Business of Apps Podcast

#237: What not to do: Lessons from consulting hundreds of apps Reed Kuhn, Head of Business Strategy at Branch.io

All right, I think all of you would agree—regardless of your role or area of expertise in this industry—that learning from the mistakes of others saves you time, money, and, most importantly, nerve cells. Because let’s be honest, trial and error is great… until it’s your budget on the line.
So, today we have Reed on the show to help us skip some of those growing pains. He’s here to share what’s working, what’s not, and some fresh, thought-provoking approaches to both app marketing and development. Whether you’re scaling a product or just getting started, I think you’ll walk away with a few insights worth stealing—or at least borrowing.
After founding the Business Strategy team at Branch six years ago, former strategy consultant Reed Kuhn has worked closely with hundreds of customers across verticals. Along the way, he’s picked up some sharp lessons—not just about best practices, but more importantly, about what not to do. In this episode, we’ll explore guiding objectives for app product owners and marketers, the greatest hits of killer use cases, mobile growth fails, and some simple ideas to make more from what you already have. Plus, we’ll look ahead with some bold predictions about how all of us will interact with apps in the AI-powered future.
Today’s topics include:
Reed Kuhn's bio
What is Branch.io
A guiding principle for what brings value to app users
Common mistakes
A quick win in app development
Effective strategies
New strategies on the Reed's radar
What's coming up - in the near future and far out
Links and Resources:
Reed Kuhn on LinkedIn
Get in touch with the Branch.io team
Branch.io website
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Reed Kuhn:
"Over the years, so many of our customers fall into two big buckets. And this is, I think, the simplest framework that I have for differentiating between apps and what they're trying to achieve in terms of value. And that is you have commerce apps, which are the most obvious ones. This is your retailers, fashion, even quick serve restaurants, fast food chains, Starbucks, and also the big box retailers, the best buys of the world, even department stores like Nordstrom.
Those are commerce apps. Users primarily are going in there to shop. And hopefully, they actually buy something. And we do know that conversion rates are much higher in apps than on mobile web or even desktop. So those are easy to wrap your head around. The app exists to make it much easier for the user to shop and, in some cases, actually get support. If you want to manage a delivery or send something back, you can do that in the app rather than having to call someone up.
On the flip side, you have apps that don't really sell you anything, but they still serve a very important purpose to the user. So I call those companion apps and they're more diverse than commerce apps. So whereas commerce apps are very conversion focused, companion apps are much more feature focused. It's, I able to access information? So almost everybody is going to have their credit card or bank app on their phone, or at least they should be at this point. If they don't want to go there in person."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#236: Web-first growth: the new playbook for app UA with Gessica Bicego, Marketing & Growth Consultant

If there is one feature that helps app marketers to persevere through so much of a market change, it is adaptability. As app user acquisition costs were rising and privacy constraints in mobile emerged, marketers came up with the solution - web to app user acquisition channel.
Rather than sending users directly to an app store, marketers now route users to a mobile web page first—typically one optimized for onboarding, education, or even a light product experience. This allows for better control over messaging, tracking, and personalization before nudging users to install the app.
In this episode, we’ll delve into the concept of web-first growth with Gessica, exploring the new playbook for acquiring app users.
Today’s topics include:
Gessica Bicego's bio
What convinced Gessica to switch to web-based strategies for mobile app UA
How to decide what specific "web to app" approach to take - go with mini landing pages, full web onboarding, or else?
Web versus app testing
How to avoid getting lost in lots of onboarding screens
Links and Resources:
Gessica Bicego on LinkedIn
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Gessica Bicego
"I would say there are two approaches. Like either you send them to a landing page, but ultimately they convert on an app store - so all the call-to-action will lead to the App Store, or Google Play store. Or you guide them through a web funnel, where you have like lots of questions and you end up purchasing on the web."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#235: “Next gen ad creative: hits & misses” App Promotion Summit London panel

What makes a mobile ad stick — and what makes it flop?
In this special episode, we feature a panel discussion from App Promotion Summit London 2025, we hosted in April.
Creative leaders explore next gen ad creative — the bold experiments, the unexpected successes, and the flops we can all learn from. From storytelling trends to performance-driven design, discover what’s working, what’s not, and where mobile advertising is heading next.
🎧 Tune in for fresh insights, practical takeaways, and real-world lessons from the frontlines of creative innovation.
The panel of experts included:
Yoann Pavy, Chief Growth & Marketing Officer at AIApply
Freya Fine, CMO / Founder of Koru / &Fine
Mustafa Mohamed, Founder of Shroomi AI

