ALT TEXT: A graphic showing a phone versus a undecorous and white background.

Let’s get lanugo to contumely tacks. A solid social media presence is hair-trigger to a winning marketing strategy. Social media campaigns help promote your trademark and momentum traffic to your website. And utilizing deep links in your social media posts can help increase engagement, momentum traffic, and uplift conversions. Deep links are part of creating seamless connections between pages and bringing people to the content they’re seeking — something that the weightier marketing teams aspire to.

But, not all campaigns are created equal. Alimony in mind the platform you’re using and what type of content is most popular on each one. For example, TikTok is perfect for short-form videos and creative effects, whereas Twitter is largest suited for text-based campaigns. 

How you leverage linking within social posts can make or unravel your campaign’s effectiveness. When washed-up right, social media linking can be a powerful tool considering it offers something valuable to your target audience. By pursuit the weightier practices we outline for you below, you can ensure your social media posts are compelling and get the desired results. 

1. Pair your links with lulu visuals

Imagery and videos are a powerful way to capture sustentation and engage people on social media. People are instinctually visual creatures, so it’s paramount to ensure your social posts include lulu visuals slantingly your deep links. This could be anything from high-quality photos to engaging infographics. 

Whatever you choose, make sure it’s eye-catching and likely to get people’s attention. For example, unelevated is a compelling using of this strategy from rxbar – which includes a prominent undeniability to action. 

  Source: rxbar 

 

Dynamic text, tantalizing displays, and a witty presentation – plus a personalized link – enhance the user wits for this campaign.

With lulu visuals, you may modernize the effectiveness of your links. Dynamic imagery and videos are a unconfined tideway to grab people’s sustentation and alimony them engaged. Considering people are drawn to stimulating media, it’s hair-trigger to include well-flavored images slantingly your links in order for them to be noticed.

2. Make sure your links work

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised how many folks don’t trammels to see if their links are working surpassing posting them. A wrenched link is not only frustrating for your followers, but it moreover makes your trademark squint unprofessional. 

Here are a few handy resources to ensure your links are properly set up for the optimal user journey: 

  • Social Share Preview: a standard resource for checking your social media previews.
  • Twitter Card Validator: perfect for inspecting the Twitter Card generated for your page.
  • Journeys: create an audience, customize with a visual editor, and measure the results all in one interface!

Your brand’s social media finance are extensions of your own digital properties. Users who follow your finance and repeatedly engage with your posts are likely to have a strong unification for your business. This in turn implies that many of them will moreover have your app installed on their respective devices. As a result, cross-device and cross-platform testing is expressly important to ensure there are no snags withal the way.

For those who don’t own an World or Android device — but wish to test the opposite platform wits — here are a few tools to help you test-drive your links: 

  • Samsung iTest: unconfined for testing your Android app wits while using an World device.
  • TestFlight: platonic for testing beta versions of iOS apps and App Clips. 
  • LambdaTest: conduct cross-browser testing of your website, web application, and mobile app using modern mobile iOS simulators and Android browser emulators.

Regardless of which tool(s) you leverage, make sure you take the time to test your links surpassing posting them to stave any embarrassing mishaps. 

Another weightier practice is to wireframe your user journey superiority of time. This will ensure no visual snags towards while users are engaging with your links. However, it can sometimes be tough to get people to get to your app.

Shown whilom is a unconfined example of a thoughtfully mapped-out user journey — starting with a linked social post (Twitter) and ending with in-app content (Pandora).

Using Branch Journeys, this wayfarers enables a seamless series of transitions. Users are taken from one app (Twitter), to a mobile web browser (Safari), to the World App Store (so they can download flipside app), and lastly to Pandora. Journeys enables you to expand your user wiring and engage with them by converting your mobile website into the most constructive source of app downloads.

It can be said that users are increasingly likely to buy — and stay with you — when they have positive engagements with your app, so it’s imperative that this wits is properly optimized to stave drop-offs. In fact, 93% of consumers agree that it’s important for interactions they have with brands to be excellent. When user journeys are planned (and tested) in advance, you can ensure the overall wits is a smooth one.  

3. Deep link, deep link, deep link

Deep linking increases social media engagement and — without any friction — gets users to the content they want to see. Deep links are URLs that take users directly to a specific piece of content within an app rather than the app’s homepage. A Workshop link is a vehicle that both ensures seamless user experiences and provides you with full attribution and analytics wideness email, referrals, paid advertising, social, organic search, and desktop-to-mobile. 

What this ways is, with Branch links, you can measure how each social media linking wayfarers performed. Workshop supports links for email, sharing, social, and increasingly — no need to implement variegated tools for each channel.  

