Overview

Branch is a mobile growth platform providing deep linking and cross-channel attribution to optimize user journeys. It helps businesses route users seamlessly into mobile apps from websites, social media, email, and offline campaigns. By providing high-accuracy attribution and fraud protection, Branch enables marketing and product teams to drive engagement, boost installs, and measure ROI across a fragmented mobile ecosystem.

Founder story

Branch was founded in 2014 by Alex Austin, Dmitri Gaskin, Mike Molinet, and Mada Seghete. Originally named Branch Metrics, the company was built to solve the difficulty of linking content inside mobile applications. Headquartered in Palo Alto, it has grown into a global leader in mobile deep linking and measurement, trusted by over 10,000 businesses.

What it does

• Provides universal deep linking that automatically routes users to specific in-app content, regardless of whether they have the app installed
• Delivers comprehensive mobile attribution (MMP) tracking across 100+ ad networks, including Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, and Apple Search Ads
• Powers referral and viral loop programs, enabling businesses to track invites, apply promo codes, and manage reward logic seamlessly
• Includes advanced fraud protection tools that detect and block fake installs from bot networks, click farms, and low-quality inventory
• Offers QR code generation for offline-to-app campaigns, connecting physical materials like product packaging and posters to specific digital app screens.

Who it's for

• Mobile App Developers
• Growth Marketers
• Product Managers
• E-commerce & D2C Brands

Why it works

• Universal linking technology ensures high-accuracy routing, effectively solving the 'open-vs-install' decision across iOS, Android, and mobile web
• Industry-leading matching algorithms provide superior attribution accuracy, even in a privacy-first ecosystem where traditional identifiers like IDFA are limited
• Native integration with viral loop and referral infrastructure allows for easy implementation of growth programs without custom engineering overhead
• Centralized dashboarding provides a unified view of performance data, helping teams stitch together customer journeys from every marketing channel
• Robust fraud detection capabilities minimize wasted spend on non-genuine users, which is critical for large-scale performance marketing campaigns.

Growth strategies

• Positioning as the primary migration destination for displaced users following competitor deprecations (e.g., Firebase Dynamic Links).
• Strategic bundling of attribution and deep linking into a single, high- performance 'mobile growth' package.
• Targeting high- growth consumer app markets (e.g., India, Southeast Asia) by serving as the 'category benchmark' for large-scale D2C apps.
• Continuous investment in consultative support, professional services, and developer education via 'Branch University'.

Alternatives

• AppsFlyer
• Adjust
• Kochava
• Singular

Comparison overview

• Branch is widely considered the industry benchmark for mobile deep linking and routing, whereas competitors like AppsFlyer or Adjust are often prioritized for pure-play mobile measurement and attribution (MMP) workloads.