#234: “Beyond installs: the future of app growth (2025)” App Promotion Summit London panel

It’s been a couple of weeks since we wrapped up our App Promotion Summit London 2025. We were really happy to have so many bright, smart people under the same roof to share their knowledge and experience in app growth, app product development, ASO and so much more.
We had several hundred folks from all corners of the world listening and learning from presentations and workshops, connecting with each other and do business.
One of the highlights of the event was the “Beyond Installs: the future of app growth 2025” panel and in this episode we want to share it with you.
The panel brought together people from four verticals - navigation, financials, e-Learning and gaming.
This panel of experts included:
Nidhi Singh, the Regional Marketing Manager for UK & Turkey at AppsFlyer
Greg Turtle, Head of Growth at what3words
Giulia Saletto, Head of Performance Marketing & Growth at Tide
Diane Germann, Head of Paid Content and Social at Blinkist
Yagiz Ozyurek, UA Team Lead for Product Madness

#233: AI-powered creative optimization for mobile today with Asaf Yanai, CEO at Alison.ai

The level of adoption of ChatGPT, the revolutionary LLM-based AI chatbot, is staggering. I think it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that by now ChatGPT and other similar AI chatbots are everywhere; people use them for work and leisure all the time.
Sometimes, it feels like at some point generative AI chatbots will be joining team meetings not to take notes and summarize what was said but to report on what they did last week.
OK, jokes aside - today we want to talk about the role of Generative AI in mobile ad creatives optimization.
Today’s topics include:
Asaf Yanai's bio
About Alison.ai
AI's impact on ad creative optimization
Balancing AI-driven automation with human creativity in mobile advertising
Staying competitive with AI-powered tools
Links and Resources:
Asaf Yanai on LinkedIn
Alison.ai website
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Asaf Yanai
"It changes everything from start to finish, or it could potentially change everything. It depends on the adoption. And I'll explain. I think that what happened in the past five to six years is a complete, complete change in the industry. However, if you look closely, you'll see that not all companies have changed. Not all companies have changed their operations or processes. 
The ones that adopted AI early on and those that adopted AI fully are a lot more advanced now. They're faster, they're quicker. They are spot on when it comes to strategy. And also the entire operation became a lot less heavy, heavy with costs, heavy with headcount, and heavy with processes and operations."
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#232: Mobile app paywalls & cognitive biases with Max Amelang, Product Marketing Manager at Prematch

One of the most important metrics for a mobile app is its conversion rate. It tells you how many people that use the app for free become your paying customers. It’s about how profitable and sustainable your app is.
Now, if you are one of the die-hard Pink Floyd fans, you gotta love their song The Wall. If you are an app marketer, your wall is the paywall :-) Among many tools that you may use to increase the number of people who become your paying customers, once they hit the paywall, are cognitive biases.
You may heard of them if you have a peripheral interest in psychology.
Today, Max will tell you about using cognitive biases to significantly increase your app’s conversion rate.
Today’s topics include:
Max Amelang's bio
About PreMatch
Ethical boundaries in cognitive biases
The most underrated cognitive biases
High-impact experiments with paywalls
Android or iOS?
Leaving his  smartphone at home, what features would Max miss most?
What features he would like to see added to his smartphone?
Links and Resources:
Max Amelang on LinkedIn
Prematch website
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Max Amelang
"Yeah, it's absolutely a valid question because especially in the beginning, it's extremely tempting to see all of these tools you can use to somehow increase this conversion rate by margin or by another percent and so on. But then I also quickly realized not only as a product manager, but also as a user, how would I feel if I stumble across this? "
"Obviously I know the tricks, so maybe I need to be a bit harder in order to define if something is good or not so good anymore. And I then came up with like, how would my parents behave on this paywall? Because parents just as a symbol for an older generation that are not as native with mobile apps.
And I always am fascinated when I see how my dad navigates his app and when I realize, why did he just click on this button because it's blinking quicker? And I realized, okay, this is how easily he's influenced. So as a very soft first test, I'm thinking about, okay, how would my dad would behave on this paywall? Would he buy just because of the cognitive biases or would he still be able to make his own decision?"
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#231: Beyond behavior: unlocking intent with on-device AI with Dieter Rappold CEO at ContextSDK

