With users spending over five and half hours using apps every day, mobile app growth isn’t just a strategy — it’s a necessity. As a growth marketer, you understand that mastering mobile app growth can mean the difference between standing out or stagnating in a competitive market. But how do you know where your mobile strategy stands? Or what steps to take next? Let’s dive into what it means to assess your mobile growth maturity and how you can level up your approach.
The mobile app ecosystem: A constant evolution
Before we explore mobile growth maturity, it’s worth recognizing the substantial challenges within the mobile ecosystem. Most brands recognize the immense value in app engagement — from heightened customer loyalty to new revenue streams — but they’re often unable to fully reap these benefits due the complex landscape of:
- Channel proliferation: Consumers interact with brands across a multitude of touchpoints, complicating the path to app adoption.
- Fierce competition: With millions of apps vying for attention, it’s even more difficult to gain visibility and earn loyalty.
- Privacy regulations: Stringent data privacy laws like Apple’s SKAdNetwork (and now AdAttributionKit?) and Google’s Privacy Sandbox introduce intricate compliance requirements.
To complicate matters further, acquiring and retaining app users is increasingly expensive. This has prompted a shift toward organic growth strategies to optimize ROI — a good thing for growth marketers, but it necessitates a more strategic approach to mobile.
Assess your mobile growth maturity
The concept of mobile app growth maturity refers to how effectively growth marketers can promote their app to new audiences, convert visitors on other channels to app users, and use data to refine their strategies over time. In A Marketer’s Guide to Mobile Growth Maturity, we identified three key dimensions as a framework to assess your current state and chart a roadmap to app growth:
- Acquisition and engagement channels: How effectively do you transition users from various touchpoints to your app? Are you leveraging deep links to streamline user journeys and enhance engagement?
- In-app experiences and personalization: Are you delivering personalized experiences that keep users engaged and coming back? From tailored onboarding to contextually relevant notifications, personalization is key to reducing churn.
- Measurement and attribution: Can you accurately track and attribute app installs and user actions across all channels? Understanding the ROI of your efforts is crucial for optimizing future strategies.
Mobile growth maturity stages
Beginner: Establish your presence. At this stage, your focus is on setting the groundwork for mobile app integration into your overall digital strategy. You’re beginning to implement basic deep linking solutions and exploring initial channels like social media and email for app promotion. Key activities include:
- Implementing basic prompts and links from web to app.
- Experimenting with social media campaigns to drive app installs.
- Recognizing the importance of mobile app integration but still exploring its full potential.
Intermediate: Scale your efforts. Here, you’ve established a more structured approach to mobile app growth. You’re actively using deep linking across multiple channels, including owned and earned. Your focus shifts to optimizing user experiences through strategies such as personalized onboarding and targeted messaging. Key activities include:
- Utilizing deep linking across web, social, and email channels to drive app engagement.
- Segmenting users for more personalized in-app experiences.
- Expanding into emerging channels like connected TV (CTV) to broaden app reach.
Advanced: Optimize and maximize your mobile growth. At the advanced level, you’ve achieved a seamless, omni-channel strategy. You excel in delivering highly personalized experiences based on sophisticated data analytics and segmentation. Your focus is on continuous optimization through A/B testing and advanced attribution models. Key activities include:
- Implementing advanced deep linking strategies that cater to complex user journeys.
- Leveraging data analytics to forecast and optimize campaign performance.
- Integrating with comprehensive attribution solutions to measure ROI across all marketing channels.
The chart below provides a quick look at the stages of mobile growth maturity and outlines key activities corresponding to each stage. For a comprehensive evaluation and personalized breakdown of your current maturity level, we recommend taking our 28-question assessment.
Mobile excellence in action
Now, let’s explore real-world applications of these principles.
RTLZWEI: Channel connectivity leads 20% app install growth
RTLZWEI, a prominent German television channel, faced challenges navigating the fragmented landscape of TV and digital channels. To enhance engagement and app growth for shows like “Berlin – Tag & Nacht” and “Love Island,” RTLZWEI turned to Branch. By implementing deep links, RTLZWEI seamlessly directed viewers from TV and social media to its mobile apps. Interactive calls-to-action during live broadcasts boosted app installs by 20%, transforming passive viewers into engaged participants. Branch analytics further optimized ad spend, enhancing ROI and fostering a data-driven approach to audience engagement.
Read the case study
IMDb: Sophisticated experimentation grows app downloads by 443%
IMDb partnered with Branch to enhance its web-to-app acquisition strategy using Journeys smart banners, aiming to bridge the gap between organic app downloads from the Apple App Store and those from its mobile website. This collaboration enabled IMDb to scale experimentation efforts significantly, conducting over 30 experiments and achieving a 9x increase in experiment velocity. By optimizing banner placements and content, IMDb saw a remarkable 443% increase in app installs from its mobile website. This success not only addressed attribution blindspots, but also demonstrated the power of personalized, data-driven marketing strategies in driving substantial growth and user engagement in the competitive media and entertainment industry.Read the case study
U.K. media company: Integrated data insights enhance engagement by 25%
In response to shifts in digital consumption habits and evolving privacy regulations, a prominent U.K. news media company undertook a digital transformation aimed at bolstering user engagement and app adoption. Central to its strategy was leveraging Branch’s robust data integration capabilities, which enabled the company to merge anonymous user data from its web and app platforms. This integration provided a comprehensive view of user behavior, empowering the team to track content consumption patterns pre- and post-app install. As a result, the company achieved a significant 25% increase in content consumption and a remarkable 94% rise in attributed app installs within four months.
Read the case study
Conclusion: Embrace your mobile growth potential
Improving your mobile growth maturity isn’t just about adopting the latest trends — it’s about strategically aligning your efforts to meet consumer expectations and business goals. By assessing your current strategy against these dimensions and embracing organic growth tactics, you can unlock new opportunities for app success.
Ready to elevate your mobile strategy? Download A Marketer’s Guide to Mobile Growth Maturity and take our Mobile Growth Maturity Assessment to uncover insights and optimize your path to app excellence.