Strong open rates, weak app revenue: your email campaign isn’t broken. Your links are.

The article explains a hidden structural gap in owned-media campaigns: despite strong email click-through rates (30-40%), in-app conversion remains low (1-3%).
This is not due to creative or segmentation but to how ESPs wrap links for tracking.
The wrapping breaks deep link context—iOS Universal Links and Android App Links fail—causing the app to open to a generic screen or mobile web.
Context loss forces users to rebuild their journey, leading to abandonment.
This handoff failure is invisible because CRM sees clicks as wins while product sees drop-offs, and no team measures the transition.
The fix requires a deep linking infrastructure (like AppsFlyer's) that preserves context between ESP and app, ensuring abandoned cart emails open the actual cart, loyalty campaigns land on the correct screen, and attribution remains intact.
When context is preserved, purchase rates can double.
The article argues that the problem is not campaign optimization but the link infrastructure, and solving it unlocks the full potential of app-based conversion.