Deeplink Just Got Deeper (and way Linky-er) -- Announcing Persistent Deep Links
Image credit: Gadget360
By definition, app deep links allow developers and marketers to send their end users to specific pages inside the app. We’ve been at the forefront as thousands and thousands of apps have leveraged the Deeplink platform to easily drive retention and reengagement.
But continuously, our app partners have requested our assistance in improving their onboarding flow, and helping their newest customers find the content that helped drive the download. And as a team of product folks, who are we to say no (forever) to a necessary and relevant feature request?
Today, we are super excited to announce that Deeplink now supports Persistent Deep Linking!
At their core, Persistent Deep Links (also referred to deferred deep links) allow you to pass data through the app install process, so that you can identify where the install came from, and deep link the user to the content they originally intended to see post-install.
As with all Deeplink initiatives, we’ve designed persistent deep linking to be super easy to use. It’s powered by the same SDK that you’re already using for AppWords and Spotlight Optimization. And since it’s built on CocoaPods, the version control should take care of most of the integration.
And furthermore, you’ll be able to attribute and measure all of the data in our portal (which has just been souped up like a car with nitrous boosters). We’ve been testing for a while and the product is pretty rock-solid. For existing Deeplink users, getting going is seamless and easy (be live in a few minutes).
It can’t get much easier than that! Let us know your questions, we’d love to help answer them!
The Most Overlooked Opportunity In Mobile Advertising Optimization
What is your first day retention rate? I’m continually surprised by how few people I speak to know this number for their own apps.
Last year, Tapstream dug into a large set of its data (ignoring apps above one million daily active users) and looked at app retention rates for a sample month in 2013 then again the same month in 2014. Average first day retention in 2013 was 25% then it fell to only 15% in May 2014. Not only is it difficult to acquire users, but it’s also becoming much more difficult to keep them.
On the web, it’s routine to send ad clicks to custom landing pages with content geared towards the referring advertisement; in fact, it’s the defacto standard. We know it increases conversions and has a higher degree of success than sending clicks to our homepage. If this is the optimal strategy on the web, why aren’t we doing the same thing with our CPI campaigns on mobile?
Technological Constraints
Until recently, this hasn’t really been possible. We deployed our CPI campaigns and dumped new users into the standard ‘first run’ experience of our app. Ultimately this limited the types of creatives we could deploy in our CPI campaigns.
Deferred Deep Linking has changed all of this by making it possible to send brand new users (freshly installed apps) to in-app landing pages. Deferred deep links are a mechanism that allow us to pass intent / context from an advertisement at click time through to an app immediately post install. You can use this context (or meta-data) to create custom landing pages for new users arriving from your various CPI campaigns.
Regular deep links have been limited to use in re-engagement advertising but deferred deep links allow us to use deep link technology in our user acquisition campaigns:
For example, let’s say you have a travel app and you’re about to launch a summer campaign for fantastic deals on hotels in Europe. You run the campaign and every new user who installs your app has to dig through your content to find your European hotel deals. A very frustrating experience that dramatically increases the likelihood of a new user abandoning your app right away.
Now, in the same example, imagine your marketing department tells you that people in New York state travel more to Paris in the summer months than any other geo.
We can hone in on this geo, change our creative to read something like “50% off hotels in Paris” and when a new user installs your app, they will be taken to an in app landing page (bypassing the default first run experience) where they can see the deals immediately and easily convert on your great offer.
Deferred deep links allow us to get more scientific and precise with our targeting and creative, powering higher conversions (in this case, hotel bookings) on new installs.
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re an AppLift customer (if not, you should be) spending decent sums on user acquisition. Your time optimizing a campaign is spent at the top of the funnel A/B testing creative, fine tuning targeting, etc. This is all well and good but you’re missing a key piece of the puzzle…Retaining your new users to make sure they don’t abandon your app right away!
A question worth asking is: what would the impact on my revenue be if I could easily boost first day retention by 50%? Many Tapstream customers who deploy deferred deep linking have seen massive drops of first day abandonment.
With abandonment rates growing rapidly, it is now more critical than ever to ensure your app provides the optimal new user experience. In the case of mobile advertising, this means sending new users to custom landing pages that draw them into your app, offer, and deliver the highest probability of converting.
