Deferred Deep Linking

The process of utilizing a custom URL to direct users to a specific page within an app is known as mobile deep linking. Deep links are dedicated links that take you directly to an app instead of a website or a store. They can send you straight to a specific place within the app, instead of just opening it up. This technique helps guide users to explore deeper within the app, beyond the initial launch screen, ultimately improving user engagement and retention.

App Links are special URLs that take users directly to a specific screen or piece of content inside a mobile app, rather than opening a web page in a browser. When a user clicks an App Link and has the corresponding app installed, the app opens immediately and displays the relevant content. If the app is not installed, the user is redirected to a fallback web page or an app store listing. App Links streamline the mobile user experience by removing unnecessary steps between clicking a link and reaching the desired in-app destination.

Web-to-App (Web2App) refers to the strategy and infrastructure that enables mobile app developers to acquire users and process subscription purchases through web-based flows before transitioning the user into the native mobile app experience. In a Web2App model, a user typically discovers the app through a paid advertisement or organic search, lands on a web page where they learn about the product's value proposition, completes a subscription purchase through a web-based checkout (processed by a third-party payment provider like Stripe), and is then directed to download and activate the app with their subscription already provisioned. The Web2App model has gained significant adoption among subscription apps for several reasons: it allows developers to avoid the 15–30% App Store and Google Play commissions by processing payments outside the native billing systems; it provides richer attribution data since web-based tracking isn't subject to the same ATT restrictions that limit in-app attribution on iOS; it offers a larger canvas for communicating value and presenting offers compared to in-app paywalls; and it enables more flexible pricing, offer, and discount strategies that aren't constrained by app store billing rules. The primary technical challenges of Web2App include maintaining a seamless user experience across the web-to-app transition, reliably syncing subscription entitlements between the web billing system and the app backend, handling edge cases (user doesn't download the app, switches devices, etc.), and solving post-iOS 14.5 attribution challenges that affect the ability to connect web conversion events to the advertising campaigns that drove them.

Mobile attribution is the process of connecting app installs and in-app actions to specific marketing campaigns, ads, or channels that drove them. It enables marketers to understand which advertising efforts deliver results, optimize ad spend across channels, and make data-driven decisions about user acquisition strategies.

A web funnel is a structured, multi-step web-based experience designed to guide users from initial awareness to a conversion action — typically a subscription purchase, trial start, or app download. In mobile app marketing, web funnels have become a critical acquisition and monetization strategy, particularly for subscription apps looking to process payments outside the App Store or Google Play to avoid platform commissions of 15–30%. A typical web funnel for a mobile subscription app follows a sequence like: ad click → landing page → value proposition/quiz/personalization flow → pricing/plan selection → web checkout → payment confirmation → app download prompt → in-app activation. By processing the subscription on the web before directing the user to the app, developers retain significantly more revenue per subscriber. Web funnels also offer advantages beyond commission savings: they provide a larger canvas for communicating value (compared to a constrained in-app paywall), enable more sophisticated A/B testing of pricing and messaging, allow for richer attribution data (since web tracking isn't subject to ATT restrictions in the same way), and support more flexible offer structures (downsells, upsells, bundles) that aren't possible within native app store billing. The main challenge of web funnels is the additional friction of requiring users to complete a purchase flow on the web and then separately download the app — making seamless handoff and activation critical to overall funnel performance.