Smart Banners—mobile web-to-app (for marketers)

To prepare your mobile site to display Smart Banners: 

1. In the AppsFlyer dashboard, go to Experiences & Deep Linking > Web-to-app > Smart Banners
2. Click Create Website workplace.

   

3. Enter a Website workplace name.
4. Click Create.
   The Website workplace opens. 
5. Copy the banner Code snippet. 
6. Send the code snippet to your front-end developer to implement on your website.
   This quick task is done only once per website by the front-end developer, who is not involved anymore during the following steps. 
7. [optional] Copy Web key. (This key already exists as part of the code snippet.)
8. Click Continue.

Banner Groups contain one or more banners. Here you can:

• Select the OneLink template used by the Banner Group, which contains the mobile apps to redirect your website visitors to.
• Set a specific deep-linking scheme
• Define your targeting rules, scheduling, behavior, and attribution details used by all banners of the Banner Group.
• Set which pages activate the Banner Group's banners when visited.

To set up a new Banner Group:

1. In the AppsFlyer dashboard, go to Experiences & Deep Linking > Web-to-app > Smart Banners
2. On the left-hand side, click Add Banner Group.
3. Enter a unique Banner Group name.
   The name should reflect a general common theme between the Banners to be defined for the Banner Group (e.g., the advertised app).
4. Select the OneLink template for the Banner Group.
5. [optional] Set URI scheme for the Banner Group as a fallback for Universal Links and Android App Links users. This is rarely needed as, by default, the value is taken from the OneLink template. Set this for the Banner Group only if you need a different value than the one in the template.
6. Set the primary and fallback Attributed sources to be attributed with new installs coming from this Banner Group. Use the following table to pick the best option for the custom link.
   
   

   Option	When to select	Comments
   Use UTM parameters	Select when most non-organic visitors get to the mobile website from sources with UTM parameters.	Media source name (pid) = UTM_Source  Campaign (c) = UTM_campaign If the UTM_source or UTM_campaign are missing, the static names are used as a fallback.
   Use incoming attribution link parameters	Select when most non-organic visitors get to the mobile website from click ad networks that use AppsFlyer attribution links.	All available parameters from the incoming AppsFlyer attribution link are added to the Smart Banner link.  If a parameter exists in both the incoming AppsFlyer attribution link and the Smart Banner, the incoming parameter takes precedence in the final custom link.
   Add another attribution parameter	If you want, add additional website-related attribution data. This enables granular analysis of every install.	For example, for eCommerce sites create identical custom links for every product category type, that differ by af_adset values (for example: "af_adset=fruit")
   Use default attribution parameters	Select when: Most mobile website visitors are organic. Non-organic visitors don't get to the website from click ad networks or from sources with UTM parameters. You can customize the parameter values.	Important: Best practice is to select UTM or incoming attribution link parameters, since the default Smart Banner attribution parameters are anyway used on the custom link as a fallback if the media source, campaign, or channel names are not available.

7. [Recommended] Set the default attribution parameter Channel name to attribute all installs coming from the Smart Banner to the specified channel. This enables you to aggregate information from multiple media sources under the same channel in the Cohort report, Overview dashboard, Retention report, and more. 
8. [Optional] Set the Dismissal behavior, that is, the minimum time allowed between a user dismissal of one banner in the group, until the same banner may be displayed again to the user. Select from one of the following:
   • By time: 1 hour, 1 day, or 1 week.
   • Next session: meaning the session that takes place in a different tab or window, after the user closes the banner.
   • Never: the banner is not shown again. 
     Note: 
     • If the user clears the browser cache or views the site in private browsing mode the Dismissal Behaviour setting is lost.
     • The dismissal behavior is applied to the banner the user dismisses; other banners in the banner group can still be displayed. 
9. [optional] Set Frequency capping. 
   Frequency capping determines how many times each banner in the Banner Group is shown to a unique user. For example, if frequency capping is set to three, and a user visits the site four times, the user can see the same banner on the first 3 visits but not on the fourth and onward. Frequency capping can be disabled. Select a frequency capping value or disable frequency capping.  
10. [Optional] Schedule the Banner Group's activation: start immediately (default) or set a time-limited campaign.
11. [Optional] Set Locations where the Banner Group is activated for.
    1. Select Worldwide to display this Banner Group to all users. If needed, exclude visitors coming from different regions, countries, or states. 
    2. Select Pick specific location option to display this Banner Group to users from one or more specific locations.
12. [Optional] Set Show on pages, meaning, on which pages the Banner Group can be displayed to visitors:
    • [Default] Show on all pages of the website.
      Note: We recommend defining at least one Banner Group for all pages as a fallback.
    • Show on specific pages: Specify the conditions for what the page or URL should or should not contain in order to display banners.  
      • You can choose either:
        • Specific page: Specify the host and/or path of the page on which to display the banner. Any queries entered will be disregarded. Example: http://www.example.com/path?query
        • URL: Specify the path and/or query, or the keyword in the path/query of the pages on which to display the banner. Example: http://www.example.com/path?query
      • Up to 5 conditions can be added using and/or.
      • If there is a conflict between conditions, the banner will not display. 
13. Click Create Banner Group.
14. [Optional] To edit the Banner Group again, hover over Targeting & behavior and click Edit.

