A long, unstructured URL can make even the best content look unpolished, and that’s not the impression you want to leave.
That’s where vanity URLs come in. They’re short, custom links that match your brand and actually make sense to your audience. Easy to remember, easy to trust, and way more clickable.
With Replug, creating vanity URLs is quick and simple. Just drop in your link, customize it with your brand name, and you’re good to go. You can also track clicks, add retargeting, and turn every link into a smart marketing asset.
In this article, we’ll break down why vanity URLs matter and how Replug helps you create ones that actually work for your brand.
Boost ROI with branded URLs!
Enhance your marketing campaigns by creating shareable, trackable, and fully multi-purpose
customizable branded URLs.
A vanity URL is a customized web address that is easier to remember and more visually appealing than a standard URL. It is also sometimes referred to as a “branded URL” or “custom URL”.
Vanity URLs typically include the name of a company, organization, or individual, making them more memorable and easier to promote.
For example, instead of using a long, complex URL like:
a company might use a vanity URL like:
to promote a specific product category.
How to create a vanity URL using Replug?
Here are the general steps to create a vanity URL using Replug:
1. Sign up for a Replug account
Start by visiting Replug’s app and creating a free account if you haven’t already.
2. Connect your custom domain
Start by connecting your custom domain with Replug.
Go to your Replug dashboard
Click on the gear icon in the top right corner and choose “Custom Domains”
Hit “Add Domain”
Enter your domain URL, a 404 redirect URL (so users don’t land on a broken page), and your branded domain name
If you’re not sure how to set up DNS, Replug offers a helpful guide to walk you through it.
3. Create your vanity URL
Now that your domain is set up, you’re ready to create your vanity URL.
Create a new campaign:
Click on “Campaigns” in the navigation bar
Choose “Create New”
Fill in the campaign details and hit “Save Campaign”
Shorten your link:
Head to “Home” and paste your desired link in the bar under “Quickly Shorten your link”
Create a vanity URL:
Select your campaign (in our example, “myshop”)
Replug will generate a vanity URL automatically with your vanity domain at the backend of the URL. Replug might suggest a shortened URL, but you’ll have the option to customize it.
Maximize marketing ROI
by transforming ordinary URLs into branded short links that convert.
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Finally, click on “Save Shortened Link” and your vanity URL is good to go. You can now share it confidently across all your platforms.
Vanity URL examples:
Let’s dive into the world of vanity URLs and explore some inspiring examples!
Facebook:
A long URL for a Facebook profile could look like this:
This URL is not easy to remember and difficult to share with others. This is where a vanity URL comes in.
A vanity URL for a Facebook profile looks like this:
This URL is easy to remember, looks professional, and helps users to find and follow the user’s profile or page easily.
This URL is not easy to remember and difficult to share with others.
However, a vanity URL for the same X profile looks like this:
This URL is easy to remember and reflects the user’s identity.
Instagram:
On Instagram, a long URL for a profile could look like this:
This URL is not easy to remember and difficult to share with others.
However, a vanity URL for the same profile looks like this:
This URL is easy to remember and reflects the user’s identity.
Website:
A long URL for the popular e-commerce website Temu looks like this:
This URL is not easy to remember and difficult to share with others.
However, if we take a hypothetical example of a vanity URL for the same product on Temu, it would look something like the one shown below. However, please note that this is not an actual vanity URL of Temu:
This URL is easy to remember and reflects the content of the page.
Here are the top 6 reasons why your brand needs a vanity URL:
Memorable and easy to promote: Vanity URLs are short, memorable, and easy to promote. They allow you to create a customized web address that reflects your brand or product, making it easier for customers to remember and share with others.
Improved brand recognition: Vanity URLs help improve brand recognition by creating a consistent and professional image across all your platforms. This makes it easier for customers to find and connect with your brand online.
Better user experience: A vanity URL provides a better user experience by making it easier for customers to navigate to your website or social media profiles. Customers are more likely to click on a short and easy-to-remember URL than a long and complex URL.
Improved SEO: Vanity URLs can also help with search engine optimization (SEO) by incorporating relevant keywords into your web address. This can help improve your search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website.
Tracking: With a vanity URL, you can track clicks and engagement on your website or social media profiles. This helps you measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and make data-driven decisions to improve your online presence.
Competitive advantage: Finally, having a vanity URL can give you a competitive advantage by differentiating your brand from others in your industry. It shows that you are professional, organized, and invested in your online presence.
Boost ROI with branded URLs!
Enhance your marketing campaigns by creating shareable, trackable, and fully multi-purpose
customizable branded URLs.
A vanity URL is a customized, memorable web address that makes sharing easier and boosts brand recognition. It also adds credibility and looks more professional than long, complex links.
Does a vanity URL affect SEO?
A vanity URL doesn’t directly impact SEO since it lacks indexable content, but it supports branding and is easier to remember and share, indirectly boosting SEO through increased visibility and traffic.
Is a vanity URL a redirect?
Yes, a vanity URL is essentially a redirect. When clicked, it leads users to the actual destination URL, but with a cleaner, branded link that’s easier to remember and share than traditional redirects.
The word “retargeting” refers to the process of targeting (an audience) again. A retargeting ad targets website or app visitors that have already visited the website or landing page of the advertiser.
What is a retargeting platform?
Retargeting platform is a tool that allows advertisers to reach people who have previously engaged with their website or mobile app.
One of the most common online advertising strategies is retargeting, which e-commerce marketers use to engage, attract, and convert the audience.
If you are a marketer or newbie looking to retarget visitors that bounce off your website or leave in mid of their purchase journey, then retargeting is for you.
Let’s dig deeper into the marketing tactic and find out the best retargeting platforms that may help your cause.
How does a retargeting ad work?
A retargeting ad is not rocket science. The way it works is that it uses the retargeting pixel code to recognize the website or app visitor and helps the advertiser reach out to the same audience through a retargeting ad campaign.
So that’s how a retargeting ad works.
Features to look for in retargeting platforms
Don’t shy away from going through the features before opting for a retargeting platform.
Here’s a brief list of features to look for when choosing a retargeting platform:
Audience segmentation – Target specific user groups based on behavior and demographics.
Cross-channel targeting – Reach users on web, social media, email, and mobile apps.
Customizable CTA – Tailor calls-to-action to boost engagement.
Real-time analytics and reporting – Get immediate insights into campaign performance.
A/B testing capabilities – Experiment with creatives and targeting to optimize results.
Integration with other marketing tools – Ensure data flow with CRM, email, and analytics tools.
Transparent pricing – Look for clear pricing structures that align with your budget and goals.
Following are some of the best retargeting platforms out there.
1. Replug
Replug is a top notch retargeting platform used by e-commerce businesses, media companies, digital agencies, and other online businesses on daily for optimized retargeting.
Its features include traffic routing for audience segmentation, A/B testing for campaign optimization, link cloaking for added security, branded link tracking for consistent branding, and cross-platform conversion tracking to measure results across channels.
Additionally, Replug offers customized link solutions tailored for agencies, affiliate marketers, advertisers, and publishers to enhance their marketing strategies.
A complete link management solution
for marketing professionals & agencies.
Try Replug for free
Features
Replug allows you to add retargeting pixels from multiple platforms to your links, enabling you to track and build custom audiences from each click. This feature helps you re-engage visitors with targeted ads across platforms, improving your chances of conversion.
By traffic routing you can direct visitors to high-converting landing pages based on factors like location, language, device, and whether they’re human or bot.
The A/B testing feature allows you to test multiple link variations to determine the most effective options. This helps optimize your ad creatives, CTAs, and targeting strategies for higher conversion rates.
The tool also supports UTM tracking, allowing you to add custom parameters to your links. This feature helps you monitor specific campaigns and understand where your traffic is coming from, providing valuable insights into the effectiveness of each marketing effort.
Replug’s intuitive dashboard centralizes link management, tracking, and optimization. It provides real-time data at a glance, making it easy to make quick, informed decisions without navigating complex tools.
Transforms long or unattractive URLs into clean, branded links, which builds trust and boosts click-through rates.
2. Google Ads
When it comes to any type of advertising, Google advertisements are the greatest place to start. They enable you to display your advertising to your targeted audience on Google and its affiliated websites.
To start your retargeting campaign, you must have a Google Ads account. Plus, you must know how to connect a remarketing tag to your property.
Marketers can utilize the audience management tool in Google Ads to create customized audiences by importing data from other sources.
Features
Google owns roughly 40% of the total PPC (pay-per-click) advertising industry, with unrivaled access to advertising real estate via both the Google display network and the Google search network.
Anyone with a Google Ads account can use all of its customization and targeting capabilities, including audience manager, for free.
Facebook is one of the most popular online advertising platforms. The user statistics and overall social media market share tell us that Facebook is an appealing retargeting platform for digital marketing.
It’s simple to create ads that dynamically retarget audiences who have previously interacted with your products – both on your website and directly on Facebook.
Facebook Ads follows the standard PPC pricing model, and it’s completely free to get started.
With its cutting-edge, dynamic retargeting technology, Criteo is a specialized PPC advertising platform that ensures advertisers a high return on ad spending.
Based on its machine learning and AI-powered ad serving, the platform assists businesses in understanding their target demographic and presenting retargeting advertising on the appropriate channels.
Features
Criteo can use predictive bidding to automate the PPC bidding process, saving digital marketers time while further optimizing ad spend.
There is a free trial available, but pricing information must be obtained directly from Criteo.
5. Adroll
AdRoll is a powerful digital growth platform that integrates social, email, and display advertising efforts to help your business thrive. It employs personalization and automation to help brands structure, sync, and measure all of their marketing data and campaigns.
It assists advertisers with retargeting practices, brand awareness, email marketing, audience segmentation, and campaign insights.
Features
Adroll provides a unified platform for digital marketers to create display and retarget ad content and targeting criteria.
It integrates with several publisher networks to extend the reach of retargeting campaigns and cast the largest possible net in pursuit of new consumers and conversions. AdRoll interacts with numerous retargeting platforms, including Google Ads, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
6. Perfect Audience
Perfect Audience is a specialized retargeting platform that enables digital marketers to deliver effective remarketing messages across multiple platforms.
Features
Perfect Audience provides a large amount of display ad inventory through partnerships with Google, AppNexus, Lift DNA, and the Rubicon Project.
The platform also enables ad management and retargeting campaigns through Facebook Ads, TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and the HubSpot platform.
LinkedIn is one of the most popular social platforms on the internet, with over 900 million users. While Facebook’s audience is skewed toward older demographics, LinkedIn users are generally professionals aged 25 to 40.
The platform is used by 44% of Americans aged 25 to 29 as well as 37% of those aged 30-49. It sure has made it to the list of retargeting platforms because it allows advertisers to retarget their audience through ads and get more views on LinkedIn.
Features
LinkedIn, as a social platform, caters to professionals looking to expand their network of contacts and advance their careers. It’s also an excellent way for digital marketers to connect with B2B sales/marketing targets on a platform where audiences seek business-related information rather than consumer entertainment.
Getting started with LinkedIn advertising is free. Because the platform adheres to the standard PPC advertising model, you will be charged for each click generated as part of your retargeting campaign.
ReTargeter is a retargeting platform that serves the retargeting advertising sub-niche quite significantly. The concept behind this retargeting platform is that display advertising is more of a one-size-fits-all pattern, which this marketing platform doesn’t subscribe to.
In fact, ReTargeter offers programmatic ads that are based on dynamic and custom solutions tailored-made to clients pursuing remarketing.
Features
ReTargeter provides dynamic creative optimization, advanced audience segmentation, Omni channel programmatic ads, and much more.
The platform collaborates with excellent partners that ensure that every impression is served for quality.
This retargeting platform ensures that advertisers shoot for the stars by providing them with a dedicated account manager that assists advertisers along the way.
Try avoiding the following retargeting campaign mistakes:
No clear vision for retargeting
Zero audience segmentation
Starting retargeting too early
Not optimizing retargeting campaigns
Delivering the wrong ads
Are you ready to turn ad clicks into more conversions?
Digital marketers and online advertisers will always want bang for their buck so they keep an eye on every possibility to improve their advertising ROI.
Retargeting is an excellent strategy for reaching out to the pinpointed website visitors who have already shown some interest in your product or content.
Are you ready to make the most of your online advertising without breaking the bank?
FAQs on retargeting platforms
What is the purpose of a retargeting ad? Retargeting ads aim to re-engage users who have previously visited a website or app, encouraging them to complete an action, such as a purchase, that they initially left unfinished.
How does a retargeting pixel work? A retargeting pixel is a small code snippet that tracks visitors on a website. It helps identify users for future ads, allowing marketers to display tailored ads to them later.
How long should I run a retargeting campaign? The ideal duration depends on your campaign goals, but many businesses run retargeting campaigns for a few weeks to several months to ensure optimal reach and frequency.
Can retargeting increase conversions? Yes, retargeting is highly effective for conversions since it targets users who’ve already shown interest in your product or service, encouraging them to complete an action.
What are some common mistakes to avoid in retargeting campaigns? Avoiding segmentation, showing ads too frequently, and using generic messaging can lead to campaign inefficiencies. Personalized and well-timed ads perform best.
A link rotator is a link management strategy that splits a website page traffic and redirects visitors to multiple destinations.
The core idea behind this link strategy is to make a change in the destination URL and provide visitors with more than one option to analyze their response.
Why Marketers Need to Use a Link Rotator Tool?
The link rotation is mostly done by digital marketers for several reasons, such as conversion optimization, landing page analysis, user experience and others.
Read further to easily setup link rotation on any URL.
Have you ever thought about experimenting with link rotation?
Bloggers, affiliate marketers, and digital marketing experts try to capitalize on every opportunity to grasp the audience’s attention and convert visitors into subscribers or customers.
Now different marketers and social media experts may opt for different routes to achieve this very goal of converting the audience. So they experiment with a number of tactics to achieve the goal.
