Chances are that if you develop an app, you will not only compete with other apps within your niche for installs and user retention, but that you will also compete with every single app out there for the attention and loyalty of your hard earned users. This problem has led to a very innovative marketing technique called deep linking ads.
What Are Deep Linking Ads?
Getting users to download your app is the easy part. The hard part comes in keeping users engaged. This can be done through analytics, retargeting and deep linking ads. Deep linking ads will send a user who clicks on them to a specific section of your app.
By using analytics, you can find out where a user has ended the interaction with your app. It might have been at the onboarding screen, or it might have been at the checkout process. Facebook and Instagram have 14 pre-defined in-app events to choose from, and you can customize your own. Using these triggers, you can choose which ads will be displayed to your users. Are you looking to bring back a user who has not accessed your app in a long time? Remind him of a special feature. Are you looking to upsell one of your customers? Target her with a special offer.
Deep linking is also available on Twitter, which is good news because according to Twitter’s Q2 2015 earnings report, 80% of its users accessed the platform through a mobile device. Twitter’s App Card, as it is known, also redirects users to the app store to download the app, in case the user has deleted it from his phone.
Example of an Effective Deep Linking Strategy
Zynga used deep-linking ads to bolster FarmVille 2’s player base in 25 countries. The ad campaign targeted players who have been away from the game for a while, or have deleted the game altogether. The incentive to return to the game was a 10% discount for any in-app purchases for one day. If a player clicked on the ad, he was redirected to a screen that matched the Facebook ad. This campaign resulted in a 5.6 times ROI in 3 days, and 2,285 installs from players who had deleted the game.
Conclusion
Deep linking ads are another powerful weapon in the app marketer’s arsenal. An effective deep linking strategy can do wonders for your ROI and marketing campaign. You can reengage users, drive up sales, increase conversions and bolster up your UX. The principles that apply to deep linking ad marketing are simple: find a pain point, segment the market, target effectively, present an offer, call to action, and iterate. If you are familiar with the basics of developing an app install ad campaign, you are good to go. The biggest benefit of deep linking is the laser-focused targeting that can hone in on and achieve very specific marketing objectives.