How LinkedIn Retargeting Ads Work – A Complete Guide

In today’s digital landscape, capturing and retaining the attention of potential customers is a constant challenge. However, what if there was a way to reconnect with those who have already shown interest in your brand? Enter LinkedIn retargeting ads – a game-changing strategy that enables you to precisely target and engage with your desired audience. 

Whether you’re aiming to increase conversions, drive brand awareness, or nurture leads, understanding how LinkedIn retargeting ads work is crucial. In this complete guide, we delve into the intricacies of LinkedIn retargeting, unraveling the mechanisms behind this powerful advertising tool. 

Get ready to embark on a journey that will transform the way you connect, engage, and convert on the world’s largest professional network – LinkedIn. Buckle up and prepare to discover the untapped potential of LinkedIn retargeting in this comprehensive and insightful guide.

What is retargeting?

Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a strategic advertising technique that allows you to reconnect with users who have previously interacted with your brand or website. It involves targeting ads specifically to individuals who have shown interest in your products or services, but may not have completed a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.

When someone visits your website, a small piece of code called a tracking pixel or tag is placed on their browser. This pixel enables your advertising platform to track their online behavior and collect valuable data about their interactions. Using this data, you can then deliver personalized ads to these individuals as they browse other websites or social media platforms.

Also read: 8 Best Retargeting Platforms To Retarget Your Potential Audience

The goal of retargeting is to stay top-of-mind with potential customers, reminding them of your brand and enticing them to return to your website to complete the desired action. By targeting individuals who have already shown interest, retargeting allows you to maximize your advertising budget and increase the chances of converting leads into customers.

What is retargeting on LinkedIn?

Retargeting on LinkedIn refers to the advertising strategy that allows businesses to target and engage with individuals who have previously visited their website or interacted with their brand on LinkedIn. LinkedIn, being the world’s largest professional network, offers powerful retargeting capabilities to reach a specific audience of professionals and decision-makers.

LinkedIn’s retargeting feature utilizes the LinkedIn Insight Tag, which is a code snippet placed on a website to track visitor behavior. This Insight Tag collects valuable data about website visitors, including company names, job seniority, industry, geography, and more. This data enables advertisers to create highly targeted and personalized ad campaigns on LinkedIn.

With LinkedIn retargeting, businesses can show tailored ads to individuals who have shown interest in their brand by visiting their website. These ads can appear across the LinkedIn platform, including the LinkedIn feed, sponsored content, messaging, and more. By reconnecting with website visitors on LinkedIn, businesses can nurture leads, drive conversions, and increase brand visibility among a professional audience.

Also read: Getting Started with Meta Pixel: The Key to Successful Retargeting

Retargeting on LinkedIn: How does it work?

LinkedIn retargeting works by utilizing the LinkedIn Insight Tag, a code snippet placed on a website to track visitor behavior and collect valuable data. Here’s a step-by-step overview of how LinkedIn retargeting works:

Implement the LinkedIn Insight Tag: 

To start using LinkedIn retargeting, you need to place the LinkedIn Insight Tag on your website. This tag is a small snippet of code provided by LinkedIn that needs to be added to the pages of your website.

Capture Visitor Data: 

Once the Insight Tag is installed, it starts capturing data about the visitors to your website. The tag collects information such as company names, job seniority, industry, geography, and more, providing valuable insights into your website visitors’ characteristics.

Create Audience Segments: 

Using the data collected by the Insight Tag, you can create customized audience segments based on specific criteria. For example, you can target visitors from specific industries, job titles, or company sizes. These audience segments allow you to tailor your retargeting campaigns and deliver personalized messaging.

Also read: Starter’s Guide to Setup Facebook Custom Audience

Set Up Retargeting Campaigns: 

With your audience segments defined, you can create retargeting campaigns on LinkedIn’s advertising platform. These campaigns enable you to display targeted ads to the specific audience segments you have defined. The ads can appear on various LinkedIn placements, including the LinkedIn feed, sponsored content, and messaging.

Display Tailored Ads: 

When a visitor who has previously been on your website visits LinkedIn, the LinkedIn platform recognizes them through the Insight Tag and displays your tailored ads to them. This ensures that your ads reach the right people at the right time, maximizing their effectiveness.

Drive Engagement and Conversions: 

Through retargeting, you can engage with visitors who have already shown interest in your brand. By delivering relevant and personalized ads, you can encourage them to take desired actions, such as signing up for a newsletter, requesting a demo, or making a purchase. Retargeting allows you to nurture these leads and guide them through the customer journey.

