Retargeting
Ever watch a visitor get close to converting only to turn around and leave your site? Frustrating! I know! And this is why we are looking at proven retargeting strategies that drive conversion. The fact remains the majority of users won’t convert on their first visit to your site. But, what if I tell you there’s a way to bring the visitor back. To remind them why they were interested in the first place? Yes! There is; retargeting strategy!
3 Proven retargeting strategies that drive conversion
What is retargeting?
Retargeting is one of the best ways to close sales that didn’t happen. If you’re a marketer, then you know advertising plays an essential role in driving people to your website. However, having people go to your site isn’t your entire goal. Is it? You want them to buy or take the desired action. 97% of people who visit your site for the first time leave without buying anything, and then they’re lost forever. But you can bring them back through retargeting.
Successful marketers today use retargeting as an innovative tool to connect with their target audience. Also, to increase sales and customer loyalty. Retargeting is using ads to recapture the interest of a website visitor that left without buying or taking the desired action. Retargeting campaigns remind your website visitors of the services you offer after they leave your website without showing interest or buying.
The retargeting campaign focuses only on bounced visitors. That is those who have been familiar with your brand or recently shown interest in your products or services. So, if you are looking to convert bounced traffic, you can’t go wrong with retargeting.
Retargeting is of two types, namely pixel-based and list-based. There is just a slight difference between them. Each with its merits depending on what your campaign goals are.
Pixel-Based Retargeting
Pixel-based is usually the most common form of retargeting. It’s retargeting method re-displays your product or services to any anonymous website visitor. When a visitor comes to your website, a pixel (an unobtrusive piece of JavaScript) is placed on their browser — making their browser “cookie-d.” When they leave your website to other sites, that cookie notifies retargeting platforms to serve specific ads based on the particular pages they visited on your website.
Pixel-based retargeting can be applied immediately after the visitor leaves your site. Making it is timely and behaviour based. However, with this method, there is a lower volume of people in the campaign at any given moment. It is all based on the number of times people are coming to your website, viewing specific pages, and leaving. Also, implementing JavaScript on many website pages can be a complicated process.
List-Based Retargeting
When you already have someone’s contact information in your database, that is when list-based retargeting comes in.
List-based retargeting is slightly less common than pixel-based retargeting. Nonetheless, it allows you to have highly customizable criteria for your ads. As a result, you get to choose who goes in which list because it’s not only based on behaviour.
The term retargeting is often compared to remarketing. Sometimes one is mistaken for each other.
Retargeting Vs Remarketing
There is quite a similarity between retargeting and remarketing. As a result, they are often confused with one another. The likeness is the fact that the end goal is the same;
- Visitors who already visited your site and are familiar with your practice
- Engage and target people who are most likely to make a purchase
- Build a connection with the customers through brand awareness and recognition.
Although retargeting and remarketing share these similarities, they still differ in their approach.
When retargeting, paid ads are used to target people who have visited your website or social media profiles. While remarketing uses email to target those who have already done business with your practice.
So, how does retargeting work?
Generally, retargeting utilizes these cookies. That is a piece of data stored by the Web browser that remembers users who visited a webpage. This piece of data is utilized to serve ads to the users again. That is showing relevant, targeted ads to users that have shown an interest in your practice. As a result, increase your brand’s awareness and total conversions.
You’ve probably noticed that each time you visit a website, a cookie request always pop up. And when you leave the page and move to another, sometimes you notice a particular ad pop up. Then you realise this ad is advertising a product from the previous page you visited. That is retargeting.
Guess what happens behind the scenes when you see those ads?
- Marketers put a retargeting pixel (snippet of tracking code) on their website.
- When a customer visits a product or service page on the website, a pixel containing information about what they viewed is downloaded. This information is then kept as part of a customers profile by an ad network. And later, the data is tracked using cookies and placed in the customer’s browser.
- When a person visits another website, the cookie tells the ad network—like Facebook Ads—that the person earlier visited the practice website and viewed specific products or services.
- The ad network serves ads to the customer that are broadly applicable to the business or reflect specific products or services that were v earlier, accomplishing the retargeting campaign.
