How To Improve the Lifetime Value of an App User With Deep Linking

1. How To Improve the Lifetime Value of an App User With Deep Linking

2. Increasing lifetime value with deep links Knowing the LTV of app users opens up a whole new world for experimentation and growth. Once you can calculate LTV, you can prioritize and measure the impact of building new features or testing different marketing campaigns. Since LTV is a function of three variables, as an app developer or marketer you have the choice to focus on the variable you think will impact your LTV the most. For instance, if you know monetization will come later once you reach scale, focus on virality and retention in the short term. If your users share a lot but have a short lifecycle, deep linking for retention is for you.

3. App monetization Deep links have obvious use cases when it comes to virality and retention, but they’re also incredibly useful for your app monetization efforts, specifically because of their ability to move users further down the customer acquisition funnel.

4. Moving app users down the funnel The purpose of the funnel is to demonstrate that the number of potential customers decreases with each step the user has to go through to become a customer. So it makes sense that it’s best to skip as many of these stages as possible. That’s where deep links come in. Take Jersey Mike’s, for example. The company uses Branch Quick Links across various channels, including paid, organic social, SMS, and push notifications to convert non-app users to app users. But it doesn’t stop there. The deep link stores the parameters of the incoming user, bringing them directly to the content in the app they were viewing on mobile web. Their first time using the app, users start just one step from placing an order, automatically applying an offer they just saw on a different channel.

5. Deep linking for reengagement No app is perfect. Even if you can improve retention, you’re still going to lose users. But they may not be gone forever. There are certain retention techniques that utilize deep links to boost reengagement. One benefit of Branch links is that once you create a link, it will work across any platform or use case. For example, email campaigns are a common, effective way to reengage users. Email marketers can send users information about promotions, limited-time offers, and even personalized, dynamic content. But email reengagement is notoriously difficult. Without a dedicated mobile linking platform, brands often have to choose between analytics and user experience. Ancestry®, a family history and consumer genomics company, implemented deep links in its email campaigns to encourage users to reengage with the app. The campaign titled, “The Ancestry app can do that?” included calls to action (CTAs) to “Explore the app” and took users directly inside the app to explore the highlighted feature. By integrating its app and deep linked emails, the company drove a 3x increase in engagement with app features.

6. Tracking and rewarding referrals App developers and marketers know that existing users are key to virality and often try to reward or incentivize these users for inviting others. However, building out complex referral programs proves to be quite a difficult task. WithBranch referrals, all the logic, routing, and rewarding is handled automatically. Better yet, since Branch links can store user parameters, there is no need to use referral codes to receive rewards, further reducing one or more steps in the customer acquisition process. Rappi used this referral system to equip its 15,000+ influencer marketing partners with unique coupon codes to offer to their followers. These coupons provided a discount for the new user’s first purchase on Rappi and were attached to Branch deep links. When a new user clicked the link, they were taken to the correct app store for their device, and after installing the app, the coupon was automatically applied to the user account. On the backend, Branch captured all the information about the influencer, channel, and coupon, so Rappi could track each influencer’s performance. As a result, 50% of new users came from influencer and referral campaigns.

7. Overall impact of deep links on customer lifetime value Now that you’ve seen some proven examples of how to use deep links to improve app monetization, retention, and virality, it’s up to you to determine and prioritize which deep link use cases to try. The impact of Branch features on LTV will vary depending on several different factors. What vertical is your app in? Are users incentivized to share? How long is your average customer’s lifecycle? To start, look at your app’s current monetization, retention, and virality performance and see which aspect needs the most attention. At the end of the day, no matter which equation you use to measure LTV, deep links will help. Want to learn more? Request a demo with our team.

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