart banners with deep links to boost app installs and engagement? The best mobile measurement partners should be able to help you answer these questions and easily set up your links for success.

It’s important to get not only the functionality of deep links correct but also the analytics so you can optimize performance. To make the most impact with your links, it’s essential to leverage advanced link features that go beyond basic tracking. By utilizing link-level analytics, A/B testing, and custom link logic, you can optimize user engagement and improve overall campaign performance. Here are some features to look for that will help maximize the impact of your links:

Link-level analytics: By diving deep into link-level analytics, you can gain valuable insights into how each link performs across different channels and audiences. This data allows you to understand user behavior, identify which links are driving the most engagement, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your strategies.
A/B testing on smart banners: Implementing A/B testing on smart banners helps you identify the most effective messaging, design, and calls to action. By continuously testing different variations, you can fine-tune your approach to maximize click-through rates (CTRs) and conversions, ensuring that your links are as impactful as possible.
Multiple parameters and custom link logic: Using multiple parameters in your links provides more detailed information, which can be used to personalize the user experience and tailor content to specific audience segments. More parameters mean richer data, enabling more precise targeting and a better understanding of what drives user actions, but many MMPs don’t provide these features.
Personalization and reduced friction: Custom link logic, such as auto-login features, can significantly reduce user friction by streamlining the journey from link click to conversion. This not only enhances the user experience but also improves key metrics like engagement, retention, and conversion rates.

How quickly can you start using SKAN efficiently?

To start using Apple’s SKAN efficiently, you need to choose a solution that offers product differentiation through rapid and optimal setup alongside consultative expertise. SKAN setup is evolving rapidly, moving from SKAN 3.0 to SKAN 4.0, and now, the new AdAttributionKit. Navigating through these changes and multiple channel partners can be challenging, making the choice of MMP crucial.

SKAN represents a shift away from user-level tracking to anonymized aggregate metrics, which is essential for running paid media campaigns on iOS beyond Apple Search Ads. Given that SKAN is critical for performance marketers, having an MMP that can reduce the complexity of tracking events for desired outcomes is invaluable.

With the right MMP, you can begin leveraging SKAN quickly and efficiently, ensuring that your campaigns are set up for success without the manual, time-consuming configurations that are often required with SKAN 4.0.

How will you comply with evolving privacy terms?

To ensure compliance with evolving privacy terms, especially in the context of using an MMP, it is essential to leverage features and capabilities that are designed to adapt to evolving privacy regulations and industry standards.

You should look for an MMP that prioritizes privacy by collecting and processing data in a way that respects user privacy and complies with current regulations. This means focusing on anonymized, aggregate data rather than user-level tracking, which also aligns well with the SKAN framework. A good MMP should be able to help marketers navigate the complexities of privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA and Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework.

Branch, for example, offers a privacy-focused attribution mechanism called Predictive Aggregated Measurement (PAM). PAM uses sophisticated attribution modeling mechanisms and differential privacy controls to safeguard user information while providing precise and detailed insights into campaign effectiveness. By continuously adjusting to the data at hand, PAM utilizes predictive modeling to determine the most suitable attribution approach for each situation, allowing marketers to concentrate on performance evaluation and strategy enhancement.

In today’s privacy-conscious world, businesses can differentiate themselves in a crowded market, prove their commitment to user privacy, and make sure that user data is handled with the highest level of care by using an MMP that puts privacy first.

What does onboarding and continued support look like?

It’s important to get up and running quickly so you can maximize the return on investment (ROI) on your investment in MMP. A great MMP should make it straightforward and easy to get started.

MMPs are sophisticated pieces of software, so it’s also important to understand the process, what technical resources you will need on your side, and how involved the MMP provider will be in the setup.

Then after setup, do you get access to on-demand training and help documentation? Does the MMP offer tiered support options so you can pick the amount of support you really need? Can you contact someone for help after normal business hours or on the weekend? Ongoing support from your MMP should include these things as well as proactive contact concerning changes or updates to privacy policies, compliance, and regulations.

Selecting the right MMP is about more than just choosing a vendor; it’s about finding a partner that aligns with your business goals, integrates smoothly into your tech stack, and adapts to the evolving landscape of privacy regulations and attribution challenges. By asking the right questions and focusing on key features such as data access, flexibility, omni-channel support, and privacy compliance, you can ensure that your MMP is a powerful asset in your mobile marketing strategy.

A well-chosen MMP will not only provide the insights needed to optimize your campaigns but also enhance the overall user experience through personalized and efficient interactions. Ultimately, the right MMP will empower your team to make data-driven decisions, reduce friction in the user journey, and maximize the impact of your marketing efforts across all channels.

Interested in seeing an MMP in action? Request a demo.

Top Questions To Consider When Choosing a Mobile Measurement Partner