3 Proven retargeting strategies that drive conversion
Use specific URL visits to Retarget
One can go wrong with retargeting in many ways. Marketers sometimes fall victims. And sometimes, you can be a victim. But you can’t go wrong with retargeting if you use specific URL visits.
It is okay to simply run a Facebook or Google AdWords retargeting campaign based on website visits in the past 90 or so days. But you can do better.
Work smarter not harder! It is possible to spend less time on a task and still get huge benefits. It all depends on the route you take.
When you fire up and run a Facebook or Google AdWords retargeting campaign. You will be retargeting everyone who landed on your site. And this doesn’t take your conversion rate anywhere. Why is that?
You can have an audience of millions, but that doesn’t mean they all want to buy. Not yet at least, and that is normal. Hence, it will be unreasonable to have a 50% conversion rate expectation from this audience of millions.
Retargeting every website visitor means you run the risk of diluting your marketing message. For instance, several visitors will visit your site, granted but will they do the same thing? No definitely. There’s a possibility;
- A visitor (visitor A) will come to your site, read a blog, check out what you are about and bounce
- And visitor B will come read that same blog or even a different and bounce
- Visitor C will read a blog, comment, lead-magnet form and perhaps check out the service or products you offer.
What is your retargeting offer for your general website visitor going to be in this scenario?
If you offer a free trial, that won’t apply to all your visitors, neither will a lead magnet. And if you put out one offer to all, it will only make sense to a few. As a result, you’ll be sending the wrong offer to the wrong person at the wrong stage of their buyer journey. So how do you send the right offer to the right person at the right time?
Specific actions users take on your site.
Target users by specific actions they take on your site. The add you send to a visitor should be about a single product or service literally.
Generally, people who visit your website and don’t convert is either because of money or value. They don’t want to pay you money yet. Also, they don’t know or see the value of your product or services to them. So,
- Your retargeting message should communicate how your visitor can find value in the product they viewed.
- It should be delivered to visitors who landed on a specific web page URL, rather than all site visitors./li>
- It should be delivered to visitors who landed on a specific web page URL, rather than all site visitors.
Retargeting based on a specific URL method enables you to send the right ads to the right people. That is why it drives your conversion up.
Wonder how to go about it this retargeting strategy?
Honestly, you’ve got quite a few options. Experts in the field recommend Google AdWords and Facebook. But each has its goals. Take Facebook;
Facebook is one of the most popular ways to run retargeting ads. Plus you have the advantage of its large audience. How many times have you visited an online store and leave the site without making a purchase? And how many times have you seen ads from the store you’d visited on your Facebook? A couple of times right!
Retarget Your Existing customer
Retarget existing customers. Yes, you read that right, retargeting existing customers. Why is that? Simple, don’t you want existing customers to purchase more?
You want to resurrect unresponsive email subscribers who haven’t purchased in a while.
There’s a need to retarget your existing customers. You are going to have new products, new services or updates. And how else will your existing customers find out? This can as well be done using either AdWords or Facebook.
The key here is to sort your customer file or MailChimp contact list by how old or unresponsive customers are. And as a result, get them to be responsive again.
Lead-gen ads based on page engagement
Are you finding success with website-based retargeting efforts? Facebook has a powerful new form of lead generation, using Lead Ads.
Lead ads are form-based ads that offer lead magnets in exchange for customer information. Also, using Facebook page engagement as a retargeting setting is one of the best ways to run lead ads.
This method of retargeting takes your customers directly to a lead-gen form on Facebook. They’re not forced to leave Facebook after all they don’t go on Facebook to see ads. Thus, this method proves to be very effective. You do not obstruct your customer’s Facebook process.
In summary, it’s a known fact that not all of your website visitors will convert on their first visit. They have no idea what you offer or the value of your services to them. Therefore, they don’t have the will to make a purchase yet. And this is where retargeting comes in.
First, you start by retargeting;
- Specific URL visits
- Unresponsive existing customers
- And finally, conduct lead-generation ads that correspond with engagement on your site.
Finally, bear in mind that if you want to improve conversion, your retargeting needs to be specific and hyper-focused.
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