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A smart link is a short link for one campaign. It sends each visitor to the right place for their device and carries the campaign into the app, so installs and revenue from that link show up under source Smart link with the link’s campaign.
Use one link per placement: a creator video, a newsletter, a QR code on a poster, a social profile.
Create links under My Apps → your app → Attribution → Smart links in Appeeky, or with the API:
The response is the new link with a random slug and its public url.

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Fields

At least one of iosUrl, androidUrl or webUrl is required. Update a link with PATCH (send only the fields that change; null clears a URL) and remove it with DELETE. See the Analytics API.

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What Happens on Each Platform

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Android

The visitor goes to Google Play. The link puts the campaign, the link and the in-app destination into the Play install referrer. On the first launch after install, the SDK reads the referrer:
  • the install is attributed to the link exactly, and
  • getDeferredDeepLink() returns the link’s deepLink.
This needs the SDK’s native module, which reads the Play Install Referrer. If the link has no androidUrl, Android visitors go to webUrl.

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iOS

  • With a deepLink: the link first tries to open the app through its URL scheme, with the campaign appended to the URL. If the app is installed, it opens there. If nothing opens the app within about 1.5 seconds, the visitor goes to the App Store (iosUrl, or webUrl).
  • Without a deepLink: the visitor goes straight to the App Store.
When the link opens the already-installed app on its first launch, the install is attributed to the link and getDeferredDeepLink() returns the opening URL.
iOS has no deferred deep link from a smart link. When a visitor installs from the App Store and then opens the app, the app cannot know which link they clicked. Matching an App Store install back to a click needs device fingerprinting, which Apple does not allow. Those installs are usually counted as Organic, or as Apple Search Ads if they came from an ad.

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Desktop and other devices

The visitor goes to webUrl. If there is no webUrl, they see a simple page with buttons for the App Store and Google Play.
Each link shows, for the selected period:
  • Clicks in the period, in total and by platform (iOS, Android, other)
  • Installs attributed to the link and first seen in the period
  • Revenue those installs have made so far
Installs and revenue from a link also appear in every breakdown under source Smart link and the link’s campaign, and you can filter the dashboard by that campaign.

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Click Privacy

For each click, Appeeky stores only the link, a random click id, the platform (iOS, Android or other, read from the browser’s user agent) and the country. It does not store the IP address or the user agent, and it does not fingerprint devices.