One link per creator. See who actually brings you users.
Give every creator their own link. Their followers land on the offer they talked about, even after installing, and your dashboard shows new users per creator, with suspected fake installs flagged before you pay anyone.
- Who runs it
- Marketers, paid ads
- Time to set up
- Minutes, after the SDK
- Plan
- Free, Growth for ad spend
A link per creator, tagged with their name.
Make a link, tag it with the creator's handle and platform, put their code in the link's data, and choose where the app should open. That's the whole setup. Make one per creator, or one per post if you want to compare a Reel with a Story.
- Their handle and code travel with the link, so the welcome screen can greet the follower by creator.
- Share it as a short link, a QR code or a bio link. Same tracking either way.
- Nothing to install for the creator. They paste one link.
The follower sees the offer, not your home screen.
Whether they already have Stride or install it from the App Store first, the app opens on the welcome screen with Maya's 15% already applied. Nobody has to remember a code or hunt for the offer.
- Works on iPhone and Android, including after a fresh install.
- If the app isn't installed, the link sends them to the right store and keeps the offer for when they open it.
- Your developer adds LinkTrail once; after that every creator link lands correctly.
Marathon plan
New users per creator, with the fake ones flagged.
Compare creators by the installs and in-app events each link brought, not by raw taps. Installs that look manufactured, like an install two seconds after the click, are flagged so you can see them before the invoice. On Scale, so are dozens from one phone.
- Compare creators, platforms and posts side by side.
- See which creator's users go on to buy, from the events your app sends.
- Pull the numbers through the API on Growth to settle payouts.
Pay for users, not for taps.
What you pay on shapes what creators do. Here's what each option gets you.
Easy, but blind
Simple to agree. Tells you nothing about which creators to book again. Use LinkTrail anyway so next time you know.
Better, needs the flags
Rewards reach, but installs can be bought. Only pay per install if fake ones are flagged before you settle up.
Pay when they do something
Pay on a first order or a finished onboarding, from the events your app sends. Creators who bring real people earn more, and a bot that installs and leaves earns nothing.
One-time setup, then it's all yours.
Your developer adds the LinkTrail SDK once and reads the creator details on the welcome screen. After that, every creator link you make works without another release.
LinkTrail.onLink(link => {
// link.customData = { creator: "maya.runs", code: "MAYA15" }
showWelcome(link.customData.creator, link.customData.code);
});The full walkthrough: Creator campaigns: a link per creator, so you know who actually earned the install
A creator campaign is a marketing channel with fifty separate suppliers, each paid by results. Run it through one shared link and you get one number — 'Instagram: 4,000 installs' — and no way to tell who earned them. Renewal becomes a guess, and the creators who quietly bought installs to hit a bonus look identical to the ones who did the work.
What problem does this solve?
You need installs and post-install value by creator, not by platform, and you need to know which of those installs were real before the invoices are approved. Both fall out of the same setup: a unique deferred link per creator, tagged with who they are and where they posted it.
How do you set the links up?
One link per creator, per placement if they post in more than one place. The creator handle goes in the payload so the app can personalise the first screen — a 'welcome from @name' is a small thing that measurably lifts first-session completion — and the source tag carries the platform and format so the report can be cut either way.
{
"deepLinkPath": "/welcome",
"customData": {"creator": "maya.runs", "placement": "ig-reel", "offer": "creator30"}
}How do you tell earned installs from bought ones?
The fraud rules do the first pass without you. A creator buying installs shows up as the same device installing repeatedly, or as a burst of installs from one IP inside an hour, or as clicks that convert to installs in under ten seconds — none of which real audiences do. Those installs are flagged in reporting rather than silently counted.
- Click injection — install credited under ten seconds after the click — runs on every plan.
- Device repeat, IP velocity and click flooding are the rules that catch purchased traffic at volume; they need the advanced fraud capability, which is Scale.
- Flags affect reporting only. Whether a flagged install counts toward a creator's bonus is your decision, made in your systems.
What should you pay on?
Not installs. Pay on the post-install event that means the user is real for your business — a completed onboarding or a first order — and send that event so it attributes back to the creator. Creators paid on installs optimise for installs; creators paid on activation optimise for the right audience, and the difference shows up in your retention curve within a month.
Which metric should you watch?
Activated installs per creator, from the events your app sends, divided by what you paid them, with each creator's suspected-fraud flags beside it so you can check them before you pay. That is the number that ranks the roster. Installs per creator on its own ranks whoever had the loudest week, which is a different list.
Which teams own a creator campaign?
- Growth marketers
- Performance & paid
Which LinkTrail features does a creator campaign need?
- Deferred deep linking
- Per-link source and placement tagging
- Post-install events
- Fraud scoring — device repeat, IP velocity and click flooding (Scale)
Creator campaign questions.
Do creators need to do anything special?
No. They paste one link in their bio, caption or story. QR codes work for print and video overlays.
Can I compare a Reel against a Story from the same creator?
Yes. Make one link per post and give them the same campaign. The dashboard shows each post's link on its own, and the campaign as a whole.
How do you spot fake installs?
Patterns that real people don't produce: many installs from one device, bursts from one network, or an install seconds after the click. On the Free, Starter and Growth plans the fastest-click check is included; the deeper checks come with Scale. Flags show in reports; you decide what to pay.
What if the follower already has the app?
The link opens the app straight on the offer. If they don't have it, it goes via the store and still lands on the offer after install.
Which plan do I need?
Free covers creator links and the per-link dashboard. Growth adds your own link domain, and ad spend import if you also run paid ads. See pricing.
Can I give each creator their own report?
There's no shareable report page. Share their link's numbers from the dashboard yourself, or pull them through the API on Growth.
If you're doing this, you'll probably want these.
Affiliate payouts
Pay partners per install, with fake installs flagged before the invoice.
Shared content
When someone shares a workout, the friend lands on that workout.
One cost per install
If creators sit next to paid ads, see cost per install for each ad campaign too.
Make your first creator link.
Free for your first 5,000 users. No card, no sales call.