Mobile measurement provider Branch is expanding its offering with the acquisition of a first-party data platform.
On Wednesday, Branch bought AdLibertas, a data platform that helps developers gather and analyze their first-party data in one place.
Think of AdLibertas as a bit like Amplitude, but specifically tailored for mobile apps and mobile marketers.
Although the companies declined to share a deal price, the entire AdLibertas team – just under 10 people – is joining Branch, whose headcount stands at around 550.
The purpose of the acquisition is to give Branch a leg up in the face of ongoing disruption in the mobile ecosystem, which (understatement of the year) is becoming ever more complex.
Rolling with these changes – everything from signal loss to regulatory scrutiny – requires building for the future but without knowing exactly what’s coming next, said Mike Molinet, a co-founder and COO of Branch.
“We don’t know what the world will hold for us five or even three years from now,” he said, “but with this partnership we’re thinking about what the future of an MMP should be.”
Next-gen MMP
Historically, the main purpose of a mobile measurement partner has been to help app developers and publishers attribute and keep track of their installs. And that’s still a big part of what they do.
But for developers to really understand whether their marketing is working and to predict which of their users will be most valuable, they need the broader context about what’s happening beyond their own company, said Alex Bauer, head of product and marketing strategy at Branch.
“It’s no longer just about raw counting,” Bauer said. “We’re in a world now where you need data science, but you probably don’t want to or can’t hire it yourself.”
Apps typically generate data through multiple sources (their mobile ads, their MMP, their mediation partner, their analytics platforms, to name a few), and that makes it difficult to triangulate and draw actionable insights about user behavior.
For example, say a developer uses AppLovin for mediation, Firebase for analytics and Branch as its MMP, and then that developer acquires a user through a Facebook ad campaign who later goes through the onboarding tutorial after downloading the app.
Did experiencing the tutorial have an impact on the user’s lifetime value? Did it boost that user’s ARPU? Is there anything else that can be modeled from their behavior?
By consolidating analytics data with impression data and all the rest, which is what AdLibertas does, developers can query their data to answer those types of questions and see the downstream impact on user behavior.
It makes sense for an MMP to own this capability, Molinet said, because “the future of a mobile measurement platform is to abstract all of that complexity.”
“But right now, the burden of that complexity is falling to the marketer,” Molinet said.
Next steps
And most marketers aren’t taking best advantage of their first-party data as it is, despite the fact that people love talking about first-party data, especially as privacy concerns enter the mainstream.
“We see data as a tool and, like most tools, it depends on how you use it,” said Adam Landis, CEO and founder of AdLibertas. “If it’s used incorrectly, it can hurt a business or even hurt people, but if used correctly it can be a game changer that helps you differentiate and grow.”
Companies just need to make sure they treat data privacy as a priority “rather than as an afterthought,” Molinet said, and that also applies to any new approach to measurement.
“You can still understand the value of your campaigns and make sure that you’re investing your dollars and your time in the right places regardless of decreasing signal,” Molinet said, “as long as you lean on mechanisms that abstract away from individual users.”
AdLibertas is only Branch’s third acquisition since the company was founded in 2014. Branch acquired TUNE’s app attribution business in 2018 and just bought Nova Launcher, a home screen replacement app for Android, in July.
Branch raised a $300 million Series F round at a $4 billion valuation in February, bringing the company’s total funding to just over $600 million.
So don’t expect Branch to get snapped up as mobile consolidation inevitably continues. It’s more likely to be the one doing the snapping.
“We’re building Branch to be an independent company,” Molinet said, “and the money we’ve raised allows us to make strategic investments and not have to worry about a shorter-term acquisition or an exit plan.”
