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for Marketers

Deferred deep linking on reinstall

You can use deferred deep links to retarget users who've uninstalled your app. The deferred deep link sends users to a specific place in your app after first routing them through the relevant app store to reinstall the app.

Find out how deferred deep linking works for apps that are installed or reinstalled on a device, and how you can set up your SDK and links to support it.

How it works

When a user clicks your retargeting link, Adjust's server checks whether the user has your app installed. If the app is installed, the deep link takes the user directly to the specified place in your app.

If the app is not on the user’s device and the link includes a redirect parameter, Adjust sends the user to the redirect URL. For example, this might be your product website.

If the app is not on the user’s device, and there is no redirect paramter, Adjust sends the user to the relevant app store to install the app. When the user opens the app for the first time, the Adjust SDK calls our backend to see whether we already have a device record for this user. At this point, there are three possbile outcomes.

User attributed: If the user is not recognized, Adjust deep links the user to the specified in-app page and attributes them to the click.
User reattributed: If the user is recognized by Adjust, they are reattributed and deep linked to the specified in-app page. For a user to be reattributed and deep linked, they need to fulfill the following reattribution criteria:

The user is not already attributed to the re-engagement campaign link.
The user has been inactive for the required time, as per the inactivity period.
The user engages with the campaign link within the defined reattribution window.

User neither attributed nor reattributed: If the user is recognized by Adjust, but the click does not meet the reattribution criteria, the Adjust backend selects the next best matching engagement. We send the deep link via attribution callback to the SDK, allowing the SDK to open the deep link and send the user to the specified in-app page.

Setup checklist

Deferred deep linking can be used with both Adjust deep links and universal links. To ensure you can run re-engagement campaigns using deferred deep linking, make sure you have correctly set up the Adjust SDK and links.

SDK support for reattribution via deep links.
- iOS
- Android
Create a campaign using Adjust links with your retargeting partner. Set up device matching reattribution or probabilistic modeling reattribution for your link (ad networks | custom link).
- Setting up probabilistic modeling reattribution might help improve deferred deep linking on reinstall when device matching attribution is not possible. For example: When a user reinstalls an app via a smart banner or QR code.

Your Adjust link operates in the same way for retargeting campaigns as it does for user acquisition campaigns. However, since retargeting focuses on specific app users, your link should include a user's advertising ID. This lets you confirm that your campaign reaches the intended audience.

iOS example:

https://app.adjust.com/abc123?idfa=8A3CB124-5A79-4334-8802-F75FEC099C58

Android example:

https://app.adjust.com/abc123?gps_adid=38400000-8cf0-11bd-b23e-10b96e40000d