Retargeting: What It Is, AndWhy Every Business Should

Use It

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

Modern digital ads can have a huge relevancy problem, and using a retargeting strategy isone of the best ways to solve it.

WIth retargeting, you only show ads to people who have indicated interest in your productor website before. Usually, the interest-signaling behavior is a visit to a particular page onyour website.

While the abilities of retargeting sound creepy—and they de nitely can be eerie when thepractice is done incorrectly—most retargeted ad campaigns are actually doing consumers afavor. Instead of showing them irrelevant ads for things they may never buy, such as anexpensive luxury car, you’re showing them ads for things they’ve directly looked at before.

At its core, retargeting strategies are all about that relevancy. The idea is that someone hasalready entered into your sales funnel or taken the rst steps of the customer journey.Retargeted ads should ideally be a nudge a little further along that path.

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

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Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

When done right, it works! One company reportedly achieved an average ROI for theirretargeting campaigns of 488 percent to as much as 2054 percent. That’s hundreds tothousands of dollars in revenue for every dollar they spend!

If you’re ready to try a retargeting strategy for your digital ad campaigns, dig into theinformation below for a deeper analysis of what makes retargeting e ective, along with sixtips to help your campaigns find success.

What, Exactly, Is Retargeting, and How Does It Work?

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

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Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

The easiest way to think of retargeting is that it rewrites how traditional ad targetingaccording to demographics works. Under normal ad targeting, demographics like location,age, gender, household income and even parental status could be considered. A car dealercould target everyone within an hour’s drive of their dealership lot, for instance. Or, thedealership could choose an age range and income bracket that closely matches the mostcommon traits of their best customers.

Retargeting takes the same approach, but instead of looking at static demographics for itstargeting list, it looks at browsing behaviors. Speci cally, what pages of your site usersstopped on the longest or the last page they viewed before they left.

Retargeting campaigns build these lists by applying what’s known as a “tracking pixel” totheir page. A list gets built from everyone who viewed the page based on their browser’scached data.

For example, if someone searches for desk lamps in their area, nds the local o ce supplystore you own, clicks on the product page, and then later closes the tab to do somethingelse, a “tracking pixel” can register the person’s initial visit. Then, they get added to yourlist of everyone else who visited that page, and they get served an ad for the exact same lampthey were just looking at.

In theory, the ad serves as a reminder for someone who may be willing to buy eventuallybut just hasn’t committed yet. Say, for instance, that they were browsing through youro ce products as a way to kill time during their lunch break and weren’t really intendingto buy anything just yet. But if they have a chance to think about it again in a few days,they may decide to finally commit to a purchase.

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

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Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

Pixel Tracking by Page Allows Your Campaigns to BePerfectly Segmented According to the Visitor’s Behaviors

Serving ads according to who ends up on your pixel tracking list allows for a number ofdifferent strategies.

You could potentially place a pixel on every page within your site; many companiesactually do. This approach allows you to serve personal-feeling ads tailored to the exactpages someone browsed.

Someone who looks at several di erent versions of the same product, maybe even addingone to their cart, could see an ad for the exact same item. Or, someone who browses manyproducts in a single category but never bothers to add any to their cart could see ads forgeneral items in that category.

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

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Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

Finally, people who visit non-product pages on your website, such as the home page oryour blog, could receive more general ads that give examples of your most popularproducts.

You could even just serve them ads that say general positive things about your brand.Customer testimonials work really well for this type of trust- or awareness-buildingcampaign.

In this way, you have content aimed at di erent people in the buying funnel that can beoptimized towards getting to the next step.

An excellent example of this practice in action would be a retargeting campaign aimed atprevious buyers. Someone who checked out of your ecommerce website for an expensivepurchase, like a smartphone, isn’t likely going to purchase the exact same device again. Ifyou put a pixel on the “Thank You for Your Purchase” or “Order Con rmed” page, thenyou can lter these individuals out and avoid showing them ads for a product they alreadybought.

Better yet, your ad can attempt to cross-sell them a related product, increasing theircustomer lifetime value. After all, it’s often easier to get someone to make a repeat purchasethan to convert a brand-new customer lead to a sale.

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

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Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

6 Tips for More Effective Ad Retargeting Campaigns

###p The average retargeting ad is 76 percent more likely to earn a click compared to anon-retargeted ad. Thirty percent of consumers also have either positive or very positivesentiments towards retargeted ads.

On the other hand, 11 percent of people had negative reactions to ads that appear to“follow them around” while they browse the internet. The majority of people — 59percent — felt “neutral.” You absolutely don’t want your retargeted ads to trigger anegative reaction. You also want to avoid having a neutral impact.

To improve the e ectiveness of your retargeting campaigns, put some or all of thefollowing strategies into action:

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

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Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

1. Start Small and Branch Out—Retargeting may sound sophisticated, but platformslike Facebook and Google’s AdWords make it easy. Start o your campaigns on thesenetworks, and then move on to more complex platforms, such as the Google DisplayNetwork (GDN).

2. Use Frequency Capping—Frequency capping limits the number of exposures peoplehave to a single ad or a retargeting campaign in general. Since you don’t want toannoy people, consider putting some sort of upper boundary on all of yourcampaigns.

3. Limit Your Retargeting Window According to Average Buy Cycles—Mostretargeting platforms limit your campaigns to 180 days (about 6 months) after theirlast tracking pixel was registered. But if you have a product category with a shorterbuying cycle, such as retail goods under $50, then you may want to end yourretargeting campaigns after just a few days. For more expensive products with alonger buying cycle, such as cars, showing people similar ads for months makes moresense.

4. Use Limited O ers and Urgency to Clinch Bottom-of-the-Funnel Leads—Ifsomeone appears close to making a purchase, sometimes a personalized o er is all thenudge they need to commit. Use retargeting pixels to serve special o ers to peoplewho browsed for certain products or product categories. Or, use these lists to serve upads any time your business is doing a big sale.

5. Be Diligent About Brand Safety—Retargeting campaigns can often nd people onthousands of di erent sites. However, you may not want your brand associated withcertain content. Someone snapping a screenshot of an ad for your family-friendlybrand on an adult website is a recipe for an instant PR crisis. Review the policies ofyour ad partner, and use tools like Google Safe Browsing to avoid this scenario.

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

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Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

6. Study Your Performance Data, Test, Experiment and Optimize—Like so much ofdigital marketing, your work is far from over when a retargeting campaign launches.Use the data the campaign generates to tell which practices work and which don’t.Experiment and A/B test to nd even more e ective conversion techniques.Gradually, you should become better and better at making e ective campaigns basedon past discoveries, successes and failures.

Ad Retargeting Is Easy to Get Started But Di cult toMasterThe above tips are just the warm-up for even more in-depth and sophisticated adretargeting practices. If you can keep the consumer’s experience in mind and establish bestpractices based on your data, the sky is the limit for how complex and e ective yourretargeting campaigns can be.

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It

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Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use ItRetargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use ItRetargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use ItWhat, Exactly, Is Retargeting, and How Does It Work?

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use ItRetargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use ItPixel Tracking by Page Allows Your Campaigns to Be Perfectly Segmented According to the Visitor’s Behaviors

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use ItRetargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use It6 Tips for More Effective Ad Retargeting Campaigns

Retargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use ItRetargeting: What It Is, And Why Every Business Should Use ItAd Retargeting Is Easy to Get Started But Difficult to Master