Introduction
Why do people search for apps? There is no longer one linear path from discovery to install for users. In today’s world, the journey for a user can begin via a social media post or a comparison article, then email them reminders, and finally convert them on another device as much as a couple of days later. With installations taking longer than ever before to occur now, the user has many touch points along their journey, and the attention they pay to these touchpoints does not follow a linear progression.
However, mobile journeys still depend heavily on static links that assume instant installation and a one-session user experience. When this assumption fails to meet the expectations of the user, the user’s experience is disrupted. In fact, studies indicate that 56% of mobile users abandon their journeys when their mobile experience is disrupted, such as due to poor performance or errors during the process. The key to converting users is not to fix conversion issues; the key is to provide a seamless experience throughout the entire user journey.
The Dynamic Link is the link that adapts to your user’s journey. A Dynamic Link changes based on where your user is in the process – if the app has been installed yet or if they are new – keeping the user’s context intact and intent fully alive.
Dynamic Links are not seen as growth hacks by Apptrove but rather as the infrastructure of the whole app user journey and are there to create unity in creating a seamless user experience between fractured pieces of digital activity.
In this blog post, we’ll take a look at Dynamic Links, how they are changing the user journey in today’s app ecosystem, and why they are becoming more important as deep linking becomes a requirement for mobile users.
What Is a Dynamic Link and How Do They Differ from Regular URLs?
At its core, a Dynamic Link is a link that is smart and aware of context, so that it works as intended with how users use apps today. Instead of pointing users to a single, fixed destination, dynamic links adapt to where the user is in their journey and what state the user’s device(s) were at that particular moment.
To give an example of how this works in practice: A dynamic link does not panic when the app is not installed before the user clicks. It redirects the user to the appropriate app store, while quietly preserving context (what content was tapped, where the user came from, and why the user clicked). Once installed, a dynamic link will bring a user directly to the intended screen in the app instead of taking them to a generic home page. No re-searching, no friction. A dynamic link will work seamlessly across all platforms, whether the user is using iOS, Android, mobile web, or if they switch devices mid-journey.
While a traditional URL is static and fixed and makes some fundamental assumptions (i.e., the app already exists; the session occurs immediately; the user goes on a linear journey), when any of these assumptions is wrong, the experience can be disrupted by coming to a dead end, displaying an irrelevant landing page, or the user’s intent is lost altogether.
The difference is that a Dynamic Link has been created using a user’s behaviour, not a device’s technical limitations. A Dynamic Link offers a single continuous experience for discovery, installation, and using your app – because that is how your users experience the app you are creating.
The Complete App User Journey Through Dynamic Links
In today’s digital world, the app user journey is not linear; it is made up of many different moments, including pauses, switches, and returns to the app. The app user will find your app via advertisements, engaging content, and others referring the user to the app. Users are comparing options, saving links for later use, and delaying installation of the application. Even once a user has installed your app, Onboarding may not take place immediately, and re-engagement may not occur for days or weeks after a user has had an initial interaction with the app.
Studies show that the average mobile app retains only about 28% of its users the day after installation, with long-term engagement dropping quickly thereafter. This highlights how fragmented and nonlinear the app user journey often is.
Dynamic Links will quietly tie everything together for the user. When a user discovers an app, Dynamic Links will capture the context in which the user has discovered the app, whether that be via a social media post, an email, or a recommendation. If the user leaves the app for any reason and subsequently returns to the app to consider installing it at a later date, the context captured by Dynamic Links will remain. Once the user is ready to install the app, Dynamic Links will ensure that the user does not start over once the app is downloaded.
When a user is introduced to the application via onboarding, Dynamic Links are able to point users directly to the feature, product, or screen that they demonstrated interest in and eliminate any confusion and mental overload that could come from not being able to easily find something. When the same user returns to use the application, Dynamic Links will direct them to the appropriate area without forcing them to navigate back on their own from the home screen.
Dynamic Links provide continuity throughout all points of the user’s journey by maintaining the user’s intent, which will reduce friction and create better intent matching (i.e., users will see what they thought they would see when they saw it). Continuity creates the ability to turn fragmented points of interaction into an integrated app user experience; therefore, that experience will be more intuitive than it would otherwise be.