To create a banner in a Banner Group:

1. Click Create Banner to enter the Edit Banners page.
2. Set the Name of the banner.
3. Create a Design creative:
   1. Click Design creative to set the creative of the banner.
      A window to choose a banner template opens.
      

      

   2. Hover over a Creative template, and click Create to enter the Build creative setup page.
   3. Customize all the elements in the Smart Banner creative. To do so, select elements by name or click on them on the preview image. 
      • Title
      • Paragraph
      • Rating stars
      • Close button
      • Call to action
      • App logo
      • Background
      • Banner padding (to adjust banner size)
      • For images, use one of the following file types: jpeg, jpg, png. 
        Note: webp format is not supported. 
        The recommendations for the images are:
        

        Template type	Maximum image file size	DPI	Image ratio
        Standard	300 KB	72	9:4 (horizontal)
        Enhanced			9:4 (horizontal)
        Promotional			1:1
        Interstitial			9:16 (vertical)

   4. Click Review to review the banner creative and test its appearance on different devices.
      Note: Banners may appear slightly different in active campaigns compared to preview images.
   5. If changes are needed, click Back to editor..
   6. Click Done to go back to the banner setup page.
4. [Optional] Add custom attribution parameters. For example, ad_adset and af_ad.
   Note: The parameters pid, c, and channel cannot be added at the banner level, as they belong to the banner group level. 
5. After finishing and saving the new creative, the banner's status becomes active. Use the Status toggle to switch between Active and Paused statuses. 
6. [Optional] To convert the attribution link from a user acquisition type URL to a retargeting URL, add the custom is_retargeting=true parameter.
7. Click Save all to save your work or Save all and close to save your work and close the banner setup page.

Once the creative is ready, it's time to put it to the test before setting it live and activating it for your users.

To test a Smart Banner creative: 

Prerequisite: Make sure that the Smart Banner code snippet is integrated into your website.  

1. In the Test Creative page, enter the link to your web page where the Smart Banner SDK is integrated (see Smart Banners for developers).
2. Click Generate.
3. Copy the generated link and send it to your test device, or scan the QR code with the test device. The link or QR should redirect you to the web page and display a banner with the creative.
4. Click Edit Creative to return to the creative configuration, or click Done to save the creative.

AppsFlyer takes the following into consideration when determining if/what Smart Banner to display:

• Are there rules (dismissal behavior, frequency capping, locations, show on pages, etc.) set for the banner groups?
• Does the end-user meet the rule conditions and qualify to see a banner?

If the answer to both questions is yes, meaning there are rules, and the user qualifies to see a banner, AppsFlyer chooses a banner to display as explained in the table that follows.

You can A/B test the performance of individual banners. To do so, add custom attribution parameters to your banner creatives (step 4 of banner setup) and then use those parameters to compare each banner's performance.

Any parameters can be added except pid, c, and channel, as they belong to the banner group level. 

Recommended: Set the af_adset parameter with a unique value on each banner creative. Then, use the Aggregated performance report in the AppsFlyer Overview dashboard to easily compare performance, as shown in the image that follows.