Ok, here is the thing.
Most apps are still built on rigid, one-size-fits-all user flows. They rely heavily on historic behavior - what a user clicked on last week or which segment they’re in. But user needs change moment to moment. And when apps fail to adapt, users just leave.
The next evolution isn’t about personalizing based on identity - it’s about adapting based on intent. And that intent can only be accurately understood in context.
In this episode, we’re going to talk about the Context Platform by ContextSDK that enables apps to detect real-world context in real time - whether a user is walking, relaxing, commuting, charging their phone, or simply on the move - and then infer their intent. Using a combination of on-device machine learning and server-side intelligence, the platform helps apps deliver the right experience or message at the right moment.
This isn’t just a UX upgrade - it is a fundamentally better way to retain users and drive revenue, while respecting privacy and improving performance.
Today’s Topics Include:
Dieter Rappold's' bio
About ContextSDK
Switching focus from app users' behavior to their intent
How Context Platform helps LiveOps maximize their efforts
Example of how detecting user context in real-time improves the app experience
How context-aware delivery fix the issue with intrusive push notifications
Achieving personalization without relying on personal data or permissions
What it takes to implement Context Platform into the app
Links and Resources:
Dieter Rappold on LinkedIn
ContextSDK website
Maximizing app engagement through content-aware solutions
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry
Quotes from Dieter Rappold
"It’s great to know a lot about past behavior, but past behavior is looking into the past. Intent is happening in the moment and is looking forward"
"We collect enough data points on patterns of movement and behavior and analyze them with the smartest machine learning models out there. That allows us to infer intent—and that’s something extremely powerful when shaping app experiences,"
Host
Business Of Apps - connecting the app industry since 2012

#230: “Beyond Downloads: App Engagement Strategies” App Promotion Summit Berlin panel

I think by now you’ve noticed that the last few episodes weren’t regular ones, on those we featured our discussion panels from App Promotion Summit Berlin 2024.
Why? Well, the physical space in the venue in Berlin was obviously limited and it’s not like you can fly to Berlin to visit the summit on a whim - time and money aren’t always there when you need them, right? But we don’t want you to miss an opportunity to listen to these discussions and learn from it.
So here comes the next panel - “Beyond downloads: app engagement strategies"
It was hosted by Keziah Husselbee, Product Marketing Specialist at Adobe.
It was a pleasure to have on the panel people from:
Jelena Zbijowski, Head of CRM & Product Marketing at Blinkist
Roma Rey, Head of CRM at ParshipMeet Group
Robert Vaternam, Senior CRM Manager at Freeletics
Jon Genovard, Senior CRM Manager at ShareTheMeal

#229: “How top apps win at user acquisition” App Promotion Summit Berlin panel

Good news - the winter is finally over, and I’m sure you’ve missed the warmth just as much as I have.
Today, I’m thrilled to share with you another special episode featuring one of the discussion panels we hosted last December during the App Promotion Summit Berlin.
This panel covers a wide range of topics, including user acquisition strategies, incrementality and ROI measurement, retargeting and re-engagement strategies, and more.
The panel was hosted by Bob Hollanders, Head of Sales & Account Management, EMEA & US at Appier.
We were fortunate to have on the panel:
Victoria Chang, Performance Marketing Lead at Wooga
Pascal Priso, Performance Marketing Manager at Babbel
Karst Kortekaas, Director, App Solutions, EMEA at Appier
Cansu Bengü Ağaoğlu, Head of Sales (Central Europe) at Adjust

#228: “Data-drive strategies for UA” App Promotion Summit Berlin panel

Another week - another bonus episode for you.
There is no other way to put it - data is the fuel that powers current economy. When we look at the mobile industry, we see that it is the absolutely essential part of the picture. You know it so well - acquiring app users was never easy but these days it is a real challenge. To win the game, you need to work out a data-driven strategy to acquire users for your app.
On this episode, we feature “Data-driven strategies for UA” panel discussion we hosted during App Promotion Summit Berlin last December.
The topics covered on the panel included user acquisition strategies, incrementality testing and attribution, branding and consistency, creative strategies for UA, creative fatigue, fake ads and transparency, playable ads, future plans for 2025, and more.
This panel of experts includes:
Ece Stepien, Regional Director Western Europe & MENAT at AppsFlyer
Jessica Gotti, Head of Performance Marketing at Paired
Matej Jurcak, ASO & Growth Partnerships at Pixel Federation
Marta Fogel, Head of Marketing at NeuroNation
Misha Osintcev, Growth Director at Kolibri Games
All right, without any further ado…let’s go.