The Importance of Dynamic Links for Deep Linking in the Mobile App Landscape
Deep linking for mobile applications is frequently taken to mean being able to send users to a specific destination within a mobile application. However, deep linking by itself presumes the app to be installed already. In fact, there are many instances where users will see your application for the first time before they actually install it; therefore, this could mean deep linking does not work properly.
This is where you can find the foundational basis of Dynamic Links. Dynamic Links serve as the connective tissue that allows deep linking to operate effectively in the real world. For example, a Dynamic Link is aware that when a user is on the path to complete an action, their experience may be disrupted by an app installation, switching devices, or taking their time, etc.; thus, the Dynamic Link will maintain the same experience.
The significant elements of deferred deep linking are that if a person clicks on a link and does not immediately install the app, they will continue to have the intention behind their click, even after the app has been installed later. For example, when clicking on a link, a user should have a presumed destination. Deferred deep linking allows the user to have that presumed destination, whether they click the link, install the app, or both.
Due to the nature of a deep link being dynamic, deep linking will create conditional user experiences under certain scenarios. The impact of using Dynamic Links to support mobile app deep linking will be complete continuity of user experience across devices, time, and delivery methods. The driving force of this process will be to ensure the user arrives at their intended destination when they want, regardless of how or when they arrive.
Enhancing User Engagement with Dynamic Links, While Not Using Personal Information
The mobile ecosystem is undergoing changes towards a greater emphasis on user privacy. Consequently, ways to guide users through their app or service must also evolve and adapt to the fact that there will be little (if any) granular identification of users, an increasing amount of restriction on consent-based frameworks, and an increasing reliance on measurement based on what users do rather than on who the user is. This change towards a measurement model focused on privacy first provides the foundation for the understated yet tremendously powerful role of Dynamic Links.
Instead of using the (personal) user data and the (persistent) user identifier to track individual users, Dynamic Links use contextual information associated with the actual point in time and location where the user interacted with the link, the content the user clicked on and the type of action they intended to perform as a method of intelligently routing users through the app, without needing to create or maintain a user profile or track individual users.
This method enhances connection through matching the experience with each individual’s expectations. Users will arrive at the right screen, bypass interrupted experiences, and be able to go back to familiar states of mind while not feeling overly tracked or targeted. They will not feel like anyone is invading their privacy.
The importance of this from a future-ready standpoint cannot be overlooked because connecting context with continuity will allow for a more sustainable way to create engagement based on context and continue to do so, due to the limitations of platforms and regions, as well as privacy laws. Using Dynamic Links to help maintain the continued intention rather than the individual, you are creating patterns of engagement that provide users with a seamless experience in apps and continue to do so in accordance with respecting their privacy.
What Happens When Your App Strategy Doesn’t Include Dynamic Links?
When your application does not incorporate Dynamic Links, there is typically not an obvious failure when something goes wrong; instead, there may be multiple small points of friction contributing to an overall decline in user experience within the application. Rather than having their interest wane, users have lost their way because they can’t see the route forward.
Now, one clear example is that of users breaking their journey with you. They click on an area of interest and tap once, then install later, or come back and then just click somewhere else and end back at a generic point of entry with no context to continue searching for that area anymore. Because there was no previous context, the user would need to begin their search again for that area, or they would simply stop looking altogether. Over time, users experience a lot of interruptions.
Generic landing pages are another hurdle. When all customers land on the same page regardless of their reason for clicking through, there is no longer a relevant experience. Customers will feel disengaged because the experience does not connect to their purpose for the click, so they no longer feel they were engaging with intent.
Also, intent is lost. Interest/engagement does not go away; it simply won’t move forward. The opportunity cost of lower engagement due to no longer being able to meet/create a reason to meet customers when they were ready to continue. Re-evaluating your approach through this perspective will shift your mindset from having to fix/correct/ repair drop-offs to creating continuity — creating a purposeful journey from disconnected experiences/ interactions.
