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Given that 98% of customers don’t convert on the first visit to your website, it’s important to be top of mind when they reach the stage of being ready to make a buying decision.

Now, I’m sure you’re asking yourself the age-old question that has plagued every marketer since the dawn of time: when will they be ready to buy?

The truth is, we don’t know — we never have known, and we may never know.

But it’s important to be there when they are.

And that’s where retargeting comes in.

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What is retargeting?

Before we jump into our retargeting hack, let’s cover the basics.

On the surface, retargeting is a form of online advertising that lets you target visitors to your website with display ads on other platforms, like the Google Display Network, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

retargeting illustration

Image source

It gives you the opportunity to re-engage potential customers that you might have otherwise lost, boosting your conversion rate and enhancing brand awareness in the process.

If we take a look under the hood, the way this technology works is by adding a piece of javascript code to the header of your website. Once a visitor hits your site, that piece of code — also known as a pixel — will fire and tag them.

The data from the pixel is then fed back into Google AdWords, Facebook, or any other platform you’re using to run retargeting campaigns so you can serve up tailored content to that visitor anywhere else they go online.

Why it’s important

As we’ve already seen, 98% of visitors don’t convert on a first visit to a website.

It’s a hard truth to swallow, but it makes sense.

As consumers, we want to know how a product or service compares to others on the market before we make a decision to buy it.

So, the majority of your first-time site visitors are probably researching your product or service to make their own comparisons.

And during this stage of buyer contemplation, it couldn’t hurt to be the first thing they see when they log into Facebook, visit a news site or even go shopping for something else online.

Being at the forefront of their mind means they’re more likely to become return visitors to your website, and the more familiar they become with your offering, the more likely they are to convert and become happy customers.

Our top retargeting hack

So now that we’ve hit the ground running with retargeting, I’m here to tell you about a little hack we’ve developed here in Rebrandly to help you grow your retargeting audiences even faster to reach more potential customers.

We call it: link retargeting.

Unlike the traditional retargeting method we just discussed, link retargeting technology goes above and beyond in terms of audience reach by enabling you to add your retargeting pixel to links that you create with Rebrandly.

Meaning, you’re not just limited to people who’ve been to your website. You can tag and retarget anyone who clicks on a link that you share – even if that link isn’t sending them to your website at all!

Yes, you read that right.

Whether you’re posting partner or customer content — or even some news coverage your company got online — you can add your retargeting pixels to the links you’re sharing and tag anyone who interacts with the content online.

And what that means for your bottom line is that you can grow out your retargeting audiences exponentially faster, increasing the chances of both return and first-time website visits, inevitably resulting in more conversions across the board.

How can I use it?

Let me give you an example.

I have a link to our latest eBook with HubSpot in my email signature.

So, whenever I email someone and they click on that link, I can retarget them with other pieces of content that I think will be of interest to them.

They get relevant content, we get more happy readers and subscribers. It’s a win/win.

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There are plenty of other ways you can harness the power of link retargeting, and you really have the chance to be creative here.

If you have lots of affiliate partners, add your pixels to the links you use to promote them. If you’re sharing an article from a news site, add it there too — the opportunities are endless.

Wrapping up

Retargeting is a fantastic way to re-engage people who have come in contact with your website but drifted away for whatever reason. Link retargeting takes that one step further by giving you the power to reach people who have come in contact with your brand anywhere online.

By increasing the number of touchpoints you have with passersby, you’re far more likely to gain brand advocates along the way, whether your goal is to convert them into paying customers or avid readers of your blog.

Have you used link retargeting to grow your audience and increase brand awareness? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Further Reading:

This Article is About:

What is retargeting?
Retargeting tips
Retargeting hacks
How to boost retargeting campaigns

Post Updated: September 1st, 2021.
Originally Posted: June 2016.

Dario De Guz

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