What is Retargeting?
Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a digital marketing technique that allows you to target users who have previously interacted with your brand in some capacity but didn’t perform a wanted action, such as buying something, filling out a form, or clicking on a link. It’s essentially a way of reminding these prospective customers about your brand and encouraging them to return to your site or app to complete their transaction.
Retargeting generally employs cookies to follow users to your site. When a visitor comes to your site and departs without converting, cookies monitor their behavior. Then, your ads are then presented to these people as they browse other websites, remembering to keep your brand top of mind.
How Does Retargeting Function?
Retargeting takes a couple of steps that are vital to its effectiveness:
Tracking Website Visitors: Retargeting starts by placing a small piece of code (a pixel) on your website. The code tracks visitors’ behavior, including what pages they visit, how long they stay on your website, and what they do (or don’t do).
Segmenting Audiences: After you have gathered data about your visitors, you can segment them based on their behavior. You can, for example, run varied campaigns for those who abandoned their shopping cart and those who only browsed specific product pages. Segmenting your audience implies that you can show more relevant ads based on their needs and interests.
Displaying Retargeted Ads: Once your audience segments have been set up, you can display your highly targeted ads on multiple sites, such as social media, Google’s display network, and other publishing sites. The users will then be retargeted throughout the web while surfing other sites, encouraging them to return to your site and complete their action.
Campaign Optimization: As you go forward, you gain knowledge of your retargeting campaigns’ performance. This helps you optimize campaigns, adjusting targeting, creativity, and frequency in order to optimize results.
Benefits of Retargeting for Your Business
Now that you know how retargeting works, let’s talk about all the benefits it can provide to your business:
1. Better Conversions
Retargeting excels at converting previous visitors into customers. Research shows that people retargeted with display advertisements are 70% more likely to convert on your site. Since these users are already interested in your product or service, they will be more likely to engage when reminded about your products.
2. Higher Return on Investment (ROI)
Because you’re advertising to people who are already familiar with your brand, retargeting campaigns have a higher ROI than traditional forms of advertising. Because you’re advertising to a crowd that’s already engaged with your business, you’re getting more for your money and experiencing better results.
3. Low-Cost Marketing
Retargeting is also a cost-effective marketing method. You’re reaching people who are already familiar with your business, so you don’t have to cast a wide net in hopes of drawing in new customers. And because the advertising is behavior-based, you can get the most out of your investment by only showing ads to the most relevant users.
Types of Retargeting
There are numerous retargeting strategies that you can utilize depending on your business goal:
Site Retargeting: Most widely used retargeting refers to targeting users who visited your site but didn’t convert.
Search Retargeting: Refers to targeting people who searched for keyword terms related to your products or services but didn’t visit your site.
Social Media Retargeting: By using this technique of retargeting, you can retarget social media users who have interacted with your brand in the past on social media as likes, comments, and shares.
Email Retargeting: If you possess email lists of users who interacted with your brand in the past, you can send them retargeted ads in the form of an email.
Best Practices for Retargeting
In order to get the most out of your retargeting, take these best practices into consideration:
Limit Frequency: Avoid overwhelming your audience with endless ads. Make use of frequency caps to stay away from ad fatigue and annoyance.
Segment your audience: Targeted ads deliver better results. Create segments with user behavior as the basis and tailor your messages accordingly.
Create effective ads: Craft ads that are seen and act upon. Leverage clear calls-to-action (CTAs) and visually stimulating images to incite engagement.
Test and Optimize: Continuously test different ad creatives, landing pages, and audiences to ascertain what works best. Continuously optimize campaigns for improved performance.
Conclusion
Retargeting is a powerful marketing instrument for businesses looking to reconnect visitors and generate conversions. Targeting users who are already interested in your brand is a guaranteed way of reminding them of your products or services, building trust, and nudging them into the desired action. When done well, retargeting can give you a high return on investment and make your business competitive in the online market.
