# The Importance of Target Links > Learn why target links are among the most important factors to promote effectively online. - URL: https://b00st.com/blog/the-importance-of-target-links - Published: 2022-07-11 - Authors: Philip Muellerschoen - Tags: music business, Target Links, Efficient Promotion, Listener Consumption, Creator economy ## TL;DR - The target link and the creative are the two campaign components that must come from the advertiser. - Fast-loading, low-friction target links convert better, while pop-ups, third-party apps and slow-loading media work against advertisers. - Check your link's speed with Google PageSpeed Insights before launching, and avoid gates like email capture before the song. ![A circular archery target with five colored rings, gold, red, blue, black, and white, that is pierced by four arrows.](https://b00st.com/static/images/the-importance-of-target-links.webp) Our mission at b00st.com is to simplify, automate, and supercharge online advertising throughout music. As such, we build software to handle most of the complex tasks required to set up and execute successful advertising campaigns. ## Critical advertising components There are two important components that by design have to come from the party looking to advertize: creative and the target link. In this article, we are going to focus on target links and explain why every second matters to make an advertising campaign successful. ### What's a target link? In short, it's the link promoted during a campaign that leads to a destination online, like a website or app. Here are a few examples for actual [b00st.com](b00st.com) campaigns - Landing page https://found.ee/songbird - shoutout to Rita Wilson - Website https://www.batshxtkrazy.com - shoutout to Doobie - Spotify track https://open.spotify.com/track/2LRqSS9ZAZZd2LEpaslz6n?si=fde0f180b66f41a1 - shoutout to Xammy - Trackable URL https://crue.lnk.to/essentials - shoutout to Mötley Crüe - YouTube video https://youtu.be/6z49QK935mU - shoutout to Yung Honcho ### Why do target links matter? The time it takes to load a website or app can make the difference between a sale and no sale. The more friction, the less likely it is that a person clicking an ad will actually take the desired action. Contrary to common belief, the fanciness of a website or landing page has little to do with how willingly a listener might take an action. Pop-ups, third party apps, and slow loading media are all working against advertisers. Page load speed is incredibly important as well. It varies greatly depending on the underlying destination's site engineering. If you want to see for yourself, pop open Google's [PageSpeed Insight](https://pagespeed.web.dev/) in a new tab and plug in some links. ### Since we're all lazy, here are some links from above to try: - [Landing - Rita Wilson](https://ritawilson.com) ➡️ https://pagespeed.web.dev/report?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffound.ee%2Fsongbird - [Website - Doobie](https://www.batshxtkrazy.com) ➡️ https://pagespeed.web.dev/report?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.batshxtkrazy.com%2F - [Spotify track - Xammy](https://instagram.com/realxammy) ➡️ https://pagespeed.web.dev/report?url=https%3A%2F%2Fopen.spotify.com%2Ftrack%2F2LRqSS9ZAZZd2LEpaslz6n%3Fsi%3Dfde0f180b66f41a1 - [Trackable URL - Mötley Crüe](https://motley.com) ➡️ https://pagespeed.web.dev/report?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmusic.apple.com%2Fus%2Fplaylist%2Fm%25C3%25B6tley-cr%25C3%25BCe-essentials%2Fpl.c332ead9b67b4981be11c29a1425d839 - [YouTube - Yung Honcho](https://yunghoncho.com) ➡️ https://pagespeed.web.dev/report?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2F6z49QK935mU ### An exemplar of decent page speed Notice how the YouTube link is faster than the rest. Does that surprise you, given that YouTube has the second most hits on the web, second only to google.com, as of this writing? Did you know that Google's parent company, [Alphabet](https://abc.xyz) owns YouTube? _They might just know a thing or two about the web..._ ### An exemplar of terrible page speed You've probably heard of Lenovo, the computer manufacturer. Though a large, well-funded company, Lenovo's online site is a great example of _what not to do_ on many fronts. In particular, [try lenovo.com](https://pagespeed.web.dev/report?url=https%3A%2F%2Flenovo.com%2F&form_factor=mobile) on Google's page speed site. On a very fast connection you will likely see a performance score < 25 out of 100 for Lenovo's site. Notice how "choppy" or "laggy" the site feels? Over tens of thousands of visitors that makes a difference in how many computers they sell. In contrast, load up [vercel.com](https://vercel.com), a next-generation web company working on standardizing engineering excellence across the web. Notice how quick their site loads? They have fantastic pagespeed performance and it shows when you use their stuff. > We're proud clients of Vercel, which helps us serve you b00st.com quickly and efficiently. ## Some campaign recommendations Before launching a campaign, make sure you know how fast your target link loads and how it compares to the best in the industry. Vercel is a good example of near-perfect. Define your advertising goals and narrow your marketing destination as much as possible. Decide whether you want to engage new listeners or re-engage current fans. For example, a landing page that captures emails before letting fans proceed to listen to the song on Spotify will probably lower advertising effectiveness. Is that not asking a lot of a person that might have heard of a band for the first time? And be wary of platforms that do block your listeners. Spotify is one example of blocking behavior that we've seen limit campaign effectiveness, while YouTube allows immediate consumption for a user and often enhances campaign effectiveness. ## We'd love to hear from you We started a topic in our community portal and would like to hear what link tools you find useful to help your marketing efforts. [Head over to the community portal](https://community.b00st.com/t/what-target-link-should-i-use/149) and let us know what you think.