Also read: 10 Must Try Facebook Ad Retargeting Strategies to Boost Conversion

How to set up Linkedin retargeting ads?

Setting up LinkedIn retargeting ads involves a few steps to ensure your campaigns are properly configured.  The first step is to install the LinkedIn Insight Tag on your website. This tag is a code snippet provided by LinkedIn that needs to be placed on all the pages of your website. It enables LinkedIn to track visitor behavior and collect data for retargeting purposes.

Here’s how to set up retargeting on LinkedIn:

Once LinkedIn Insight Tag is Installed, you can set up retargeting ads on LinkedIn by following the steps below:

Step 1: Sign in to LinkedIn Campaign Manager.

Step 2: If needed, switch to the correct account by clicking on the account name in the upper-left corner and selecting the desired account from the dropdown.

Step 3: Click on “Plan” in the left menu and select “Audiences”.

Step 4: Click on the “Create Audience” button in the top left of the page.

Step 5: Select “Website” from the dropdown menu.

Also read: Google Retargeting: The Ultimate Guide For 2023

Step 6: Give your audience a name.

Step 7: Choose the time range for your audience engagement. You can select from 30, 60, 90, or 180 days in the past.

Step 8: Add the website URLs you want to retarget. You can specify whether the URL starts with, equals, or contains a specific value. This allows you to define the pages on your website that will contribute to building your retargeting audience.

• “Starts with” is useful for URLs with dynamic parameters at the end.
• “Equals” is used when you want to match a specific URL.
• “Contains” allows you to target URLs that contain specific keywords or phrases.
• You can click “+ And also” below a URL to further narrow down the pages where conversions are counted.

Use “+ Add a new OR rule” if you have multiple URLs contributing to the audience.

Step 9: Click “Agree & Create” to create your retargeting audience.

Important Note:

Note that your audience needs to have at least 300 website visitors to be usable in an active campaign. Depending on the traffic to your website, it may take up to 48 hours for your audience to build.

Keep in mind that website retargeting audiences cannot be used with member interests and traits when selecting targeting facets for your campaign audience.

Also read: How To Optimize Your Retargeting Efforts To Win Back Online Customers

Benefits of retargeting on LinkedIn:

The benefits of LinkedIn retargeting are numerous and can significantly enhance your customer acquisition efforts. Here are some key advantages of utilizing LinkedIn retargeting in your marketing strategy:

Enhanced Customer Acquisition: 

LinkedIn’s extensive user database and professional targeting options allow you to reach highly relevant audiences. By retargeting individuals who have previously visited your website, you can reconnect with potential customers who have already shown interest in your brand. This familiarity increases the likelihood of engagement and conversion, ultimately driving customer acquisition.

Increased Engagement: 

Retargeting allows you to engage with visitors who have already interacted with your brand. These individuals are more likely to view multiple pages on your website, spend more time exploring your offerings, and exhibit a genuine interest in what you have to offer. This heightened engagement can lead to higher conversion rates, increased customer loyalty, and a higher customer lifetime value.

Integration with Paid Traffic Acquisition: 

Retargeting works synergistically with paid traffic acquisition efforts. By broadly targeting website pages through paid ads, you can capture initial awareness and generate new traffic. Then, through retargeting, you can focus on those visitors who landed on your pages but did not convert on the first visit. This keeps your brand top of mind as they continue to browse the internet, maximizing the impact of your advertising investment.

Augment Organic Traffic Strategies: 

In addition to paid traffic, retargeting can complement your organic traffic strategies. By retargeting visitors who came to your website through search engines, social media platforms, or referral channels, you can reinforce their interest in your brand and encourage them to take further action. This amplifies your organic traffic efforts and increases the likelihood of conversions.

Also read: 7 Powerful Ways to Boost Your Website Traffic Through Social Media

When to launch a LinkedIn retargeting campaign?

Launching a LinkedIn retargeting campaign can be a powerful strategy to maximize your marketing efforts and drive better results. While there is no fixed rule on when to start, it is generally recommended to consider a few factors before launching your campaign.

Minimum visitor requirement:

Firstly, it’s important to have a sufficient amount of website traffic to retarget. While the common suggestion is to start retargeting once you’ve reached 500-1,000 monthly visitors, the actual number can vary based on your specific circumstances. 

