When I talk to marketers today, I hear the same thing: there are more tools, more data, more dashboards than ever, yet less certainty.

A recent Branch State of App Growth survey quantified that feeling. Hundreds of marketing leaders across industries told us what they’re seeing every day: Only 18% are very confident in their attribution data, 36% cite cost-efficient scale as their biggest challenge, and 71% say privacy blind spots are affecting revenue.

These numbers confirm what many of us have sensed for a while: The old rules of growth are shifting. A few findings in particular stood out to me, and might even offer some comfort to growth marketers.

Confidence is low, and it’s reshaping strategy

Low confidence in attribution data is pushing marketers to rethink their approaches. After years of chasing perfect “360-degree” visibility, the focus is shifting from total granularity to trust in the signals that matter most.

To address this, teams are rebuilding their measurement stacks to fill gaps left by traditional identifiers: implementing server-side tracking (38%), partnering more closely with privacy-centric attribution vendors (34%), and strengthening first-party data strategies (30%). Over the past 12 months alone, I’ve seen dozens of forward-thinking customers adopt modeled attribution approaches that bring clarity back to their measurement while keeping privacy intact — a balance that once felt impossible.

The new definition of confidence will be about knowing enough to act quickly and make an impact.

Cost-effective scale beats more spend

Data confidence is only part of the equation. Acquisition costs are up, and attention spans are down. The instinct might be to pour more budget into paid media, but the smartest teams are realizing that growth doesn’t always come from adding. It comes from refining.

The most efficient marketers are tightening conversion paths, improving app store optimization, and strengthening onboarding flows that turn first-time users into repeat ones. And they’re looking beyond paid media: fewer than a third of marketers use QR codes or offline touchpoints to drive app growth, yet those who do are seeing major gains.

One global retailer, for example, connected its offline and digital ecosystems by placing QR codes throughout its stores — on receipts, signage, and packaging — that led shoppers directly into personalized in-app experiences. The result was a 90% increase in app installs, a 10% drop in acquisition costs, and an 85% lift in orders.

These are the levers that don’t always make it into a media plan, but they move the ROI needle faster than any budget increase. The fastest way to scale sustainably is to fix experience, not the budget.

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Growth happens when teams see the same truth

Most app marketing teams are spread thin across multiple channels — web, app, social, and offline. Yet only 8% say they have a fully unified view of performance across them. That disconnect makes it hard to see what’s really driving growth.

While more than half describe their view as “mostly unified,” the reality is that many organizations still operate in silos. Teams use different metrics, dashboards, and even definitions of success, leading to duplicated spend and disconnected user experiences.

The next wave of growth will come from connection, not expansion. When marketers align their data and performance across web, app, and offline touchpoints, they gain the clarity to turn isolated wins into repeatable strategies. True scale starts when everyone sees the same truth.

AI is everywhere and everyone’s still figuring it out 

AI is now part of almost every marketing workflow. Unsurprisingly, all respondents said they use it in some form, most often for predictive analytics (48%), personalization (46%), or creative optimization (46%).

Still, adoption hasn’t erased uncertainty. Nearly half of marketers cited trust, brand safety, and integration as their biggest barriers to using AI effectively. The focus now is on using AI responsibility to enhance, not replace, human judgement.

The most effective teams are using AI to accelerate what already works: refining insights, testing creative faster, and sharpening decision-making. They know its value depends on the quality of data beneath and that clean, connected data remains the foundation of growth.

Privacy is the new growth engine

Earlier this year, I spent a month on the road talking with the teams behind some of today’s fastest-growing apps. No matter the market, the conversation eventually turned to privacy.

Seven in ten marketers say privacy changes have created blind spots that hurt revenue. Forty-one percent report greater difficulty with cross-channel attribution, and 39% cite rising data collection costs. The old model of tracking every user and every click simply doesn’t hold up anymore.

What began as a compliance challenge is evolving into a competitive advantage. The teams leading the way are adopting privacy-safe tech, rethinking data strategies, and building user trust. As my friend and colleague Adam Landis put it, “User-level info is going away, period. It’s going to be anonymized. It’s going to be aggregated. And it’s going to be opaque. So you need to figure out how to do business without it today or else you’re going to lose.”

Privacy isn’t the enemy of innovation. It’s how innovation stays possible. The marketers who embrace that reality now will be the ones best positioned to grow tomorrow.