Retail media networks (RMNs) have excelled in onsite advertising but struggle with offsite expansion due to measurement fragmentation, unclear attribution, and double-counting. A leading marketplace example shows 60% mobile and 40% web conversions, with separate reports from Meta and Google forcing manual consolidation. AppsFlyer's Data Collaboration Platform (DCP) tackles this by integrating mobile and web data, using user-level engagement and last-touch attribution with deduplication across onsite and offsite channels.
Web conversions are validated by click ID and timestamp, ensuring each conversion is shared only once. This unified view allows RMNs to optimize spending, eliminate guesswork, and confidently scale offsite efforts. Actionable takeaways: provide a single source of truth, implement smart deduplication, simplify reporting, and measure across all channels.
Clear measurement unlocks offsite potential for RMNs.
Retail media networks (RMNs) must prioritize accurate measurement to build advertiser trust and prove ROI. With 68% of advertisers ranking ROI as top priority, RMNs need user-level data, SKU-level attribution, and lift analysis to demonstrate campaign impact. The article outlines a checklist for effective measurement, including omnichannel coverage, deduplication, and easy-to-access reports. It emphasizes the importance of data collaboration platforms for bridging walled gardens and achieving precision. A case study of Wolt Ads shows a 32% revenue uplift using AppsFlyer's data collaboration platform. Key takeaways: measurement drives ad revenue, user-level data is essential, flexibility matters, and simplifying reporting is critical for brand adoption.
User acquisition (UA) remains critical in the maturing app market, with non-organic installs growing annually. Key challenges include rising media costs, churn, fraud, and fragmentation. Attribution data and multi-touch modeling help optimize UA by identifying high-performing channels and audiences. Strategic budgeting, A/B testing, and app store optimization (ASO) are essential for maximizing ROI. Ad ops decision-makers should prioritize fraud protection, explore diverse media channels (paid, owned, earned), and leverage cohort analysis to drive cost-effective growth.
The article discusses how mobile marketers can navigate 2023's economic slowdown, privacy changes, and post-COVID cooldown. Key insights include shifting from growth to profitability, prioritizing retention, diversifying channels, and adopting new measurement frameworks (SKAN 4.0, MMM, incrementality). Data shows apps spent $80B on UA in 2022 (5% YoY drop), iOS installs grew 16%, and non-gaming IAP revenue rose 20% while gaming fell 16%. Experts stress agility, LTV focus, and CTV growth.
Mobile performance marketing succeeded by building a signal infrastructure—independent attribution, fraud protection, and structured postbacks—that fed optimization-grade data to ad platforms. Web measurement has lagged, relying on fragmented, platform-reported metrics. As AI-driven campaign optimization becomes standard, bad signals amplify errors. AppsFlyer’s Web Performance Measurement brings mobile-grade signals to web: independent attribution, server-to-server postbacks, cross-platform closed loops, and unified cost/revenue measurement. For ad ops decision-makers, this means one truth source, actionable optimization signals across networks, and complete omnichannel ROAS visibility—enabling AI to compound advantage, not error.
AppsFlyer MCP connects Claude directly to live attribution data, replacing manual reporting and CSV exports. Gaming teams catch budget anomalies overnight, finance teams compress multi-hour analysis into minutes, and e-commerce teams close the gap between measurement and spend decisions. Setup takes under 60 seconds, enabling real-time queries on channels, cohorts, and ROAS. The key insight is that AI-powered analysis requires live data connections, not stale exports.
Retail media networks report ROAS using different methodologies, causing up to 63% fluctuation across networks for the same campaign. This isn't a data quality issue but a structural one. Brands using multiple networks face a fragmentation tax where each network is its own source of truth, and budget decisions based on these irreconcilable figures are misleading. Independent measurement, applying the same attribution logic across all networks, is needed to reconcile data and enable confident cross-channel decisions. The signal infrastructure for this already exists from mobile measurement.
Data collaboration platforms are consolidating under ad-centric owners, threatening measurement neutrality. Publicis bought LiveRamp, WPP acquired InfoSum, and LiveRamp absorbed Habu, leaving AppsFlyer as the only major independent player. Brands must vet partners for conflicts: does the platform or its parent benefit from ad spend? Without independence, budget allocation and ROAS calculations may reflect agency incentives over actual performance. Key questions: revenue from ads, cross-channel attribution consistency, data governance, and auditable methodology.
AppsFlyer launches the Modern Marketing Cloud, a privacy-first platform combining four suites: Measurement, Deep Linking, Data Collaboration, and Agentic AI. Key products include Cross-Platform Journeys & LTV, showing 27%-65% lift in attributed LTV; Incrementality for UA, revealing 18% of campaigns had no incremental impact; and Enhanced Attribution Model reducing click flooding. The Agentic AI Suite introduces AI Assistant, MCP, Creative Management, and Agent Hub for autonomous marketing. Signal Hub enables secure data collaboration with Mastercard. For ad ops, this means unified measurement, privacy-safe data enrichment, and AI-driven optimization across channels.
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