Mobile marketers are on edge over the future of their ability to efficiently communicate with audiences at scale. CMOs often toggle between paid marketing strategies and brand marketing as cyclical macro changes impact industries. We asked CMOs to weigh in on where they will apply resources in 2025.

Performance marketing fallout: In recent years, performance marketing took a hit following Apple’s privacy updates, which introduced ambiguity in analytics and disrupted traditional targeting methods. "There were a lot of folks scared away from performance marketing when Apple introduced their privacy changes," Sam McLellan, Chief Marketing Officer of BigBrain explains. "The loss of IDFA-level targeting and the legal uncertainty around predictive tracking led to companies slashing performance marketing budgets and pivoting toward brand."

BigBrain offers mobile trivia games with cash payments on its application, and has raised $4.5 million in seed funding from major VCs.

Despite previous fears, McLellan predicts a rebound this year. "In 2025, you'll see some of that budget move back to performance marketing as much of the uncertainty has been resolved. At the same time, influencer campaigns will scale up heavily as they’re one of the more effective ways to reach younger audiences."

Better branding: "Brand is always important and 2025 won't be any different." McLellan says. In his eyes, brand and paid performance marketing could be symbiotic: "Brand can be a great supplement to the traditional performance marketing campaigns with brand helping improve the metrics of the performance marketing campaigns."

But he cautions: "Each company is different, so results will vary. There are times where a dollar spent on brand is more effective than adding a bit more to the performance marketing budget."