Since links are vital in the digital world for conversion optimization,companies apply different techniques to make their links better and more prominent, such as URL shortening and link rotation.
Benefits of using a link rotator
The table below shows the benefits of a link rotator and why online marketers should start rotating link destinations and routing traffic.
Benefits of using a Link Rotator
Equitable traffic distribution
Ensures fair and balanced sharing of traffic among multiple URLs.
A/B testing capabilities
Enables testing various landing pages or offers to enhance conversion rates.
Operational efficiency
Allows specific criteria for URL rotation, enhancing control and customization.
Real-time optimization
Facilitates immediate adjustments based on performance analytics for better outcomes.
Flexible modifications
Easily update destination URLs without altering the shared link, ensuring adaptability.
Comprehensive tracking
Provides detailed analytics for each URL’s performance within the rotation, aiding in informed decisions.
Targeted marketing
Allows setting specific criteria for URL rotation, enhancing control and customization.
Customizable rules
Allow setting specific criteria for URL rotation, enhancing control and customization.
Online marketers have a collection of different web links, each leading to a unique landing page or promotional offer. Instead of manually sharing these links or relying on a single destination, a link rotator acts as a dynamic guide, deciding where users should go when they click on a shared link.
Now, here’s where it gets even more interesting. Some Link rotation tools are not just traffic directors; they are also powerful tools for marketers testing multiple versions of a landing page, each designed to appeal to your audience in a slightly different way.
This routing can be strategic, ensuring that certain links get more attention than others based on a predefined distribution plan or even randomized to ensure a fair distribution of clicks.
In a global holiday sale campaign, a link rotator serves as a sophisticated traffic director.
Instead of sharing individual product links, a link rotator dynamically guides users to region-specific categories on the basis of preset filters.
For instance, you are a marketer of a global clothing brand and want to show tailored product pages based on your audience’s geographic/country location.
Customers in colder climates, like the United Kingdom, seamlessly transition to the “Winter Warmth Collection,” while those in warmer regions, such as Brazil, are seamlessly redirected to the “Summer Splendors Showcase.”
This strategic use of link rotation ensures a tailored shopping experience, allowing marketers to adapt and fine-tune their sales approach based on real-time insights into regional preferences and campaign performance.
Thus, the link rotator emerges as a powerful tool that can help e-commerce stores, SAAS companies, and any other business that sells products online. It helps steer online campaigns toward maximum effectiveness across diverse global markets with condition-based filters.
Best link rotators
It wouldn’t be fair to discuss everything about the link rotators but not mention industry-leading link rotators for marketers to try out.
Let’s first discuss the best link rotator.
Replug – The best link rotator with advanced features
One of the best things about this tool is that it gathers analytics data for click and conversion data on links. Identify the most suitable marketing combinations and make the most of it. All these benefits speak volumes.
Digital marketers, affiliate bloggers, and conversion optimizers do a lot of testing.
For instance, they create multiple ads or landing pages to see which one performs better than the rest. And some marketers need to direct traffic on the basis of their audience preferences for more personalized experiences and targeted campaigns.
This is where Replug enters like a boss and shines, i.e. helping you get the most return from your online links and campaigns with Link rotation (also known as traffic routing) & A/B testing.
Replug has segregated link rotation into two separate features, i.e., Link Rotator (Traffic Routing) and A/B Testing. This helps users separate the campaigns and gain far more effective data insights for each marketing campaign.
Let’s have a more in-depth look at these essential features.
Link rotator (Traffic routing)
When your website visitors or social media followers click that snazzy short link, the link rotator gets activated and allocates the destination URL for the pre-defined settings.
In easier words, this method ensures your users are directed to their intended destination without any hassle. And you know who benefits from all this? E-commerce stores, SAAS companies—basically, any business selling stuff online gets a boost from these tactics. They help optimize the journey from click to conversion, making everyone happier in the end.
A/B testing
One of the essential features of Replug is A/B testing which allows marketers to redirect visitors to multiple destinations to see how splitting the traffic affects the campaign performance.
Marketers love A/B testing – They toss a bunch of destination URLs into the mix and set the percentage of visitors each link gets. It’s like running mini experiments to see which page or offer hits the jackpot.
Step 01: On the Home page, paste your desired link in the top bar and click to generate a Replug short link.
Step 02: You’ll be redirected to a new page where you can edit the slug or make other changes to your link.
Scroll down to select the “Traffic Routing Rules” bar.
Step 03: Click on “Add New Rule” to set rotation rules. You can distribute and prioritize links based on preset conditions such as geographic location, date, day, system, or device type.
Once the rules are set, click Save and then hit the “Save shortened link” button to start your campaign.
After launching your campaign, track performance and make adjustments as needed to improve results.
A/B testing with Replug
You need to follow the same procedure of creating a short link with Replug and then.
Step 01: Follow the same process to create a short link in Replug. Once created, you’ll be redirected to a new page.
After you turn on the A/B testing option, the destination URL will be the first link with 100% weightage.
They set the weights for each link. Once you’re done with it, finish creating the Replug link with the A/B testing feature enabled. Now, you’re ready to track the link rotation performance of your links.
[branded_short_links]
Other link-rotating tools
1. JotURL – Feature-rich click rotator software
JotURL is a URL shortener tool that offers UTM tracking, bio links, deep links, branded URLs, retargeting, and QR codes.
It’s not just a URL shortener that trims down long and clunky URLs for you. Instead, it empowers your branding, helps generate leads, and provides link tracking. Plus, it has a link rotation feature that puts this tool among the top link rotators for marketers.
ClickMeter is an all-in-one short link solution that helps bloggers and marketers create, monitor, and track marketing links to improve conversion rates. It offers URL shortening, branded domains, A/B test link rotation, conversion tracking, and several other features.
It’s a link management solution that works best for marketers and bloggers with content-heavy blogs and websites monetized with multiple affiliate marketing programs.
Plus, it’s also suitable for social media influencers and experts who use social media marketing channels to promote and sell their products.
3. Spinster – URL rotator
Spinster is a URL rotation solution built with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS for marketers and web entrepreneurs who want to create a personalized URL on their websites.
This URL rotator creates a unique short URL to redirect the incoming traffic on the URL and help distribute the visitors to the pages of the choice. It’s a perfect solution for splitting a website page traffic and tracking the number of visits on each page.
4. Voluum – Best link tracker for CPA marketing
Voluum is an excellent link-tracking solution for online advertisers that run ad campaigns across different ad networks. It offers link tracking, campaign optimization, and process automation.
Voluum is a professional ad-tracking software that integrates with multiple ad platforms to provide campaign performance reports. It’s a fantastic link tracker for advertisers and marketers who are into conversion optimization.
Conclusion
Link rotators are an integral part of the link management ecosystem, which is why almost all the popular URL shorteners have this feature.
The core idea behind using link rotators is to dissect the number of website visitors and drive them to multiple destinations with the same or different proportions to see the impact on the results. That’s pretty much it.
Why choose Replug over other tools?
Replug is an all-in-one link management tool for marketers. It offers influencers, social media managers, and digital marketers handy features, such as link shortening, link rotation, A/B testing, and more to play around with links.
FAQs on link rotators
What is a link rotator, and how does it work?
A link rotator directs traffic from a single link to multiple destinations based on predefined rules like location or time.
Why should digital marketers use a link rotator?
Marketers use link rotators to split traffic, improve conversions, and test landing pages for better user experience.
Can a link rotator improve targeted marketing?
Yes, link rotators can enhance targeted marketing by directing users to different pages based on criteria like location or device type.
How do link rotators support real-time optimization?
Link rotators provide real-time performance analytics, allowing marketers to adjust campaigns instantly for better results.
Most marketers prioritize email, social, and ads when designing their digital marketing campaigns. They highly underestimate SMS marketing probably due to the advent of apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber, Kik, BOTIM, and others.
However, the reality is that SMS marketing hasn’t become irrelevant at all. In fact, a study shows that 65% of global mobile subscribers communicate via text messages.
A core reason why SMS marketing, especially for text invitations, can turn things around for any brand or individual is the effective use of SMS link previews.
Find out what an SMS link preview is before your competitors take the edge over you.
Understanding SMS link previews
An SMS link preview is a preview snippet that pops up in the text message and showcases the featured image and topic of the article or web page right in the SMS, making it more appealing and clickable.
Simply put, it’s the enhanced version of a link sent in a text message that displays the link’s title, image, and (sometimes) the image.
It’s called SMS link preview because it provides a preview to the receiver before this person opens the link. Not only does it provide a sneak peek into the content, but it also adds curiosity to the receiver’s mind.
Boost ROI with branded URLs!
Enhance your marketing campaigns by creating shareable, trackable, and fully multi-purpose
customizable branded URLs.
SMS links are widely used in SMS marketing campaigns, but most marketers still take them for granted.
So, here are some benefits of using SMS link previews as a reminder to make the most of your SMS marketing campaigns:
1. Helps drive website traffic through text messages
One reason brands and marketers send out links in text messages is to drive website traffic to their sales pages, blog posts, or other URLs. SMS link previews can entice SMS receivers to click through and visit the website.
SMS marketing has become an integral part of digital marketing. Therefore, SMS links are crucial for the success of any SMS marketing campaign. SMS link previews make links more noticeable and clickable, enabling SMS marketing campaigns to achieve better results.
3. Gives a sneak peek into the content
A little peek into the content makes it easier for the receiver to check it out. Optimizing the website pages and blog posts to showcase SMS link previews makes a huge difference.
Let’s be honest: a hyperlink with text in an SMS looks quite shady, even if a family member or friend sends it. One of the benefits of having SMS link previews is that the SMS links appear cleaner and less-spammy. Above all, the receivers can open them with some confidence.
Indeed, sometimes short URLs don’t look trustworthy, especially if an unknown person sends them. Most marketers use short links in SMS and email marketing to track clickability, open rate, and reach. However, when an SMS link preview pops up, it adds credibility to the message.
A complete link management solution
for marketing professionals & agencies.
Try Replug for free
Can you curate the SMS link preview image and text?
When sharing links via SMS, having an eye-catching preview image and compelling text can significantly enhance engagement.
To make it happen, one needs to utilize a link preview tool such as Replug. This link toolbox makes it easy to customize these previews, ensuring your messages stand out.
Start by signing up for a Replug account or logging into your existing one.
Maximize marketing ROI
by transforming ordinary URLs into branded short links that convert.
Try Replug for free
Step no 01
Go to Replug Home and locate the “Quickly shorten your link” bar. Paste the URL you want to share and press Enter.
Step no 02
You’ll be redirected to a page where you can customize your SMS link preview. Here, you can password-protect your links, add expiry dates to them, add traffic routing rules to them, and much more.
Step no 03
Once you input the link, Replug will automatically fetch the meta details, such as title, description, and thumbnail image. But if you want to customize the details even more, you can:
Title: You can customize the title of your SMS link preview by simply typing in your preferred text in the “Title” field.
Description: Adjust the description by writing a more engaging or relevant summary of your link in the “Description” field.
Image: Upload a custom image to change the thumbnail. Make sure it’s eye-catching and relevant to your content.
Replug automatically generates a shortened URL, making it SMS-friendly. Short links are easier to share and fit better in text messages.
Step no 05
Use the preview feature to see how your link will appear when shared via SMS. Ensure the image and text are displaying correctly.
It’s a good idea to send yourself a test SMS to see how the link appears on different devices.
Step no 06
Once you are satisfied with the preview, click “Save.” Then, share the link through your preferred SMS platform. The enhanced preview will engage your audience and drive more clicks.
Best practices when creating SMS link previews
Before you hop on your favorite URL shortener for generating short URLs or optimizing your website URLs for SMS link previews, read the following best practices for using SMS link previews:
1. Keep it concise
SMS messages have character limits, so keep your link previews brief and to the point. Use clear, compelling language to entice users to click without overwhelming them with information.
2. Test across devices
Link previews can look different on various devices and messaging apps. Test how your previews appear on other platforms to ensure they maintain visual appeal and functionality, and adjust your metadata if necessary for optimal display.
3. Use high-quality, beautiful images in the content
Using colorful, high-resolution images in SMS link previews is essential for quickly capturing readers’ attention and creating a visually appealing experience. Choose images that convey the essence of your message, enticing recipients to click on the link.
An attractive, eye-catching image can significantly enhance engagement, making the preview more inviting and transforming the URL snippet in the SMS into an irresistible opportunity for the recipient.
A complete link management solution
for marketing professionals & agencies.
Try Replug for free
4. Keep the optimal image sizes in mind when creating images
It’s essential to create images that are readable by the devices. The optimal image sizes should be considered when creating images for blog posts or landing pages.
Not only does it allow images to display correctly across various devices and platforms, but it also impacts the SMS marketing campaign. Properly sized images help maintain the visual integrity of the link preview.
Difference Between Link Previews and OG Tags
When sharing links across social media, messaging apps, or websites, you may notice that certain details like images, titles, and descriptions automatically appear. These elements come together in what we call link previews.
However, what many may not realize is that the content displayed in these previews is controlled behind the scenes by something called OG tags (Open Graph tags).
Understanding the difference between link previews and OG tags can help website owners and marketers optimize how their content is shared online. Let’s break down these two concepts.
Feature
Link Previews
OG Tags (Open Graph Tags)
Definition
A visual snippet displayed when a URL is shared on social platforms or messaging apps.
HTML meta tags that control what content appears in the link preview.
Purpose
To give users a quick overview of the content and entice them to click the link.
To control and customize how content appears when shared on social media.
Visibility
Visible to users on social media and messaging platforms.
Hidden in the website’s HTML code; only visible to social platforms.
Customiz-ation
Generated automatically based on webpage content. Limited customization without OG tags.
Provides full control over title, image, description, and URL in the preview.
Control
Platforms decide what content appears in the preview based on available metadata.
Website owners can define exactly what content appears in the preview.
Common elements
Title, description, image (if available), URL.