Or, “How to roll your own free, universal smart app banner with Tapstream”
The introduction of the Mobile Safari Smart App Banner in iOS 6 solved a common problem - how to nicely prompt your website visitors to download your app - but left many things unresolved. Three big questions remain:
How can you offer your Android, Windows Phone, etc., visitors the same experience?
How can you track clicks and resulting installs from this banner?
How can you use the banner to drive users to the in-app content they want, whether they already have the app or not?
Showing a nice banner to all of your users (not just those on iOS)
The open source community quickly resolved question 1 by publishing dozens of JavaScript-implemented Smart App Banner lookalikes that are cross platform. Our favorite is jQuery Smart App Banner by Jasny - we'll use this as our reference implementation for the rest of this document.
Tracking clicks and installs from the banner
Question 2, tracking clicks on the banner, is a bit more complex. Even on iOS, tracking clicks on the native Smart App Banner is impossible. The iOS SAB lives outside of the browser's document - it's actually part of the browser itself. That means it can't be manipulated to, say, use a redirector or an onClick() event to track clicks. Tapstream gets around this by tracking impressions and installs from that page, which is the next best thing to tracking clicks.
With jQuery Smart App Banner and Tapstream, you can trivially override the destination URL to be a Tapstream link, like so:
javascript
$.smartbanner({
url: "http://taps.io/my-example-url?content=[the current page's path]",
// ....
})
Delivering the right content in-app
Whether the user already has your app or not, it's important that the app opens immediately to the content they were viewing on your site.
This can be accomplished with Tapstream's Unified Deeplinking. We configure our Tapstream link (taps.io/my-example-url) to gracefully handle Android users (who do and don't have your app), iOS users (who do and don't have your app), and a fallback for any other type of user. Here's a screenshot of the configuration (full size):
For iOS:
set the deeplink destination of myapp://{{ content }}
set the non-deeplink destination to your app's listing in the iTunes App Store
For Android:
set the intent URL destination to intent://{{ content }}/#Intent;scheme=myapp;package=com.myco.myapp;end
set the non-intent URL destination to your app's listing in the Google Play Store
With this configuration, users who already have your app will be immediately taken to it, and your app will load the correct content.
Users who don't have your app already will be able to download it. Once they do, Tapstream's Onboarding Links will push your users to the deeplink destination, giving them the same smooth user experience.
Google Changes Chrome to Prevent Abusive Deeplinking
Note: The article was updated below with a comment from Google.
As we noted yesterday, the latest version 40 of Chrome on Android no longer allows deeplinks to be triggered by the web page without direct user interaction. This was noted in the issue 459156 and confirmed by AppsFlyer.
We speculated whether it was a bug or an intentional change and after a few tips and more research we confirmed that this is not a short term bug, but a permanent change to the way Android browser handles intent URLs, which was finally confirmed earlier today in the comments for the issue. This for all intents and purposes breaks the most popular deeplinking solutions on Android, including App Links, DeepLink and URX.
How it all started
The issue got on Google's radar over a year ago. A Chrome engineer was surprised to find that going to Pandora.com would automatically launch Pandora app if installed, instead of opening Pandora's website. This behaviour was deemed broken and filed as a bug last year.
Pandora of course wasn't hit by a random bug: they were intentionally detecting users who already had the app installed and were taking them straight to the app, assuming that's what they wanted in the first place. But this did not sit well with Google and was slated to be fixed.
Unfortunately, this type of functionality is leaned on heavily by deeplinking companies to detect whether the app is present on a system. If found, user is deeplinked directly into the app, otherwise they're sent to an appropriate mobile web page.
Does it need fixing?
User intent is paramount when it comes to browser behaviour. Having web pages that navigate away from the browser without user interaction makes for a crappy user experience. This behaviour can be abused in many ways and often surprises users even when not abused (as in the Pandora example above). Chrome engineers were very specific in their feedback around this, including another tracked issue where they said (emphasis ours):
From the omnibox, no, there is no plans to allow external redirects. If typing in the omnibox, the user is showing a strong intent to stay within chrome, so we made the decision to not allow external redirects (too many of them led to what we believed to be bad user experiences).
Clicking on a link should still behave as before and redirect to market:// links.
As it stands, how can I programmatically redirect a user to the play store?
There is no plans to support a redirect without a user gesture.
