In this blog, we’ll discuss some best practices for onboarding users to your mobile app. In short, keep it simple, smooth and personalized.

What are the different types of mobile app onboarding?

Mobile onboarding types can take various forms, each with its unique set of advantages and challenges. Onboarding flow involves a step-by-step tutorial that walks users through the app’s features in several different ways, including:

1. Progressive

A progressive onboarding process allows users to explore and access new information, with prompts related to each specific page, as they navigate the app.

This type of onboarding is great for apps with an intricate workflow, hidden functionalities, or gesture-driven interactions.

Progressive onboarding example: Hotel Tonight

Hotel Tonight

Getting a friend to try Hotel Tonight is made easier than ever with their progressive onboarding process. You simply refer a friend with a personalized offer, and they will be brought to the web onboarding experience to reduce friction. Then, after initial setup, they are brought to the promotional offer in the Hotel Tonight app, so they can start booking right away. 

2. Functional

In this onboarding strategy, an app immediately shows new users the app’s core functions and how to use them. More specifically, function-oriented onboarding shows users where to start and how to execute common actions.

Usually, this approach consists of a visual tour with specific details as the user moves along.

3. Benefits-oriented

This approach showcases the benefits of the app or the app’s value proposition. The goal is to increase conversions and app engagement. Generally, the onboarding screens will describe what the app does without elaborating on how to use the app.

Benefits-oriented app onboarding example: Ecobee

Ecobee

The value of Ecobee is in being a smart thermostat that can help your house be more efficient in heating and cooling so you save money in the long run. They have made it very easy to invite family members to join your household so everyone can help keep costs down. To do so, Ecobee has chosen a benefits-based onboarding experience that educates an invited member on key benefits before immediately adding them to the household account.

The key is to choose the best experience for your type of app functionality and potential customers. If you’re not sure, you may want to do some testing or research to better understand how to ensure you have an onboarding experience that will drive growth and help you meet your goals faster.

Now that you are familiar with the traditional types of mobile app onboarding strategies, let’s review the benefits they offer.

What are the benefits of mobile app onboarding?

The app onboarding process is critical to creating engaged users who do what you want them to do, like spend money and come back again. Here are the key benefits of developing a mindful mobile app onboarding process, including:

Increase engagement

Personalized app onboarding can help users quickly understand the value of the app and how it can benefit them. Bringing users directly to the content they want (e.g., Branch deep links) or by showcasing the importance of the core app features will drive more engagement and reduce the likelihood of a user uninstalling the app.

Improve app user retention rates

Your ultimate goal is to make your app an absolute favorite for users. By guiding users seamlessly toward valuable new features and functions, users are more likely to understand how the app works and what they can do with it. When users are clear about how to use an app, they are less likely to get frustrated and abandon it.

Drive revenue

When users have a positive onboarding experience, they are more likely to continue engaging with the app. This improves user engagement and retention, which in turn drives revenue. A smooth onboarding experience creates a higher chance of converting users into paying customers and increasing their lifetime value.

Higher user satisfaction

Onboarding is an opportunity to gather information about the user’s preferences and behavior. This data can be used to provide personalized recommendations, which leads to higher user satisfaction, better reviews and stronger ratings.

Overall, app onboarding is an important component of creating a successful app and helps improve user engagement, retention, and satisfaction.

Mobile app onboarding best practices

To ensure users continue to use your app after they download it, follow these onboarding best practices:

Personalize the user experience

Create a personalized onboarding experience by leveraging deep links to ensure that first-time users are taken directly to relevant content in your app, even after install.  Utilizing deep links in this way makes the onboarding process more seamless and impactful. The experience of taking the new user directly to the desired content in your app, after an app is installed, is called deferred deep linking.

Understand user behavior

Make sure to capture user behavior and engagement throughout the app onboarding process with analytic and measurement partners such as Branch, Adobe, Braze and Amplitude. This data and their visual dashboards can help you identify where users are coming from, why they are dropping off, and opportunities for optimizing the onboarding experience.

