Engagement-to-DM Retargeting
Turn visible social engagement into direct campaign action
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 99%
Engagement-to-DM Retargeting uses likes, comments, and shares as a warm audience signal. Publish a useful post related to the campaign topic without forcing a heavy call to action. Then identify the people who engaged and send them a relevant direct invitation, such as a webinar registration or sponsor link. The public post earns attention and trust; the private message makes the next action explicit. This creates multiple touchpoints while keeping the original content useful rather than promotional. The mechanism works because engagers have already revealed topical interest, so a tailored follow-up is more relevant and can achieve a higher click-through rate than relying on a feed link alone.
Origin
Hala Taha said her team follows up with people who engage with sponsored LinkedIn posts and that this direct-message retargeting drives most webinar registrations.
Core principles
- 01Treat engagement as demonstrated interest
- 02Separate the value-led post from the direct call to action
- 03Use direct follow-up to create another touchpoint
- 04Match the follow-up to the content that earned attention
How to run it
- 1
Earn topical engagement
Publish a story, lesson, or tip closely related to the eventual offer.
Pro tip Let the post deliver value even if nobody clicks.
Watch out An overtly promotional post may suppress the engagement needed for retargeting.
- 2
Build the engager list
Capture the people who liked, commented on, or shared the post.
Pro tip Prioritize stronger actions such as comments and shares first.
- 3
Send the relevant invitation
Direct-message each engager with a clear link and a reason the next step matches the post they saw.
Pro tip Reference the specific topic rather than sending a generic pitch.
Watch out Do not imply personal familiarity that does not exist.
- 4
Measure and refine
Track clicks, registrations, and negative responses to improve the post-to-message pairing.
Pro tip Compare conversion by engagement type and post topic.
Watch out High message volume without relevance becomes spam.
In the wild
A creator posts a practical sales tip, then messages people who engage to invite them to a deeper sponsored sales webinar. The post supplies value at the top of the funnel while the DM carries the registration call to action.
→ Warm social engagement becomes attributable webinar registrations.
Common mistakes
DMing an unrelated offer
Engagement signals interest in the post's subject, not permission for any promotion.
Automating without restraint
Volume cannot compensate for generic copy, poor fit, or ignored platform norms.
Is it for you?
Best for
Creators with permission to message engaged users and a relevant next-step offer.
Not ideal for
Cold bulk outreach or platforms where direct messaging is tightly restricted.
From the transcript
“anybody who likes or comments or even shares, we're then going to retarget them in the DMs with either the promo CTA link for the…”
“And the click-through rate on DMs is way higher than people just clicking the post.”
From the episode
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Hala Taha