Advertisers are underinvesting in channels they believe would pay off because they can't prove the return. That measurement gap is pushing marketers toward the one channel that may have solved it: mobile. Many are now applying mobile marketing measurement methods to their other channels, according to a recent EMARKETER and AppsFlyer study.

• Nearly six in 10 marketers (58.6%) say their organizations are likely underinvesting in profitable channels because those channels require better measurement, per the May survey.
• Channels cited by the most marketers as blind spots were social media (named by 50.3%) and connected TV/streaming (47.1%).

Pressure to prove ROI

Brands and agencies are facing immense pressure to prove ROI.

• Half (49.7%) of respondents said their organization is under “significant” pressure to prove ROI, 29.9% “extreme” pressure, per the EMARKETER/AppsFlyer survey.

Under that pressure, marketers won't commit budget to a channel they can't measure confidently, even one they believe could be profitable.

Of the 58.6% of respondents who think they’re underinvesting in profitable channels, 46.5% of the total pool said “probably” and 12.1% said “definitely.”

Confidence in mobile-grade measurement

Mobile-grade measurement is no longer a niche ambition. Some 93.0% of the advertisers and agencies surveyed said they either recognize the need for it or are implementing mobile-grade standards across other channels.

The work is already underway for most of them. Some 24.2% are building toward mobile-grade measurement now, 23.6% have applied it partially to other channels, and 14.7% have already done so for most or all channels, per the study.

“Because mobile apps provide consumers with a better experience, consumers tend to engage more consistently with them," said Yory Wurser, principal analyst, advertising, media, and technology at EMARKETER. “When brands get consumers to download their app, they get more conversions and richer data from their interactions.”

Mobile’s measurement journey

Marketers trust mobile measurement because the channel had to build consistent signals over time.

“Mobile apps operated under constraints that no other digital channel faced at the same intensity,” said Ran Avrahamy, CMO of AppsFlyer. “The rising investment in this channel is proof that it’s working.”

• US mobile app install ad spend rose 13.3% YoY in 2024, and with 9.2% YoY growth in 2025 and 2026, according to EMARKETER’s forecast.
• In-app ad spend will increase 12.0% in 2026, down from 16.9% in 2024, per EMARKETER.

That growth held up under iOS and Android privacy frameworks that gutted the signals mobile marketers relied on. Apple introduced its AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) policy in 2021.

“The result was a measurement infrastructure that had to stay accurate under signal loss, validate data quality continuously, and model truth from incomplete information,” said Avrahamy. “Mobile faced these challenges first, under the most adversarial conditions, and built infrastructure to handle them: privacy-safe attribution, fraud validation, [and] multimethodology signal hierarchies.”

Those methods translate directly to omnichannel measurement, Avrahamy said. That is why the channel built under the tightest constraints has become the template for the rest.

Read the full report.