Keep it simple

One of the biggest mistakes app developers make is overwhelming users with too much information during onboarding. You should also consider if it makes sense to have users skip the onboarding process and bring them directly to the relevant content, allowing them to onboard later. Basically, keep the onboarding process short and to the point, highlighting only the most important features and benefits of your app.

Test and learn

Finally, it’s important to test and iterate throughout the onboarding process by performing A/B testing to determine which onboarding strategies are most effective. By testing different CTAs and experiences, including skipping onboarding, you can analyze user behavior and identify areas where mobile users are struggling or dropping off during onboarding. Apply this information to improve your onboarding experience and retention metrics over time.

Exploring app onboarding examples

Every app should have some sort of onboarding process. Here are some examples of brands that are taking the mobile app onboarding experience to the next level.

Robinhood

Robinhood

Robinhood uses a personalized experience for their ‘free share’ referral program that skips onboarding. Once a referred user receives a notification and downloads the app, they are deep linked directly to the specific page in the app where they can redeem their free share of stock. The user can then opt to either start trading immediately — thus delaying the onboarding process — or configure their account and onboard prior to starting to trade. This helps customers get a feel quickly for how easy and convenient the app is to use.

Slack

Slack

Slack is an app designed specifically to facilitate communication among teams of small and large enterprises. It displays its key features right when opening the app so users can get started right away. Slack practices value-oriented onboarding which allows users to see how they can get started with communicating and sharing data among teams while leaving the bigger features for the user to explore and learn.

Trip.com

Trip.com

The Trip.com mobile app relies on customization to deliver a personalized user experience, based on users’ interests, time of day, local weather, and location. The intention is to help users discover the best things to do, eat, explore etc. in whatever city they choose. It also only asks a user to sign up at the end of the onboarding experience — after they have gotten a sense of the value of the app — or they can skip the setup process altogether. It is a great way to let the user feel in control of their experience.

A personalized onboarding experience is key to revenue growth

Hopefully by now you have a clear understanding how the mobile app onboarding process is a critical step in creating a positive user experience for your app that drives engagement and revenue. With Branch, you are able to personalize the mobile app onboarding process with custom parameters that will link new users to specific content in the app, allowing you to route to a welcome discount, personalized greeting, or product tour.

Given that 63% of customers think onboarding is key to deciding to subscribe to a product and 74% of potential customers will switch to other solutions if the onboarding process is complicated, thoughtful mobile app onboarding is essential to engage and retain app users. By leveraging personalization, measurement partners, dynamic visuals, and testing you are able to create a seamless and engaging onboarding experience  for your users that builds loyal users and long-term success for your mobile app.

The post Mobile App Onboarding: Best Practices appeared first on Branch.

Choosing an analytics tool for your mobile app is one of the most important strategic decisions you will make. By accurately collecting, analyzing, and optimizing, your app performance data you will feel confident in making critical strategy decisions to drive growth and improve profitability.

Below we will answer some of your burning questions about how to choose the best tool for measuring your mobile app analytics.

What is a mobile analytics tool?

A mobile analytics tool helps you to monitor your app’s performance. These types of tools will capture, analyze, and organize your app user behavior and engagement in a dashboard or allow you to export this data to other analytics partners. Platforms that capture mobile analytics typically attribute app events such as clicks, installs, engagement, feature usage, time spent, retention, and revenue. This is typically done through the implementation of a software development kit (SDK) within your app.

Ultimately, the goal of a mobile analytics solution is to help you understand how to optimize your product development, marketing strategies, and user experience in order to drive revenue.

Some popular platforms for mobile analytics include Segment, Branch, Amplitude, AppsFlyer, MixPanel, mParticle and Adobe Analytics.

What are the different types of mobile analytics tools?

The vast majority of mobile app analytics tools will collect, measure, and report on app data that relates to either the operation of the mobile app or the behavior and actions of users within the app. For example:

App behavior

These tools allow you to track user behavior, measure engagement and retention, and monitor app performance in real-time. Examples of popular app analytics platforms include Firebase, Google Analytics, and Adobe Analytics.

