Retargeting is exactly what it sounds like. You pixel/target people who have visited your site but have not made a purchase, and then put your ads in front of them at a later time. Once a customer has left your store empty-handed, it’s difficult to stay in touch with them again in a brick-and-mortar setting.

The internet is, however, a whole lot more than the mall. Thanks to cookies.

That’s right…cookies.

This is not a sweet circle of chocolate-flecked batter, but a tiny piece of data that you can save on the devices of customers who have visited your store. These little bits of freshly baked HTTP code can be used for tracking consumer behavior and personalizing your marketing efforts.

Different types of Retargeting Campaigns

Site retargeting can be done by placing a cookie on your website. The pixel will drop cookies in the browsers of any incoming traffic. This will allow you to retarget customers elsewhere on the internet. Although it may sound a bit stalkerish, it is perfectly legal and ethical.

Dynamic creative is a more sophisticated type of site retargeting. It creates ads that are tailored to each customer based on the products they have viewed. If I browsed the Norstrom website for a red tie and clicked on their dynamic creative retargeting campaign, it would show me ads showing red ties while I surf the internet.

If I have been shopping for certain brands in the past, it is possible to believe that the retargeting campaign will consider this. This can be extremely precise.

Search retargeting is about targeting customers who search for similar products to yours but have not yet visited your online store. Search retargeting’s main purpose is to bring in people who have searched for similar products to yours but have not yet visited your website. This is based on their search queries.

Link retargeting is the sharing of content using a clickable hyperlink and then using that clickable URL to segment the audience who clicked through for marketing to them.

Email retargeting can also be used in several ways.

One method is to use a Data Management Platform, where an anonymous browser’s IP address can be matched with an email stored in the DMP database. Once they have the anonymous browser’s contact information, they can be sent an email directly.

Email retargeting can also be called list-based targeting. You submit your existing list of store visitor emails that you have already collected (you do collect those right?). The DMP can then place those ads in front of browsers.

This technique has a drawback: email addresses may not always match with other customer information. People often have multiple emails, such as one for business and one for social media accounts. They also might have one for business. 

Email marketing can also be done using a tracking pixel. This is sent to the recipient and then dropped in their browser. Your ads will be displayed the next time they visit the internet. This technique isn’t compatible with Gmail or other email services. Thanks, Google.

Retargeting platforms

Google ads are essential for every business. Google remarketing, also known as retargeting or remarketing, allows you to schedule your remarketing campaigns to ensure that your ads are shown to previous site visitors while they search for similar products to what you offer. Google will also allow you to upload your email list so that ads can be targeted at these users while they surf the internet. Retargeting on Google should be an easy task, given Google’s 95% market share for search queries.

Social media is another form of retargeting.

Facebook Retargeting

Facebook is a great place for ads. You can focus your campaigns very precisely and then take the data to further refine them. Retargeting is easy. All you have to do to start retargeting is to install the Facebook Pixel on your website. Because Facebook has more than 2 billion users, retargeting can be extremely effective. They also have a lot of people who visit it regularly or engage with it occasionally throughout the day.

Your Facebook ads account can upload your product catalog to show users items that they have abandoned. Facebook allows you to be extremely precise about who sees your ads. For example, you can include visitors who hesitated to buy within the last seven days and exclude those who have purchased something within the past month.

Retargeting Instagram

You can also use Instagram to conduct effective retargeting campaigns thanks to Facebook, which owns Instagram. Facebook can be used to create a customized audience of people who have seen a certain percentage of your Instagram videos. This could be for 3 seconds, 10 seconds, or 95%. Retargeting can be done to Instagrammers (yes that’s a noun). This is possible even if they haven’t filled out your lead generation forms.

Retargeting can be done for anyone who has liked a post on your Instagram account or sent you a message. Instagram is visually rich and users can only view one post at a given time. This makes it easy to focus attention on your retargeting campaigns.

Pinterest Retargeting

Pinterest is an excellent place to retarget, due to the high number of people who have already browsed with the intent to purchase. Pinterest isn’t a social media platform for sharing life updates or photos. It is more of a bulletin board with cool things to see, do, make, and buy. You can track visitors’ behavior and take appropriate action by placing a Pinterest tag on your website.

Pinterest allows you to target ads to a Lookalike audience. This lets you target users similar to people who have visited your site before or interacted with your pins.

Twitter Retargeting

Twitter can be a bit more challenging to advertise on because of the amount of information available. Twitter ads have a surprisingly higher click-through rate than Facebook ads. This may be due to their prominent placement in the feed, particularly on mobile. Facebook ads were more profitable before Twitter introduced retargeting technology. Retargeting was not possible on mobile until recent years, so most Twitter users were tweeting via their phones.

