As marketing tools expand so does the number of businesses using those tools, which means you’re embroiled in a dog-eat-dog war with your competitors for prospects. Instead of filling you with dread, that fact should stir the fighter in you to harness every new resource at your disposal.

One of those resources could be link retargeting, which is similar to retargeting, but offers some advantages not available with retargeting alone.

What is link retargeting, and how can it help drive more quality prospects to your site? Let’s take a look at this new and potential powerful addition to your marketing toolbox.

What Is Link Retargeting?

Before we dig into link retargeting, let’s quickly review how standard retargeting works.

When people visit your site, but fail to take some type of call-to-action (CTA) like buying a product or subscribing to a newsletter, a retargeting campaign places a cookie on that visitor’s browser.

That cookie lets you place appropriate ads that the visitor views when they are browsing other websites.

This can help keep your business top-of-mind for visitors, and if your ads are targeted to the right person and are relevant, you dramatically increase the chances of persuading that visitor to come back to your site.

In fact, according to SEO and SEM expert Ginny Marvin in a year-end review of 2017, 56% of the 100 companies surveyed said that they had increased their display retargeting budgets from 2016, and 65% of businesses said they used retargeting ads during the past holiday season.

So we know that retargeting is something that a lot of companies have bought into, but how does link retargeting work?

Link retargeting lets you place ads on the browsers of any Internet user who has clicked on any link you have created online. That means that you can target people who never actually visited your website, but who did click on a link that you created.

When you implement link retargeting, you place a code on a short link through your Facebook or Google ads account, which means that anyone who clicks that link automatically becomes a part of your retargeting list.

For example, let’s say you place a link retargeting pixel on a social media post that a visitor clicks to read. When that visitor goes to another website, you can now place relevant ads in front of that visitor who never arrived at your site, but did click on one of the links you control.

Why Should You Use Link Retargeting?

Standard retargeting is a really effective way to keep track of people you already know have some level of interest in your site, because they were once visitors.

But that still leaves out a bunch of prospects who you never got to sample your website, right? With link retargeting, you add another loop to the retargeting chain, because you can now attract quality prospects that didn’t originate from a visit to your site.

This accelerates your lead generation marketing, and also ensures that you’re still getting your ads in front of people who are likely to fit into your target audience.

Let’s say for example that you’re a local comic book shop, and you just got listed as one of the favorite comic book shops fans love in your city. Now let’s say there’s a story published on a comic book site about your achievement.

If you place a pixel on the link to that story, you are now going to expand the number of people who would be interested in the products you offer.

Without link retargeting, you would potentially be missing out on thousands of prospects that you could market to with a fair degree of assurance that they’re likely to be interested in your business.

What Are Some Effective Ways to Use Link Retargeting?

The beauty of link retargeting is that you can incorporate it into some of your existing marketing efforts, including:

Email Marketing – 44% of email subscribers bought at least one product based on a promotional email. The issue is that not every link on your newsletter drives people back to your site, especially if you’re promoting an affiliate or just sharing authoritative content from another site. Solve this problem by placing a link retargeting pixel so that you can display relevant ads to people who clicked to a site that isn’t yours.

SEM – You can segment your link retargeting list to people who click on specific links within your industry based on their search inquiries.

Social Media – Link retargeting also works well on social media. If your audience accesses a link you posted on a social media channel that takes them to another site, you can use retargeting links to add these people to your list and target them with ads that are appropriate to the links they clicked.

Carolanne Mangles, a digital marketing executive has noted that link retargeting allows marketers to do two very important things: segment their audience into more targeted groups and in turn produce more personalized ads to relevant consumers.

Add Another Weapon To Your Marketing Efforts

Think of link retargeting as plugging a hole that existed in your standard retargeting efforts by giving you access to people who never landed on your website, but may still have an interest in what your business offers.

The key is to ensure that you place valuable ads that speak to the wants and needs of those prospects, or your ads may end up looking like spam.

If you need more marketing advice, or you would like marketing consultation, please contact us today.