Smarter App Install Banners: A Radically Easy Approach To Grow Organic App Installs

Published on March 27, 2024

Relying Smarter App Install Banners: A Radically Easy Approach To Grow Organic App Installs on paid media to drive app installs can be costly. According to Statista, the worldwide average cost of acquiring an app user was $3.52 in 2019. For specific app categories, paid acquisition costs can be even higher and are likely to increase further as privacy concerns limit the effectiveness of cookie-based retargeting. (Apple’s release of iOS14, for example, will require permission-based tracking for all apps which will severely limit the amount of data collected for retargeting.) In this environment, organic app-install strategies warrant increased focus and priority.

One promising strategy to drive organic installs is to deploy app smart banners on your mobile site. App smart banners are basically run-of-site display ads that promote your apps from your mobile web pages. This post will outline how you can implement app install banners for your website that accelerate organic installs for iOS and Android, while lowering your cost per install (CPI), and avoiding the technical hurdles that prevent companies from implementing existing app banner solutions.

Important Notice about Firebase Dynamic Links: On August 25, 2025, Google is shutting down Firebase Dynamic Links which is part of the Firebase platform offering app deep linking capabilities. Google is no longer recommending Firebase Dynamic Links for new mobile app development projects. If you're using that technology for your linking or QR codes make sure to consider a replacement like URLgenius.

Minimize IT Burden without SDKs

Until Smarter App Install Banners: A Radically Easy Approach To Grow Organic App Installs now, app banners for your mobile website were limited in their ability to maximize installs across devices, and often required development resources. Apple's smart banners for example are not visible on Android devices, and do not give your marketing team any flexibility to control different aspects of the banner. Android banners can be even more complex, requiring custom development work. Your development team also needs to maintain these custom solutions and make changes to the banner as requested.

This complexity is often the reason why companies are hesitant to implement app banners. Marketing teams and agencies meanwhile, are left without what is often the most powerful tool to increase app installs without spending a fortune.

URLgenius solves this complexity, giving your mobile marketing team control over the customer experience. Using a cloud-based approach, there is no SDK required. In literally minutes, you can have the code to place on your website HTML pages to adapt your ads for iOS and Android users.

“This was a wildly successful solution exceeding our expectations by increasing app installs by 300%. Not only was the banner visible from all browsers and devices on iOS and Android, it was all done without custom development.' – Marketing Manager, Sports & Outdoor Gear Retailer

SEO-Friendly to Boost ASO

App install banners are not typically tied to organic search rankings and app store optimization (ASO). Built by mobile experts, URLgenius app banners contain a crawlable index of your app assets that uniquely leverage your site's inbound SEO signals. This means higher organic search rankings for your app install pages and more installs. Increased app install velocity also leads to improved discovery in the app stores, creating a self-reinforcing loop for even more organic installs.

Discover how URLgenius app install banners can increase organic app installs and lower your cost-per-install:

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Maximum Visibility for More App Installs

Apple's meta tag approach to smart banners is only visible to native Safari users viewing your website. URLgenius app banners are universally visible on iOS and Android as well as the embedded browsers found in Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other apps. Maximizing your banner’s visibility across all types of browsers will increase impressions, clicks and app installs helping you to reach your goals faster.

One Line of Code for Rapid Deployment

You do not need separate banner code for your iOS and Android apps. One line of code from URLgenius gives you everything you need to create, deploy and control your app install banners for iOS and Android. You will also find a convenient QR code on the settings page so you can preview the look and behavior of the banner in real-time.

Optimize Banner Size, Color and Logo

URLgenius also gives your marketing team or agency more control over the banner's look and feel. Your team can instantly change the size of the banner, color and the logo in real-time using an easy-to-use interface. Design related changes can be made instantly while the banner is in production. You never have to alter the code on your website.

Call-to-Action

Another great customization option your marketing team has is the ability to add a unique call-to-action to your smart banner.

Not a requirement by any means, and if you choose not to add one, the default one will be displayed.

Ratings

We give you the option of displaying on your banner the rating of your app on a 5-star basis. This is a great way to establish your app's credibiilty and increase your app install rate. Smarter App Install Banners: A Radically Easy Approach To Grow Organic App Installs

Dynamic Routing Controls

URLgenius gives your marketing team real-time control over where to send traffic—both by device and platform. With just a single code, you can send your users to the respective app/Google Play store, whether clicking from their iPhone, iPad, Android phone, or Android tablet. And when they already have your app installed, you can also specify where exactly you’d like to send them. Smarter App Install Banners: A Radically Easy Approach To Grow Organic App Installs

In addition, these codes are dynamic, meaning that you can adjust any aspect of them at any time—pre- or post-production—without generating a new banner code. Whether adjusting the logo, color, size, call-to-action, or any other aspect of your smart app banner, those changes will be applied without you having to lift another thumb. This also applies if you decide to change the destination of the code.

This gives your team maximum flexibility when optimizing campaigns, testing landing pages, and reacting to unforeseen changes in your marketing plans.

Note for iOS App Install Tracking

Make sure to append the “pt” and “ct” parameters in your iOS app store URLs. Apple gives instructions here. In summary, create and name a new campaign (e.g. “AppBanner”) in iOS App Store Connect. The console will generate a campaign link containing your unique “pt” and “ct” values. Insert your campaign link containing the “pt” and “ct” into the fields for iOS routing on the URLgenius settings page for your banner.

Measure Impressions, Clicks, and Closes

URLgenius app banners give you unique insights into what percentage of your visitors viewed, clicked, and closed your banner. You can also control when to show visitors the banner again after they close it. Other approaches, like Apple smart banners and custom Android banners, fail to provide these kinds of feedback metrics. This data is a vital part of achieving app install growth while delivering a positive site experience.

Easy Attribution and No Data Sharing

Append any tracking tags to your banners for attribution - including Google Analytics or any app analytics platform. You never need to install third party tracking technology in your app or share your valuable app install metrics. Some app deep linking platforms that require SDKs for app banners profile your customer’s device and share personally identifiable customer information (PII) for re-targeting. URLgenius takes a more forward approach to privacy and will never collect or share your customer data with ad networks or social networks for advertising or re-targeting.

Why limit your app install growth with basic meta tags, or waste valuable development resources on custom development? URLgenius app banners let you get started immediately with a more universal, cloud-based approach to increasing app installs with measurable results and lowering cost per install rates. URLgenius app banners are free to setup! Just send the URLgenius team a note to request your app banner code for your website.

If you found this content helpful, check out some of our latest how-to posts for app deep linking, attribution, QR codes and more:

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