For example, if you have a one-page website, retargeting 1,000 visitors can yield stronger results compared to retargeting the same number of visitors on a larger website with multiple pages. It’s crucial to have a minimum of 300 visitors for a segment to be eligible for retargeting using the LinkedIn Insight tag.

Maximizing returns on high-converting pages:

Additionally, it’s beneficial to launch retargeting campaigns when your traffic acquisition efforts have scaled and are consistently targeting pages that convert visitors into paid customers. By focusing on pages that have a higher conversion rate, you can maximize the effectiveness of your retargeting campaigns and achieve better returns on your investment.

Timing is the key:

Timing is key when it comes to retargeting. While launching retargeting early in the traffic acquisition lifecycle has its advantages, such as building brand familiarity and engaging with visitors who have already shown interest, it’s essential to align your retargeting efforts with the stage where your traffic acquisition is scaled and generating consistent conversions.

Also read: 14 Crazy-Effective Ways to Boost E-commerce Sales Through Retargeting

Retargeting vs Remarketing: What is the difference?

Remarketing and retargeting are two distinct methods of marketing to existing leads, often used interchangeably but with subtle differences.

Retargeting:

Retargeting involves serving paid ads to previous visitors across various platforms to re-engage them and prompt them to take desired actions. It utilizes tracking pixels and JavaScript codes to capture visitor data and display tailored advertising. 

Retargeting focuses on reaching out to visitors who have shown interest but may not have converted yet. It helps increase brand visibility, engagement, and customer acquisition.

Remarketing:

On the other hand, remarketing uses the retargeting pixel to serve ads specific to existing customers and leads who have provided their email addresses. With access to the visitor’s email address, businesses can leverage email marketing to deliver personalized offers and messages. 

Remarketing allows for more targeted and personalized communication, such as sending subscription renewal reminders, re-engaging cold subscribers, or offering targeted up-sells and cross-sells based on purchasing behavior. 

It provides an opportunity to tie behavioral data to action and deliver offers in a more personal environment.

Also read: The Complete Guide to Content Remarketing: 20 Tips and Examples to Re-Engage Audience

Conclusion:

LinkedIn Retargeting offers a powerful means to re-engage with past website visitors, leveraging the platform’s extensive user data and advanced advertising capabilities. By implementing effective retargeting campaigns, businesses can boost engagement, increase conversions, and drive revenue growth. With its unique features and the ability to tailor content based on visitor insights, LinkedIn Retargeting stands out as a valuable tool in any comprehensive customer acquisition strategy.

Remember, successful LinkedIn Retargeting campaigns require careful planning, audience segmentation, and ongoing optimization to yield optimal results. By harnessing the potential of LinkedIn Retargeting, businesses can connect with their target audience on a more personalized level, nurturing valuable relationships and achieving their marketing objectives.

FAQs 

When is the right time to launch a LinkedIn retargeting campaign?

The ideal time to launch a LinkedIn retargeting campaign may vary depending on the specific circumstances of each business. While some recommend starting retargeting after reaching 500-1,000 monthly visitors, it is crucial to consider the quality and relevance of the traffic. Retargeting campaigns generally yield higher returns when traffic acquisition efforts have scaled and when there are consistent conversions of website visitors into paid customers.

How many website visitors do I need for LinkedIn retargeting?

LinkedIn’s Insight tag requires retargeting segments to have a minimum of 300 website visitors. This ensures that the audience is large enough to generate meaningful results and target effectively.

What are some effective strategies for LinkedIn retargeting?

Effective strategies for LinkedIn retargeting include segmenting the audience based on specific actions or pages visited, creating compelling ad creatives that align with the visitor’s interests, using personalized messaging, and testing different ad formats and placements to optimize performance.

Can LinkedIn retargeting be used for B2B marketing?

Yes, LinkedIn retargeting can be used for B2B marketing. With LinkedIn’s professional user base, businesses can target specific industries, job titles, company sizes, and more, making it a valuable platform for reaching and engaging with the B2B audience.

What metrics should I track to measure the success of my LinkedIn retargeting campaigns?

Key metrics to track the success of LinkedIn retargeting campaigns include click-through rates (CTRs), conversion rates, cost per click (CPC), return on ad spend (ROAS), and overall campaign performance. These metrics help measure the effectiveness of the ads, audience targeting, and overall campaign ROI.

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