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SES click tracking finally plays nice with app deep links!

AWS What's New ★★★★ View Markdown
#aws#devops#infrastructure

Hey there, it's me! Today I found an update that mobile marketing folks have probably been waiting for.

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

What was announced?

Over on AWS What's New, AWS announced that Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) click tracking now supports mobile app deep linking. A new HTML attribute, ses:custom-path, lets links inside your emails jump straight into a specific screen of your app, while click tracking keeps working the whole time.

The story so far

SES click tracking works by rewriting links in your email into an SES tracking URL so it can count clicks. The problem is that once a link gets rewritten for tracking, the path gets swapped out, so iOS Universal Links and Android App Links can no longer recognize it and match it to your app's configuration. That made it hard to have both click tracking and deep linking into your app at the same time.

What changes

By adding the ses:custom-path attribute to a link (an a tag) in your email, SES now carries that path segment through to the tracking URL. That lets the OS match it against your Universal Links (iOS) or App Links (Android) configuration, so you can send readers straight to a specific screen in your app without disabling engagement tracking. You still get your click numbers for the campaign, and readers land exactly where you wanted them in the app.

Dive Deep

Here's what you need to set this up:

  • A custom redirect domain for click tracking
  • An Apple App Site Association (AASA) or Digital Asset Links verification file hosted on that domain
  • The ses:custom-path attribute added to links in your HTML emails

Once those three pieces are in place, SES carries the path information through to the tracking URL for you.

This is available in every AWS region where Amazon SES is available, so if you're already using SES, there's nothing extra to sign up for.

Wrap-up

  • SES click tracking now supports mobile deep linking via the new ses:custom-path attribute
  • Previously, click tracking and app deep linking were hard to combine
  • You'll need a custom redirect domain plus an AASA or Digital Asset Links verification file
  • It works in every region where Amazon SES is available

This one is a great fit for mobile app teams and marketers who want to send readers straight into a specific app screen from email while still measuring click engagement!

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