Title, description, image, URL — all customizable via OG tags.
Role in SEO
Indirect impact, as well-crafted previews can increase click-through rates (CTR).
Can indirectly boost SEO by making links more appealing and clickable.
Impleme-ntation
Automatic; platforms extract information from the webpage.
Requires adding specific OG meta tags to the HTML of the webpage.
Use case
When sharing URLs on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
Best for ensuring consistent branding and accurate display of content across platforms.
Leveraging open graph (OG) tags
OG tags are essential tools for controlling how the content is displayed when sent in a text message or shared on social media platforms.
The idea is to strategically implement these tags to ensure that the links turn out to be visually appealing and attractive to the recipient. Moreover, these effects can significantly improve click-through rates and engagement.
Let’s decode open graph tags and learn more about them:
The basic OG tags:
og:title
It specifies the title of the content.
og:url
It showcases the canonical URL of the page
og:image
It defines the image that will appear with the shared link
og:type
It clarifies the type of object being shared, such as website, article, etc.
og:description
It provides a brief description of the page
How to leverage OG tags?
Digital marketers and conversion optimization experts strive to discover new ways to increase engagement, drive website traffic, improve click-through rates, and make more money.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a new trick to get new eyeballs around your content on social media or make your SMS preview links look more attractive.
Here are three ways to leverage OG tags:
1. Enhancing social media optimization
Social media content is vital to modern-day digital marketing. To maximize the impact of your OG tags on social media content performance, tailor them specifically for the social media platforms where your audience is most active.
Facebook, Twitter (X) and LinkedIn are the major social media platforms that rely on OG tags for link previews. Influencers and experts pay attention to OG tags to ensure that their article links generate previews when shared across social media.
By optimizing the OG tags for these platforms, social media users make sure that the content is presented in the best manner possible, which increases the chance of attracting more shares, comments, and likes.
Have you ever heard of Google Discover? It’s a content discovery platform from Google that displays top news across multiple categories and is available to Android users. It’s accessed through the Chrome browser on the Android phones. Google Discovers picks up the content from the websites that are schema-optimized and publishes high-quality content.
Similarly, OG tags not only improve the visual appeal of your shared links but also contribute to better SEO performance. Search engines keep an eye out on the websites that are wildly popular on social media, and often end up rewarding them through SEO rankings.
It’s safe to assume that attractive and well-optimized previews are more likely to be clicked and shared, leading to increased traffic and visibility for your website.
3. Fine-tuning the SMS link previews
Last but not least, it’s the effect on the SMS link previews. One of the best ways to leverage OG tags is to carve out a strategy for fine-tuning your SMS link preview.
Open Graph Protocol massively impacts the SMS link previews of the websites and blog URLs if implemented correctly. SMS is still a powerful communication medium despite the popularity of various chat apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, Viber, Kik, and others.
Optimizing your SMS link previews can trigger new opportunities no matter what industry you belong to. So, don’t shy away from putting together a solid strategy for optimizing your websites or blogs for SMS link previews.
So, these are three ways to leverage OG tags. The purpose of this strategy is to ensure that website titles, headlines, descriptions, and URLs pop up when shared across multiple devices and platforms.
Final thoughts
SMS link previews may not be the talk of the digital marketing world, but they’re still relevant to online marketing.
Since it directly impacts click-through rate, conversion, and engagement of text messages, the concept is gaining popularity day by day.
We tried to keep it simple yet meaningful for social media influencers, brands, bloggers, entrepreneurs, and publishers who haven’t had a chance to find out about the SMS link previews before.
The next time you send or receive a URL in the SMS, you’ll notice whether or not it generated the link preview – if you do, then all the effort that went into writing, editing, and publishing this piece of content is worth it.
FAQs about SMS link previews
Here are some of the frequently asked questions about SMS link previews:
What is an SMS short link?
An SMS short link refers to the shortened URL that is used in text messages to avoid cluttering and spammy looks. Moreover, users can track clickability on the short, branded URLs. Check out this URL shortener for more information.
Can SMS have links?
SMS messages can include links within their body. However, it is important to ensure that URLs contain “http://” or “https://” along with a valid domain extension, such as .com or .net, to function properly. Additionally, in some cases, placing the links at the beginning or end of the text message can enhance clickability.
What is a text link?
A text link is a hyperlinked text that is used to drive website visitors from one section/page to another. The text links are also used as the replacement for the image call-to-actions. However, in the SEO world, a text link can either be a backlink (pointing to another website) or an internal link (pointing to another page of the same website).
What are link previews in text messages?
The link previews are the link snippets that appear on social media platforms and messaging apps when a blog post link or a website URL is shared with the public or a friend in private. It mostly contains the image, title, description, and URL of the page.
How to create a link preview in your SMS message?
To create a link in your SMS message, one be sharing the website that has already been optimized for link previews. On the other hand, the receiver of the text message must be using any of the recently released phones. To make it work on older Android phones, the user must have a Google Message app installed that can create link previews. Moreover, iOS users must have iOS 10 or later versions to be able to enjoy the link previews.
Links are a vital component of the internet marketing. Links (or URLs) are like vessels that drive bots and visitors from page to page or website to website.
In the SEO world, links are either inbound (backlinks) or outbound (external) links. Whereas, a link that internally connects a page to another page from the same site is called an internal link.
However, the topic “link preview” isn’t directly connected to SEO, but it does play a role somehow. If you’re curious about what it is and how it works, then sit tight because your mind will be blown away.
A link preview refers to the preview of the link showcasing the title and image of the page before visiting the very page.
Let’s find out everything you need to know about these URL previews.
What is a rich link preview?
A rich link previewrefers to the link that looks ahead to pull back useful information from the URL and creates a preview of the destination URL page to display it to the end user.
Usually, when a user either hovers the cursor on the rich link or clicks on such a link, it immediately displays the pulled information about the destination URL.
As far as the formatting of the rich link preview is concerned, it usually displays the title, image, and description of the page.
There are several link management tools available on the market that create different types of rich link previews – we’ll discuss some of them later in the article.
How does a link preview work?
The way link preview works is that it scans the destination link and captures the title, description, and image to display all the collected information to the user.
This process usually takes a screenshot of the destination URL or the homepage of the website along with some text from either the page or the meta description of the page. Everything in the link preview process is automated and happens in a split second.
Every social media platform or link management tool handles link previews differently; usually, link previews are generated by creating a copy of the destination URL and saving the information on the server to display when it’s required.
8 major advantages of a link preview
The link preview is a game-changer – no wonder top social media platforms are utilizing this tactic. Let’s discuss some of the benefits of using link previews:
Improve user engagement: Link previews offer a quick glimpse of the content, including an image, title, and short description, which makes it more attractive and click-worthy. It entices the readers to check it out and engage with the content by clicking on the link, leading to higher interaction rates.
Build trustworthiness and authority: When users see the link preview, they can better assess whether the link is legitimate or not. The link preview generator ensures that readers get an idea of what to expect from this piece of content. Not only does it reduce the chances of users clicking on potentially harmful or misleading links, but it also increases their trust in the shared content.
Better contextual understanding: URL previews are very effective in conveying the message as they provide website visitors with a brief overview of the content, allowing them to quickly understand the context of the shared link. As a result, the shared content on social media or messaging apps becomes more relevant and clear, leading to a better user experience.
Increased click-through rates: The click-through rate is the percentage of the visitors that click on the link divided by the number of visitors who see the link. A creative and well-designed link preview can catch a user’s attention more effectively than a simple text link. The combination of a good title and a compelling image often results in higher click-through rates as users are more likely to click on relevant and useful content.
Visual appeal and attractiveness: Attractive website previews enhance the visual appeal of shared content by incorporating images, titles, and descriptions. Not only does it make shared content more attractive for the audience, but it also helps content stand out from the crowd.
Consistency across platforms: One of the advantages of link previews is that they ensure that content is displayed consistently across different social media and messaging platforms. This uniformity maintains the integrity of the content website and makes it easily recognizable to users, regardless of the platform they’re using.
Time-saving capability: Time is one of the greatest assets in anyone’s lifetime. Brands and tools that save users time and resources usually never fail. Link previews help users assess the value of a link by viewing its preview, without needing to click through to see the full version of the content. It makes it easier for users to engage with relevant content while filtering out what doesn’t interest them.
Boosts SEO performance: One of the aspects of SEO is engagement. Search engines heavily rely on clickability and engagement. Therefore, link previews contribute to better search engine optimization (SEO) by encouraging more clicks and engagement. All major search engines interpret these user interactions as a sign of valuable content, which leads to increased content visibility and ranking in the SERP.
Which platforms support link previews?
You’re probably wondering what social media platforms support link previews. Well, there are several social media platforms and messaging apps that allow link previews. Here are four of these platforms that are worth mentioning:
1. Facebook
Facebook is the top-tier social media platform with over 3 billion monthly active users. To create the link preview, Facebook utilizes the Open Graph Markup to pull the title, image, and description of the link. The OG tags that come into play include og:title, og:image, og:url, and og:description.
Moreover, Facebook could also try to fill in the blanks if the open graph is unable to fetch the required data. To preview the link, Facebook provides a Sharing debugger tool to help users see how the link preview would appear on Facebook.
2. X (formerly Twitter)
X (formerly Twitter) also allows link previews. However, the only caveat is that it only allows link previews’ of the websites that have Twitter Cards enabled on their back end. Most content management systems, such as WordPress, Shopify, and Magento have extensions for Twitter cards, enabling users to implement link previews for the websites.
Twitter Cards (or X Cards) is the Facebook Open Graph equivalent for the X platform. X provides a developer’s guide to implementing and troubleshooting Twitter cards for users. Moreover, users can validate the Twitter card by providing the link to the X’s card validator.
3. LinkedIn
LinkedIn also pulls the data from the link to create and present the link preview – it usually displays the image, title, URL, and description.
Furthermore, LinkedIn offers a post inspector tool that allows users to check the link preview before sharing on the platform. It gives you an idea of how the link would appear on LinkedIn, allowing users to debug any potential errors in the code.
4. Whatsapp
WhatsApp is one of the most popular chat and messaging apps that competes with Facebook’s Messenger, WeChat, Kik, BOTIM, Viber, and others.
WhatsApp creates link previews when the links are sent via chat or shared via status. It tries to maximize the user experience by displaying the link preview, depending on other factors, such as the availability of the elements, internet speed, and quality of the source.
Facebook provided some guidelines for users to optimize their websites for link previews on WhatsApp. Failing to meet the requirements would result in no link previews when the links are shared.
These are some of the popular social media platforms and chat apps that support link previews and can help maximize reach, clickability, and conversion.
What role do algorithms and AI play in link previews?
Link previews have become significantly important over the years. The social media platform’s algorithms and AI do have a role in the identification and implementation of link previews. Let’s take a quick look at how link previews go about in today’s world where platforms continue to evolve:
The role of AI in link previews
AI-generated link previews aren’t the innovation of the future – in fact, AI-generated link previews are very much real and they now exist. Believe it or not, brands and influencers are making the most of their campaigns.
Techcrunchreported in 2023 that Summari has reportedly pivoted toward AI-generated link previews.
Essentially, the role of AI in link previews can’t be denied. With the infusion of AI-powered tools across the tech and IT industries, it’s no surprise that link previewers are capitalizing on AI to dominate and improve their services.
The role of algorithms in link previews
The algorithm is that gray area that seems a little unpredictable in the online marketing world. Both social media platforms and search engines are known for updating their algorithms from time to time.
The purpose of such algorithms is to improve user experience and overall performance. However, the reason these algorithms become the talk of the town is because they affect the reach, visibility, views, and clicks of the content across the platform.
It’s quite possible that someday social media platforms roll out algorithm updates that shatter the way of creating link previews or worse the idea of link previews. Even though, it looks highly unlikely, still there are no guarantees.
Didn’t like the default link preview of the URL? Well, it allows users to alter the link previews through the customization features. The users can add an image, title, and description.
Here’s how you can create or customize a link preview using this Replug’s tool:
Open the link preview generator from Replug.
Type in the URL of the website or blog post to generate the link preview.
Check out the default link preview; if it requires customization, then scroll down to the section underneath the link preview window. You’ll see the customization section.
Upload the appropriate image to be added as the featured image.
Enter the suitable title and description and hit the get code button to get the meta tags.
Voila! Your link preview is ready. Check it out!
FAQs about link previews
Let’s take a look at some of the commonly asked questions:
What are the link previews in text messages?
Link previews are the snippets that appear with the link and display the image, page title, and the URL in the text message. Link previews are usually when a sender sends a website URL or blog post link in the text message.
What is the link preview in the email?
A link preview in an email refers to the link that comes in the email message and displays a rich link preview containing the image, title, and URL. It may be specific to a certain email software/platform.
How do I check if a link is safe?
One of the best practices for dealing with links or URLs in emails or text messaging is to avoid clicking on the links unless you’re sure about the authenticity of the link. Moreover, to be on the safe side, always install an anti-virus app or software on your device.
What does a safe link look like?
A safe link isn’t long or clunky with loads of codes and parameters. Moreover, it won’t be popping up a million pages upon clicking. Similarly, the domain would be authentic, secured, and active.
Some website owners and brands utilize short URLs for social media marketing. However, they opt for short, custom domains to ensure integrity and authenticity. They make sure that the audience easily recognizes their custom domains.
Check out Replug – it’s an excellent link management software for URL shortening, brandable short URLs, URL tracking, deep linking, A/B testing, and other URL services.
Can link previews be displayed on mobile devices?
Link previews can be displayed on both iOS and Android mobile devices unless they are not old models. It’s been learned that link previews work easily on all iOS versions after iOS 10. Similarly, Android users with older phones need the Google Message app to be able to activate link previews.
Is it possible to disable link previews?
The link previews can be disabled on both iOS and Android phones. All you need is to go to the settings and find the relevant preview options to turn it off. In Android phones, there is an option called Automatic Previews; go to that option to turn off the web previews. Whereas, on iPhone devices, go to the Settings section. Tap Notifications, then Messages, and then Show Previews. This is where you can turn it off.