Apple had a similar problem in Safari just over a year ago: browsing random websites would inexplicably open the App Store page for Clash of Clans and a few other games. As TechCrunch’s Sarah Perez reported then:
For many weeks now, mobile users on both iOS and Android have been encountering a problem where visits to certain websites and apps have automatically redirected them to the platform’s app store to download various games. The issue involves errant ad networks, which should be blocking these shady ads, but aren’t. Meanwhile, mobile consumers simply trying to use an app or read an article are treated to a poor user experience.
Apple has since fixed the problem in Safari without neutering the budding deeplinking ecosystem that grew dependent on this feature, but Google has a harder job on its hands due to the more powerful nature of Android intent URLs.
What this means going forward
The ability to use JavaScript to detect-then-launch apps on Android will be severely limited. Google is recognizing that this will limit their platform in several important ways and are already cooking up a solution in the form of App Install Alerts.
App Install Alerts are native Chrome banners, very similar to Apple's Smart App Banners, that will act as intermediaries between the website and its native app. Unfortunately, this won't help with the many marketing problems deeplinking companies have set out to solve.
To find out exactly how your deeplinking campaigns on Android will be affected check with your deeplinking partner. Tapstream customers are not affected by this, as we rely on deferred deeplinks to carry intent.
Update March 14: Google has gracefully responded to our first post - it sounds like there is an undocumented way to get around the current limitations, which deeplinking companies can use to route around this change (which will hopefully be a simple fix):
I will try and get some notes up about the fallback URL’s up as quickly as possible because it neatly solves a lot of issues for deep-app-linking, where as JS redirecting is a massive hack-around.
As close observers of mobile platforms have noticed, the latest Chrome build has seriously degraded the functionality of deeplinks on Android. The Intent URLs can no longer be triggered from on-page JavaScript, causing all sorts of problems for app marketers.
The impact to Android users is significant:
Apps that utilize deeplinks will not launch
Apps that have rich in-app webview content (including Facebook) can no longer open Intent URLs
Facebook's own App Links standard, designed to make deeplinking easier for developers, has been severely degraded and can no longer provide fallback URLs to those who don't have the target app installed
Platforms like URX and DeepLink.me no longer work as designed, which may mean many wasted advertising dollars on Android
Many other mobile marketing platforms are presenting a broken user experience to their advertisers
Apps with rich and equivalent content in both their app and on their site can no longer use a non-Play Store destination as their fallback URL if the Android user doesn't have the app already installed. That means if they're not using a deferred deeplink product like Onboarding Links, the user's intent will be lost
The technical details for this change are complex to describe, but it revolves around Chromium no longer able to launch certain intent URLs from JavaScript. This problem was confirmed by AppsFlyer in Issue 459156. The original submission from February 17 2015 reads:
What is the expected behavior?
Should redirect to Play Market or open page inside the app
Getting ERR_UNKNOWN_URL_SCHEME all the time, exept window.open call
What went wrong?
Did this work before? Yes In Chrome 38.x
A similar bug filed for webview was opened on February 24 2015.
What's changed?
Deeplink companies commonly use JavaScript to attempt to redirect users to a deeplink. Recently, Google Chrome on Android was updated to version 40. The new version of Google Chrome does not support redirecting to non-HTTP/S URL schemes (including intent:// and custom app URL schemes like fb://) via JavaScript.
Redirects to these types of destinations still work if they're performed by a redirect link instead of JavaScript, but that is not how they're commonly used.
Why the change?
There are three possible reasons for this change in behaviour in Chrome:
A bug: Chrome is just swallowing unrecognized URL schemes instead of passing them to the Android intent handler like it should
Protection from naughty ads: JavaScript redirects to the app store are sometimes used in ad injections. This was a big problem on iOS for a time
Google's preparing to produce their own way of doing this, perhaps something like the Smart App Banner on iOS. This would tie in nicely with their efforts to improve mobile SEO and their newly released Web App Install Banners.
If you're affected by this bug we'd love to hear from you.
Note for Tapstream customers: we are not affected by this bug, as we don't use JavaScript to launch URLs.
Update March 13: Some more information was gleaned thanks to a few tips and it seems that the new behaviour is not a bug. It was implemented to curtail some undesirable behaviour (option #2 in our three possible reasons above). Read more in our full update.
