Retargeting ads that open on the promise.
Ads aimed at people who already have the app. The tap opens the app on the offer the ad showed, and with your ad spend imported, you see what each campaign cost against what it brought back.
- Who runs it
- Paid ads, marketers
- Time to set up
- Minutes, after the SDK
- Plan
- Free, Growth for ad spend
One link per ad, pointing at the offer.
The link carries the destination and the campaign. It opens the app directly for people who have it; for anyone who uninstalled, the same link handles the store and lands them after install.
- The campaign tag ties each return to the ad.
- One creative works for both groups.
The ad's offer, not the home tab.
The tap opens the app on the collection the ad showed. If the app opens on home instead, the spend is wasted at the last step.
- Works on iPhone and Android.
- Returning users stay logged in.
What each campaign cost per user who came back.
Opens are cheap to buy. Count the users who did something after returning, from the events your app sends, and set them against the spend you imported for that campaign (Growth).
- Returns and purchases per campaign.
- Imported spend next to results, per campaign.
One-time setup, then it's all yours.
Your developer adds the LinkTrail SDK once. The same listener handles links for people who already have the app and for fresh installs.
LinkTrail.onLink(link => {
// link.customData = { cmp: "retarget-lapsed-30d", cr: "carousel-b" }
router.navigate(link.path, link.customData);
});The full walkthrough: Paid re-engagement: retargeting ads that open the app on the thing they promised
Retargeting spend goes to people who have the app but stopped opening it. The ad shows them a specific thing — the item they looked at, the feature they never tried, the content that's new since they left. They tap. The app opens on the home tab. The thing from the ad is somewhere in there. Most lapsed users don't go looking.
What problem does this solve?
A re-engagement click should open the app directly on what the ad showed, with no store visit and no home screen. And the resulting session should attribute to the campaign, so re-engagement spend can be judged on what it produced rather than on impressions.
How do you set the links up?
The re-engagement link carries the destination and the campaign. Because the audience has the app, the link opens it directly; if some of them have uninstalled, the same link handles the store and the deferred landing without a separate creative. The campaign tag ties the session to the ad.
{
"deepLinkPath": "/collections/new-arrivals",
"customData": {"cmp": "retarget-lapsed-30d", "cr": "carousel-b", "aud": "lapsed-30"}
}How is this attributed differently from an install?
- The event is an app open, not an install. It's matched to the click the same way, on a device that already has the app.
- Attribution windows are shorter. A re-engagement click that becomes an open a week later probably isn't the reason for the open.
- On iOS, AdAttributionKit supports re-engagement from 18.4. Earlier versions attribute the open via the link only.
- Cost data joins on the campaign identifier, so re-engagement CPA sits next to acquisition CPA in the same view.
What should the ad promise?
Something specific enough to be a destination. 'Come back' has nowhere to land. 'Your saved items are on sale' lands on saved items. 'New episode of the show you follow' lands on the episode. The creative and the deep link path are the same decision, made once.
Which metric should you watch?
Cost per re-engaged user who did something — a purchase, a session over a minute, a return the next day — not cost per open. Opens are cheap to buy and easy to inflate; the downstream event is what you were paying for.
Which teams own a paid re-engagement campaign?
- Performance & paid
- Growth marketers
Which LinkTrail features does a paid re-engagement campaign need?
- Re-engagement links
- Per-link campaign and creative tagging
- Post-install events
- Ad-network cost data (Meta, Google, TikTok, X)
Re-engagement questions.
How do retargeting ads open the app on the right screen?
The re-engagement link carries the destination and the campaign. For users who have the app it opens directly on the item the ad showed; for anyone who has uninstalled, the same link goes through the store and lands on that screen after reinstall.
How is re-engagement attributed differently from an install?
The event is an app open rather than an install, matched to the click on a device that already has the app, usually with a shorter attribution window. On iOS, AdAttributionKit supports re-engagement from iOS 18.4; earlier versions attribute the open via the link only.
What should you measure for paid re-engagement?
Cost per re-engaged user who did something — a purchase, a session over a minute, a return the next day — rather than cost per open, which is cheap to buy and easy to inflate.
If you're doing this, you'll probably want these.
One cost per install
Meta says 900, TikTok says 1,100, your dashboard says 1,400. One cost per install for each campaign, from your imported spend and the installs LinkTrail counted.
Onboarding that matches the ad
If the ad promised 20% off, the first screen shows 20% off. Nobody has to find the code again.
Cart recovery
Win-back emails and texts that open the saved basket, ready to pay.
Make your first re-engagement link.
Free for your first 5,000 users. No card, no sales call.