Note

Journeys is becoming Banners. Opt-in access starts October 13, 2026. To get access, fill out the Banners opt-in form. Your existing Journeys keep running whether or not you opt in.

Use Banners to show website visitors a call to action (CTA) that moves them into your app. On a phone or tablet, the visitor selects the banner's CTA button to open your app to the content you choose. On desktop, the banner shows a QR code that the visitor scans with their phone.

You'll find Banners in Branch under Campaigns > Banners.

How Banners works

Branch decides whether to show a banner, and which one, each time a visitor opens a page on your website that runs the Branch Web SDK.

1. Branch finds the live banner campaigns whose placement and audience rules match the page and the visitor.
2. Branch shows the banner from the matching campaign with the highest priority.
3. The visitor selects the banner's CTA button or, on desktop, scans its QR code with their phone.
4. If the visitor has your app, it opens and receives the campaign's link data, which tells it what to show. If they don't, they go to the campaign's fallback URL. Without one, Branch uses your app's default link settings, such as a redirect to the App Store or Google Play.

A visitor can also dismiss a banner. The campaign's dismissal settings decide how long it stays hidden and whether other banners hide with it.

Campaigns and creatives

Every banner combines two things:

• A banner campaign decides where the banner appears, who sees it, when it runs, and where it sends visitors. You build campaigns in the Campaign Manager.
• A creative is the banner's design. You build creatives in the Creative Manager, or start one from a Branch template while you build a campaign.

By default, a campaign shows one creative to its whole audience. To compare designs, run an A/B test, which splits the campaign's traffic between two or more variants, each with its own creative.

Formats

Every campaign and creative is either mobile or desktop. Mobile banners show on phones and tablets, and desktop banners show on computers. Each creative also has a format, which sets its shape and where it sits on the page.

Device	Format	What visitors see
Mobile	Standard	A slim bar at the top or bottom of the page
Mobile	Partial Page	A panel that covers the top or bottom part of the screen
Mobile	Full Page	A takeover that covers the whole screen
Mobile	Center	A card in the middle of the screen
Mobile	Button	A floating button at the top or bottom of the screen
Desktop	Center	A card in the middle of the page
Desktop	Corner	A card in a corner of the page
Desktop	Sidebar	A panel along the side of the page

For the Branch templates in each format, see the Banner Settings Reference.

Before you begin

To use Banners on your website, you first need to:

• Add the Branch Web SDK to every page where a banner can appear.
• Integrate the Branch iOS SDK and Branch Android SDK into your apps.
• Add your -alternate.app.link domain to your iOS Associated Domains and Android intent filters.

Your developer can find the details in the Banners Developer Guide.

Move from Journeys

When your account switches from Journeys to Banners, your existing work comes with it:

• Your Journeys keep running and appear in the Campaign Manager as banner campaigns.
• Your Journeys creatives become legacy creatives. They appear in the Creative Manager with a Legacy label and open in the code editor. See Edit legacy creatives.

Note

You can't create a creative in code. The code editor is only for editing legacy creatives.

Some names are different in Banners:

In Journeys	In Banners
Journey	Banner campaign
Journeys Manager	Campaign Manager
Creatives Manager	Creative Manager
View	Creative
Variations	Variants
Creatives Optimization	A/B Analysis

Get started

To build your first banner, follow Create a Banner Campaign. Use the other articles as you need them:

• Design Banner Creatives covers designing creatives, editing legacy creatives in code, and customizing desktop QR codes.
• Banner Settings Reference explains the placement, audience, dismissal, and link data options in a banner campaign.
• Manage and Measure Banners shows how to set priority, change live campaigns, and read results in Analysis.
• Banners Developer Guide covers the website and app setup your developer completes.