The Problem: how to leverage third party content

Sheraton’s approach to social media involves a heavy reliance on third-party, user-generated content. This content ranges from updates about local happenings to genuine customer reviews, with most of these posts not directly leading back to their own site.

This method aligns well with a low-effort content strategy and holds significant value for customers due to its authentic, unbiased nature. However, it does present a challenge for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as these posts do not directly drive traffic to Sheraton’s website nor are they optimized for SEO.

Furthermore, the Sheraton Wall Centre’s website, being under Marriott’s management, offers limited scope for customized SEO strategies and digital marketing modifications. This situation underscores Sheraton’s need for an innovative solution that leverages user-generated content to grow their audience, while navigating around the constraints of limited SEO opportunities like those at https://victoriousseo.com/verticals/ecommerce-seo/ on their primary web properties.

The Solution: retarget traffic to third party sites

With Social Zinger SMM services, Sheraton had a quick and efficient way to build a retargeting audience. They did not have to tweak the website or experiment with pixels. Here is how Sheraton built a retargeting audience through social media and got an average of 176 clicks per link:

1) Since the Sheraton Wall Centre focused on people coming to Vancouver for their next holiday or business trip, they shared content that was about upcoming events in Vancouver or helpful information that could help visitors on their trip

Note: all re.tc links are retarget links

2) They also included retargeting links in the Facebook ads to reach more people that were looking to visit Vancouver for their next business trip or their next holiday destination!

3) They then retargeted all the users that clicked on the links with targeted banner ads

The Results: 2,700 more engagements (clicks on ads)

Just by implementing Link Retargeting in their social media strategy (organic and paid), Sheraton was able to reach 23,946 new users, display over 600,000 ads and have an ad click-through rate that is 48% higher than industry average!

How did Sheraton Get 23,946 Unique Link Clicks?

Here are some tips and tricks on how you can increase clicks on your social links:

1) Avoid the ‘See More’ toggle

Social media channels are not meant for long stories. Making a social post text-heavy will backfire for two reasons:

a) Social media platforms are extremely fast paced so if you cannot describe why your post is relevant in the first line, most likely your post is going to get scrolled past.

b) Making your posts text-heavy pushes your call-to-action and your link to the bottom of the page. If you are trying to get more link clicks, putting your link at the bottom will not do the job.

Just for reference, here are the number of characters Facebook and LinkedIn permit before pushing the rest into ‘See More’:

LinkedIn: 200-213 characters

Facebook: Maximum 477 characters

TIP: Keep your word-limit to 140-200 characters and include your call-to-action and your link within that word limit.

Here is a fantastic example from the Sheraton Wall Facebook page:

If you absolutely need to add in more content, we would recommend keeping the CTA and the link above the ‘See More’ toggle like below and then including the rest of the text:

Want to dive deeper into social media posts and their lengths? We would recommend checking out this blog post from Sprout Social: Know Your Limit: Ideal Length of Every Social Media Post.

2) Be Captain Obvious and tell people what to do

A lot of businesses assume that including a link in their social posts means that they have implied what action the user is supposed to take. They assume that they do not have to tell the users what to do.

Big mistake.

As mentioned above – the social media world is a fast one with the average Facebook user spending an average of 1.7 seconds with any piece of mobile content and 2.5 seconds on desktop. So making any form of assumptions about user engagement can cost you.

Discouraged? We were too. However, this hack from Sheraton has been quite efficient in improving click-through rates.

TIP: Ask people to click on a link by including a big fat “CLICK HERE”

This works remarkably well. It has shown a considerable increase in click-through rates and makes the CTA way more effective.

Uncomfortable with including “CLICK HERE” in your posts? Think its too in-your-face and not on brand? No problem. We included a couple of examples in which you can include an obvious CTA but not have it so in-your-face:

“Book your getaway”

“Learn more about our services”

“Watch a video”

The aim is to not only inform your audience on what they should expect when they click the link, but to make the CTA plain, simple and obvious.

3) Use your retargeting links in your Facebook ads

As mentioned above, using retargeting links in your Facebook ads can help you reach a broader audience. In order to implement this, you would need to:

a) Set up your Facebook Pixel in your RetargetLinks platform

b) You would need to create boosted posts or Facebook ads (or have them running)

Once you have the above two pre-requisites done, you can then insert your shortlink as the ad click-through destination (the page where the user lands when they click on your ad). By sponsoring your post, you reach more people and hence will receive more clicks on your shortlinks.

This is probably a very obvious tip – spend money, get more clicks. 

However, remember that everyone that clicks on the shortlink in your Facebook ads will also see your display ads everywhere on the internet! Not only are you increasing your clicks on your Facebook ads, you are also increasing your retargeting audience and hence increasing clicks on your display ads. One click, one customer, multiple opportunities to retarget – that is the real takeaway here.

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Looking for more ideas and help to increase your link clicks? Contact us at hello@retargetlinks and book a 1:1 coaching session with us!