Best practices for implementing deep links

If you want your ads to send your existing app users to a specific page in your app, you’ll want to implement deep linking. Deep links provide a more seamless user experience between your ads and the most relevant in-app content, and may help increase conversions. Learn more About deep links.

Find out if you have deep linking enabled

Android App Links

Have your Android developer follow the steps in this article to test whether a particular URL is enabled for App Links. If the green tick box is visible, then App Links are enabled.

iOS Universal Links

Enter a URL to test in Apple's App Search API Validation Tool, and check the "Link to Application" section. If the status says "Passed", Universal Links are enabled.

Optimising conversions with deep links

Deep links that align well with creative assets, the bidding event and the audience targeted, and that send people to the most relevant app pages to help them complete their desired actions, will drive the most conversions.

Example #1: If your app is a dating app that targets 30-day lapsed users with the intent to get them back on the app, and your bid is on “app opens”, your deep link should go to the homepage of your app.

Example #2: If your app is a gaming app that's promoting a special event to active users using event-centred creative and your bid is on 'user entered event', your deep link should lead to a specific events page.

Web to App Connect

You can set up deep linking and app conversion tracking using the Web to App Connect interface in Google Ads. Once you’ve completed set up for both, you can provide a seamless web-to-app experience for your customers and drive on average two times higher conversion rates for ad clicks landing in your app compared to your mobile website.

This improved experience allows your customers to more easily complete their intended action, whether purchasing, signing up or adding items to their cart. Plus, from within the Web to App Connect interface, you can track these in-app conversion actions and get recommendations on how to improve your campaign.

To get started with Web to App Connect, follow the three steps below:

In your Google Ads account, click the Tools icon .
Click the Planning drop-down in the section menu.
Click App advertising hub. This will take you to the Web to App Connect interface.

Learn more about converting better with the Web to App Connect interface.

Implementing large numbers of deep links in your apps

If you have 100 app pages, you don’t necessarily have to implement 100 deep links in your app. Instead, you can implement App Links or Custom Schemes with wildcards. For example, the link '*.example.com' can be used for both 'test1.example.com' and 'test2.example.com' URLs. Learn more about using wildcards

Note: Deep links aren't considered when calculating SEO Rank, so they do not impact SEO ranking.

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