E-commerce marketing refers to the strategies and tactics used to drive traffic to your online store, convert that traffic into paying customers, and retain those customers post-purchase.
E-commerce growth is on the rise across the globe and will continue to get bigger over the next few years.
There are over 2.77 billion online shoppers worldwide that have opened the e-commerce gateway wide open not just for themselves, but also for manufacturers, retailers, and marketers.
It’s no surprise that e-commerce marketing is crucial to putting an e-commerce business on a success trajectory.
When did e-commerce take off?
E-commerce started in 1982 with the launch of Boston Computer Exchange, an online marketplace for individuals to buy and sell used computers.
Things started to change in the global e-commerce landscape in the 1990s. E-commerce companies like Amazon and eBay emerged, significantly shaping the e-commerce landscape we recognize today.
In May 1989, Sequoia Data Corp. introduced Compumarket, marking the inception of the first internet-based system for e-commerce. This platform allowed sellers to list their items and buyers to search the database and make purchases using credit cards.
E-commerce became accessible for small and medium-sized businesses with the inception of the web in the 1990s. Tim Berners-Lee developed the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, on a NeXT computer, further propelling the growth of e-commerce.
Additionally, innovations like software for estimation and costing allowed businesses to streamline their operations, making it easier to manage pricing and project calculations within the e-commerce infrastructure.
Shopping on-line online store on website mobile application 3d rendering
E-commerce marketing refers to the strategy built and implemented by e-commerce businesses to attract, engage, and convert the audience by utilizing multiple channels, such as social media content, paid ads, and influencer marketing.
The goal is to engage as many people as possible through email, social, and paid ads and make your e-commerce brand get noticed by the audience.
E-commerce marketing is putting your e-commerce brand out there, attracting new eyeballs, building connections, and improving ROI along the way.
The upside of running a successful e-commerce marketing campaign is that the e-commerce store doesn’t only generate sales but also builds brand awareness among the masses.
Marketing is as important for an e-commerce brand as it is for any other type of business. Digital marketing doesn’t only provide sales opportunities to brands, but it also opens a portal to showcase creativity through content, copy, ad designs, etc.
The concept behind e-commerce marketing is to put forth the products in front of the audience for engagement, establish brand positioning, and improve conversion eventually.
As consumer expectations evolve rapidly, successful marketing today is about delivering the right message to the right person at the perfect moment. This is where AI in eCommerce becomes a game-changer helping brands unlock predictive insights, create hyper-personalized campaigns, and automate repetitive tasks to stay ahead in a crowded digital space.
The reason why e-commerce marketing is emphasized enough by industry experts is that we’re living through a busy, noisy time where users’ attention spans have been significantly squeezed. The aim is to explore every alternate channel that pops up in the market and plays an anchor role in finding untapped marketing opportunities.
Let’s discuss the 5 C’s of e-commerce marketing that are worth analyzing:
1. Company
The first ‘C’ indicates the company itself. It involves building a brand identity by establishing a recognizable business name and crafting a crystal clear business profile that outlines who you are, what you do, and where you’re based.
It’s essential to dig deep into the fundamentals (to analyze your company) to pinpoint your competitive advantages, which describe brand strength, capability, and efficiency. Customers need to see that your company has a sustainable edge over competitors.
2. Context
Marketing isn’t completed without infusing psychology into the sales tactics. Understanding the context revolves around knowing your customers’ desires, purchasing motivations, and actions.
The idea is to provide experiences that fulfill their emotional and practical needs. Grasping consumer behavior–what they want, why they need it, when and where they prefer to buy–is crucial to winning in this business model.
E-commerce marketing is all about addressing the aspects of products that are a game-changer for the audience, but it won’t be possible without knowing the context inside-out.
3. Competition
Competition can both challenge and opportunity for businesses. By paying close attention to competition, one can understand what customers want and identify their unique advantages.
Generally, competition in the e-commerce market can be intense, but it also offers opportunities to refine your strategies and surpass rivals. This is where new e-commerce marketing ideas are born. Understanding whether Shopify or Amazon is the right fit for your business can also inform your competitive strategy.
4. Consumer
Consumers are the center of attention in any marketing strategy – e-commerce marketing is no different. It’s crucial to understand their needs, requirements, and expectations to make a difference.
What do customers want? They want the best products and services at competitive prices.
One of the e-commerce marketing strategies brands can adopt is to expand their reach, engagement, and customer base by actively engaging on social media platforms where their target audience shows up or building marketing strategies that attract potential customers, for instance, a lot of brands use YouTube or Instagram to announce their giveaways.
5. Collaboration
E-commerce marketing and collaborations go hand-in-hand. Brands collaborate with influencers and industry experts to pick their brains and provide value to the audience.
Undoubtedly, collaborations are essential for reaching new audiences across all social media platforms. Partnering with social media influencers or top industry experts can expose your brand to their followers as well.
What are the 7 P’s of marketing in e-commerce?
Here are the 7 P’s of marketing that are crucial in e-commerce:
1. Product
The product is the fundamental element of these 7 P’s of marketing. If there is no product, then there is nothing to market. So, start by choosing your product to market. Usually, product selection isn’t an issue for companies because they always have a product or service to sell.
2. Price
The next important section of the 7’s of marketing is the price. It’s something that customers always check before they go ahead and add a product to the shopping cart. An e-commerce store must be aware of the similar product prices on the competitors’ sites. Moreover, sometimes companies use discount offers to attract customers and get their attention – it mostly works.
3. Promotion
Promotion is yet another important element of the 7’s of marketing. It’s related to the process of communicating with potential customers through different channels. The purpose of the promotion is to ensure that the offer is seen by the prospective audience.
4. Place
Place refers to the real estate where the brand can reach out to the audience and connect with the prospects. It’s the distribution channels where the action occurs; it could be the online store, a physical store, or the social media page.
5. People
Companies aren’t just fancy offices where employees work — people behind those walls are the company. People matter, whether employees, customers, or other stakeholders in the organization. Understanding and valuing the human factor plays a vital role in succeeding marketing campaigns. For distributed teams, this also means having visibility into how people work, which is where remote employee software comes in, helping organizations understand productivity patterns, support performance, and make people-centric decisions backed by real data.
6. Packaging
Packaging refers to the branding and outlook of the brand. One must ensure that the physical appearance of the products aligns with the image created by the brand or the perception is given to the end-users.
7. Process
The process is an essential part of the 7P’s of marketing as it covers areas like logistics, delivery of the product/service, and correspondence with the customers. Streamline the processes as smoothly as possible for the customers. Companies that invest in process efficiency see significant improvements in customer satisfaction and operational costs while maintaining high service standards. This includes implementing tools and techniques that increase team productivity, leading to faster, more efficient service. To further enhance your e-commerce operations, it is essential to optimize your delivery routes effectively.
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The most common e-commerce marketing channels and key tips
Ecommerce marketing plays a huge role in improving conversion rates, and tons of marketing channels can be used to promote ecommerce businesses. However, some of them seem outdated nowadays. Let’s shed some light on the ones that are relevant these days:
1. Social media
Social media marketing, complemented by emerging technologies such as voice AI generators, turns out to be the most effective marketing channel for e-commerce businesses. By incorporating interactive and engaging voice-driven content, e-commerce companies are not only building an audience across all social platforms but also significantly enhancing user engagement, leading to deeper community connections.
Social media platforms are powerful tools for reaching and engaging with your audience. Key tips include:
Platform selection: Choose platforms where your audience is most active, such as Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.
Content strategy: Share a mix of product promotions, user-generated content, and behind-the-scenes looks.
Paid advertising: Use targeted ads to reach potential customers and retarget those who have interacted with your brand.
Influencer marketing: Partner with influencers to expand your reach and build credibility.
The ROI of social media marketing is fascinating if it’s done right. No wonder every major e-commerce is trying to hop on every mainstream social media platform like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok.
E-commerce brands squeeze every bit of opportunity they get on the internet to put their brand out there and generate e-commerce sales.
Paid advertising can help you quickly reach a larger audience and drive traffic to your store. Common paid advertising tips include:
Google ads:Use different types, including search ads, display ads, or shopping ads, to reach potential customers.
Social Media ads: Run targeted ads on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
Retargeting ads: Re-engage visitors who have left your site without making a purchase.
Affiliate marketing: Partner with affiliates who promote your products in exchange for a commission on sales.
3. Email marketing
Email marketing refers to the marketing done through email newsletters. E-commerce companies are big on email marketing. They use email marketing to upsell, retarget, and promote new offers.
Email marketing remains one of the most effective channels for driving sales and building customer loyalty. With the right balance of generative AI use, you can circle this channel efficiently. Common email marketing tips include:
Segmentation: Divide your email list into segments based on customer behavior, demographics, or purchase history.
Personalization: Use customer data to personalize email content, such as product recommendations and special offers.
Automation: Set up automated email sequences for abandoned carts, welcome series, and post-purchase follow-ups.
Promotional campaigns: Run seasonal promotions, flash sales, or special discounts to drive conversions.
Keyword research: Identify relevant keywords your potential customers are searching for.
On-page optimization: Optimize product pages, meta descriptions, and headlines with targeted keywords.
Technical SEO: Improve site speed, mobile responsiveness, and ensure proper indexing.
Content marketing: Create valuable content that drives organic traffic and builds brand authority.
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5. Content marketing
Content marketing is yet another marketing channel that businesses, individuals, influencers, and entrepreneurs use to spread the word about their expertise, products, and offers.
Content marketing is a marketing strategy that allows marketers to use content, such as articles, videos, podcasts, and images to market their product or service.
Blogging: Write blog posts that address customer pain points and provide solutions.
Product guides: Create detailed guides that showcase how your products solve specific problems.
Video marketing: Use AI videos to demonstrate product features, share customer testimonials, or provide tutorials.
Infographics: Visual content that simplifies complex information, making it easier to understand and share.
6. Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing has become extremely popular among millenials and Gen Z popular. We won’t be surprised if these generations are more crazy about top YouTubers and TikTokers than A-list Hollywood celebs.
This opens a doorway of marketing opportunities for e-commerce companies to collaborate with content creators and social media influencers and market their products. Key tips include:
Partnerships with influencers:Collaborate with influencers who have a relevant audience that matches your target market.
Content creation: Work with influencers to develop authentic content, such as reviews, tutorials, or lifestyle posts, that naturally features your products.
Audience engagement: Utilize the influencer’s platform to engage with their followers, increasing brand visibility and trust among potential customers.
Affiliate marketing is a highly effective eCommerce marketing strategy where businesses partner with affiliates who promote their products in exchange for a commission on sales or leads generated. This strategy leverages the influence and reach of affiliates to drive traffic, increase sales, and expand the brand’s visibility with minimal upfront costs.
Key affiliate marketing tips include:
Identify the right affiliates: Choose affiliates who align with your brand and have a following that matches your target audience.
Offer competitive incentives: Attract high-performing affiliates by offering competitive commissions and bonuses for top performers.
Monitor and optimize: Regularly review affiliate performance data to identify top performers and areas for improvement. Optimize your strategy based on these insights.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the best e-commerce marketing strategies you can apply to any e-commerce business whatsoever:
Create content consistently, so that your brand stays relevant regardless of the platform. Choose whatever is working for you whether it’s the blog, social, or email – just double down on what brings in the dollars.
Keep experimenting with your social media content by changing style, format, and approach. Everyone loves the newness and change. Stick with your branding, but keep bringing new flavors to the table.
Use every social media feature available at your disposal on your chosen social media platforms, such as Stories, Live streams, Shorts/Reels, etc. There is a reason why influencers try out every new tool that comes out on any social media platform.
Establish a powerful, synchronized email marketing system that keeps new customers, cart abandoners, and existing customers all in the loop.
Test out new marketing strategies for your e-commerce business, such as influencer marketing and affiliate marketing, and see how they work out for you.
Monitor your e-commerce store statistics, especially after making changes in the UI/UX, social media marketing, and content creation.
What are the four major e-commerce business models?
Four main e-commerce business models are worth knowing:
1. Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
B2C is the most common e-commerce business model in which businesses sell products or services directly to consumers. The B2C e-commerce business model examples include online retailers like Amazon and Walmart.
2. Business-to-Business (B2B)
In the B2B model, businesses sell goods or services to other businesses. It typically involves larger transactions and longer sales cycles. The B2B e-commerce business model examples include wholesale suppliers or companies like Alibaba and Grainger. Many B2B companies also enhance their operations by partnering with outsourcing ecommerce providers, who help streamline processes such as customer service, billing, and accounts receivable management.
3. Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
The consumer-to-consumer (C2C is also known as the peer-to-peer model. It allows consumers to sell products or services to other consumers, with online platforms facilitating these transactions. Examples of this business model are eBay, Craigslist, and other classified ad sites.
4. Consumer-to-Business (C2B)
Consumer-to-business is a lesser-known e-commerce business model in which individuals sell products or offer services to businesses. The prime examples of this business model are platforms like Freelancer, Upwork, and Fiverr where freelancers provide services to businesses.
Each of these e-commerce business models caters to different types of consumer segments, offering unique value to the businesses.
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Top e-commerce platforms
Shopify: Known for its user-friendly interface, Shopify offers a complete eCommerce solution with customizable templates, payment processing, and extensive app integrations.
WooCommerce: A flexible, open-source eCommerce plugin for WordPress, WooCommerce is ideal for businesses looking for customizable options and control over their online store.
Magento (Adobe Commerce): A powerful platform suited for large-scale businesses, Magento offers extensive features, scalability, and customization options.
BigCommerce: A robust eCommerce platform that supports businesses of all sizes, offering built-in features for SEO, multi-channel selling, and analytics.
Wix eCommerce: Known for its drag-and-drop website builder, Wix eCommerce is a good option for small to medium-sized businesses looking for an easy-to-use platform.
