In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, capturing your audience’s attention is just the first step. What happens when someone visits your website, clicks on a product, but doesn’t make a purchase? If you’re not incorporating retargeting, that potential client is gone. Retargeting allows you to identify who that visitor was, so you reconnect with them and bring them back with personalized ads.
What Is Retargeting?
Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a strategy designed to reach people who have already interacted with your brand but haven’t taken the desired action – such as making a purchase or filling out a form. By using cookies or tracking pixels, you can “follow” these potential customers around the internet and show them ads related to their previous behavior.
This translates to serving ads to users who have visited your website, viewed specific products, or engaged with your content, reminding them of what they left behind and encouraging them to take action. If you are using a pixel that captures their information, you can even retarget them through email, direct mail, connected TV, and streaming radio.
Why Retargeting Works
The effectiveness of retargeting lies in its ability to target people who have already shown interest in your products or services. These users are familiar with your brand, making them more likely to convert compared to first-time visitors. Let’s look at a few key reasons why retargeting is so powerful:
1. Increased Brand Recall
Retargeting helps reinforce brand awareness by showing your ads multiple times across various platforms. This keeps your brand top-of-mind for users who may have been interested but got distracted or delayed their decision.
2 Highly Relevant and Personalized Ads
Retargeting allows you to create highly relevant ads based on users’ previous behavior. For example, if someone browsed a specific product but didn’t buy it, you can serve an ad featuring that exact product or a similar recommendation. This level of personalization increases the likelihood of conversion because you know the consumer is in the market for that product.
3. Maximizes ROI
Acquiring new customers can be expensive, but retargeting focuses on individuals who are already in your sales funnel. By targeting users who have previously engaged with your website or social media content, you increase your chances of converting them while maximizing your return on investment (ROI).
Platforms for Retargeting
Retargeting is a versatile strategy, and with the right tools in place, you can re-engage your audience across multiple platforms. You can track your audiences’ behavior and set up rules for when you want to serve them more ads.
Social Media
If someone likes, shares, or comments on your post, take advantage of this momentum and serve them additional ads across various social media channels.
Display Ads
When someone engages with your content, you can target them with ads as they browse the internet or view videos on YouTube.
Emails
Re-engaging website visitors can be tricky, especially when they are anonymous. Our team has created a retargeting program that allows us to identify who those visitors are, so you can retarget them with personalized ads. If they view a certain page, watch 15 seconds of your product demonstration video, or abandon their cart, the next day, they can receive an email from you with an exclusive offer, encouraging them to come back.
Post Cards
After an anonymous website visitor has met the requirements of who you want to identify, their information can be sent directly to a printer who can mail out a postcard to them. Within just a few days of visiting your site, your prospect can receive a custom offer from you in the mail encouraging them to complete a transaction.
Steps to Create a Successful Retargeting Campaign
1. Set Up Your Tracking Tool
By setting up a tracking tool, you can not only see who is engaging with your content, but you can also suppress out those who have already completed a transaction. This way you are concentrating your marketing dollars on those who have shown interest but have not made a purchase.
2. Segment Your Audience
People will be in different places on their customer journey. When you set up different segments, you can customize your retargeting efforts for each group. For people who have abandoned their cart, send them a postcard with a special discount, encouraging them to complete it. For people who have checked out your product pages, you can retarget them with a customer testimonial video. Those who have liked or shared your content on social media can be retargeted with additional ads, building up brand recognition.
3. Use Frequency Caps
While retargeting is effective, you don’t want to overwhelm your audience with too many ads. Set frequency caps to ensure that your ads are shown a limited number of times to avoid ad fatigue. Overexposure can lead to users ignoring your ads, or worse, becoming frustrated with your brand.
4. Test and Optimize
Like any marketing campaign, testing is crucial for retargeting success. Experiment with different ad creatives, formats, and copy to see what resonates most with your audience. Use A/B testing to compare different approaches and continuously optimize your campaign for better performance.
Next Steps
Retargeting campaigns are a powerful way to re-engage your audience, bring them back into the sales funnel and drive conversions. By using data-driven strategies, personalized ads, and optimized timing, you can create impactful retargeting campaigns that remind potential customers of your value and guide them toward taking action. Whether you are looking to recover lost sales, boost engagement, or increase brand recall, retargeting should be an essential component of your marketing toolkit.
If you want to learn more about our powerful omni-channel retargeting campaigns, let’s connect.