Below are two real-world examples of Workshop links in whoopee on Twitter: 

ALT TEXT: A Twitter post razzmatazz Billie Eilish's partnership with Nike and her reimagined Air Force 1 sneakers.
Source: Billie Eilish | Twitter     

In these promotions, the Spotify team can hands generate unique, campaign-specific links for each tweet to measure engagement (and app installs) that originate from them. Additionally, their team can moreover see how both campaigns performed in their Workshop Dashboard, enabling them to convert potential users in variegated marketing channels into high-value app users. 

Linking to a specific page within your app via social media isn’t unchangingly easy. It’s crucial to understand how content in your app is structured and accessed, as well as ensure social media exhibit information is in place. Consider how users without your app will be treated. Should you send them to the app store? What well-nigh desktop users?

This is where deep linking comes in. Deep linking enables you to send social media users directly to the content they want to see, without any friction.

There are two types of deep links: standard and deferred.

 A standard deep link will take the user directly to the content, if they have your app installed. If they don’t have your app installed, the user will be taken to the app store to download it. 

A deferred deep link will take the user first to the app store, and then straight to that specific piece of content once they launch your app for the first time. By understanding the difference between standard and deferred deep links, you can ensure that your social media campaigns are driving the right results.

Unsure where exactly you want a user to be taken once they engage with a deep link? Unelevated are a few spare ways users can be directed once they click:

Paid ads-to-appEmail-to-appSocial media-to-appQR code-to-appWeb-to-app
Streamline paid marketing campaigns with deep links that unshut your brand’s app if installed. This is all while giving you tenancy over the fallback URL when your app is not installed.Perfect for seamless email-to-app experiences. It’s moreover handy plane when ESPs wrap the deep link with their own tracking link.Used heavily by consumers to discover new apps and content. Deep linking social media content on mobile helps reap new users, retain current users, and motivate growth.Direct users to your app with QR codes. They can be placed at key engagement points, such as in-store displays, CTV, packaging, and more!Nurture organic user acquisition by towers seamless pathways from your website to in-app content.

To take this plane further, here are a few weightier practices for setting up links on the most worldwide social media platforms — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. 

Twitter

A provocative platform for engaging with upper profile figures and celebrities alike, Twitter is a unconfined social medium for linking — expressly if your goal is to increase app engagement. Campaigns targeted toward a mobile regulars most likely to download or click on your app are uncommonly well-suited to Twitter. With tweets optimized for the mobile marketplace, people will be worldly-wise to install your app directly from their timelines. 

Take the example provided below. A Workshop link directs users towards a Spotify podcast. Users will then be either prompted to download the collaborative Spotify app to listen, or taken directly to the app itself if Spotify is once downloaded on the users’ device. 

As a platform optimized for linking, Twitter provides you with the option to either promote tweets like this to get app clicks or app installs. This depends on the desired outcome of the intended campaign. 

Facebook

With Facebook, you can send people directly to a specific destination within your app once they click on your mobile app ad. Facebook moreover allows you to create detailed “custom audiences” of people who have once shown an interest in what you do, and then target your ads specifically at them. 

Branch links can, in turn, be used together with Facebook ads. This allows you to track ad-driven installs on the Workshop Dashboard and deep link those new users directly to content the first time they unshut your app. 

Pro tip: If you once have a website with the same content as your app, a smart app banner is an easy way to convert your existing content into deep linked previews. Branch Journeys helps with online-to-app conversion in a variety of scenarios, including Facebook, while moreover permitting you to customize the squint and policies of your imprint or interstitial.

For increasingly information on leveraging this platform, trammels out our weightier practices and tips on deep linking from Facebook!

Instagram 

Instagram is now one of the most popular social media platforms in the world with increasingly than one billion monthly zippy users utilizing the app. Unsurprisingly, Instagram has significant potential to raise app awarenes, and momentum downloads and conversions. It’s moreover a unconfined waterworks to leverage linking for mobile app marketers! Leveraging deep linking is the key to a successful Instagram campaign.

Instagram Stories are a quick and outgoing wayfarers mechanism — expressly for deep linking. The worthiness to generate interactive videos allows you to create dynamic content in a streamlined way. This is vital for getting users to click customizable links that lead to your chosen destination.  

Here’s a quick tutorial on how to add a deep link within the Instagram Stories full-length to seamlessly route users to a specific destination: 

Shake Shack is flipside unconfined example of leveraging linking well within a social media campaign. The team recently generated a savvy promotion via Instagram Stories encouraging users to download the app and order their products online. With just a few short and impactful Stories, Shake Shack was worldly-wise to convey its value both textually and visually, increasing the chances that viewers would engage (and reducing the friction required to do so). 