Squarespace: Popular for its visually appealing templates, Squarespace is a great choice for businesses focused on design and aesthetics.
PrestaShop: An open-source eCommerce solution that offers a high degree of customization, PrestaShop is ideal for businesses with technical expertise.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud: A scalable platform for enterprises, offering personalized experiences, AI-driven insights, and integration with other Salesforce products. Additionally, it leverages cloud services to ensure high availability and enhanced performance for users worldwide.
OpenCart: Another open-source platform, OpenCart is lightweight and easy to manage, with a wide range of extensions available for customization.
Volusion: A cloud-based eCommerce platform designed for small businesses, offering tools for inventory management, payment processing, and analytics.
Major e-commerce marketing challenges in the digital era
Increased competition: The digital landscape is crowded with eCommerce businesses, making it harder to capture and retain customer attention.
Ad fatigue and rising costs: Consumers are bombarded with online ads, leading to ad fatigue, while the cost of digital advertising continues to rise.
Data privacy and security: Balancing personalized marketing with data privacy concerns and compliance with regulations like GDPR is increasingly difficult. Tools like VPNs, 2FA, and encrypted digital vaults help secure platforms and build trust.
Adapting to changing algorithms: Search engines and social media platforms frequently update their algorithms, affecting visibility and reach.
Mobile optimization: With more consumers shopping on mobile devices, ensuring a seamless mobile experience is crucial but challenging.
Customer retention: High customer expectations and numerous options make it tough to build and maintain customer loyalty.
Omnichannel marketing: Coordinating consistent and effective marketing across multiple digital channels requires sophisticated strategy and technology.
E-commerce seems to be on the rise ever since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. With the advances of new e-commerce platforms that have eliminated the barrier to entry in e-commerce to a great extent, it’s not hard to predict the future trends in the e-commerce industry.
It’s expected that the global retail e-commerce sales expected to reach 8 trillion dollars by 2027. It’s a mind-boggling statistic to comprehend.
While there would be challenges for starters and e-commerce store owners would still give up on their e-commerce dreams, it looks like the most exciting time to be alive and build a future in the e-commerce realm.
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FAQs about e-commerce marketing
What is meant by e-commerce market?
The e-commerce market refers to the online marketplace where businesses and consumers buy and sell goods and services over the internet. It encompasses all online transactions, including retail shopping, digital products, and services.
What are the 4 F’s of digital marketing?
The 4 F’s of digital marketing are:
Findable: Making your content easily discoverable through search engines and social media.
Focused: Targeting specific audiences with relevant, tailored content.
Frictionless: Ensuring a smooth, user-friendly experience across all digital platforms.
Followable: Encouraging ongoing engagement and interaction with your brand through social media and other digital channels.
What is B2B2C?
The B2B2C is the extended version of the B2B business model that infuses the idea of not just connecting with the retails, but directly to the customers.
What is C2C marketing?
C2C is a consumer-to-consumer model where consumers trade goods, products, or services using a third-party platform without the involvement of the businesses.
How does ecommerce work?
eCommerce works by enabling businesses to sell products or services online. Customers browse products on a website, add items to their cart, and complete the purchase through an online payment system. The business then processes the order, ships the items, and handles post-purchase support.
What is the best kind of marketing for e-commerce?
There is no right or wrong answer to this question. Many factors come into play when determining the best kind of marketing for an e-commerce business. Those factors include but are not limited to niche, demographics, territories, areas of interest, etc.
For instance, if someone is a furniture store owner who is really into photography, this person can use Instagram to post attractive furniture and home decor photos on Instagram.
So, it comes down to where your audience exists, what your strengths are, and what you’re selling to the audience.
What is the difference between e-commerce marketing vs. e-commerce advertising?
The sole purpose of discussing this sub-topic of e-commerce marketing vs. e-commerce advertising is that both these phrases are interchangeably used in the conversations.
The difference between e-commerce marketing and e-commerce advertising is that e-commerce marketing is more of a zoomed-out version of putting your brand out there for consumers to see. E-commerce marketing is about engagement, a sense of community, and educating the target audience on different levels.
Whereas, e-commerce advertising is more of a hard-core paid marketing strategy where brands spend that hard-earned money on online ads across the internet.
The approach to engagement of both these marketing tactics might be different, but the goal to bring the audience closer to the brand and convince them to an action at some point is common.
Landing pages work like helipads; they provide a space for visitors to land and allow brands and marketers to drive them in the right direction – that’s an analogy.
By definition, a landing page is a sales or offer page that is designed to engage, attract, or convert a lead into a subscriber or paying customer.
Marketers, bloggers, and SEOs do a lot of testing when they’re running campaigns, promoting offers, and developing new content clusters.
One of the many testing experiments is about landing pages. Let’s explore what it is and how any brand, digital marketer, or agency can benefit from it.
What is landing page testing?
Landing page testing is an A/B testing of two versions of a landing page where the variables, such as design, copy, color scheme, and CTA, are in action and the purpose of landing page testing is to figure out which variant performs better.
Brands, marketers, and agencies A/B test landing pages when they’re running a marketing campaign and want to see which version of the landing page outsmarts the other one.
After the testing is completed, it becomes crystal clear which landing page performs better than the other one. The follow-up process is to deeply analyze the key elements of the winner landing page to elicit its secret sauce and repeat the same results going forward.
On the other hand, it’s also important to closely look at the losing version of the landing page to see what went wrong with it.
Types of landing page testing
Landing page testing is crucial to identifying the flaws and pinpointing the winning elements by putting the landing pages to the test. Generally, marketers and conversion optimization experts use two types of landing page testing methods for testing and improving landing and sales pages. Let’s discuss those:
A/B testing
A/B testing is the widely used landing page testing method that compares two versions of a landing page. These landing page versions contain some differences that signify the purpose of the testing. This testing method helps in determining what elements trigger specific user behaviors and actions. It is an excellent process to refine the landing page and make it more effective with subtle improvements.
Multivariate testing
Multivariate testing (MVT) goes one step further by keeping the true essence of A/B testing intact. It puts more variables to the test as compared to A/B testing. However, it’s vital to comprehend multivariate testing requires a high volume of website traffic to lay the groundwork for the testing. Moreover, this type of landing page testing includes analysis of several elements, such as headlines, copy, images, colors, and more. It somehow speeds up the testing process and helps marketers and brands find the right combination of elements within a short period.
Split URL testing
Split testing is a technique used to compare two different versions of a webpage, product, or service to figure out which version is more effective in achieving a specific goal or objective. In other words, the user splits the traffic between the two or more landing page variants to see which one works best. The key difference between A/B testing and split testing is that in split testing the user equally divides the traffic between both versions. Replug has an A/B testing option for testing the URL, which allows users to split-test the URLs.
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Why test a landing page?
There have to be a bunch of solid reasons for testing a landing page. No wonder top brands test their landing pages, sales pages, and thank you pages all the time. So, let’s dig in and try to understand why the landing page testing is important. Here’s why you should test a landing page:
i. Understand user behavior
User behavior is an important engagement metric in digital marketing. It refers to the actions that take place after they land on the website page no matter the traffic source.
One of the reasons one must be testing a landing page is to understand how visitors are behaving on the page. When the collective user behavior is rather unresponsive, it depicts an issue with the landing page.
ii. Conversion optimization
Conversion optimization is a process of fine-tuning the sales funnel so that it gets easier for prospects to convert into paying customers. Brands optimize their websites, landing pages, social media ads, CTAs, and opt-in forms to improve conversion rates.
Undoubtedly, one of the reasons a marketer or brand might have in mind when testing a landing page is that they would want to optimize the conversion on the landing page. Conversion optimization leads to more sales and profitability.
iii. Increase clickability
Clicks on the CTAs, links, banners, and ads are crucial to any digital marketing campaign regardless of the niche. Since landing pages an essential for marketing real estate, it’s vital to keep track of their clickability.
When testing a landing page using different parameters, make sure to add clickability tracking to it. A lot of marketers use heat map tools to track the clickability on the landing pages. So, one of the reasons to test and optimize a landing page is to increase clickability without breaking the bank.
iv. Analyze landing page copy
Digital marketers keep track of every marketing strategy they apply to compare the outcomes of each strategy. It helps them make informed decisions to meet their marketing goals.
One of the key elements of a marketing strategy is to pay close attention to the website or landing page copy. It has to be compelling, creative, and catchy to attract, engage, and convert the audience.
Therefore, a common reason why marketers and conversion optimization geeks test a landing page is to make sure that they improve their landing page copy.
v. Entice users to take action
Pushing the visitors by force to take a certain action is almost impossible. You must entice the audience with your attractive offer, creative graphics, catchy UI/UX, and compelling copy to take action. This action could be a download, purchase, subscription, lead generation, form submission, etc.
A lot of marketers do split testing with their landing pages because they want to come up with the best one that outperforms every other landing page.
These are some of the points that tell the importance of testing a landing space and uncovering a roadmap for digital marketers to follow and make a difference.
What are the key elements to test a landing page?
There are numerous elements on a landing page that collectively and individually play a role in making a landing page work. An effective landing page testing may require making several changes and noticing the difference.
Here are some of the key elements of testing a landing page:
i. Layout design
The landing page layout design speaks a lot about the offer behind the wall. Most visitors easily engage with the landing page offer when they find the layout and webpage design appealing and catchy. Not only does an excellent landing page design increase the time spent on the site, but it also decreases the bounce rate.
When testing a landing page, make sure to test the layout designs so that the user behavior and overall conversion rate are thoroughly tested. Also, note down the characteristics of the winner layout design to apply them in future landing pages.
ii. Call-to-actions
Call-to-actions are crucial to enticing visitors to take action on the landing page offer. The right wording, color, and button size could make a lot of difference no matter what. Undoubtedly, it’s an essential element when testing the effectiveness, quality, and outcome of the landing page.
Marketers and brands spend time, energy, and money on paid ads, influencer marketing, and sponsored content to drive traffic to their offers. A tiny mistake of putting up a less effective CTA button could spoil the whole campaign.
iii. Landing page copy
The website or landing page copy is a vital element when testing the conversion, engagement, and CTR. It’s the part of the landing page that translates the offer for the visitors. The wording must be powerful yet simple to send a clear message over.
A hefty, cluttered, and jam-packed copy isn’t going to cut it. Marketers and brands should ensure that their landing page copy is clear, concise, and consistent. It shouldn’t put readers off and make them go away. Instead, it must keep them engaged until they’re convinced to take action.
iv. Color scheme
The color scheme on the websites makes a huge difference in the conversion rate, engagement rate, and bounce rate. The reason is that the right color combination hits the bullseye when targeting the audience. Brands often test colors for CTAs, banners, and website navigation to see which works best for them.
Try to understand your demographics before deciding the colors for your landing page. Moreover, experiment with color schemes when testing your landing pages. The psychology of colors isn’t just a bookish phenomenon; it does work in the branding and digital marketing areas.
v. Social proof
Social proof is yet another essential element that has become inevitable in modern-day digital marketing. Marketers and brands use social proof as testimonials for their products or services.
Since social proof brings validation to the offer, it gets easier for the audience to make a purchase decision. No wonder it can be an important element when testing landing pages.
These are some of the key elements to remember when testing your landing page.
Tips to do landing page testing the right way
Landing page testing has never been this easy. Once you know the fundamentals of analyzing the landing page, you can successfully test the performance of two or more landing pages. Here are some tips on landing page testing:
i. Set a clear objective of the campaign
The landing page testing doesn’t go well if you have a vague plan. It’ll be wise to set a clear objective for the campaign, meaning you must be crystal clear with your testing. You should be aware of the differences between the two versions, the key elements of both landing pages, and other minor details. So, vividly set the objective of the landing page testing activity.
ii. Test different CTAs to find the best ones
Call-to-actions (CTAs) are a key element of any landing page or website. The reason is that these buttons initiate engagement and navigate users to money pages or sales funnel to complete the action. Similarly, the size, colors, and text on the call-to-action buttons play a vital role in the performance of the CTA.
iii. Make landing pages mobile-friendly
Crafting a perfect landing page layout and putting the work into writing a splendid copy may not be enough unless you make the landing page mobile-friendly. It’s important to understand the fact that a lot of users access websites, social media, and emails on smartphones and tablets. Therefore, it’s necessary to keep our websites, blogs, and landing pages mobile-friendly.
iv. Add visuals or videos to see the difference
We can’t stress enough that media content works like a charm on the landing pages. Add beautifully designed images, icons, videos, and animations where necessary. Marketers and conversion optimization experts can experiment with images/video landing pages versus no-media version landing pages. The split testing will help you determine which version of the landing page does well.
v. Experiment with colors on the landing page
Colors are undoubtedly an important element of a website or landing page. One of the tips anyone can follow on testing the landing pages is to try out different color combinations on the landing page versions and see which color combo fascinates the users. Users can also try out different color schemes for navigation, CTAs, backgrounds, headers, footers, etc.
So, these are some of the useful tips for testing the landing pages for brands, marketers, and conversion optimization experts.
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Replug is a powerful link management solution that offers various URL management tools and provides a complete toolkit for shortening and tracking URLs.
It’s a handy URL management tool for digital marketers, bloggers, social media influencers, and affiliate marketers who want to shorten URLs, share links on social media and emails, and track their links.
Replug is an all-in-one link management suite to create, manage, and track short URLs and elevate a brand’s social media engagement to the next level. Moreover, this tool integrates with several social media, email marketing, retargeting, and lead-gen tools. Plus, it has a Chrome extension for managing the short links without logging in to your Replug account.
The Replug Basic plan costs $19 per month and the Professional plan costs $49 per month. While the Agency plan is priced at $79 per month. If you’re ready to test Replug, then start your 14-day free trial!
FAQs
What is landing page testing?
Landing page testing involves experimenting with different elements of a webpage to determine which version performs better in terms of achieving a specific goal, such as increasing conversions or engagement.
How to test landing pages?
