The focus of paid search campaigns has changed dramatically as consumers spend most of their time on mobile devices and within mobile apps. According to a report by eMarketer and iProspect in August 2016, smartphones saw a 20 percent increase in paid search clicks year-over-year. Total paid search clicks from smartphones grew from a third of all clicks in Q2 2015 to over half in Q2 2016.
Consumers now reply on their smartphones more than any other device when searching for products and services. Desktop computers and tablets are still an important part of the consumer journey and focusing on all three devices as they try to identify and optimize cross-device patterns of behavior.
Optimizing Paid Search Campaigns for App vs. Web
For advertisers with mobile apps, the missing link in most cross device paid search strategies is a more controlled and deliberate approach to routing traffic to app vs. mobile website. Most advertisers and retailers are still sending all mobile traffic from their paid search campaigns to their mobile website without consideration for the app. Even loyal app users are routed to the mobile website where they need to login despite the presence of the brand's app on their device which could simply be detected and opened to the correct page. Consumers get frustrated and revenue is lost as mobile moments are missed when consumers abandon the mobile website login screen.
Mobile app deep linking is often cited as the solution for optimizing traffic to apps vs. websites. The challenge, however, is that most deep linking solutions are designed for application developers and require the installation of software development kits. URLgenius is the only solution specifically designed for marketers and agencies to give them control over routing traffic to mobile app vs. web from any device and web browser.
In minutes, URLgenius deep linking enables marketers for any app to implement single paid search campaign links that optimize traffic for mobile apps (iOS and Android) vs. website. Marketers get more control over their campaign links, leverage existing analytics strategies and can remove the marketing silos that often exist between paid search and mobile app teams.
A more deliberate approach to optimizing traffic between mobile apps and websites may seem like an obvious requirement for marketers and yet mobile apps are typically in a marketing silo operationally. Paid search campaign managers and agencies are often simply not tasked with driving mobile app engagement. And brand’s mobile app is also often managed by a different team or agency measured by different key performance indicators or KPIs.
A more deliberate approach to optimizing traffic between mobile apps and websites may seem like an obvious requirement for marketers and yet mobile apps are typically placed in a silo operationally. Paid search campaign managers and agencies are often simply not tasked with driving mobile app engagement. And brand’s mobile app is also often managed by a different team or agency measured by different key performance indicators or KPIs.
How URLgenius is Different from other Deep Linking Solutions
URLgenius also solves for the complexity of many other deep linking solutions. Targeting mobile app developers, Apple released Universal Links for deep linking while Google launched Firebase App Indexing for Android. These solutions are for mobile app developers and require technical resources and the implementation of software development kits or SDKs. In our research, we found slow adoption of both Apple and Google deep linking technologies among the IR 100. Meanwhile ecommerce giants like Amazon and Ebay who have deep technical resources are leading the industry with their mobile app deep linking strategies while leaving other retailers behind.
In minutes, URLgenius lets you start routing traffic to your mobile app immediately by updating a few campaign links. You can also append UTM tracking parameters for Google Analytics or for paid search management platforms like Kenshoo. When proven to increase engagement and conversion you can scale throughout your search campaigns.
Search campaigns combined with URLgenius mobile app deep linking can put your brand's app on a more level playing field with competitors like the Amazon shopping app. It's also the easiest way to improve the consumer journey while increasing revenue among your app-focused customers.
Don't forget, URLgenius also helps you increase social app engagement. update your social profile links for Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, Linkedin, Messenger and Telegram. This will help increase social app engagement.