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Today I want to share a link-acquisition idea presented at an SEO conference in Chiang Mai in 2019.
It is a clever idea that many people never encountered and others may have forgotten.
Here is the method without a long preamble.
The strategy
1. Choose a query with source-seeking intent. The searcher should be looking for material to cite, such as generative AI statistics.
2. Create a page with genuinely useful data. The page should supply reliable facts, explain what they mean and state where they do not apply. A journalist or blogger should be able to check and cite it. This is an evidence-led content task, not a thin landing-page exercise.
3. Run a Google PPC ad for that query. Use a relevant ad and the useful-data page as the landing page. A separate Google Ads guide explains the campaign workflow.
4. Let the publisher make the editorial decision. A journalist or blogger who searches for the term may click the ad. Some may later cite and link to the page, but neither the click nor the link is guaranteed.
Is the idea viable?
You may be skeptical of the tactic. That is reasonable, so the source next uses a Google Ads tracking parameter to look for evidence.
The parameter is less familiar outside advertising and analytics teams, and it can help identify an auto-tagged ad visit.
It is called GCLID, short for Google Click Identifier.
What does it do?
According to Google Ads' current GCLID definition, GCLID is a URL parameter passed with ad clicks for tracking and attribution when auto-tagging is active and applicable. It should not be described as a parameter that appears on every click in every account configuration.
Consider the source's example.
The landing-page URL entered in the ad is https://example.com/useful-statistics-for-journalists.
After a journalist or blogger clicks an auto-tagged ad, the visited URL may look like https://example.com/useful-statistics-for-journalists?gclid=Cj0KCQjw1Jb3BRC_ARIsAK7V6C69G....
If that person cites the page and copies the complete visited URL into the link, a backlink tool may later show the preserved gclid parameter.
That parameter is a useful clue that the copied URL came from an auto-tagged ad visit; it is not conclusive proof that PPC caused the editorial link. Redirects, content-management systems and publishers may remove query parameters, so a clean backlink does not disprove PPC discovery either.
The screenshot below is the McKinsey example used by the source to show what this clue can look like in a backlink report.
Additional notes
The method is most relevant when the query normally signals that someone is looking for a source to cite. Statistics and statistics-related queries are obvious examples. Other reference queries may work too: a stainless-steel business could test stainless steel gauge chart, which plays a role similar to generative AI statistics. Some of these terms may already appear in the site's keyword research.
The source argues that a more specific term can improve ROI, provided it still has enough demand to make a test worthwhile. Treat that as a hypothesis to measure against the current auction, not as a universal rule.
In the source author's experience, broad match brought more traffic but also higher spend and weaker returns. Another account may behave differently, so judge match behavior with search-term quality, editorial outcomes and cost rather than traffic volume alone.
One way to discover additional PPC terms is to identify the sites ranking for the core query and inspect the other terms for which they rank. The source specifically points to Ahrefs > Related terms > Also rank for; an equivalent report can serve the same purpose. It may reveal closely connected long-tail queries that the initial list missed. Add only terms whose intent fits the page; a larger list is not automatically a better campaign.
The tactic can become more interesting when the leading source is behind a paywall, even when that source ranks first.
Why does that change the opportunity?
A journalist or blogger may not buy a subscription merely to verify one statistic, and therefore may not cite the paywalled page.
A PPC campaign can put an accessible alternative in front of that researcher and recover an opportunity the paywall would otherwise obstruct. Free access removes one barrier, but it does not create trust or an editorial link by itself.
If your useful data is currently paywalled, consider publishing a genuinely useful free version that a reader can evaluate and cite without subscribing.
In that situation, the accessible page may have an advantage over the paywalled result. The boundary matters: promote the resource, then leave the citation decision to the publisher. Google's link-spam policy prohibits buying links for ranking purposes, so this form of editorial link building must never become payment for a placement or a link that passes ranking credit.