You can test landing pages by using A/B testing or multivariate testing methods. A/B testing involves comparing two different versions of a page, while multivariate testing involves testing multiple variations of multiple elements simultaneously.
A/B testing vs. multivariate testing: What’s the difference?
A/B testing compares two different versions of a webpage, typically differing in one variable, to see which performs better. Multivariate testing involves testing multiple variations of multiple elements on a webpage to determine the best combination.
What are common landing page testing mistakes?
Common mistakes include not testing enough variations, ignoring statistical significance, and making changes based on personal preference rather than data.
How long to run a landing page test?
The duration of a landing page test depends on factors such as traffic volume and the desired level of statistical significance. Generally, it’s recommended to run tests for at least one to two weeks to capture different audience behaviors.
Link management has been around for a while now. A powerful link management strategy that every marketer should know about is deep links.
All businesses and marketers know how important it is to drive the audience to the appropriate destination.
That’s why implementing a powerful link management strategy is pretty crucial.
Most are still not clear about this URL strategy.
If you’re a tad bit curious about deep links and universal links, then you’re at the right place.
We’ll help you understand the difference so that you can use them for your maximum benefit.
Let’s get right into it.
What is deep linking?
Deep linking is a strategy that takes users directly to specific content within a website or mobile app.
It offers a more direct and efficient navigation experience. It speeds up the communication, data accessibility, and connectivity. Thus, it provides value to the end user.
For example, you receive a recommendation from an online store. You share the link with your friend that takes them directly to the product’s page. Instead of navigating through the app’s main menu or search function, they land on what you recommend.
Common types of deep links
The common types of deep linking are:
Basic deep linking
Deferred deep linking
Universal links (iOS links)
App links (Android links)
Basic deep links:
Basic deep linking is a fundamental technique that directs users to specific pages or content within a mobile app. It improves in-app navigation by allowing users to bypass the app’s homepage and land directly on the intended content. This type of deep link is commonly used to streamline the user experience and guide users to targeted information or features within the app.
Deferred deep links:
Embracing flexibility, deferred deep links bridge the gap even if the app is missing. Clicking such a link first prompts the app download, then seamlessly launches the app and whisks the user to the intended destination upon installation. This smooth transition eliminates user friction and encourages app adoption.
Universal links (iOS):
Designed specifically for iOS, universal links seamlessly blend the web and app experience. These links work regardless of whether the app is installed, leading users to app content via the web browser. Upon downloading the app, future clicks automatically open the link within the app, creating a streamlined journey.
App links (Android):
For Android users, app links mirror their iOS counterparts, facilitating smooth transitions between web and app content on Android devices. In instances where the app is installed, the link seamlessly opens the desired content within the app. Conversely, if the app is absent, the link gracefully reverts to the web content, eliminating the requirement for redirection to the Play Store. This methodology is tailored to ensure a cohesive and trouble-free user experience on Android platforms.
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Basic deep links vs deferred deep links vs universal links vs app links?
Undoubtedly, deep links are a smart tech innovation that helps brands, organizations, bloggers, and influencers establish a strong connection with the end users. It’s vital to understand different types of deep links for more clarity.
The reason is that there are several types and each of them works differently, for instance, the traditional deep link would take the user to the specific section in the mobile app, but won’t work if the app isn’t installed.
On the other hand, the deferred deep link would take the user to the App Store and recommend the user install the respective mobile app. After the installation, it will still take the user to the intended content within the app.
While traditional and deferred deep links are more general terms, app links and universal links are platform-specific concepts tailored for Android and iOS, respectively, with a focus on providing a seamless transition between web and app content.
Opens specific content on the mobile web, even if the app is installed later.
Seamlessly switches between web and app content, providing a smooth user experience.
Seamlessly switches between web and app content, providing a smooth user experience.
Fallback Behavior
May result in an error or prompt to install the app if not present.
Redirects to the app store if the app is not installed, then opens the content after installation.
Falls back to web content if the app is not installed, enhancing user experience.
Falls back to web content if the app is not installed, enhancing user experience.
User Scenario
Used for enhancing in-app navigation.
Useful for user on-boarding and re-engagement, allowing users to access specific content after app installation.
Provides seamless transition between web and app content, improving user experience.
Provides seamless transition between web and app content, improving user experience.
Why do you need deep links?
Now that the comparative differences are clear between deep links vs universal links and other links. If you haven’t had a chance to understand the benefits, let us elaborate on why you need to use deep links:
i. Enhance user experience:
User experience is an essential aspect of the customer acquisition journey and plays a key role in convincing prospects to convert into customers. Deep links boost user experience as they direct users to specific in-app content, minimizing navigation steps, and providing a smoother, more enjoyable experience for the end users.
ii. Streamline user on-boarding:
No one wants a complicated sign-up process that takes up so much time. Smart digital marketing experts and consultants use deep linking for a seamless on-boarding process and guide users directly to the specific in-app location or personalized content, ensuring a pleasant experience for the user.
iii. Optimize conversion rates:
Conversion rate optimization is crucial to every digital marketing campaign whether it’s based on organic growth or paid ads. Since deep links drive users to targeted pages, they increase the likelihood of conversions by eliminating unnecessary steps.
iv. Boost user engagement:
User engagement leads to generating more leads, downloads, or purchases – whatever the KPI is set for the campaign. Leveraging deep links enables precise targeting of content to cater to the audience, which fosters effective user engagement by delivering relevant information without wasting time.
v. Facilitate quick customer communication:
It’s clear that deep links provide a direct pathway for sharing specific content or updates, enabling quick communication with customers and prospects, and resulting in effective customer support.
Explore how LINE Music improved conversion rates with deep links
Objective: Boost subscriptions to the music streaming app.
Target audience: The focus was set on non-subscribers, aiming to convert casual listeners into dedicated music enthusiasts.
Creative strategy: Users encountered an ad designed to navigate them seamlessly to the subscription page, the virtual gateway facilitated by the strategic integration of deep linking.
Outcome: The outcome revealed a substantial uplift in conversion rates, with a remarkable increase of 63% for Android users and an impressive surge of 99% for iOS users. The strategic implementation of deep linking proved instrumental in optimizing the user journey, resulting in a significant boost in subscriptions to LINE Music.
Wondering how to create deep links!
Replug is a powerful link management and marketing tool that comes with rich features like deep linking, tracking link analytics and more.
It’s an interactive, educational platform for learning new languages. Duolingo is available on both iOS and Android platforms. It also has a web version.
Duolingo platform uses deep linking to seamlessly bring users back to the stage where they left off or reached the last session.
When a user clicks a CTA link in an email, they can resume their progress from where they left off.
If you are their app user, then it will take the user to their app. Otherwise, the user is redirected to their website. Thus, this language learning platform is a great example of deep links.
ii. Netflix allows users to go to the title directly from the email newsletter
Netflix is one of the most successful online streaming services in the world and continues to innovate its marketing and engagement strategies.
Besides targeting prospects through social media engagement, this streaming service pays close attention to retaining and warming up the current user base through email marketing.
Moreover, Netflix uses deep links in their email newsletters, which allows them to bring users instantly back to their mobile app.
All you need is to click on the “play” CTA button in their email newsletter, and the title will instantly play in your Netflix app.
So, Netflix is a great deep linking use case and example for marketers to learn from, especially when establishing a consumer engagement strategy.
Let’s conclude: How deep linking helps in marketing
Deep links are a massively popular link management strategy for organizations, digital marketers, and SAAS businesses. It assists marketers in smoothing the user journey by providing quick, fast links for swift accessibility, reporting, and analysis.
Moreover, deep linking is crucial to improving the mobile app user experience as it improves the basic app accessibility and provides a long-lasting experience.
Utilize deep linking to reach more users and convert more.
FAQs about deep linking
Let’s take a look at some of the questions to follow up on:
What is the difference between a link and a deep link?
A link is any URL that points the visitors to a specific page on the web server. However, the deep link is a special link that directs the visitors to a specific location on the mobile app. Deep links are used by SAAS tools, affiliate networks, and app-based startups to quickly take visitors from a URL to the in-app content.
What is an example of a universal link?
Here’s an example: go to Google and search for “iMovie” or simply open this link on your iPhone. It’s a link to the iMovie app for iPhone and iPad. The above-mentioned link will directly take you to the App Store to install the iMovie app.
However, if you try to access the link on an Android device, it won’t take you to the App Store app as there won’t be one to open on an Android device. It may open the URL in the mobile web browser. That’s an example of a universal link.
What is deep linking in iOS universal links?
Universal links are deep links for the iOS/Apple ecosystem. They are used to link directly to specific content within an iOS app, rather than just launching the app’s home screen. Universal links are a default deep linking solution from Apple and allow developers to associate web URLs with their iOS apps, enabling a seamless transition between web content and app content.
Why is deep linking good?
There are various reasons why brands and SAAS companies use deep linking, and some of these reasons are quick accessibility of content, faster engagement, easy delivery of information, and seamless transition. Undoubtedly, deep linking is good for content marketing and customer engagement.
Deep link vs. Hyperlink: Which one is better?
A deep link drives the visitor to the specific in-app location or a certain product page on the web, allowing easier and quicker engagement with a seamless transition. However, a hyperlink is just a regular URL pointing to a website page or web address.
How does deep linking affect SEO?
If deep linking is improving engagement, skyrocketing the CTR, and bringing more eyeballs around, then it’s worth a try. No wonder deep linking could increase content discoverability, making it convenient for search engine bots to discover, analyze, and index content for search traffic.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to the internet. Undoubtedly, it’s a scary world out there when it comes to online fraud.
One of these malicious activities is “URL Phishing.” Hackers and data stealers use fake URLs that look authentic and real, but they trap the users into clicking on them.
Once you click on that phishing link, something bad will happen.
Your password, account, money, private information – something has been compromised.
Awareness is a virtue when it comes to URL phishing. The more you know, the better you’re equipped to fight this evil.
But first things first, let’s understand what URL phishing is.
What is URL phishing?
URL phishing is a malicious URL tactic to trick people into clicking on the links while posing as a legitimate source of information or the original brand that they’re trying to check out.
In some cases, hackers try to pose as a familiar brand to entice the audience to provide the users’ login details, such as usernames and passwords to get into their accounts.If you have problem memorizing your passwords and you use easy passwords, it’s better to use password manager tools, to have secure passwords all in one place and save your sccounts.
Once they have access to their accounts, they can steal the info, money, or anything they want.
Sometimes, hackers create similar brands using similar domain names, logos, or business names to trick people into buying from them or providing sensitive data.
Learn about URL hijacking to be well aware of this topic.
Different types of URL phishing
Hackers and attackers trick people into clicking or downloading their files or software in different ways. It’s essential to know about several types of URL phishing that are being used to carry out these hacking attacks.
Here are different types of URL phishing users must be aware of:
Email phishing
Email phishing is a type of URL phishing in which attackers use the email medium to attack their victims. They usually send out an email to the recipient posing as a legitimate business and entice the recipient to click the link in the email before it’s too late. The majority, 94% of organizations, fell victim to such phishing attacks during 2024
Spear phishing
Spear phishing is a targeted attack aimed at an individual person in the organization, with the objective of stealing their login credentials to infiltrate the internal communication or data. The purpose of the attack is to meticulously collect information about the target, such as their name, position, and contact details, to help support the phishing attack.
Angler phishing
Angler phishing involves showcasing anger on a public forum to sound legitimate in everyone’s eyes. The attackers exploit social media platforms to engage with individuals or companies to trick them into believing in their counterfeit URLs, cloned websites, fraudulent posts, and fake tweets. These tactics aim to manipulate users into disclosing sensitive information or downloading malware.
HTTPS phishing
Since HTTPS provides a sigh of relief to buyers or customers when they spend money on the internet, attackers exploit the power of HTTPS to pull off their phishing attacks. The perpetrators send deceptive emails containing links to counterfeit websites with HTTPS-secured URLs. As a result, some users fall into the trap of entering their private information without doing some due diligence on this.
Code injection into the victims’ websites or blogs has been around for a long time. Pharming is a type of URL phishing that does pretty much the same thing. In fact, it involves the installation of malicious code on a victim’s computer, redirecting them to a fraudulent website designed to harvest login credentials. Therefore, a victim ends up sharing the login credentials or sensitive payment information with the hackers.
Whaling
Whaling is a type of online phishing that involves attacking a high-profile executive within an organization. Since executives have more access or privilege as compared to sub-ordinates, hackers exploit the executives’ credentials to get access to classified data or sensitive details. As a result, the organization may lose valuable information to a whaling attack.
Smishing
Smishing is a type of attack that occurs through text messages or SMS. Cybercriminals and hackers often use this phishing technique on non-tech-savvy individuals who would click on anything they get. AI scams on the Elderly have also seen a rise through smishing, as older adults are more likely to trust and respond to seemingly urgent messages. As a result, hackers trick individuals into divulging sensitive information or downloading malicious content. It often leads to losing access to their devices or leaking sensitive data.
Statistical data from Statista.com reports that popular URL shorteners like Bitly (53%), TinyURL (9%), Ow.ly (9%) and other URL shorteners (29%) are used for URL phishing scams.
Despite the risks involved, no one can deny the importance of short URL’s with the advent of social media platforms, revitalized communication, connectivity, and internet messaging channels.
However, there are some robust URL shorteners like Replug that keep such risks at minimum through safety checks and measures which can be used for shortening URLs.
Replug is a complete link management solution that prevents phishing scams through URL filtering, HTTPS protocol, Domain or IP Blacklisting. Also, using third party apps like URL Void, PhishTank etc., ensures safe link shortening with Replug.
The best solution for URL shortener users is to have secure short links in the form of the custom domain and white label features. Allowing users to add their own branding and creating short URLs with your own branded domains instead of Replug’s domain. Thus, it minimizes the risks of URLs being considered as spam and ambiguity of random links.
