Strong open rates, weak app revenue: your email campaign isn’t broken. Your links are.

The article diagnoses a common but hidden failure in owned-media campaigns: the handoff between click and app. Email, SMS, and push are continuation channels where customers click to complete an action, not to browse. Yet, despite strong CTRs (30-40%), in-app conversion languishes at 1-3%.

The culprit is ESP link wrapping for click tracking, which strips deep link context, breaks app-domain associations, and fragments attribution. This handoff is a blind spot—CRM sees success, product sees failure, and no team owns the transition. When context is preserved, purchase rates can double.

The fix is a deep linking solution that sits between the ESP and the app, preserving context and measurement. AirAsia saw over 15% of installs from email after fixing this. Key takeaways: 1) Weak in-app conversion is a handoff, not campaign, problem.

2) ESP wrapping is the root cause. 3) The fix is infrastructure, not strategy. 4) Proper deep linking works with existing ESPs.

Brands must treat links as continuation layers to realize the full potential of owned channels.