What is deep linking?
Published on 17 March, 2022 | Services | 2,446 views | 4 minutes read
Deep links are a type of link that send users directly to an app instead of a website or a store. They are used to send users straight to specific in-app locations, saving users the time and energy locating a particular page themselves – significantly improving the user experience.
Deep linking does this by specifying a custom URL scheme (iOS Universal Links) or an intent URL (on Android devices) that opens your app if it’s already installed. Deep links can also be set to direct users to specific events or pages, which could tie into campaigns that you may want to run.
Why are deep links important?
Deep links produce a seamless user journey that reduces churn and increases the likelihood of an install. They let you make sophisticated campaigns while providing a better user experience, moving users onto your app in a single click.
Deep links also create the opportunity for easier incentivization. It’s simple to persuade people to try a new experience when a potential prize or offer is sent to them via a retargeting campaign. For example, let’s say you have a music app and want to promote a new album, so you allocate budget to be spent on a popular website. However, you want the user to listen to the sample in-app, not just on the website (where they are only exposed to the album cover). Here you need a deep link to send them directly to the correct page in your app, offering a seamless user experience.
In-app deep linking can significantly increase your conversion rate and retention rate. Deep linking campaigns can be tracked, and provide extra data points on how your campaign performs. If you’d like to learn more about this, you can read up on the effects of deep linking in campaigns here.
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What are deferred deep links?
Deep links are a smart way to drive conversions while offering a positive user experience, but what happens if the user is deep linked into an app they don’t have installed? This is when deferred deep links come in to play.
If a user clicks on a deep link and doesn’t have the app installed, they can be deferred to the App Store instead. The genius of deferred deep linking is that when that user installs and opens up the app, they can still be sent to the in-app location where you initially wanted them to land. For example, this could be a specific level in your gaming app, or a page from your product catalog for e-commerce.
Why do you need deep linking?
Let’s assume you’ve published a music app. To celebrate the release of a new song, you’ve paid tons of money to run a campaign on a popular website. In your campaign, you feature a brief sample of the song – and you probably want the user to listen to the sample inside of your app rather than on your website, where they would only see the album cover.
In another example, let’s say you want to regain inactive users through a sales campaign. In this campaign, users would be directed to the sale products page in your app with a single click, without having to search for it or manually type a coupon code. Both of these examples are where deep links come into play: deep linking makes these campaigns possible.
Mobile app deep linking brings seamless user experience and can increase your conversion rate and retention rate significantly. If you’d like to learn more about this, take a look at our blog post discussing the effects of deep linking in campaigns.
Why do deep links exist?
Retaining users is a key focus of deep linking. Using deep links keeps users locked into your app. It also has great utility for re-engaging users, and is often a key component of retargeting campaigns. Ultimately, deep linking provides a versatile method of directing users through your ecosystem, creating a better user experience which can increase your sales, conversions and retention rates.
Two types of deep links
There are two kinds of links: default and deferred deep links.
Default
Default deep links only direct users to an app if it’s already installed. If the app is not installed, the link can’t reach the endpoint of an app then an error message is displayed.
Default deep links are useful for retargeting campaigns where an app marketer is solely interested in finding users who have the app installed, and want them to return.
Deferred
Deferred deep links are more complex than default deep links. They can direct users to the App or Play Store if the user does not have the app installed (or to another location, such as the app’s website for more information), and then open the original page that user was directed to.
So, for example, if a user downloads an e-commerce app after clicking an ad for a pair of shoes, but doesn’t have the app installed, they will first be routed to the store for download. When they open the app after install, the product page would be shown.
Deferred deep links are only made possible through a deep linking solution like allmysoci.al’s.
Contextual deep linking?
You may have heard the term contextual deep linking. These refer to links that ostensibly provide additional benefit, in the form of being able to store more information allowing marketers to do more with their content.
Contextual deep links are default or deferred deep links with added parameters marketers can add themselves. Such links don’t exist by themselves.
You can make all type of deep links in allmysoci.al 💎
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