What is ReTargeting and How Does it Work?

Have you ever thought about why not all your leads yield conversions? Maybe what you have is a naive marketing funnel that works a few simple steps. You might be focusing on – identifying your target audience, designing marketing content, executing your campaigns, waiting for your audience to stumble on your content, and then getting them to buy from you.

But real interactions are not as linear as you would want them to be. Most visitors may look around your site; even initiate the checkout process only to exit your site without placing your order. The reasons could be varied. Maybe they wanted more choices, maybe they decided to buy some other time, or maybe they forgot.

So, what can you do about the audience who has already shown an interest in your products? You use retargeting.  And let us show you how it works.

What Is Retargeting?

Retargeting marketing strategy where you target the audience who has previously interacted with your site. It involves running ad campaigns to show relevant ads through apps, web banner ads, and search ads. It acts as a reminder and pushes the customer to finish the purchase of a product and increase sales.

Retargeting campaigns can be executed with ad platforms like Google Ads, Facebook retargeting, LinkedIn ads, and other similar platforms.

Why Is Retargeting Important?

Retargeting is an important part of a marketing funnel where you try to make the most out of bouncing traffic. On average, only 2% of all web traffic leads to conversion on the very first visit. The rest of the 98% are the audience you will have to retarget. As these audiences have already been made aware of your products and services, grouping them under the usual audience where the marketing is generalized would waste resources.

You will need to set up more than one marketing channel to ensure that potential customers are not left out.

Retargeting allows you to run specialized ads that relate better to the retargeted audience.

For instance, if a visitor has shown interest in a particular product at your site, it makes sense to show them ads regarding any promotions or offers for that particular product, so they reconsider buying it.

Let’s list down some of the benefits of retargeting.

Benefits of Retargeting

• It helps you create direct, unique, and highly personalized ads.
• Retargeting can boost your click-through rates and give you better ROI. Retargeted ads on Facebook have 76% more clicks than regular ads. They have been found to increase sales by around 50%.
• It allows you to target the audience based on their specific demographics, behavior, and preferences, thus enabling a high level of conversions.
• It does not require email or phone numbers from potential leads to continue a marketing channel of communication. In the past, retargeting marketing strategies were usually about making use of mailing lists and follow-up telecommunication. These methods could be a hassle as not many visitors would register or subscribe to your marketing info. Retargeting ads, though, does not require such extensive efforts and work with the help of cookies, making it easy to run these ads effectively.
• Personalized ads have always demonstrated to have better reception and conversions compared to generalized ads. When users see an ad about something they actually want, they are more likely to click on it.
• Retargeting ensures that you don’t leave out on the opportunity for easy conversions. It optimizes your marketing funnel and makes sure your resources are spent wisely.
• It allows for delivering value content to your audience and helps fasten the conversion process.
• It helps build customer trust and relationships and nudges them into completing the intended action.

How Does Retargeting Work?

The most popular type of retargeting works with the help of web technologies like cookies. Once a visitor visits your site, their browsers, if permitted, will allow storing cookies from your site. The piece of code that activates this cookie mechanism is called the pixel.

The cookies help you track their interactions, duration of the site visit, the location from which the site was accessed and similar data without the need for registration or account sign-up.

You can then use this information to run personalized ads which will be shown across the ad display network depending on the ad platform you choose.

Retargeting ads can be fully automated and keep showing up when the user continues to browse the Internet.

When to Use Retargeting?

While retargeting is effective in bringing in back old customers and encouraging possible buyers, it can also shut down people if done too aggressively. It has to be a gentle nudge rather than a constant bombardment of annoying ads, which can turn off many potential leads. Remember, too much of anything can be dangerous. Follow an optimized strategy to run your retargeting ads to perfection.

Know when to run retargeting ads and how to make the best use of your retargeting campaigns.

Here are some occasions where retargeting works really well:

• Start running retargeting ads once you reach an average monthly visitor count of 100 and above. You will then have to make retargeting as part of your long term business strategy.
• Promote your best selling products and services through retargeting ads. This can help old customers be aware of the current trendy item that you are offering.
• Use retargeting to introduce any new promotions and new product collections. People who are already invested in your brand would appreciate getting to know the latest collections and offers you have. Retargeting ads can guide them back to your site and check out all the new things you have to offer.

Use retargeting when you have to promote surplus products and clearance sales. As these ads have proven to have better ROI, it will help move up your inventory faster.

Retargeting can be used to increase your brand awareness among interested audiences further. It keeps them reminded of your brand and helps them get familiarity with your products and services. And when they finally decide to make a purchase, chances are you will be the first brand to pop up in their mind.

Tips to Run High Performing Retargeting Ads

The Rule Of 7

Stick to the rule of 7 to keep an optimal count of ad impressions.   Audiences will need to be shown your ads at least 7 times before they make the call to buy from you.

Group Your Target Audience Based On Their Behaviors

Cold

These audiences are just introduced to your brand and may take longer to make any purchase. You can try to nurture these leads into signing up for email notifications and mark them for future remarketing

Warm

Warm audiences include visitors who have shown actual interest in your products. They have clicked through your product catalog and stayed long enough, showing some interest. So, you can personalize ads to show a list of products that they might like based on their preferences observed earlier.

Hot

Hot audiences are those who have come so close to buying a product. For instance, people who added items to cart but left the site on the payment stage. You can show them ads on price drops, payment reminders, and so on.

Retarget Post Sales

You need to focus not just on potential customers but also on your existing customers. Follow up on your customers’ post-sales for up selling. For instance, if someone brought a table from your site, it would make sense to retarget them for selling tablecloths.

Try to find lookalikes based on your retargeted audience. Both Google and Facebook allow you to find audiences with similar profiles who have shown interest in your products. This helps you narrow down your target audience pool and run efficient marketing campaigns with higher ROI.

Try to exclude audiences who are less likely to purchase from you again.  Make sure to conduct split tests and extensive A/B testing on all your ads.

Your Turn

With this in mind, launch your retargeting strategy now. For any assistance, contact us today.