How to Generate an Instagram to YouTube Direct Link to Open the YouTube App

Published on August 15, 2022

Whether How to Generate a Deeplink to Open the YouTube App from the Instagram App to Increase Subscribers you’re a social media influencer, a content creator, or a business selling a product or service, we can all agree that it’s essential to maximize your brand’s exposure across all social media channels. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube— establishing and maintaining a presence on each one of these platforms will inevitably pay off down the line, if not immediately.

Now, you may have tried to cross-promote your Instagram audience to your YouTube channel simply by placing your YouTube channel’s link in your Instagram profile, or maybe posting a link to one of your YouTube videos on your Instagram story. But wait—why are your YouTube links not opening in the app?

Well, you're running into the Instagram walled garden! The walled garden refers to the phenomenon of when you click on a social link— be it for YouTube or any social network— and instead of opening the app, you're sent to the mobile website login within the Instagram browser. That makes conversion close to zero because no one wants to login that way.

The good news is— there's a solution for that! Yes, it is possible to link directly from the Instagram app into the YouTube app while jumping over that YouTube website login— but only if you have the right type of deep link to open the app, and URLgenius is here to help.

The Benefits of Direct YouTube Links for Instagram

By incorporating deep links into your social media strategy, particularly on platforms like Instagram, you can significantly enhance user experience, increase viewership, and ultimately achieve your marketing goals. Here’s a closer look at the benefits of using direct links to the YouTube app on all social media platforms.

1. Seamless User Experience

Deep links allow users to bypass the traditional navigation process, taking them directly to the specific content you want them to see. For instance, using a YouTube mobile app link in your Instagram story or bio can guide followers straight to a video without them having to search your channel. This seamless transition not only saves time but also reduces friction, making it more likely that users will engage with your content.

2. Higher Engagement Rates
One of the primary challenges on social media is capturing and maintaining the audience's attention. Deep links can lead users to curated content that is highly relevant and engaging. By directing your audience to a specific video or playlist, you are more likely to keep them engaged longer, increasing watch time and the likelihood of further interaction such as likes, comments, and shares.

3. Enhanced Conversion Rates
For businesses and influencers, converting social media traffic into tangible results is a key objective. YouTube app deep links can significantly enhance conversion rates by directing users to targeted content that aligns with their interests or needs. For example, a beauty influencer can use deep links to take followers directly to a tutorial or product review video, increasing the likelihood of conversions, whether that means more subscribers, product purchases, or sign-ups.

4. Leveraging Instagram Stories and Highlights
Instagram Stories and Highlights are powerful tools for driving engagement. By incorporating deep links into your Instagram stories, users will be taken to the YouTube directly upon clicking. This is a great way for you to provide a direct call-to-action that encourages viewers to watch your videos. This not only boosts your YouTube views but also keeps your Instagram followers engaged with fresh, dynamic content. Additionally, saving these stories to your Highlights ensures that the deep links remain accessible for new followers to discover.

5. Enhanced Cross-Promotion Opportunities
Using YouTube deep links on various social media platforms creates opportunities for cross-promotion. For example, you can share a deep link to a YouTube video on your Facebook page, Twitter, or LinkedIn profile, driving traffic from multiple sources. This strategy helps in expanding your reach, attracting a diverse audience, and building a cohesive online presence across different platforms.

Learn more about the benefits of incorporating app deep links when cross-promoting your social media profiles as part of your marketing strategy:

Step-By-Step: How to Use the URLgenius Instagram to YouTube Direct Link Generator to Create Links That Open the YouTube App

The beauty of our deep linking platform is how easy we make it for you— marketer, content creator, influencer, etc— to create and implement social deep links to profiles and to specific content like videos. Deep links direct your audience exactly where you want them to be in the app for iOS or Android depending on the device clicking— in this case, your brand's profile or a specific video or playlist within the YouTube app— by clicking on a single link (you don't need a separate deep link for iOS and Android).

Let’s say the agency for pop star Harry Styles wanted to promote his newest music video from his Instagram profile page or from Instagram advertising. The following are the steps his team would take to create the YouTube deeplink that directly opens the YouTube app straight to Harry's profile in the app and NOT to the YouTube login page within Instagram's web browser.

The first thing you need to do is to navigate to the YouTube profile or video and copy the link from the address bar or you could also share to expose the link. You only need the basic link— you can remove any navigation tags that may have been added as you searched for the YouTube link to make sure they don't interfere with tracking or opening the YouTube app.

Paste the link into the box provided on the URLgenius home page. When pasting the link, notice the YouTube icon is highlighted— this tells you that URLgenius understands the type of link you just pasted.

Pro Tip: Note the field that lets you customize the end of the link to match your campaign to make it easy to find later or you can use the pre-populated random characters. In this example, we're customizing it to be 'harrystyles-december-22'.

Click “Compose” which takes you to the settings page for your YouTube app deep link, where you can copy and place it into your Instagram profile or ad. To test the behavior of the link, scan the QR code or email it to yourself or someone on your team.

Notice that there are advanced features on the settings page— this is also where you can see clicks and the number of app-opens. You can also use your artist's domain for your YouTube app deep link which is recommended.

URLgenius Is the Deep Link Between Cross-Promotion of Instagram and YouTube

You invested a lot of time and energy building your brand's Instagram following. So then, doesn’t it make sense to build a seamless connection between Instagram and YouTube with a URLgenius app deep link for YouTube so you can increase subscribers?

Here How to Generate a Deeplink to Open the YouTube App from the Instagram App to Increase Subscribers are some ways you can use your YouTube app deep link in Instagram:

Place your URLgenius YouTube link in your Instagram profile
Insert your YouTube app deep link as the call-to-action in your Instagram stories
Place your YouTube app deep link as the link behind your ad in Facebook and Instagram advertising
Use the URLgenius QR code for your YouTube app deep link in a clever Instagram post that inspires scanning

Pro tip: The same walled garden concept applies to QR codes. Your average QR code generator cannot create QR codes that open social apps. URLgenius creates a QR code for you with every app deep link. Just click on 'QR Settings' from the settings page of your deeplink to get the QR code

We are here to help you increase YouTube subscribers! Contact us with questions about Instagram and YouTube app deep links.

If you found this content helpful, check out some of our latest how-to posts for deep link app marketing:

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