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RAN MOR: When your mobile users click on a web link,
how can you make sure they are taken into your app?
We've heard this question a lot.
You have a great app.
You invested time and resources to build it,
and it provides a great experience for users.
Now you would like to ensure your mobile users benefit
from this great app experience.
How?
All you need to do is implement deep links.
My name is Ran Mor, and I'm a product manager on Google Ads.
Today, I will quickly discuss the benefits of implementing
deep links in your app and present a new iOS validation
tool we're launching in Google Ads.
LIDIA GAYMOND: And I'm Lidia Gaymond, a product manager
on Google Play.
After Ran's introduction, I'll walk you
through the new deep links management tools
in Google Play Console.
So let's get started.
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RAN MOR: As a quick refresher, deep links
are links that open an app and send users
to a specific piece of content or action inside the app.
Deep links have many benefits.
First, apps usually have a much smoother user experience
than mobile websites.
If you want to provide the optimal experience for users,
it's better to lead them into your app.
Second, deep links allow you to drive more traffic
into your app.
They can be used in multiple use cases, such as marketing,
emails, and SMS.
And more traffic to your app means more in-app purchases,
checkouts, and conversions.
Third, with deep links, you can include targeted URL parameters
to create a personalized app experience.
Remember, users tend to delete apps
that don't make it easy for them to complete their goals,
whether it's interacting with other users,
verifying some data, or adding the right items to the cart.
With deep links, you can pass all the information
your app needs to help your users accomplish their goals
with minimal effort.
And last but not least, deep links
drive long term engagement and boost the return on investment
you get from your app.
We've seen that on average, companies
who have implemented deep linking
are seeing over two times uplift in conversion rates.
So the return on investment is much higher
for both you and your users.
Implementing deep links involve two main steps.
First, in your app's manifest file,
you need to create intent filters that define
what URLs your app can open.
And then you need to add logic to launch the right content
in the respective activity.
Second, on your website, you need
to upload a JSON file that proves
you're the owner of the domains you've declared in your app.
For more details on how to implement deep links,
you can take the deep links Crash Course,
which we've added a link to in the description of this video.
To help you with prioritization, implementation, and validation
of deep links, today we are announcing
the launch of new tools in Google Play Console
and in Google Ads.
Over to you, Lidia, to talk about the new deep
links management tools that we are
introducing in Play Console.
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LIDIA GAYMOND: Thanks, Ran.
Last summer, we launched a new page
in Play Console dedicated to deep links.
To access it, simply log in to Play Console and use
the navigation menu to find Deep Links in the growth section.
You can view your full deep link setup per app version.
The is available for active versions in any track.
If you go to the deep links page now,
you'd see a few main sections.
The domain section gives you an overview
of all the domains and subdomains
you have declared for your app manifest,
alongside their verification status.
It helps you make sure Android is
able to associate your website URLs with your app,
creating app links.
The Web Links section shows you your web link setup
as is defined in your app's manifest, including path,
domain, and activity details.
Each of these can be further examined
by selecting the blue arrow.
The same view is also available for your custom schemes
if you have any.
Note that all tables on the page are searchable and sortable.
Search goes through the full inventory of path, domain,
and custom schemes.
Sorting sorts the currently loaded data.
Search can be used, for example, to understand
which intent filter's path will be responsible for handling
URL pasted on the search bar.
We know that identifying issues with your setup
is not always easy and may require
a significant investment.
To make it easier for you to spot issues,
we'll verify your setup per each individual app version
and highlight potential issues requiring a fix.
It could be a domain failing verification, broken links,
or outdated custom schemes.
The summary of your setup issues would
be highlighted at the top of the Deep Links page
and throughout for you to take action.
To make troubleshooting easier, you
can examine each individual issue in more detail
by selecting Show More, which gives you contextual guidance
on how it can be fixed.
In this example, the domain ownership
is failing verification.
This means that until the issue is addressed,
all the traffic going to this domain will resolve on the web.
To fix it, you'd need to update and publish
your digital asset links JSON file
with some additional missing information.
We highlight the missing information for you.
And all you need to do is copy and paste the code snippet,
update the file, and publish it to the location suggested.
The generator will take into account what is already
on your domain, so it's perfectly safe
to take all the contents and paste as is,
or download the file.