In-app user experience

By leveraging in-app tools brands can collect user feedback within the app. This enables you to identify issues, gather feature requests, and improve overall user satisfaction. Examples of popular user feedback tools include UserVoice, SurveyMonkey, and Zendesk.

Mobile attribution

These tools are called mobile measurement partners or MMPs. They help apps track user acquisition and measure the effectiveness of paid ads by providing insights into which channels and campaigns are driving your app installs and engagement. The most important factors when choosing an MMP include the accuracy of their measurement capabilities, linking reliability, depth of integration partners, and privacy reputation. Examples of popular MMPs include Branch, AppsFlyer, and Adjust.

User segmentation

These are tools that help app brands manage and analyze customer data across different channels — such as mobile apps, websites, and social media — by collecting, unifying, and activating customer data to create personalized experiences and targeted marketing campaigns. A popular example is called a Customer Data Platform or CDP such as Braze, mParticle, Segment, and Amplitude.

What are the benefits of mobile analytics platforms?

Without app analytics, you won’t know which app features or ad campaigns are performing well and which are not. You’ll miss hidden opportunities and bottlenecks.

1. Provide data-driven insights

By analyzing user behavior, app analytics tools can help you identify opportunities to drive revenue and save costs by analyzing cross-platform performance, in-app purchases, subscriptions, and ad campaigns. A mobile analytics solution collects and organizes mobile advertising data to deliver a unified view with powerful insights into your app performance across the most popular platforms and channels. Mobile analytics tools can measure the technical performance of your app, track user engagement and acquisition across networks, channels, and campaigns, and capture how your app is retaining users over time.

For example, an MMP allows you to pull valuable insights from your paid ads so you can manage your budget across key channels and platforms to help you optimize installs, return on ad spend (ROAS), and lifetime value (LTV).

2. Optimize goals and objectives

App analytics tools provide data-driven insights to help you make informed decisions regarding your app development, pricing, and overall marketing strategy. With the data gathered from mobile analytics, apps can make informed decisions about which features to add or remove, how to optimize user experience, and how to improve overall app performance. By understanding user behavior and engagement, you can use this knowledge to better monetize your app.

3. Deliver a better user experience

By analyzing the performance metrics of your app, you can identify the areas where it needs improvement, such as app load time, response time, and crashes. Understanding the connection between performance, functionality, platform interactions, and in-app use will not only enhance mobile app performance to drive revenue but also help simplify user experiences, save development costs, and increase engagement.

For example, if analytics show that users rarely access a given feature, you may want to eliminate support for that feature, saving you developer time and resources that you can use elsewhere. You also may be able to identify pain points that cause frustration or even lead users to delete your app. By fixing these issues and eliminating blockers, you will provide a better user experience that leads to lower costs, more engagement, and higher revenue.

What should I look for in a mobile analytics partner?

You must consider many different factors when choosing a mobile analytics partner to ensure that it best fits your wants and provides the tools you need to measure data and find insights that will drive growth and success for your app. Here are some things to look for:

Enterprise scalability

Not all analytics platforms are built to handle enterprise-level business growth. You want a partner who offers scalable infrastructure, processes, and systems that can adapt and support your growth, without causing disruptions to your business. The goal is to ensure your app can grow and succeed without being limited by technology or infrastructure constraints.

Ease of use

Look for a solution that is easy to set up with a user-friendly interface and clear reporting. You must also make sure your analytics provider has a strong track record of delivering accurate and reliable data. You want to have confidence in the data insights you receive from your mobile analytics partner.

Industry-leading partner integrations

Analytics platforms must interface seamlessly with your tech architecture as well as the data infrastructure of your marketing partners. When choosing, you must ensure any partner can integrate seamlessly with the platforms you use, such as MMPs, CDPs, and marketing automation platforms.

Solid customer support

Choose an app analytics tool partner that provides excellent customer support. You’ll want a team that is responsive, knowledgeable, and helpful when you need assistance. One of the best ways to understand the level of customer support is to do your research and read reviews from other businesses. This will give you a sense of their customer support level and how easy they are to work with. One of the best sites for B2B company reviews is G2.

