Get Ahead of the B2B Advertising Game With the New LinkedIn Single Image Retargeting
Up until recently, LinkedIn Ads never seemed to make it to the cool gang of advertising platforms. Compared to Facebook Ads, it was more like that nerdy kid you only reached out to when you needed someone to do your homework.
However, things are rapidly changing. It all started last year when Facebook Ads’ performance got hit because their targeting algorithms relied heavily on 3rd party data. Even though we figured out a way to overcome the consequences caused by Apple’s App Tracking Transparency on Facebook Ads, we couldn’t help notice that unlike Facebook, LinkedIn relied on 1st party data they own.
Then, when LinkedIn announced the purchase of Oribi, an Israeli web-analytics company, we knew the Microsoft-owned platform was going to up their advertising offerings.
Fast forward to today – if you’re looking to engage business leaders, decision-makers, or top-tier executives, LinkedIn advertising is a must!
Yeah, the platform might be late to the party when it comes to complex algorithm targeting, but it’s making up ground fast. In fact, LinkedIn is already leading in terms of Cost of Acquisition for B2B businesses.
Take that, Google Ads!
(But don’t take it personally – you were fighting a losing battle to begin with.)
After all, LinkedIn offers precisely the type of data B2B businesses need to go more in-depth than ever with their targeting. So yeah, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to discover that the platform is king when it comes to B2B ads.
Even though you’ve got many available campaign options, this article aims to shine a light on the new kid on the block – Single Image Retargeting.
So, stick with us and discover:
- Why images still rule the realm despite video being king;
- Everything you need to know about LinkedIn’s Single Image Retargeting;
- Why you’ve got every reason to get excited about this new feature;
- The differences between Single Image Retargeting and Website Retargeting;
& - How to create your Single Image Retargeting audience.
Video May Be King, But Images Still Rule the Realm
There’s no doubt that video content is king across all advertising platforms. From memorable advertisements that stay stuck in your head to highly sharable content with clever product placement and, of course, non-sense funny sketches and pet recordings – they all grab our attention and make us feel good.
But what about static content? Is it dead?
As you (may) already know, at Growth Savvy, we love letting numbers speak for themselves.
So, here’s what we discovered (much to our surprise). tven though 54% of marketers agree video is best for achieving social media marketing goals, this type of content is also the most underutilized format.
For instance, less than 5% of LinkedIn’s content is video. What gives?
Well, one explanation would be that it takes a tremendous amount of work to make a video. Whereas for a static banner, a talented designer would only need a few minutes.
Introducing Linkedin Single Image Retargeting
Ok – now that we’ve seen the good and the bad of using video content, we can turn our attention to something a lot easier to implement, use, and scale – LinkedIn single image retargeting.
LinkedIn rolled out new Matched Audiences based on Single Image Retargeting at the start of April, and we were lucky enough to be among the first ones to use it. And boy, oh boy, did it get us excited.
We know what you’re thinking – Facebook had that for ages. However, we never said LinkedIn was revolutionizing the industry.
But adding new humble features on top of the unique data they own is their competitive advantage at the moment.
And, yes, video retargeting is cool and engaging – we’ll give it that. But, with so much static content on the platform (over 95%, remember?) marketers needed a way to make the most out of it.
Here’s Why You Need to Get Excited
Scalable retargeting campaigns are great news for any business. What better chance of converting prospects into customers than reaching out to users who interacted with your brand in one way or another?
With Single Image Retargeting, you can now build your audience with the people who engaged with your static image ads in one way or another.
That’s about the best net you can cast for your ads.
How Is This Different From the Website Retargeting on LinkedIn?
Retargeting through LinkedIn is, normally, a 7-step process (with a potential 8th step):
- First, users see an ad in their LinkedIn feed.
- The user clicks on the ad.
- They landon your website.
- They interact with your website, perhaps filling out a form in exchange for an offer.
- The user becomes a lead in your system.
- Their history is stored in cookies,, and LinkedIn receives that data.
- The user starts seeing retargeting ads.
And, the most important step of all…
- The user becomes a customer.
The users you go after on step 1 will mainly come from a broad, interest-based,, or custom audience. By the time you reach step 7, you will have lost more than half of the intial audience. Don’t freak out, though! It’s normal for it to be this way.
The downside is this group of people who get tossed into the retargeting pool will get deplated sooner than you know. Which means, you’ll have to go back to step 1 before you can continue your retargeting efforts.
Enter LikendIn single image retargeting. With this type of retargeting, the user only has to go through 2 simple steps (as opposed to 5) before he gets transferred to the retargeting audience.
Here’s how the previously described process looks for this type of retargeting:
- The User sees an ad in their LinkedIn feed.
- The user clicks on or engages with the single image ad.
- The user is transfered to the retargeting by single image audience
- he user starts seeing retargeting ads.
As you can see, this new retarteging method scraps a few steps – which results in a significantly larger audience.
Yes, this audience may be less warm compared to what you’d get from website retargeting.However, in the grand scheme of things, you’ll still be able to retarget people who are already aware of your brand, even if they didn’t get to the website yet.
As a result, your retargeting audience may be 10x larger than traditional website retargeting. This means more more conversions for the same investment.
What’s there not be excited about?
How to Create Your Single Image Retargeting Audience
You don’t need any type of special training to set up your Single Image Retargeting audience.
Simply head to the Matched Audiences tab in your account. Click Create Audience and the scroll down menu should give you the Single Image option.
PS: If you don’t see this option yet, the feature was not rolled on for your account yet.
Once you click Single Image you will have the option to choose:
- The engagement type (any interactions with your ad/people who performed chargeable clicks on your ad)
- The engagement timeframe (30/60/90/180/365 Days)
- And the campaigns you want to take the people from.
This last one is very important, as you can use segmentation strategies and retarget with tailored campaigns.
We recommend experimenting with various timeframes and source campaigns.
Building one general retargeting audience to include all those who engaged with content across all your campaigns may be tempting – but don’t underestimate the power of retargeting subsets of your audience with personalized content based on their proven interests.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to retargeting, our advice is always the same, no matter who it is we’re talking to:
Whether it’s website retargeting or platform retargeting, you should always go for it!
Just make sure to keep a well-balanced ratio between broad and retargeting campaigns. The key is to constantly bring in new cohorts to your retargeting audience. Otherwise, the circle will get smaller and smaller. Before you know it, you’ll no longer have anyone left to retarget.
At the end of the day there’s no such thing as a flawless retargeting advertising platform. However, we’ve got our hopes high for LinkedIn to boost their data and targeting capabilities even further.
Their recent purchase of different data startups over the past year is a clear indication of it.
What’s more, we highly recommend spreading your advertising budget across more advertising platforms. That way, you’ll never again rely on a single algorithm that may be thrown off by another data privacy deployment.
You see, not keeping all your eggs in one basket is a good marketing principle too.
Going back to LinkedIn and its future as a client acquisition platform, we encourage everyone to start building a serious presence on the platform. If the recent changes are any indication of where things are heading, we’ve got every reason to get excited about this platform’s advertising potential.
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