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It goes without saying that online security measures are crucial to your business safety and brand positioning. No brand would ever like any other brand intentionally or unintentionally appear like the original brand.
Protection against URL phishing could provide a safety net to stop hackers and intruders from stepping in and trying to get sensitive information to hijack the brand’s identity.
Here are several ways to protect against URL phishing:
1. Access only authentic URLs:
It’s understandable that we can’t verify each and every URL we visit on our phone or computer, but at least try to shop from authentic e-commerce sites and provide personal information on reliable websites. One of the ways to double-check the authenticity of a URL before clicking on it is to Google the website name or URL and see what pops up. Additionally, if you suspect your device has been compromised, learning how to unhack your phone can be crucial in protecting your personal data and restoring your device’s security.
2. Choose a trust-worthy URL shortener:
As discussed above, URL shorteners are widely used tools by digital marketers, affiliate marketers, bloggers, and social media experts. Therefore, always opt for a well-known and safe URL-shortener.
Try to avoid clicking onrandom shortened links from unknown sources, especially those received in spam emails.
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3. Check for HTTPS in the domain:
HTTPS is a must-have domain security protocol for domains. Ensure the website uses HTTPS. Look for the padlock icon in the address bar, indicating a secure connection. However, it doesn’t guarantee that it’s an authentic and real website.
4. Don’t open links in unsolicited emails:
It’s vital to avoid clicking on links in emails from unknown people or unclear sources. Always ensure the legitimacy of the sender by using methods like the SLAM method before taking any action on the email.
Google’s safe browsing endeavor is a savior, especially if you’re an expert on cybersecurity and URL phishing. Activate your browser’s safe browsing feature to receive warnings about potentially dangerous websites.
6. Use anti-virus software on the computer:
Install reputable antivirus and anti-malware software that provides web protection and URL blocking to block malicious URLs. It could keep your data and PC safe from any virus transfer or infiltration.
7. Install a browser security extension:
Adding browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox does help the cause to some extent. Employ a security browser extension that provides efficient browsing security. These extensions can flag potential phishing sites before you access the website.
8. Report suspected phishing activities:
To win the fight against URL phishing, actively file reports to Google, the web hosting company (that’s hosting the site), and the domain registrar that provided the domain registration service to the phishing site owner.
Let’s take a look at the most common ways to report a phishing URL:
1. Report to Google
Google’s Safe Browsing project promotes online browsing security and spreads awareness about safe browsing. The search engine giant has provided a reporting page to report phishing URLs.
To report a phishing URL, go to this page, fill up the form, and submit it to Google.
This way, the search engine would be notified about the phishing website and the team at Google would analyze the URL to determine whether or not it’s a harmful website.
Google can potentially remove the URLs from the SERP that may cause any harm to the end users or derank the specific website in the SERP.
It’s been noticed that phishing websites vanish from the SERP if reported by multiple users on the internet.
2. Report to the web host
Reporting to Google may affect the search engine ranking or organic traffic, but the website may remain active on the internet. The victim of URL phishing must take up the URL phishing case to the web hosting company.
To do this, find out about their web host and report them about the URL phishing. The legit and reputable web hosting companies take strict action against such websites, resulting in the site’s removal or account deactivation.
SiteChecker is a website that allows users to find out about the web host of any given website. All you need is to put in the URL and hit the button.
Most of these websites provide accurate information on the web hosting names, IP addresses, web servers, and nameservers.
3. Report to the Domain Registrar
Besides reporting to search engines like Google and web hosting that’s hosting the phishing website, the victims can report the URL to the domain registrar.
All you need is to find a reputable Whois Lookup tool to find out about the domain registrar of the specific URL.
Whois is a popular domain information website that makes it easier for users to find out about the domain details.
It helps users find out about the domain registrar, registration date, expiration date, nameservers, and other details.
Once the victim knows where the domain is registered, such as Namecheap, GoDaddy, or any other domain registration service, they could reach out to their support team and discuss the matter with them.
The support team will require some additional verification in order to be able to take some action against the phishing website.
Here are a few tips on identifying a phishing website:
1. Examine the URL legitimacy
While a phishing website’s URL gives you some idea about the legitimacy of the website, it’s crucial to know other methods to identify a phishing website.
Not only do these websites use a similar brand name to a well-established business, but also try to pose as a real brand.
Always look out for the inconsistencies or misspellings in the website content. Legitimate websites typically have a consistent and correctly spelled domain name. On the other hand, phishing websites use variations or misspelled versions of legitimate domains to trick users into initiating the purchase.
Googling the brand does wonders if you know how to do a search on Google. First things first, start with typing in the brand name in Google and see what pops up. The original or legit businesses have site links, social media profiles, and brand mentions all over the SERP.
As far as the social media profiles are concerned, closely analyze the spellings. Phishing websites could also create social media accounts for the websites they’re trying to target. The easiest way to differentiate is that the original brands either have verified accounts or a rather larger audience than the fake accounts.
Furthermore, when it comes to brand mentions, the bigger the brand, the higher the number of mentions. So, it’s safe to say that googling the brand name does help in this regard.
3. Check for content quality
Don’t underestimate the power of good quality content. It’s a key differentiator between an authentic and a phishing website.
One of the best tips to identify a phishing website is the low-quality content. Legitimate blogs and websites pay close attention to putting out effective and high-quality content so that they can make an impact.
On the flip side, phishing websites don’t bother putting in the work to create good-quality content. So, anyone who knows content marketing better could tell the difference between good and bad content.
4. Read the privacy policy
Privacy policy could give you a hint about the phishing website. A trustworthy and reputed company would put in the effort to write a privacy policy so that website visitors feel safe when browsing through their site.
Whereas, a phishing website might not even have a publicly-stated privacy policy in the first place, not to mention what they say in it.
A privacy policy states how a website collects users’ information, how they make money, what the purpose of the website is, and what users should be aware of when using this website.
So, look out for the privacy policy when you’re hesitant about a specific website.
5. Watch out for the data requests
User data requests without a need are a big red flag that website visitors should be aware of when browsing through a website.
However, some legitimate companies and online tools do require integration, but these companies initiate this request upon users’ instruction. So, the users know why they should share their personal details with this company.
Attackers and hackers send out hidden data requests through emails, instant messages, and social media DMs by embedding secret codes behind the links.
When users click on the links, they end up sharing specific information with the attacker or data stealer.
6. Verify the company’s contact details
Always go the extra mile when accepting a data request or trusting someone with a link opening, especially if it’s a new contact.
It’s always best to verify the sender’s details before moving forward with your communication or data request approval.
You could always reach out to the company’s website and ask about the person who reached out to you so that you could talk to this person without any ambiguity.
Popular Examples of URL phishing
Let’s take a look at some of the URL phishing example cases:
1. Facebook and Google were scammed by a fake vendor
According to a CNBC article, Facebook and Google were tricked out by a phishing scam, which resulted in a loss of $100 million between 2013 and 2015. The phishing scam was pulled off as the scammer posed as Quanta, a vendor that is used by both Facebook and Google.
The scammer sent fraudulent invoices posing as Quanta to both Facebook and Google and got paid. The fraud was eventually uncovered, leading to legal actions initiated by Facebook and Google in the United States.
2. FACC BEC scam
An article reported a $61 million fraud at an Austrian aerospace parts manufacturer that fell victim to a BEC scam. The phisher tricked an accounts department employee by impersonating the CEO of the company and directing the employee to transfer funds to an attacker-controlled account.
FACC took the unusual step of terminating and suing its CEO and CFO, seeking $11 million in damages for their failure to implement adequate security measures afterward.
3. Amazon Prime Day phishing scam
AstrillVPN shared the phishing scam in a blog post on their website. In October 2021, attackers launched a phishing scam campaign targeting online shoppers during Amazon Prime Day 2021. The phishing email claimed to provide exclusive access to the offers. When users took action on the offer, they were redirected to a different website asking for login credentials and other personal information.
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Let’s answer some of the frequently asked questions about the phishing URLs:
What does a phishing URL look like?
A phishing URL may look like any other legitimate URL, but it may ask you for login credentials or payment information. Moreover, most phishing URLs try to pose like a popular brand. Watch out for the domain spellings and company logos to identify a phishing website.
What makes a URL suspicious?
Any URL that looks like a popular brand’s URL or appears to be the original brand is a red flag. Sometimes, scammers create websites with the same name as other companies with a different extension to fool the customers.
What happens if you click on a phishing link?
When you click on a phishing link, you’re most likely to provide some kind of access to your login credentials, financial information, or other sensitive data, which shouldn’t be shared with anyone.
Companies respond very quickly if they sniff a little bit of breach in the users’ data and reach out to the users/customers to change their account security protocols, such as password, passcode, or secret question.
How do you know if you have been phished?
While clicking on the unknown links from someone you don’t know or they don’t seem like a real business could be dangerous, it’s difficult to know initially when it happens unless you have taken security measures to catch these phishing activities.
Most users find out about phishing attacks when they see order confirmations in their inbox or suspicious activities in their credit card statements.
Software companies, SAAS tools, and financial apps have security protocols that allow them to quickly detect such illegal and malicious activities and they immediately block out the compromised accounts until the problem is resolved.
How do I know if a URL is safe?
Google the same URL and see if other pages show up in the SERP. Also, type in a search query, “site:URL” and see what pops up. If you see only a couple of dozen pages for a large website, then you should be very careful about it. Moreover, you can check out the pages, such as About, Company Profile, Contact, and Services/Products to analyze the authenticity of the site.
What happens if you click on a phishing link?
When you click on a phishing link, you’re most likely to provide some kind of access to your login credentials, financial information, or other sensitive data, which shouldn’t be shared with anyone since your personal information can be leaked to the dark web.
Reinforce brand awareness and encourage social media engagement.
6.
Conversion Retargeting
Focuses on users who have completed specific actions on your website, such as making a purchase or signing up.
User’s past conversions.
Tracks completed actions and leverages user behavior.
Encourage further conversions or upsells to engaged users.
7.
Email Retargeting
Involves sending follow-up emails to users who have abandoned specific actions on your website, such as incomplete purchases or registrations.
User’s past email interactions and abandonment.
Targets users through email campaigns.
Re-engage users and reduce abandonment rates, driving conversions.
8.
List-Based Retargeting
Customizes ads for users based on specific lists or databases, such as email subscriber lists or customer databases.
User’s past interactions and segmentation.
Utilizes existing customer lists and segmentation data.
Personalize content for existing contacts and nurture relationships.
9.
Cross-Channel Retargeting
Re-engages users who have interacted with your brand across multiple marketing channels and platforms.
User’s multi-channel behavior and interactions.
Combines data from various platforms to create a unified strategy.
Deliver a cohesive and personalized user experience across channels.
Most small and mid-sized businesses spend tens of thousands of dollars each year on advertising mediums, such as social media ads, influencer marketing, retargeting ads and search ads.
A large portion of their ad spend goes into retargeting.
We all see some ads pop up more than usual on social media. The reason is that those brands have a retargeting ad strategy in place that keeps showing you their ads.
Ready to explore what retargeting is and how you can develop a retargeting strategy for your business?
Let’s start with the basics.
What’s a retargeting strategy?
A retargeting strategy refers to the tactic a brand or individual uses to re-engage the website visitor who has shown interest in the product or service and hasn’t converted just yet.
Well, to put it simply: retargeting is remarketing.
A prospect clicks on the product and goes through the details, but leaves the page without making a buying decision.
Now the brand pursues that visitor through different retargeting strategies to bring him back and motivate him to take that plunge.
Remember the ultimate goal of the retargeting campaign is the conversion.
How does retargeting work?
Retargeting allows brands and marketers to remarket the product or service to the audience that has already visited your website.
The way retargeting works is quite interesting. Digital marketers place a short piece of code called a “Pixel” in the website code, which helps social media platforms identify the same visitor to showcase ads.
Digital marketers and advertisers retarget both website visitors who have previously purchased the product and who haven’t completed the transaction.
The core purpose of a retargeting campaign is to push the buyers who are on the fence or abandoned the shopping cart for some reason.
Retargeting isn’t rocket science. Every brand or business that wants to convert visitors into paying customers has to run a retargeting campaign at some point.
What are pixels for retargeting?
A pixel is a piece of code that is embedded in a website, mobile app, or email. The goal of adding a pixel to a website or other online property is to track a user’s activities. The pixel monitors user behavior and reports it to the primary source.
As a result, it opens the door for digital marketers, online enterprises, and e-commerce stores to reach out to the same audience through e-commerce retargeting.
The pixel is the backbone of a retargeting campaign. If it wasn’t for the pixel, the retargeting wouldn’t have been possible.
The pixel function is typically available on all major social media sites that include ad features for advertisers.
I hope that helps.
Now let’s head over to the cream of this article.
9 types of retargeting strategies
It’s important to shed some light on different types of retargeting strategies that are being used by marketers and brands.
1. Contextual retargeting: Increase user engagement through content relevance
Contextual retargeting involves displaying ads on websites or platforms that are contextually related to the content users have previously engaged with. By aligning ad placement with users’ existing interests and behaviors, this strategy aims to prompt users to return and convert based on their contextual inclinations.
In other words, it leverages the power of context to re-engage users, offering them content or products that are closely aligned with their demonstrated preferences. This approach enhances the overall user experience and encourages higher conversion rates by delivering precisely what users are interested in within the context of their online journey.
2. Onsite retargeting: Enhancing user engagement on your website
Onsite retargeting is a powerful strategy for bloggers that involves targeting users while they are actively engaged on your website. This approach goes beyond conventional retargeting by displaying contextually relevant content or ads to users based on their on-site behavior and interactions. By tailoring the on-site experience, you can guide visitors toward desired actions, boost engagement, and ultimately enhance their overall sales.
3. Site retargeting: Nurturing your digital footprint
Site retargeting, often referred to as standard retargeting, is like leaving a friendly breadcrumb trail for users who’ve ventured onto your website but didn’t complete the journey. This strategy re-engages these visitors by presenting tailored ads as they continue their online travels.