Overall, choosing the right app analytics tool partner can be a significant decision for your business. Take your time to evaluate your options carefully and choose the one that best meets your needs.

How do I get started?

It’s easy to get started. Not only will these tools report valuable insights in a centralized dashboard, but they will translate and visualize your data so you can access them with ease. A mobile analytics platform should make it easier to capture data, create a plan, and make informed decisions that will drive mobile app growth and increase profitability across all your channels.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to get started, Branch is here to help.

The post How Do I Choose a Mobile Analytics Tool? appeared first on Branch.

Launched at the same time as iOS 15,NativeLink is the exclusive solution developed by Branch that solves for the impact of Private Relay on deferred deep linking. NativeLink brings an innovative privacy-centric, on-device deferred deep linking experience. It delivers users to the content they want (post-app install) while guaranteeing attribution matching using the copy/paste functionality built into iOS.

And while our research shows that the NativeLink experience has no statistical impact on conversions, the initial templates did not include the design customization options brands needed to optimize user experience. We are excited to share that has all changed with the release of NativeLink Customization.

NativeLink Customization brings many benefits

Branch is building on the success of NativeLink by making the experience even better with NativeLink Customization. With it, you gain the ability to edit the default NativeLink template, with full HTML control. You can now create fully branded templates that integrate seamlessly with your app install user experience.

The key benefits of NativeLink Customization include: 

1. Easily edit the copy, design and branding of any NativeLink template right in the Branch dashboard. Plus, localize copy in at least 21 different languages. 
2. Create variations to test every aspect of the NativeLink experience and see which template performs better. 
3. Test different templates and identify a winning design. Choose the best-performing template as your default and begin optimizing conversions. 

With the NativeLink Customization feature, you can totally transform the NativeLink user experience. Typically, with more design control and a stronger brand experience, you will drive better conversion results. There’s just one caveat: users are now familiar with the initial NativeLink design experience. This means you’ll want to test your new template to ensure it actually performs better. In some cases, the default NativeLink template may still be the best option.

How to customize your NativeLink template

Branch has made it easy to customize any NativeLink template right in the dashboard. We have highlighted the key steps below.

Step 1: Duplicate the default NativeLink template

The customization process is similar to editing a deepview (Branch’s app content preview). First, log in to the Branch Dashboard and head over to the ‘Configuration’ section. Once there, choose the ‘Deepview Manager’ tab. Make a duplicate of the ‘Branch NativeLink Template’ and then start editing.

Step 2: Create a new variation

You can now edit the NativeLink template’s look and feel just like any other deepview! Use the ‘Editor’ tab to change the template copy, layout, and branding with full HTML control. Plus, you can configure localization with up to 21 different language options. The end-user’s default browser language dictates what language they will see in the NativeLink screen. 

Step 3: Set it as your default NativeLink template

When you’re happy with your changes, set the new template as the NativeLink default. An orange banner will show that the chosen NativeLink template is now the active design. And that’s it. You’re all set!

NativeLink Customization is available now

NativeLink from Branch ensures iCloud+ users who have enabled Private Relay can continue enjoying a seamless deferred deep linking experience, even without an IP address. It also guarantees attribution matching. If you aren’t currently using NativeLink, we highly recommend you give it a try.

Leverage NativeLink Customization to totally transform your NativeLink user experience. You’ll gain complete design control, localization across the globe, and a consistent app install brand experience, all while optimizing conversions. NativeLink Customization is available at no additional cost to Branch customers on an enterprise contract. 

Learn more about NativeLink Customization here, or reach out to your Customer Success Manager.

The post How to Improve Conversions with NativeLink™ Customization appeared first on Branch.

The first feature highlighted at WWDC was Product Page Optimization (a.k.a. A/B testing). For the purposes of this blog, we will focus our attention on the other feature they announced – Custom Product Pages for the App Store. This Apple feature allows brands to target different variations of app content toward specific users by creating unique App Store pages, and Branch is excited to provide out-of-the-box support on day one. 

What are Custom Product Pages? 