TikTok 

It’s no secret TikTok is one of the world’s fastest-growing social platforms. By leveraging TikTok campaigns alongside Branch’s TikTok integration, you can moreover uncover the true drivers of user worriedness wideness every ad network and channel. Additionally, you’ll be worldly-wise to compare your wayfarers performance directly on the Workshop Dashboard.  

Below is an example from DoorDash of successful TikTok deep linking at play: 

Source: DoorDash

The goal of this wayfarers is to encourage users to sign up as a Dasher (i.e. a driver) with the ‘Start Earning’ undeniability to action. This prompt then takes users directly to the drivers’ app and through an onboarding workflow. The deep link into the drivers’ app is particularly essential to the campaign’s success. 

Whichever wayfarers you decide to run on TikTok, remember to include a link in your profile bio that leads directly to your app or website. This is a unconfined way to increase traffic and conversions from this popular social media platform. 

4. Virtuously symbol your campaigns

If you’re running paid razzmatazz campaigns, you’ll want to create a Branch Ad Link. This will virtuously symbol campaigns to the towardly razzmatazz partner and get the most well-judged data on your ad campaign. You can moreover use regular Workshop links within your influencer campaigns. Many brands requite their influencers Workshop links to promote the trademark or their products on other platforms.

Here’s a unconfined example of a social media influencer wayfarers for Revolut using Workshop Quick Links:

All Workshop links support deferred deep linking, Android App Links, iOS universal links, and web and app conversions. Other links may only help track clicks and web conversions, but Workshop links provide marketers with profound benefits. These include: 

  • Optimized app conversions

A seamless deep linking wits will bring users to the word-for-word content they desire. This will increase revenue, loyalty, and lifetime value (LTV) compared with those that haven’t been deep linked and are instead brought to a generic landing page. 

  • Personalized user experiences

Deep links are perfect for improving the user app onboarding experience. This includes opening the door for personalized app invites or incentivizing users with custom promotional offers. 

  • Higher retention and engagement

With deep links, you can identify frequent and returning users who once have the app. This creates higher engagement, largest retention, and improved ROI by delivering users to the relevant app content. Also, this reduces the risk that they will fall out of the marketing funnel.

  • Insightful and powerful attribution data

Deep links indulge you to virtuously measure and proceeds wayfarers insights so you can make better-informed marketing decisions. 

5. Use strong calls to action

Your social media posts should unchangingly include a strong undeniability to whoopee (CTA) based on the goal of the campaign. These CTAs could be anything from “Order now” to “Learn more.” App installs increase significantly when CTAs match intent. 

For example: Instagram uses the CTA “View Photos in App” versus “Use the App,” and DoorDash uses “Order Delivery in App” instead of “Continue.” This tideway substantially increases conversion.

No matter what you choose, make sure your CTA will encourage people to take action. Here are some examples of what this could squint like in practice on Instagram and TikTok:

Also, we strongly suggest you use keywords in your links. A good rule of thumb is to first think well-nigh what keywords would be most relevant to your audience. Then use those keywords in the links you share. 

In the example above, Burger King created an easy-to-digest link with keywords like: “burgerking,” “app,” and “link.” Each one informs the user that this link will likely take them to the Burger King app (which it does!). Burger King filters users who have not used their app in 90 days or more, then offers an spare in-app-only unbelieve – just for them.

Customizing your social media linking wits will moreover help you get increasingly exposure for your postings and guarantee that they’re seen by the people most likely to be interested in them. 

Check out this example unelevated of Weatherzone using both emojis and a customized link to its app within its Instagram bio.

ALT TEXT: Screenshot of customized Workshop links stuff used by Weatherzone in its Instagram page bio, which leads users to download the app, then to a directed deep view, then to the app store where they can download the app.

Your social media bio is prime real manor for promoting your content with strong CTAs. But no one wants to read a wall of text, so make sure you include only the most hair-trigger information and incorporate links as CTAs. 

Social media linking can uplift engagement, expand your reach, and enhance your brand’s marketing efforts. By creating a well-spoken linking strategy and keeping these weightier practices in mind, you’ll be worldly-wise to create a successful social media campaign

And there you have it! Five powerful practices for constructive social media linking. Now, go out there and start linking like a pro.

Branch provides the industry's leading mobile linking and measurement platforms, offering solutions that unify user wits and attribution wideness devices and channels. Workshop has been selected by over 100,000 apps since 2014 including Adobe, BuzzFeed, Yelp, and many more, improving experiences for increasingly than 3 billion monthly users wideness the globe. Learn increasingly well-nigh Branch or contact sales today.