When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck.
-James Whitcomb Riley
We all know games drive the majority of revenue on the app store. At this point it's been well documented. But most people don't know which category is getting the silver medal on the podium. Spoiler alert- it's dating apps.
What do top grossing free to play games and dating apps have in common?
Two things:
They are fundamentally social. They are perfect examples of the network effect. Each new user added to the network adds incremental value to every other person in the network, as somebody to play with or date.
They use virtual currency to facilitate in app transactions.
Games pioneered virtual currency, then dating apps copied. The dating apps use some variation of subscription and/or profile super power (ie see who checked out your profile) usually with both options unlocked thorough an intermediary virtual currency.
96% of the apps in the top 25 grossing are social in nature. Social matters because it desterilizes a new user experience. It makes it personal.
A new app might be interesting. A new app where your friends are waiting for you, and you know how to find them, is far more likely to be interesting.
What does this mean for you?
If you're making a great socially leveraged dating app, or a top notch free to play game with a massive user acquisition budget- Great! Stop reading. Nothing here for you.
On the other hand if you're building anything else, but looking to mirror the success of the trail blazers in the mobile app space Tapstream can help.
Tapstream allows you to connect new users to existing users the first time they run the app, automagically. It all happens through Deferred Deeplinks, which tunnel a regular deeplink past the app store and right into the app when it starts up for the first time. If your app is social by nature then it makes it many times more engaging and compelling for new users joining up.
Even if you don’t have fundamentally social content there’s a good chance a new user is more likely to stick around if you can connect them to personally meaningful content and Deferred Deeplinks do that. They offer a white glove personalized experience for every new user.
This virtuous circle is picked up by Tapstream’s Word of Mouth. It gives your most engaged users the power to spread the word about your product and get rewarded for every install they drive, typically with virtual currency. And these newly invited users can be automatically connected to their friends once inside the app, driving stronger engagement and retention.
Apps are bigger than hollywood. Perhaps not an entirely fair comparison, as apps are broader than entertainment- they are social, utility and everything else under the sun, but with millions of apps in the stores, they cover a lot of ground.
Despite the size and variety of the app store offering the majority of app store revenues come from a single genre of apps. Games.
"Where the profits are concentrated makes for interesting reading. 84.9% of the 700 top grossing apps were games, and 81% of the top grossing apps originate from just fifty companies."
-Forbes
What's interesting, is on mobile, even with all the color, sound and whiz bang of games, great characters don't play a central role.
Consider the most recognizable IP to come out of the mobile gaming revolutions. It's the red bird and his friends... and we don't even know their names.
Mobile is fundamentally a different experience. It is certainly broad, ever present, always on - but rarely deep.
Finding the time to build a meaningful relationship with consumers is hard.
Narrative arcs are hard.
Empathy is hard.
Creating impactful characters is hard.
So what's a game developer to do?
As this massive medium of mobile apps shapes our culture, defines our daily lives and becomes part of our inner mechanics we are missing the iconic characters to personify the journey.
We don't have our Mickey of movies, our Mario of consoles. And we're not going to get them.
In mobile, the age of great characters to hang a game on has passed. As the new royalty of consumer entertainment ascend their throne, they need new tools to keep the empire growing. Meaningful characters don't make the cut. They need to connect with consumers in more personal ways.
Instead of making characters everyone could relate to, developers learned they could increase ARPU and MAU with no character at all.
Consider the top ten grossing apps of 2014. At this point, we all know they are mostly free games (90%). What surprises is that only one of those nine have character you could even name- and that's the ultra-mega-brand-celebrity-demi-force-of-god Kim Kardashian. Put another way, the only nameable character in the elite pool of the new entertainment field that has dwarfed Hollywood, is a real(ish) person.
So what does this all mean?
Characters are dead. We live in a post-icon mobile gaming age. To make games matter we have to make them personal. We need new ways to make our experiences connect with consumers. We need the era of brilliant personalization - We need Deferred Deep Links. (Also known as Onboarding Links.)
Deferred Deep Links allow a new players experience to be tailored to her, it allows a developer to connect the dots with meaningful experiences for a new user. With every little piece of the user experience subject to A/B testing and optimization, deferred deep links make it easy to make an app feel personal for a new user therefore dramatically boosting retention and engagement rates.
