FC Bayern München Basketball is a German basketball team that is part of the larger FC Bayern Munich sports club, a multi-billion-dollar company based in Munich, Bavaria. The franchise is best known for its football (i.e., soccer) team, which was established in 1900, the same year as the sports club itself.
FC Bayern basketball was established in 1946, after which it experienced tremendous popularity in the 1950s and 1960s and now has seen a resurgence as the club’s marketing team finds ways to grow the basketball fanbase in the age of mobile phones, social media, and apps.
To help grow the audience for FC Bayern Basketball, the marketing team launched the club’s first mobile app in 2022. The app’s purpose was to deliver live streaming of games and be a central entertainment and information hub for anything and everything about the team and the FC Bayern club. Mobile app users would have special access to game highlights, scores, statistics, lineups, player profiles, news, and game commentary.
When it came time to launch the mobile app, the team was challenged with limited resources and a limited promotional budget. They needed to act fast and launch the app leading up to the start of the season, and social media advertising was seen as a proven way to reach their target audience. The marketing team had some experience with other social media campaigns, but only those that drove traffic to the club’s website. There were, however, a few specific marketing challenges unique to mobile apps that the team was hoping to address in time for the app’s launch.
One Campaign, Two App Store Links
As they set out to launch the campaign for the mobile app, it occurred to the team that they had two different app store links to promote, one for iOS and one for Android. They wanted to avoid any unnecessary landing pages and link directly to the app stores. The social ads could convey what the app was about, so an extra landing page wasn’t necessary.
Could one intelligent campaign link be created, or did the team need to manage two social media ad campaigns: one for iOS and one for Android? It would be much easier and more efficient to manage one campaign and one media budget. Ideally, the team could create one campaign link that could skip the website and go directly to the right app store, depending on the device clicking the link.
App Install QR Codes
The team also foresaw the need for QR codes designed to drive installs from various marketing materials and channels. Like a single app store link, a single QR code that could route the user directly to the right app store was important. Consumers scanned QR codes in mobile moments, so to maximize conversion, it was key to avoid any unnecessary landing pages or extra clicks along the app download journey.
App Install Web Banners
Another challenge was that the mobile website for FC Bayern Basketball did not have app install banners, which would be ideal for driving organic app installs from a captured, relevant audience. App install banners on the mobile website would also drive down the app’s overall cost-per-install. App install banners, however, typically required development resources for iOS and Android, which the team did not have access to, and even if they did, there was no time to implement, test, or manage more technical solutions.
The team thought their only viable channel to launch the app and drive app installations quickly was paid social campaigns, so they set about finding a solution for app store links first and planned to implement app install banners later.
The marketing team at FC Bayern Basketball searched for an enterprise-grade app-linking solution that did not require development skills or technical resources. The solution needed to be easy to implement and accessible to the entire marketing team so they could instantly use it for their social media advertising campaigns.
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As a cloud-based enterprise solution, the codeless approach of URLgenius was ideal, as this would enable the team to get their social media campaigns started immediately in time to meet their app launch deadlines. In addition, the team discovered that the URLgenius platform also offered no-code app install banners, which were visible on all browsers. The marketing team could also control the banner design by using a straightforward dashboard.
With the help of the team at URLgenius, the FC Bayern Basketball marketing team quickly implemented URLgenius app store links in their social media campaigns and no-code app install banners on the basketball team’s mobile website. Key elements of this strategy included:
A Single Campaign Link or QR Code That Routes Directly to the Right App Store
To drive app installs from social media campaigns, the team implemented URLgenius app store links and QR codes, which allowed the team to skip landing pages and direct mobile visitors immediately to the right app store based on the device clicking the link or scanning the code. In addition, the FC Bayern basketball domain was used for the link in place of the URLgenius domain. This strategy would inspire trust in the link and maximize conversion.
There was another benefit of URLgenius app links and QR codes that the marketing team thought would be helpful in the future. They could be set to open the basketball app to a certain screen if the app was already installed. As more fans installed the app, the team wanted to avoid continuously sending current app users back to the app stores in future campaigns while promoting specific screens or content in the app.
URLgenius app store links and QR codes also provided valuable analytics data, including link-level, app, and web referral data. Understanding the source of traffic would be important in the future for improving the campaign’s effectiveness and as the brand’s app store links were distributed more widely for promotional purposes.
With URLgenius analytics, the team could determine which platforms were driving the most FC Bayern Basketball app store visits. UTM parameters could also be added to the app store links to measure how many app installations could be attributed to a specific URLgenius link.
Smart App Banners for the Mobile Website
When the marketing team discovered URLgenius had a solution for app install banners they wanted to understand if a codeless solution could solve some of the most common challenges with more standard app banner solutions that required development resources. Apple Smart Banners, for example, only function with Safari and are not compatible with Android devices.
URLgenius solved for all common app install banner challenges, including:
As a cloud-based, dashboard-controlled app install banner solution, URLgenius does not require coding either for implementation or for future changes to the banner’s design or functional attributes. This was viewed as a strong, valuable benefit by both the marketing and technical teams.
The impact of FC Bayern Basketball´s URLgenius app linking, and app install banner implementation was immediate, and it allowed the team to exceed their goals for the app’s launch including time to market while surpassing their app install targets. The URLgenius app banner also provided the team with important insights for optimization that would not be available with standard app install banner solutions. The team realized the following benefits and results:
The team now plans to utilize additional URLgenius features including social media app links designed to increase app engagement among app users as well as URLgenius QR codes on all printed marketing materials, advertisements and select streaming and video content.
Contact us for a free evaluation of your use case along with your questions at info@urlgeni.us about your QR code unique requirements.
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Categories
App Install Banners, App Marketing, Deep Linking, Deeplinking
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