Strategic Use of Dynamic Links Across All Channels
Dynamic Links offer much more than just channel-specific performance; they create a unified experience no matter what channel a user uses to access your application. Different channels provide discovery opportunities at different stages, and Dynamic Links ensure every entry point leads to the same user journey.
In paid advertising, Dynamic Links help facilitate the user journey from curiosity to context. When a user clicks on a paid advertisement, they are redirected directly to the specific content or page indicated in the advertisement, creating a seamless transition.
For emails and CRMs, Dynamic Links are particularly useful because they provide continuity for a user who engages with the email much later than when it was initially sent. A user may view an email hours or days later, and on a different device; however, when the user clicks on the Dynamic Link, they will be redirected to the correct in-app destination; therefore, the link will remain relevant throughout time.
Dynamic Links provide deep linking capabilities for mobile apps while maintaining continuity for users who stop and temporarily install the app to continue their journeys using your app. This provides users with a seamless and non-disruptive experience when using your app.
Dynamic Links have QR codes and provide a pure way for users to transition between the physical world and the digital world when using your app. Users can use the QR code by scanning it quickly or returning later, and Dynamic Links will take them into your app seamlessly—regardless of where their journey has begun.
Dynamic Links are Becoming the Primary Measurement Norms
As mobile measurement has changed, Dynamic Links are no longer available for use at the campaign level only; they have become a part of the underlying infrastructure. They exist under channels, creatives, and messaging to subtly connect the user actions that occur over time, multiple platforms, and multiple moments of intent.
Dynamic Links also provide the required continuity in order to attribute how discovery can turn into meaningful engagement – even if installs take place over time or when someone has multiple sessions of completing their journey.
For onboarding intelligence, the dynamic link provides clarity and answers to the question of why a person arrived at the screen they are looking at for the first time. The use of Dynamic Links, along with non-intrusive signals, will allow for a more relevant first experience for all users. When looking at their lifecycle, the consistent usage of Dynamic Links will allow for a consistent routing mechanism for acquisition, re-engagement, and retention activities, providing for a more stable, robust measurement methodology as identifiers fade from use.
In the future, mobile growth will be less about isolated touchpoints and more about building connected experiences. Dynamic Links support this change by establishing a measurement foundation that reflects the way users actually move through applications today and for the foreseeable future, which upholds privacy standards.
The Conclusion
Dynamic Links are not really meant to be thought of as links at all; rather, they are the connections along a customer’s journey that could otherwise feel disconnected from one another. They help preserve context, so that intent does not get lost simply because a user installed an application on one device but is trying to engage with that intent on another device later. Ultimately, Dynamic Links are “experience enablers” that take users exactly where they expect to go with zero friction, repetition, or confusion.
What you need is not just a whole bunch of links, but creative links that actually match what users are doing, as opposed to just linking to everything.
If you are looking for ways to build more connected, user-centric app experiences in a privacy-conscious manner, please reach out and let us work with you to find ways that Dynamic Links can be integrated into your overall app journey strategy.
FAQs
1. What makes a Dynamic Link different from a standard deep link?
Dynamic Link responds to the user’s check-in status, device type, and context to provide them with a relevant destination within the app instead of giving them nothing or sending them to a generic landing page or a broken experience.
2. Why are Dynamic Links important for the app user journey?
By preserving context through discovery, installation delays, onboarding, and re-engagement stages, you create a seamless user experience and help ensure your users do not re-do actions, need to look for items again, or restart their journey.
3. How do Dynamic Link work before an app is installed?
They collect click context, send users to the correct store based on those clicks, and, after the app has been installed, in order to provide a consistent experience to the user, return them to the original click context the first time they use the app.
4. When should you use Dynamic Link instead of static URLs?
You can utilize Dynamic Links if you expect your users to stall on installing your app, Change devices frequently, or journey between multiple channels, giving you the ability to maintain the flow of your users regardless of whether their activities are not instantaneous or in a non-linear manner.
5. How does Dynamic Link support privacy-first mobile strategies?
Dynamic Links utilize contextual cues rather than personal identifiers to facilitate seamless engagement by enabling routing through a consistent method with a changing set of data privacy regulations and platform-imposed restrictions on data usage, along with users’ expectations about what data will be used for.
