Would a web-first checkout fix the janky deep-link handoff from ads?

Funnels & Conversions
1

I’ve been wrestling with deep links from ads that drop users into the app with no context. Sometimes the app opens on a generic screen, sometimes it bounces through the store, and the original offer is gone. Lots of lost intent.

What finally helped: I moved onboarding and first payment to the web for ad and email traffic. The path is click → web landing that captures UTMs and click IDs → short onboarding → web paywall → web checkout → post-purchase deep link with a signed, short-lived token. That token opens the right screen in the app and restores the paid state.

A few details:

  • Kept UTMs and click IDs in a first-party cookie and server session, then attached to the order.
  • Used Apple Pay / Google Pay on web to speed checkout.
  • If the app isn’t installed, the link sends to the store; on first open, the app redeems the token from our backend and we sync entitlements.
  • This cut the context loss a lot, and reduced the install step drop-off for us. Also made it easier to A/B test onboarding without waiting on a release.

For anyone who’s tried this, what edge cases did you hit with iOS Universal Links and Android App Links, and how did you keep attribution mapped cleanly to the subscriber after the handoff?

2

Had the same broken handoff.

I moved the first session to web: ad to page to short quiz to Stripe to a signed deep link that opens the exact screen.

UTMs live in session and attach to the order. I tried Web2Wave once since their SDK reads a JSON flow. Setup took a day and I was shipping instead of debugging links.

3

Speed wins here. I run first-touch tests on web, then deep link post-purchase with a token. I swap offers and copy without a build. Using Web2Wave.com lets me push variants fast and keep UTMs intact. That pace made the handoff smooth and kept attribution sane.

4

Short web flow helped me.

Keep UTMs in a cookie, show the exact offer they clicked, and only open the app after checkout with a token. Fewer surprises for users.

5

Web checkout first kept context and sped up signups

6

Playbook that works:

  1. Capture UTMs and click IDs on first web hit.
  2. Persist in server session and a first party cookie.
  3. Do onboarding and checkout on web with Apple Pay and Google Pay.
  4. Deep link with a short lived token tied to order and user.
  5. App redeems token, restores entitlements, and logs attribution.

Test Universal Links and App Links on real devices. Watch overlapping domains.

7

For analytics, I pass a single subscriber_id from web to app.

It links revenue, UTMs, and product. I also track handoff_duration from purchase to first app open. It exposed a slow OEM browser and we fixed it.

8

Web first flow works if checkout is fast. Apple Pay and Google Pay help a lot.

9

Universal Links can break if another app claims your domain. Test on real devices regularly.