Apple’s new Custom Product Pages (in iOS 15 or iPadOS 15) allow marketers to create more relevant, differentiated pages on the App Store that can be tailored to specific target audiences and linked to individual campaigns with a unique URL. Brands can personalize their App Store pages (up to 35 variations) with alternate versions of app preview videos, screenshots, and copy, each designed to focus on a unique audience. Each page is also fully localizable. 

Apple created this feature so brands can leverage these pages to offer seamless, contextual install experiences to targeted users across the entire marketing journey. With the ability to create hyper-targeted pages, Apple is hoping brands will be able to increase conversion rates by delivering experiences that fit more closely with users’ content expectations when they arrive on an App Store page.

Brands can use this unique app page link throughout their marketing efforts, including in paid advertising, social posts, email campaigns, and promotional communications. For example, a travel app could create an app page that highlights content around ‘Resorts’ and promote offers with that link, across their channels, to audiences interested in spas, massages, etc.

Setup is Easy. Content is the key

The process of setting up a Custom Product Page is easy, provided you have the content ready to go for each page. When you’re ready, simply navigate to the My Apps tool and choose whether to start with a blank page or make changes to an existing product page. You can choose an existing version in a ‘Ready for Sale’ or ‘Prepare for Submission’ state. 

For each variation, you can modify screenshots, app previews, or promotional text to match your chosen target audience. Depending on the audience, just update each section of the page with relevant content. Although you can change many content elements, you are not able to create a custom icon (at this time). After you finalize the page content, it is ready to submit for review!

Once the page is ready, a unique URL is automatically generated. However, there are a few details about the links that you should know: 

1. A unique link can’t be changed or reused for a different page, and it remains consistent for all future versions of the page. 
2. You can disable a link if you need to pause a marketing campaign or it is not performing. If someone clicks the disabled URL, they’ll be automatically redirected to your default app page.
3. The links can be used across your marketing channels, but they don’t appear when someone searches for your app on the App Store.
4. Similar to other App Store links, deep linking still does not work out of the box in iOS 15. More on that later.

Plenty of marketing benefits

The main selling point of Apple’s Custom Product Pages is the ability to offer variants of App Store pages to different audiences. By tailoring each product page variation to match your marketing campaigns, you will create better, more consistent experiences that should result in stronger engagement and higher conversion.

Apple has included the ability to pause Custom Product Pages based on the success of the page, seasonality, or changes in marketing strategy. As you measure metrics such as engagement, retention, and average revenue per user (ARPU), you will be able to optimize performance over time and keep the winning pages running while making improvements to (or pausing) sub-optimal pages.

With the release of Custom Product Pages, Apple has filled a hole in the customer marketing journey. Now, no matter whether that journey starts with an email, paid ad, or a visit to your website, you can provide a contextual experience for a hyper-targeted audience across your channels and drive them to relevant content in your app — ideally, driving higher conversions and ultimately, higher LTV.

Branch has built-in support 

As we highlighted earlier, the App Store still does not support deep links out of the box, and that has not changed with the introduction of Custom Product Pages. However, you can easily add deep linking (and deferred deep linking) support for your pages using Branch links. For each Branch link you want to use with a Custom Product Page, simply set the $ios_url value to the custom page’s unique URL (the same parameter also works for the CTA button in Journeys smart banners). 

As always, Apple’s built-in App Store Connect reporting will provide basic metrics like impressions, downloads, and conversion rates for each product page version. To see more advanced performance reporting for Custom Product Pages in the Branch dashboard, we make it easy: just set a unique value for each page variation via a Branch analytics label (such as ~tags).

No matter how sophisticated your marketing strategy is, this Apple feature opens a whole new world of contextual marketing journeys that were never available before. 

Custom Product Pages from Apple are available now and Branch is ready to support you. 

The post Branch is Ready for Custom Product Pages from Apple appeared first on Branch.

Why Is a New Solution Needed? 

Apple is introducing Private Relay in iOS 15. You can think of Private Relay as a ‘private VPN’ for iCloud+ customers, which is anyone paying for an iCloud plan or service. For example, if a user pays $0.99 for iCloud storage, Private Relay will be enabled as part of their plan. Private Relay will mask the IP address and any browsing data for iCloud+ customers using Safari.  

