Preparing Your App for Influencer Campaigns: Deep Links, Store Pages and Attribution
An app campaign loses people at every hop from post to store to first screen. Here's what to set up before creators promote your app: links that open the right screen, store pages per campaign, attribution you can trust and what iOS and Android allow.
A creator recommending an app asks the viewer to do more than a creator recommending a product. They have to tap a link, reach the right store, install, open the app and get to the thing the creator showed, usually while wondering whether it's worth the storage space. Each of those hops loses people, and a link that drops them on a generic store page or the app's first launch screen loses more than it needs to.
Quick answer
Before creators promote an app, set up verified deep links (universal links on iOS, App Links on Android) so creator links open the right screen when the app is installed and fall back to a useful web page when it isn't. Use custom store pages so the store listing matches the campaign, decide how installs will be attributed to each creator, and test every link on real devices. Plan for iOS privacy rules, which limit user-level attribution unless people allow tracking.
Why app campaigns need more preparation than store campaigns
With an online store, a creator's link goes straight to the product. With an app, the link has to work in two situations: the viewer already has the app, or they don't. It also has to survive the jump into the App Store or Google Play and back out again, where ordinary web tracking stops. Influencer marketing for mobile apps covers the campaign side, including formats and why installs alone are a weak measure. This guide covers the technical groundwork.
Deep links: send people to the right screen
A deep link opens a specific screen inside the app, such as a product, a feature or a sign-up offer, instead of the home screen. For creator campaigns, use the verified kind:
- iOS universal links: ordinary https links on your domain that open the app when it's installed and open the matching web page when it isn't. They need an association file on your website and the matching setting in the app.
- Android App Links: deep links verified against your website, so Android opens the app directly without asking which app to use. Google supports them on Android 6 and later on devices with Google services.
- Fallback pages: because both fall back to the web, the URL in a creator's link must load a useful page on its own, ideally one that explains the offer and links to the right store.
Apple's guide to supporting universal links and Android's documentation on App Links cover the setup. If you still have Firebase Dynamic Links in old campaign materials, replace them: Firebase states that the service shut down on 25 August 2025 and that its links now return an error. It recommends App Links and universal links instead.
Standard universal links and App Links only work when the app is installed. Sending a new user to the right screen after they install, known as a deferred deep link, needs extra work: either a mobile measurement or linking service, or your own logic that reads campaign information after the first launch. Decide which before the campaign, because it affects the links you give creators.
Store pages that match the campaign
Viewers who don't have the app land on a store listing. If the creator talked about one feature and the listing leads with another, you lose some of them at the last step. Both stores let you make campaign-specific versions of the listing:
| App Store custom product pages | Google Play custom store listings | |
|---|---|---|
| How many | Up to 70 per app | Up to 50 |
| What you can change | Screenshots, app previews, promotional text and keywords | Name, icon, descriptions and graphics |
| How users reach it | A unique URL generated for each page | Your app's store URL plus a listing parameter you choose |
| Where it's managed | App Store Connect; each page is approved by App Review before it's visible | Play Console, where you also choose who sees each listing (country, ads traffic, lapsed users and others) |
| Deep link from the page | Optional, opens the app for users on iOS 18 or later | Not a listing setting; use App Links in the creator's link instead |
| Reporting | Impressions, downloads and conversion rate per page, after at least five first-time downloads | Check Play Console's reports for each listing |
Sources: Apple's App Store Connect help on custom product pages and Google's Play Console help on custom store listings. You don't need a page per creator. A page per campaign theme, such as one feature, one audience or one language, is usually enough, and it keeps reporting readable.
Attribution: which creator drove which install
Web tracking stops at the store, so attributing installs to creators needs its own setup. The options work differently on each platform.
- Android: the Google Play Install Referrer API gives the app the referrer passed through the Play Store link, with timestamps for the click and the install, so a tagged Play link per creator can be read after install.
- iOS: Apple requires permission through App Tracking Transparency before an app tracks users across other companies' apps and websites or reads the advertising identifier. Without permission the identifier is all zeros, so expect much of your iOS attribution to be aggregated or modelled rather than user-level.
- Both: creator-specific referral or promo codes entered in the app, and a question at sign-up asking where people heard about you, work regardless of platform and give you a signal no link can lose.
- Custom store pages: per-page download reporting in App Store Connect gives an aggregate view of which campaign theme converts.
Apple's user privacy and data use page defines tracking and sets out the permission rule. Google's Install Referrer documentation explains what the API returns. In-app codes and survey answers are the most dependable creator-level signal on iOS, so build them in before launch rather than adding them later.
Whatever the method, measure beyond the install: activation (the first meaningful action), retention after a week or a month, and revenue where it applies. Influencer marketing attribution models explains how to read several partial signals together without double counting.
Make the first session match the post
A new user who installed because a creator showed one feature should see that feature quickly, not a long onboarding sequence or a paywall before anything else. If deferred deep linking isn't set up, at least make sure the onboarding mentions the campaign's feature or offer, and that a creator's code can be entered early.
Test before the first post
- Tap every creator link from inside Instagram, YouTube and any other app the creators use, on iOS and Android.
- Test with the app installed and not installed, and confirm the fallback page loads and points to the right store.
- Confirm each custom store page is approved and visible, and its URL is the one in the creator's link.
- Install from a tagged Play link and confirm your app reads the referrer.
- Enter each creator's code in the app and confirm it's recorded.
- Check that the first screen after install matches the campaign.
Common mistakes
- Giving creators a link that only works if the app is already installed.
- Using link shorteners in front of universal links, which Apple advises against for product-page deep links.
- Sending everyone to the default store listing when the creator talked about one feature.
- Relying on user-level iOS attribution as if every user allowed tracking.
- Reporting installs as the result, with no view of activation or retention.
- Leaving old Firebase Dynamic Links in bios, descriptions or pinned posts.
Who sets this up
Deep links, association files, referrer handling and in-app code entry are app and website engineering work, not campaign work, so book them into the product team's schedule well before the campaign date. If you don't have mobile developers in-house, ZSpace Labs builds iOS and Android apps, including integrations with backend services and third-party APIs. Disclosure: Kudozz has a paid partnership with ZSpace Labs, and this is a sponsored link.
Conclusion
App campaigns lose people at each hop between the post and the first useful screen. Verified deep links with good fallbacks, store pages that match the campaign, and attribution designed around what iOS and Android actually allow remove most of that loss and give you numbers you can defend. Set them up and test them before creators post, because fixing a link after the post is live rarely reaches the people who already tapped it.