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ZenVideo OTT & Branch.io

Melissa Borup

Branch.io is a deep linking service that we have integrated into the mobile app on iOS and Android. It allows you to create deep links into your apps, and to monitor attribution and link analytics on the Branch side. If you have an Enterprise-level account with ZenVideo OTT, you’ll be able to work with your account manager to enable Branch on your OTT site.   

In this article

What is a deep link?

Deep links are app-specific links that essentially send the user “deeper” into the app, or into a specific part of the app, from your targeted campaign. I.e., instead of sending your customer to the home screen of your app, you might deep link them directly to the cart where they left off. Linking the user to the correct contextual page from your campaign has incredible benefits from a marketing perspective—if the user doesn’t have to search around for what they need, they can get right to the content they came for, and hopefully convert. Deep links can be used to direct the user from an email, ad, or other marketing apparatus right to the desired page in your app. 

Branch’s deep links store contextual information about where a user wants to go, where the link was clicked, who originally shared the link and other custom data. Read more in the Branch’s documentation about the types of analytics you’ll be able to access once the integration is enabled. 

Connecting Branch to your ZenVideo OTT account

This is a hands-on collaborative process with your account manager, our Enterprise Support team, and Branded Apps team. To enable Branch deep-linking to your mobile apps (iOS and Android), your account manager will typically recommend Branch.io and bring our Enterprise Support team into the conversation, who will initiate the process with our Branded Apps team. 

To get started: 

  1. Create an account on Branch.io.
  2. Send our Support team all three of the following key and link values:
  3. Support will need to submit a request to our Branded Apps team with this information. 
  4. Invite our Branded Apps team (apps@vhx.tv) to their Branch account as an Admin through the Team tab in the Account Settings page so that they can configure other app details in your admin to ensure links will function correctly. You can remove access after setup if you prefer. Alternatively, you can do this step yourself and the Branded Apps Team can provide the values needed.
  5. You should set a name for your app in the Branch Account Settings page under the About Your App section in the App Name field. This should match the name of your apps with ZenVideo OTT.
  6. A new version of the app will need to be built and published before Branch links can be set up and used. You will be notified when the new version is released.

Creating a deep link in Branch

Once you’ve connected your ZenVideo OTT and Branch accounts, you will need to add a custom Key/Value Pair on the Link Data screen to make your links work:

  • If you want to link to a collection:
    • Key collection : value collectionID
  • If you want to link to a video:
    • Key video : value videoID

The collectionID and videoID values indicated above are the auto-generated numbers found in the URL when you view a collection or a video, respectively, in the ZenVideo OTT Admin. 

  • If you navigate to your collection within the OTT Admin, you will see a URL in your browser similar to this:
    • https://mysitename.vhx.tv/admin/manage/collections/123456/general
    • In this example, collectionID is 123456.
  • If you navigate to your video within the OTT Admin, you will see a URL in your browser similar to this:
    • https://mysitename.vhx.tv/admin/manage/videos/0987654/general
    • In this example, videoID is 0987654.

Refer to Branch’s documentation for further instructions on how to create your link. 

What events are sent?  

Deep linking works together with attribution to provide a more complete picture of where your users are coming from and what they’re doing. ZenVideo OTT will send data over to the Branch account once connected; below you will find a breakdown of the events that are sent from the integration that will help you filter and understand the data coming in. Here’s a link to Branch’s documentation on attribution for further context on the below events.  

We send two events on iOS:

Branch Event Name

iOS

Initiate Purchase

BranchStandardEventInitiatePurchase

Purchase

BranchStandardEventPurchase

We send two events on Android:

Branch Event Name

Android

Initiate Purchase

BRANCH_STANDARD_EVENT.INITIATE_PURCHASE

Purchase

BRANCH_STANDARD_EVENT.PURCHASE

 

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