The main goal here is to ensure your brand stays fresh in their memory and guide them back to your website to take those actions you desire, whether it’s making a purchase, signing up, or simply exploring more.
4. Search retargeting: Tailoring ads to search behavior for precise engagement
A lot of websites put up cookie notices on their websites. Companies, SAAS businesses, and blogs collect users’ data to send them personalized offers or retarget them via different channels. Search retargeting helps advertisers target users based on their interests and search behavior.
Search retargeting targets users based on their search queries and the keywords they’ve used in search engines. This strategy allows you to reach users with specific interests related to their search behavior, and tailoring ads specifically to their interests and needs.
5. Social retargeting: Boosting brand buzz & engagement on social media
Social retargeting is a social media tactic to push the social media users who liked or engaged with your content on or off the social platform. This method is useful for staying in touch with users who have left your site and keeping your brand in their minds.
It capitalizes on the extensive user base and engagement opportunities on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Social retargeting involves displaying ads on social media platforms to users who have previously interacted with your brand. The goal is to reinforce brand awareness, encourage social media engagement, and drive conversions by reaching users in the social environment they frequent
6. Email retargeting: Rekindling interest with follow-up emails
Think of email retargeting as a friendly reminder to users who got close to completing an action on your website but didn’t quite finish the job, like leaving items in a cart or abandoning a registration.
The main goal? Revive their interest. We send them a gentle nudge via email, reminding them about their incomplete task and perhaps sweetening the deal with incentives or useful information.
The goal is to encourage them to return and complete the desired action.
7. List-based retargeting: Personalizing content for your most engaged audience
List-based retargeting is a savvy marketing strategy that centers around specific lists or databases, like your email subscriber list or customer database. This tactic empowers you to deliver meticulously personalized and precisely targeted ads to your existing contacts and customers, all while nurturing relationships with your loyal audience.
The beauty of list-based retargeting lies in its ability to ensure that your marketing messages are finely tuned to the preferences and behaviors of those who are already well-acquainted with your brand and offerings. It’s a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal for maintaining and enhancing engagement with your established customer base.
8. Conversion retargeting: Revive your prospects
Conversion retargeting refers to targeting the audience who has taken an interest in your product or service and is probably on the fence to make the purchase. This strategy is effective for companies and entrepreneurs with longer sales cycles because it allows them to target customers who are familiar with your brand and are more likely to make a purchase.
9. Cross-channel retargeting: Win with the omni approach
Cross-channel retargeting is a form of retargeting that involves targeting the audience on another platform using the data. Advertisers use targeting data from several sources, which allows them to reach their target audience no matter what device they’re using. Moreover, it helps them meet the audience that visits their website or shows interest in the products.
Note: There are several retargeting strategies that digital marketers implement over time, but all of them aren’t necessarily used at once.
How does Replug help with retargeting?
One of the key features of the Replug-link management solution is “Link Retargeting Pixel“. You just need to copy your pixel code from your favorite social platform to Replug. Create a short link and with each click on the short link, you will add those visitors to your custom ad audience. Thus, helping you reduce ad costs and build custom audiences through social and cross channel retargeting.
How to create a perfect retargeting strategy?
Retargeting ad campaigns requires a strategic approach and discipline to run them successfully. To reap the benefits of retargeting, it’s necessary to design a strong strategy.
We have researched and combined a number of factors that should be considered when you are in the planning phase.
Let’s go over these key factors.
1. Capitalize on the existing customers
Existing customers are a great asset to any business. Remarketing to existing customers is an excellent approach to get repeat business.
Customers who have previously purchased from you can be shown personalized adverts, such as offering them a discount on their next purchase or displaying them relevant products they might be interested in.
This technique works well because it focuses on those who are already familiar with your brand and are more likely to convert. It can also help boost customer lifetime value and promote customer loyalty.
2. Target specific website URL visitors
Most conversion optimization experts closely track their website visitors’ behavior. Visitors who have visited specific pages on your website are targeted with this retargeting tactic.
For example, if someone visits your website but does not buy anything, you can retarget them with advertising relating to the product they looked at.
The reason it works is that it targets those who have expressed an interest in a certain product or service on your website. It can also assist you in determining which pages on your website are most efficient at converting visitors.
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Understanding the audience is a digital marketer’s superpower. The better you understand your website visitors, the higher the conversion – no doubt about it.
Categorizing your retargeting audience into multiple categories based on their website behavior and creating personalized offers could make an impact.
For instance, a digital marketer can separate site visitors who added the products to their cart but did not check out from those who visited your website but did not add anything to their cart.
It gives the digital marketer a chance to send a follow-up email to these potential customers that are more likely to result in conversions.
4. Try an action-based targeting strategy
Since you already know that understanding your audience is the key to improving your conversion rate, the action-based targeting strategy will take your campaign to the next level.
Experiment with an action-based targeting technique, which entails targeting people based on their behaviors on your website. For instance, you can retarget people who have downloaded a checklist or ebook through your opt-in bribe.
It’s an effective retargeting strategy as it focuses on people who have expressed an interest in your product or brand.
This strategy revolves around improving the user experience on your website in order to attract users to interact with your business.
Brands, affiliate marketers, and digital marketers use opt-in forms to encourage people to sign up for their email newsletter, invite them to receive push notifications to the website visitors, and engage on social media to drive traffic to their website.
Website visitors’ engagement has never been this easy. Now businesses can incorporate a chatbot into their website to answer prospects’ queries.
It surely increases on-page visitor engagement and boosts the likelihood of visitors converting into subscribers or paying customers.
6. Reach out to a custom audience
Custom audience isn’t an alien concept for digital marketers, especially Google and Facebook ad experts. This retargeting strategy involves developing a specific audience based on your existing consumer data.
Identifying the audience who has already purchased from you and targeting them with personalized ads could be a game-changer. The custom audience plays a vital role in running ads to a specific audience instead of a wider audience.
Most social media and advertising networks allow you to create or use your custom audience for campaign targeting.
Brands and entrepreneurs try to make the most of their ad spend. Therefore, they try out different ways to advertise as well as find a more niche audience.
One of the best ways to target a custom audience is to advertise to relevant email newsletter readers.
7. A/B test your retargeting ad strategy
A/B testing refers to the comparison of two versions to find out which outperforms the other. The A/B testing technique is used in link management, social media image ads, blog featured images, YouTube thumbnails, and several other places.
It involves testing different versions of your retargeting ads to see which ones perform better. For instance, digital marketers test different ad copy, images, or calls to action to find out which one results in more clicks, engagement, or conversions.
When it comes to benefits of A/B testing your retargeting strategy, you can easily comprehend which elements are most effective at driving conversions or getting more engagement.
8 ways to make your retargeting strategy stand out
Developing a retargeting strategy involves a lot of brainstorming before you move forward. It’s necessary that you’re sure and confident about the route you’re taking to pull this off.
To help you make better decisions regarding establishing and implementing a retargeting strategy, here are some tips in this regard:
1. Retarget the audience with a discount:
Discounts attract both prospects and existing customers. Create a discount offer and retarget the audience that has shown interest in your products.
2. Target people opening your emails:
The email newsletter data is crucial to your digital marketing success. Use your email newsletter statistics to drive interested readers to your offers. It could move the sales graph upward within a few days.
3. Remind checkout abandoning visitors what they’re missing out on:
When you have insights into your shopping cart abandonment, go find the email addresses of the visitors who left the checkout process and went ahead with the purchase. Reach out to them via email or social media ad and tell them what they have been missing out.
4. Exclude converted visitors:
Retargeting doesn’t necessarily mean retargeting everyone. Don’t bother the already converted audience right away. Instead, give it some time before you reach out to the same audience who has just bought your product or service. You won’t want to irritate your paying customers.
5. Use influencers’ testimonials:
Influencer marketing is an underpriced marketing strategy. A lot of brands use social media influencers to attract, engage, and convert like-minded audiences into paying customers. Furthermore, influencers’ testimonials about your brand could be used to remarket your product.
6. Upsell to existing customers:
Retargeting the existing audience could turn out to be a useful hack. Upselling means offering a product to the customer who is buying your product or has already bought one. Since these customers already trust you, they might as well pay attention to your offer.
7. Retarget based on events:
One of the retargeting strategies brands and entrepreneurs could try out is to remarket to the audience that has initiated a talk or participated in the event. For instance, if you host a free webinar on Facebook ads and a group of people sign up and show up webinar. You could later reach out to them via email or connect with them via a meeting scheduling tool and offering them your paid training on Google ads
8. Exclude visitors spending less time on the website:
Site engagement is a huge conversion factor. If your website has a high bounce rate, then it may have low visitor engagement. A retargeting campaign could also revolve around the visitors who spend more time on your website. All you need is to exclude the visitors who land on your website and leave within ten seconds or so.
What are the KPIs for retargeting ads?
Retargeting is an ad strategy in which advertisers target the audience who have previously interacted with a website. The purpose of a retargeting campaign is to reach out to the segment of the audience that is more likely to convert into paying customers.
Advertisers use key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the efficiency of retargeting campaigns. Here are some of the key performance indicators for retargeting ads:
1. Cost per click (CPC):
It’s an ad metric used to measure the cost of each click on an ad. Advertisers use CPC ads across different ad platforms.
2. Cost per acquisition (CPA):
It’s an advertising metric advertisers use to measure the cost of acquiring a new customer through ads.
3. Click-through rate (CTR):
Click-through rate is an engagement metric that measures the percentage of users who click on the ad after seeing it. CTR is used in email marketing, direct ads, PPC, and affiliate marketing – almost everyone in online marketing where clickability is a factor.
4. Return on investment (ROI):
ROI is a metric that calculates the revenue generated by a marketing or advertising campaign compared to the cost involved in it. ROI plays a vital role in setting the direction of the retargeting ads campaigns.
5. Lead generation:
Lead generation is a process in which a website visitor completes the action and it gets recorded as an event. For instance, a PDF ebook is downloaded by a visitor and offered as an opt-in bribe for an email newsletter. Retargeting ads could be intended to generate leads for a business.
6. Abandon cart rate:
It’s a metric that measures the number of website visitors who abandon their shopping carts after visiting the sales page and starting the buying process.
7. Conversion rate:
It’s one of the discussed sales metrics in the digital marketing world. The conversion rate measures the percentage of website visitors who take the desired action and complete the transaction. It could be a sign-up to a newsletter, buying a product, or downloading a file.
These are some of the most commonly used key performance indicators in digital marketing. Therefore, these KPIs have a significant role in making a retargeting ad campaign a success.
What are the pros and cons of retargeting?
Retargeting advertising strategy has been around for a while. No wonder more and more advertisers are adopting this ad strategy, which makes it worth paying attention to for everyone learning digital marketing.
Let’s discuss the pros and cons of retargeting:
Pros of retargeting
1. Better conversion rate:
Targeting website visitors who have shown some interest in your products takes you one step further. The reason is that the chances of conversion increase as they have already interacted with the brand. Most brands are likely to see a better conversion rate when retargeting to an existing audience.
2. Brand positioning:
Brand positioning means how a brand positions itself in the customers’ minds. Advertising to potential customers who have seen your products before creates brand recognition. A lot of customers take action when they see an offer multiple times, especially when there is an urgency involved in the offering.
3. Sifting the audience:
When a brand retargets to a specific audience, it sifts through a large portion of the population and focuses on the segment of the audience that is more likely to convert. No doubt that retargeting reduces ad wastage on audiences that may take any action on your offer.
4. Increase the ROI:
One of the perks of a retargeting campaign is that it double-downs on a specific audience, which leads to higher returns on investment. Such an outcome may not be possible with broad audience targeting.
5. Personalized offering:
Tailoring the offer for a specific audience leads to more attention through clickability, engagement, and conversion. One of the benefits of retargeting is to tailor ads based on users’ past interactions. It helps advertisers provide a relevant offer that resonates with the audience.
Cons of retargeting
1. Learning curve:
One of the biggest disadvantages of retargeting is that it has a steep learning curve. A beginner advertiser can’t start a retargeting campaign out of the blue. It does take time for a newbie to learn this advertising technique before this person finally hits the bullseye.
2. Limited ad reach:
Since retargeting is all about focusing on a specific group of audience, it could potentially decrease the overall ad reach. In some cases, retargeting could significantly decrease the revenue if the offer isn’t ideal or the retargeting campaign settings aren’t spot on.
3. Dependency factor:
Retargeting can surely turn things around if done right. However, it’s dependent on external forces, for instance, user behavior is a huge factor that sets the direction for a retargeting campaign. So retargeting campaign’s effectiveness relies on how users take action or behave on a specific platform, which might be an issue for some people.
4. Potential ads overexposure:
One of the cons of retargeting ads is that they’re shown to the audience over and over again. The chances are, that some of them get annoyed by the ads and decide not to see that ad again. It could potentially affect the reach of your retargeting ad campaign.
FAQs about retargeting
Let me answer some of the popular questions about retargeting:
Is retargeting cheaper than advertising?
The likelihood of a retargeting campaign being cheaper than normal advertising is high because a normal ad campaign is broader in targeting as compared to focused targeting in a retargeting campaign.
What are the channels for retargeting?
There are various channels for retargeting, such as:
Facebook ads
Google ads
Quora ads
LinkedIn ads
Adroll ads
Which audience is used for retargeting?
A retargeting campaign is intended for the audience that has already visited our website but never converted just yet.
What is a good CTR for retargeting ads?
A good CTR varies from industry to industry. However, it’s been seen that a good CTR for online ad campaigns is between 1% to 3%.
What is negative retargeting?
A negative remarketing campaign means excluding a segment of the audience from the retargeting campaign or creating an ad in the campaign that won’t be displayed to some of the members of the campaign.
Is retargeting inbound or outbound?
Any form of online advertising is basically an inbound campaign. Since retargeting is running ads to a specific audience, it’s safe to say that retargeting is inbound.
