Dive Brief:
- Deep linking is a key as marketers can gain control over app re-engagement as well as move users from app to app.
- The push for mobile deep linking is coming from investors hoping the process of indexing app content will be different than indexing web content.
- Google and Apple have both made naming, exposing and indexing deep links more attractive to app developers.
Dive Insight:
App deep linking has a potentially bright future, Bitly Chief Product Officer Matt Thompson argued in a guest post for VentureBeat. For one, it’s important for marketers to be able to gain control over app re-engagement given that 70% of mobile commerce happens in-app, and it’s a way to move users from app to app. And even though the current push for app deep linking is coming from investors, per URX a mere 28% of the top 100 apps have deep linking tags.
Both Google and Apple are making deep linking more enticing for apps, and are educating the marketplace on the practice.
Thompson writes, “Deep linking adoption got a massive boost when Google and Apple made it more enticing for all apps to name, expose, and index deep links. At I/O this past May, Google announced Now on Tap and unveiled ways for locations inside of apps to surface in search results via App Indexing. Apple announced Spotlight for iOS, and it’s expected that 70 percent of all iOS devices will have the new deep linking capabilities within five months of the planned fall 2015 rollout.”
For marketers, deep linking app content can help with tracking customers across digital experiences from websites to apps, sustaining app engagement and gaining lifetime value users.
