About Storygrounds
Storygrounds is a platform where story-lovers, creators, and communities come together to discover, read, and shape webcomics. The platform partners with streamers and YouTubers to build original intellectual property (IP), turning their audiences into active participants. Fans don’t just read, they quest through interactive experiences and shape narratives alongside their favorite creators.
When every creator needs a different journey
Here’s the reality of running a creator platform: Your audience is fragmented by design. Twitch streamers promote comics to desktop audiences. YouTube creators direct viewers who could be on mobile web, desktop, or in the app. Some comics have multiple creators, each building their own fanbase across different platforms.
To scale its userbase, Storygrounds needs to give every fan a frictionless path to the content they want. But without smart infrastructure, each scenario would need separate links, manual routing rules, and constant maintenance. The team needed linking that could handle this complexity without requiring developer resources for every campaign.
One link per creator. Infinity routing possibilities.
Branch gave Storygrounds something simple on the surface but powerful underneath: one link per creator that intelligently routes every fan to the right experience.
Smart routing for mixed audiences
When a Twitch streamer shares their Storygrounds link during a desktop broadcast, Branch routes viewers to the web experience for that specific comic. When a YouTube creator drops the same link in a mobile video description, Branch detects the device and sends fans to the appropriate app store, then uses deferred deep linking to route them straight to the comic episode once they install. Same link. Perfect experience every time.
Custom app store pages for every creator
Each creator’s unique link takes their fans to a customized app store page. Fans coming from different campaigns see messaging that matches exactly where they came from — all updated and managed without touching code.
Branded domains that build trust
Storygrounds creates branded short links that feel familiar and reinforce each comic’s identity. For example, the Beyond the Vale comic uses btvcomic.com as its base domain, with each creator getting their own personalized link — like btvcomic.com/caseoh or btvcomic.com/shylily. Clean, memorable URLs that work whether fans are typing them in, clicking them, or hearing them mentioned on a stream.
QR codes for desktop audiences
Creators use Branch-powered QR codes everywhere their desktop audiences are. The codes appear as overlays during Twitch streams, in endcards on YouTube videos, and directly on the comic homepages. Desktop viewers can scan to jump straight into the mobile app experience, bridging the gap between where they discover content and where they engage with it.
Update once, work everywhere
When Storygrounds prepared to launch two new comics, the team created unique Branch links for each channel — newsletters, social media, creator partnerships — all pointing to pre-registration pages. Once the comics went live, they simply updated the link destinations in the Branch Dashboard. The same URLs creators had been sharing for weeks suddenly routed fans directly to episode pages. No new links to distribute. No broken experiences.
Results: Stronger conversions, simpler scaling
Storygrounds has seen 30% more fans convert from click to active user since implementing Branch, with click-to-install rates showing even stronger growth. But the metrics only tell part of the story.
The real impact shows up in how Storygrounds scales its creator relationships. Every new creator gets one link that solves multiple problems at once — no explaining routing logic, no managing separate URLs for different platforms, no technical friction in what should be a creative partnership.
Branch’s analytics also give the team visibility into what’s actually working. They can see which channels drive the most engagement, which creators are converting their audiences most effectively, and which campaigns perform best — insights that inform everything from future comic launches to creator partnerships.
