In a highly digital world where user experience is paramount, deep linking serves as a powerful conduit for smooth and targeted navigation within mobile apps. The role of deep linking extends beyond providing a frictionless user experience – it plays an instrumental role in enhancing user engagement, driving conversions, and boosting retention rates.

Our previous posts have touched upon the effectiveness of deep linking across leading apps and the role of deep linking in app marketing. In this post, we will delve deeper into the latest benchmark report (produced in partnership with Branch.io), focusing specifically on the channel insights and missed opportunities that deep linking presents. The report provides a comprehensive overview of deep linking and is available for further exploration here.

Deep Linking: Channel-Specific Performance

Mobot's benchmark report examined the success rates of deep links across various channels, yielding crucial insights into their efficacy and highlighting the distinct variations in success rates.

Facebook App: The Facebook app demonstrated a notable challenge for deep linking. Only 28.57% of deep link attempts were successful. However, a slight variation between the Android and iOS platforms was observed, with Android showing a success rate of 32.14%, slightly higher than iOS's 25.00%.

Instagram App: Overall, Instagram had a success rate of 41.51%. However, a significant difference between Android and iOS was evident. While deep linking worked only 15.38% of the time on Android, a significantly higher 66.67% were successful on iOS.

Twitter App: Twitter displayed a higher success rate of 55.36% for deep links. However, a dramatic variation between iOS and Android was observed, with iOS lagging behind at a 15.38% success rate compared to Android's impressive 90.00% performance.

These insights stress the importance of customizing deep linking strategies to suit specific platforms and channels. They highlight the need for continuous monitoring and improvement to ensure an optimal user experience.

Deep Linking: Missed Opportunities

While exploring deep linking success rates provides valuable information, understanding where and why deep linking attempts were not made is equally essential. Such analysis uncovers hidden opportunities and potential areas for improvement.

The benchmark report discovered that deep links were not attempted 51% of the time, irrespective of the app's installation state. This points to a significant potential for boosting app usage and activations. The percentage of unattempted deep links was slightly higher on Android (52%) compared to iOS (49%). Yet, this trend inverted when the app was installed, with 43% of deep links unattempted on iOS, while on Android, it was 40%. These insights spotlight areas that require focused attention to capitalize on missed opportunities.

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Deep Linking: Industry-wise Analysis

Understanding deep linking's role across different industry verticals can offer invaluable insights for mobile-first businesses to frame their strategies. The report analyzed deep linking practices across various verticals and found significant variations.

Health: In the health vertical, an alarming 84% of deep links were unattempted when the app was installed. This indicates a significant potential for improvement and growth.

Sports: The sports vertical also displayed a high percentage of unattempted deep links at 65%.

Music and Finance: In stark contrast, the Music and Finance verticals shined with a 100% attempt rate for deep links, illustrating a strong commitment to driving users to their app.

These industry-specific insights present a clear picture of where certain verticals excel and where others need to improve.

The Takeaway: Harnessing Deep Linking Effectively

The insights and data from the benchmark report underscore the critical role of deep linking in creating an optimized user experience. The success and failures of deep linking across different channels and platforms, as well as the missed opportunities, illuminate a clear path for businesses to improve their deep linking practices.

By understanding these nuances, businesses can refine their strategies, ensuring they harness deep linking's potential to its fullest. In addition to platform-specific adjustments, businesses should also pay heed to industry-specific trends and missed opportunities.

By incorporating these insights into their deep linking strategies, businesses can ensure a seamless user journey, higher user engagement, and improved conversions. And in a world where user experience is key, effective deep linking practices could be the competitive advantage businesses need.

In our next blog post, we will delve into the methodology behind the deep link benchmark report, which enables such granular analysis.