We already see many developers using the step-by-step
guidance, dramatically improving user outcomes as a result.
And once you fix the issue, you can
use Play Console to verify that the deep links are
working correctly again.
Today, we're also sharing v2 of the Deep Links page
that will be coming to Play Console soon.
The new version gives you more context and confidence
in managing a deep link setup.
We're adding a few things.
First, Ad Traffic view, lets you see all the landing pages
from your advertising campaigns and their deep link status.
To view this, all you need to do is to link your AdWords account
to your Play Console account.
Second, web crawled URLs will allow
you to review top performing URLs
and identify missed opportunities when it comes
to your deep links coverage.
And finally, we're introducing a new metric called user outcome,
which shows you what percentage of your users land
in your app versus the web.
All this new information will be added
to the new Web URLs tab in the Deep Links
page in Play Console.
Ad Traffic allows you to see each landing page from your ad
campaigns, associated clicks, user outcome,
and deep linking status.
In this section, we help you identify missed opportunities
highlighting the URLs for your ad campaigns
that you might want to consider deep
linking to improve customer experience
and drive bigger business impact.
The Web Crawled URLs section helps
you understand the deep linking status of your top performing
web URLs so that you can prioritize
which URLs to deep link next.
We're introducing two new metrics
to help you understand how comprehensive your deep link
setup is.
The first metric is called user outcome.
The user outcome percentage shows you
how many of your users have been directed
to your app versus the web.
Additionally, you can now see your deep links coverage,
an aggregated number showing what percentage of your top web
URLs are deep linked.
To help you validate your deep links,
we're also adding a simple way to compare
your app versus your web experience
to a given URL side by side.
We hope that these new tools will make it easier
for you to add deep links and keep your deep links setup up
to date in order to provide a better
experience for your users and to help you achieve your business
objectives.
Now over to you, Ran, to talk about the new tools
Google Ads are introducing today.
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RAN MOR: Thanks, Lidia.
To make it easier to validate iOS deep links,
we're launching a new validation tool
in Google AdWords that performs a series of checks
and provides recommendations that
will help you fix any misconfigured links in your iOS
app.
To get to the tool in AdWords, you
click on Tools and Settings and then on the App Advertising Hub
under Planning.
To start the validation, you need
to choose iOS as the platform, select your iOS app,
and enter the link you want to validate.
The tool performs a set of checks
based on the link you entered and the apple app site
association file that you publish in your domain.
This file is similar to the JSON file you uploaded for Android.
You then get information for each check the tool performed.
And if failed, you can get detailed instructions
on how to fix the issue.
If all the checks on the apple app site association file
passed, you can scan a QR code and check
whether you're taken to the right page in your app.
Testing the QR code requires the app to be installed on a device
you're testing with.
Many companies have been benefiting from extensive use
of deep links.
And today, we wanted to share a few examples of how
the use of deep links can dramatically improve
your business performance.
Boozt, a fashion retailer, noticed
that many of its customers started their journeys
on the web and finalized their purchases in the app
and decided to make its app a larger
part of its overall business strategy.
Using Web to App Connect, Google's one-stop solution
for in-app conversion measurement, bidding,
and deep links, Boozt implemented deep links
to create a seamless web-to-app experience and saw great
results--
a 4.5 times higher conversion rate, 55% lower cost
per acquisition, and two times higher average order
value on the app compared to the mobile web.
Fashion retailer Boohoo also recognized
that the most valuable customers are its mobile app users.
Boohoo also used the Web to App Connect
to implement deep links to direct customers
to their mobile app, and they witnessed strong results.
Boohoo achieved a 25% increase in revenue,
a 5.5 times higher conversion rate compared to web,
a 33% higher return on ad spend, and an 8% increase
in net conversion volume.
So to summarize, we recommend you
to use deep links for a better user experience
and engagement with your app.
Generally, the more deep links you have in your app,
the richer the user experiences.
To help you improve deep link setup,
use the new Google Ads iOS validator and the deep link
management tools in Play Console to identify new opportunities,
fix misconfigured links in your app,
and drive higher business impact.
That's it for today.
We are excited to bring these new tools to our developer
community and look forward to seeing
what you can achieve with them.
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