First, let’s start with a quick recap of how deep linking works today. The standard deep linking experience brings users who click a link, and already have the app installed, directly to their desired location within the app. Private Relay will not impact this flow.

With the current deferred deep linking experience, a user clicks on a link and if they don’t have the app installed, they will be redirected to the App Store. The click location is stored remotely so that when the user is done installing the app, they are brought directly to their desired location within the app. When iOS 15 launches, Private Relay will impact this deferred deep linking experience for many iCloud+ customers. 

It does not matter if a user clicks a deep link from Branch or another platform, iCloud+ customers will be impacted, since deferred deep linking often relies on an IP address. Private Relay blocks the IP address of iCloud+ customers using Safari. Without an IP address, deferred deep linking will not work as expected, users will experience broken links and brands will experience a loss of attribution data.

After the release of Private Relay, NativeLink from Branch ensures users continue enjoying a seamless deferred deep linking experience, even without an IP address, and also guarantees attribution matching.

Current Experience

Private Relay Impact

While Private Relay will change how deferred deep linking works for some users, most deep linking use cases (including many deferred deep linking use cases) are unaffected. The chart below highlights how Private Relay will only impact iCloud+ customers using the Safari browser. 

What is NativeLink?

NativeLink is an innovation from Branch that bridges the gap created by Private Relay with an on-device solution that does not require the use of an IP address for deferred deep linking. Since NativeLink is opt-in by default, individual users are in full control of their privacy options. 

With no unique personally identifiable information required, there is no privacy tracking risk with NativeLink. It works by utilizing the native copy and paste functionality already built into the phone. 

What Are the Benefits of NativeLink?

NativeLink brings significant benefits to companies and their customers:

• Gain more attribution certainty from deferred deep linking that is match guaranteed without any need for probabilistic methodologies.
• Offer a better deep linking experience by giving users more control over their privacy and the ability to opt out if they choose. 
• Strengthen your privacy advocacy since NativeLink is inherently anti-tracking and it does not rely on IP addresses or any personally identifiable information.

A Closer Look at the NativeLink Flow

First, the user clicks the deep link.

After clicking on the deep link, the user will see the new NativeLink experience; a blue call-to-action button. Once clicked, the URL location is copied to the clipboard. (The user can also opt-out by clicking the link below the CTA button). 

The URL is then copied to the clipboard. Users will then briefly see a ‘content copied’ notification before being directed to the App Store. 

Similar to standard deferred deep linking, the user is then brought to the App Store to download the app.

After app installation, NativeLink will check the clipboard for a URL, and if present, will paste the URL. The user will then see a quick ‘pasted from Safari’ notification and be brought directly to the exact location within the app that they originally clicked. 

By utilizing the native iOS copy and paste functionality, NativeLink ensures the entire flow is seamless and the customer is deep linked exactly as expected. In our testing, Branch saw no statistically significant difference in the app install rate between NativeLink and the standard deferred deep linking flow. Meaning, overall, users engaged with the new NativeLink flow without a noticeable drop in conversion rate.

Which Channels Are Impacted by Private Relay?

Private Relay will have an impact across channels for app installs. Without the implementation of NativeLink, deferred deep linking upon an app install will break for some channels and you may start seeing incomplete attribution data.

How to Get Started with NativeLink

NativeLink is available now! 

We recommend activating NativeLink to continue collecting holistic attribution data and to deliver an improved deferred deep linking experience for users who want to install your app. NativeLink is available at no additional cost for Branch customers. An Android version is also in the works.

You can implement NativeLink with the following steps:

1. Update your Branch SDK to version 1.39.4 or higher. 
2. Add the required single line of code necessary to activate NativeLink. 
3. Toggle NativeLink ON in the Branch dashboard.
4. Choose an iOS audience option.

If you have any questions please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or the Branch support team. 

Check out our NativeLink Overview video here.

Get started here!

The post Branch NativeLink™: An Innovative Solution to the Deferred Deep Linking Challenges Caused by Private Relay in iOS 15 appeared first on Branch.