It is a very lucrative time to be an influencer nowadays, isn’t it? Influencers are the new rock stars of affiliate marketing, and they are changing the course of the industry in real time. Just ask the team at LTK, where influencers on the platform drove 3.6 billion dollars in sales in 2022 for a long list of advertisers.
I guess you know all that because you’re reading this article, right?! So how can influencers unlock billions more in sales via LTK? By linking directly from social media to e-commerce apps like Walmart, Target, Amazon, and more—while passing affiliate measurement tags into the app (not just to the retailer’s website). It’s called app-to-app linking, and regular links just can’t do it. Using this linking method can increase your LTK commissions by 2-5x!
We’re going to show you how to generate LTK app deep links for any retailer to promote on social media in a way that gets you credit for the sale, so you can earn more commissions from those clicks! You don’t need technical resources or special skills, there’s nothing to install, and you can even brand your links using your domain.
Yes—you read all of that right!
Now you might be wondering—why can’t you just use the regular LTK or RStyle links? Well, for those of you that have tried it (there’s a lot of you!), you may have noticed that the LTK or RStyle link will not open the retailer’s app from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or any other app for that matter. You hit the retailer’s web login instead.
This is no fault of the LTK link or the retailer’s link. It’s because of something called ‘the walled garden’ which is an industry challenge when linking from one app to another.
A minor inconvenience? No, no—this experience is a conversion blocker! Most consumers just will not log in that way, but many will jump over to the app themselves—and therein lies the problem.
Influencers are losing money every time they post a regular LTK/Rstyle link to social media. When an RStyle link for Walmart—for example—is clicked from say, Facebook, the shopper doesn’t leave Facebook, and regardless of whether the Walmart app is installed on the shopper’s phone, they remain in a web browser within the Facebook app. The shopper might be able to see the product page but they can’t buy it unless they log in to the website from within Facebook.
And guess what? If the shopper doesn’t log in, your affiliate tracking tags are not passed to LTK or the retailer. No matter the reason, whether your shopper can’t remember their login information, or they simply don’t want to enter it into a browser, the walled garden wins and you ultimately lose out on a sale or a remarketing opportunity.
Even if your shopper jumped over to the Walmart app themselves to browse or buy the product, the connection to your affiliate tracking tags was lost, and there’s no way to credit you for the sale. At the end of the day, consumers prefer apps—whether it’s Walmart, Amazon, Etsy, etc. So your LTK links must be able to open the app every time.
Now for the good news! We have the solution. URLgenius uses a patented, cloud-based process to securely link from app to app while passing your affiliate tracking tags, so you get credit for the sale!
This post is going show you how URLgenius uniquely solves for this walled garden friction for any LTK advertiser to increase sales and commissions. In addition, URLgenius links increase your remarketing opportunities as well. That’s right, it’s not just about that one sale in that click session because the benefit extends to any engagement signal that is sent into the app, even if the shopper doesn’t buy immediately. This first-party engagement data can then be used by the app (Amazon, Walmart, Target, etc) to remarket to that shopper on your behalf.
Let’s dive in, shall we?! Grab an LTK link with your affiliate tags and open another tab in your browser, and follow along as you go through this step-by-step tutorial. We’ll show you how to use URLgenius to simply update your LTK or RStyle.me links with some extra app deep linking capabilities.
What influencers and affiliates around the world love about URLgenius is how easy it is to update e-commerce links to promote in any marketing channel, including social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Now we’ve applied that same patented technology to support LTK or RStyle.me links!
Pro tip: These are the steps to create a single link. If you need to create links programmatically for an advertising data feed, URLgenius offers access to an API.
First, select one of your LTK or RStyle.me links for any advertiser. In our example, we’ll use an RStyle.me link for Walmart. Paste the link into the box provided on the URLgenius home page.
When pasting the link, notice the destination app’s icon is highlighted— this tells you that URLgenius understands the link you entered. We’re entering a Walmart link, but you could do the same for Target, Amazon, or any LTK advertiser.
Important: IF you don’t see the icon for the advertiser’s app when pasting the LTK or RStyle.me link, please contact us and we will update the URLgenius composer with the requested app. URLgenius supports thousands of apps and billions of screens. Any app can be added to the platform.
You will see some routing information for iOS and Android. This is like an address in the app that the composer automatically enters for you. At the end of the modal, you can customize the end of the link to match your campaign and make it easy to find later in the URLgenius dashboard, or you can use the pre-populated random characters at the end of your link.
Click the “Compose” button which takes you to the settings page for your LTK app deep link, where you can copy and place it into your Instagram ad. Scan the QR code to see how the link behaves. To access this link in the future, click ‘Console’ from the menu for your list of links.
The tab called ‘Routing’ will show you the logic embedded in your URLgenius link which routes the user to the right place depending on their device. You can see that the app address by device also has your affiliate marketing tracking tags which are passed into the retailer’s app.
You typically don’t need to change the routing information but you could update the destination or affiliate tracking tags. Contact us if you need help updating the destination of your link or updating the affiliate marketing tags on a link within it.
When you use URLgenius links, the LTK platform is still measuring your commissions and giving you credit for the sale. If you don’t see an increase in sales, it could be because the advertiser is not sending the in-app affiliate tracking information back to LTK. Ask your LTK representative if the advertiser measures in-app activity and if they commission on in-app purchases in coordination with the LTK platform. The team at URLgenius is happy to speak to your LTK or advertiser representative to facilitate that conversation.
URLgenius will show you some analytics information related to clicks and opening the app including referring information. This chart shows which app or website is referring traffic to the product or store you’re promoting.
The following chart estimates the volume of app-opens by platform and device. This chart can sometimes be a good indication of what percentage have the retailer’s app installed.
This chart shows scans by city and separately by language preference. These anonymous insights help you figure out where and how to focus your campaign, both in terms of geography and language.
Whether you’re an influencer for Amazon, Walmart, Target, or all of the above, start promoting app deep links and start earning more commissions. You can sign up and set up a trial today.
We are always here to help you with your campaigns! Contact us with questions at info@urlgeni.us about influencer marketing and app deep links.
If you found this content helpful, check out some other how-to posts for increasing conversion:
Posted By
Rana Fakih
Categories
Influencer Marketing
Tags
amazon influencer marketing, amazon influencers, increase influencer affiliate sales, influencer marketing, LTK app linking