How to Use Branch Deep Links for Facebook Ad Attribution
UPDATE: Branch is now an official Facebook MMP. This means you don’t need any of these instructions — you can just install the Branch SDK and when you run ads on Facebook they’ll automatically get tracked.
Branch specializes in all things mobile, so when I found out one of my customers was using Branch for deep links, I wasn’t surprised. When they asked me to use Branch for attribution, my first response was “doesn’t Branch do deep links?” Turns out, deep links are more powerful than I knew — Branch provides the attribution for my customers without needing install an extra SDK.
The Problem:
I have a customer who makes an app for small business productivity. January is their best month, and I met them two weeks into the start of 2017. We needed to launch ads, fast.
But here’s the problem — they didn’t have a mobile measurement partner (MMP). Here’s the scary thing about mobile — attribution for ads is really, really hard. When I run ads, I send users to the App or Google Play stores. This means they move from a Facebook or Google ad, to a page where they install the app and then actually open up a mobile app. We know which users click on a link, but the hard part is verifying that the same person who clicked the link for the ad is the same person who later installs the app.
Long story short, I was not going to be the person to tell the engineering team that they needed yet another SDK in their app.
The Solution:
If we were launching ads in the desktop world, we would just add a different tracking URL to the ad. So why can’t we do that in mobile?
Turns out we can (thanks, Branch!). And the process is really similar to what we’ve already seen in desktop.
I’ll show you how to set these up on Facebook, but you can use Branch links for any ad platform where you can input your own tracking template (like AdWords) or use a deep link.
Steps for Branch-based Attribution:
- Launch a mobile app install campaign on Facebook.
2. Follow the steps to create a new ad set (where you set targeting and budget) and create your ad (with the image and ad copy).
3. Go to Branch and input your campaign, ad set and ad IDs (need help finding your Facebook IDs? You’ll need to create the ad first, and then you can customize the columns you see in Facebook). Make sure you click “Configure Options” to add the extra fields!
4. Add your deep link to the ads on Facebook.
That’s it! Now you’ve fully implemented tracking for your mobile app install ads — sans MMP. And the best part was that my customer already had Branch deep links tracking in their database, so we can easily track full-funnel metrics (and stay out of Excel and Power Editor). That means everything from ad spend to account creation, purchase data and LTVs are now all at my fingertips. The best part? This doesn’t only work for ads, but you can use this technique to measure every channel. Moreover, Branch is able to track both app and web at the same time, giving you a better comprehensive view into your organic attribution.
P.S. Does this seem like a lot of work to do for every ad? No worries; I’ve got you covered with just 1 click. Find out how Step One Growth integrates with Branch deep links.
The Results:
I’ve run a lot of mobile app install ads. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of ads. I rarely have attribution match the numbers I see on Facebook (even after checking that my MMP and Facebook are set to the same attribution window). I never have these match consistently throughout hundreds of ads.
The future of mobile is in the data. Using Branch links for attribution didn’t just work — these links have perfected measurement of attribution. This is the benefit of using a company based on analytics to do reporting for me. Branch gets the numbers right. And when I’m spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads, I want to make sure I’m right.