Twitter developed technology to link mobile users with their desktops and collect cookies from other parties. They have also begun to collaborate with third-party companies that can provide stats Twitter does not have. Industry experts believe that Twitter will be the best place to market in terms of ROI.

Set goals for your retargeting campaigns

Retargeted ads are available on almost every major internet platform. These ads are extremely effective but you need to set some goals before you start. You’ll end up throwing your money away and you won’t be able to retarget it.

Retargeting to Increase Brand Awareness

Although it is hard to accept, organic social media growth may be ending as we know it. It is now a place where people can interact with others they know, which, when you think about it, is why social networking was created in the first place. Businesses that want to build a following will now have to “pay-to-play.” However, retargeting campaigns are not just about closing sales. These campaigns could be used to encourage browsers to sign up for your email list, join a Facebook Group or follow you on Instagram. You can see which viewers interact with your ads and build brand awareness.

Targeting to Nurture Potential Customers

A very small percentage of people who visit your website are ready to purchase something right now. Many visitors will return to the moment of the decision several times, sometimes multiple times. For one of my ecommerce websites, I have seen people come back 44 times before entering their credit card numbers. The internet has only made it worse. Potential customers can be attracted to retargeting campaigns to close a sale with what you offer.

Retargeting to Drive Conversions

Targeting campaigns can be a great way to get potential customers back in the door. You can customize each retargeting advertising to address the reasons why shoppers may have abandoned their cart. Maybe they couldn’t find what they wanted. Perhaps they have seen the other one that you offer. Maybe the item was too expensive. Do they want a discount? While you might not be able to pinpoint the reason why someone abandoned their cart, you can give them sweet reasons to return to your site. Your remarketing ads could focus on coupon codes, freebies, or discounts to drive conversions.

Three Retargeting Services That You Should Consider

Adroll may be one of the most expensive options, but it offers a $10 per $1 ROI, which is not bad. They have partnered with companies such as Outbrain and Google to help you target around 98% of the internet. Adroll offers many segmentation tools that will help you focus your retargeting campaigns and deliver better results to the over 1.2 billion shoppers’ profiles they have.

Affectv combines identified prospects with targeted content to bring new customers to brands they work with, which include Logitech and Samsung as well as Bosch, Hotels.com, and Microsoft. Their DMP of shopper profiles is used by Effect to create a lookalike audience that you can send your ads. Affect’s proprietary process has been praised by publications such as Wired and Inc. who have both named it one of the most popular startups in the UK.

Captify is a company that focuses on capturing consumer intent beyond Amazon and Google. Their proprietary intent-based technology platform, which is trusted by companies like Target, American Airlines, and McDonalds, as well as Nintendo and Sony, is the best in the world. Captify is a leader in voice search and is gaining a growing market share. Captify’s software is designed to drive conversions. It uses voice search to get to the intent of what users are saying (similar to what Google did in the field of written semantics).

Retargeting best practices

Segment your audience.

It’s not a good idea to show the same advertisement to someone who has abandoned their cart as to someone who purchased something from your store within the last month. You can segment your audience by placing pixels on every page of your store. This will enable you to set up criteria such as time spent on the site, pages viewed, and browser location, to tailor each message to the needs and interests specific to the audience who is viewing the ad.

Your frequency should be determined

While some markers believe that you should place ads in front of shoppers who have already purchased your product, others feel they may find it annoying. The number of impressions per customer is 17-20 per month, which is a good rule of thumb. You should avoid retargeting customers who have purchased something from your site recently. This can cause a negative impression of your brand. To prevent this, you can use a burn code. Simply create a thank-you page and add a pixel to it to block those shoppers from being remarketed…at least temporarily.

Rotate your ads.

Banner blindness is a common problem on the internet. Your ads will eventually become background noise if you don’t rotate them. Many businesses fail to rotate their ads and see a drop in clickthrough rates after a few months. To avoid this, you can change things every few months to increase conversions. To see which ads perform best and attract shoppers who are interested in your brand, you will also need to run multiple types of ads simultaneously.

Do not forget to convert offline.

It can be easy for people to forget that offline conversions are an important part of retargeting. You should still collect emails if you own a brick-and-mortar store or offer an in-person service. These emails can be used to upload to your ad platforms, count them as conversions and close the loop to determine an accurate return on advertising investment.

One last word on the importance of Retargeting

I hope this has helped you to understand the importance of retargeting for your business. It also highlighted some of the best services and venues that can help with your remarketing campaigns. It is important to examine your data and make changes as necessary. You will quickly see the benefits of retargeting for your business, such as reducing abandoned carts and closing more deals.

Are you looking for help with retargeting your customers? Book a consultation today to see how we can help your business. If you are not ready, but still curious about what makes a Kobe Digital client a good one, take a look at our ideal customer description.