What Is Retargeting Marketing And How Do I Get More Leads From It?

Retargeting campaigns were specifically invented for a certain type of prospects – those that view your products or services and hit the door without taking the initiative to take action. These prospects have some level of interest in your products or services; but for some unknown reasons, they cannot make up their mind and do the necessary.

It could be that you’ve not cultivated enough desire in them. Or that they still think there’s a better offer somewhere. Whatever the reason, it goes to show that these prospects are still mulling over the decision to buy. What they need at this point is a little nudge to push them to the edge so they can make up their mind.

How Retargeting Works

Retargeting is no rocket science. You’ve probably seen it in action. Remember that one time you were online shopping for something? Let’s assume it was a pair of pink shoes. You ran a simple search and landed on a site that was selling the shoes.

But upon checking the site for a few minutes, you would hit the exit button and proceed to check another site that was completely different from what you were searching for. At this point, we can assume you had stuffed the idea of buying the pink shoes in the backburner – to be revisited later.

So you land on the next site, probably some Singapore gossip blog. But as if by magic, the blog is running an advert of the pink shoes you were earlier on interested in. Strange! It can’t be a coincidence. Is the universe conspiring with advertisement companies to get you to make an important decision?

Could this be the pair of shoes that’s finally going to bring your future spouse to you?

The answer is no. This isn’t some psychic intrusion or cosmic coincidence. This is retargeting or remarketing at work – and it’s nothing complex or out of the ordinary. You could understand it to the bone if you tried.

How Retargeting and Cookies and Pixels Works

Retargeting utilises pixels. Retargeting pixels are nothing more than a JavaScript code that anonymously follows your audience all around the web.

You simply place the code on your website. This code operates anonymously and can’t be detected by your audience. Neither does it affect your site’s performance or anything else for that matter. Its work is limited to following your site’s visitors around, and alerting ad companies so they can know the right ads to send to that particular user.

So every time a new user lands on your site, the code responds by sending an anonymous cookie into their browser. This cookie is then stored in their browser. And next time you come online to browse again, this cookie will notify retargeting providers on the kind of ads to serve you.

So as a marketer, this strategy will ensure that your ads are only served to the people that have previously interacted with your site.

This is what happens behind the curtain when someone talks about Facebook retargeting or any other retargeting provider. This form of marketing strategy helps to ensure your prospects are served with relevant ads that  reels them back to the desire they had earlier on cultivated.

As a marketer, you don’t need to know the exact identity of that person. Neither do you need to know where they are at the moment. Pixels and cookies handle all the details by keeping track of your audience and their online activities.

The kind of campaigns that are likely to benefit from Retargeting

Retargeting is both simple and complex, depending on the angle you choose to view it. But regardless of how you view it, retargeting has only one goal – to nudge a prospect well enough so they can take action after failing to make up their mind o their initial visit of your site. 

The action to be undertaken can be anything. It could be that you want your prospects to fill up a particular form, complete a purchase, book a webinar, or make an appointment. All these qualify as action. And your retargeting campaign serves to remind users of an initial plan they had in mind but didn’t go through with it.

A real-time example of Retargeting

Let’s assume that you have an upcoming webinar that you’ve created a landing page and set up retargeting ads for. A visitor comes to your site, but they don’t leave the site without signing up for the webinar. You don’t just let them go like that.

That’s where the retargeting ads come in. Later on, they may decide to visit some other sites or social media channels across the web.That’s where retargeting pixels and cookies get to work. By now you’d have created a retargeting sequence for ads to establish trust in your prospects so you can get them to change their mind and proceed with registration. You’re more determined to make them sign up for the webinar and retargeting is what you’re going to use to get them to reconsider their earlier decision.

So here’s how retargeting campaign will be working in real-time:

1. First, you have an online user visiting your site. It could be after running a Google search query or clicking on an ad that you had published on social media.
2. You’ve inserted the retargeting pixel on your site. So when the visitor lands on the site, the pixels respond by planting a cookie on their web browser or computer.
3. This cookie will then prompt retargeting providers to serve this particular web browser or computer with corresponding ads. It will trigger an ad sequence.
4. Ad 1 running for the first four days: The user will be served with videos that will be explaining more about your business or what it is that you do.
5. Ad 2 running for day 5 to day 8: This ad will be linked to an article that will be talking more about webinars and why you should consider signing up for one.
6. Ad 3 running from day 9 to day 12: This ad will be inviting the user to join the webinar. Once the user clicks on the ad, they’ll be directed to a page with the registration form so they can complete the action they had earlier on intended to complete.
7. After signing up: Once the user has registered for the webinar, your site can be set such that it will be firing another pixel that will be moving them from the first retargeting to a second one. In the second retarget, you can run a similar ad sequence, only that this time you’ll be more focused on reminding the user to attend the event.

This example of retargeting is more advanced. It’s a well-thought-out plan on how to retarget a user until they finally get to respond.

It goes to show that retargeting can be an effective marketing strategy if conducted with the right approach. Keep in mind that there’s no limit as to what you can achieve with retargeting.

For instance, you could use it for retargeting the visitors that are checking out your products but aren’t placing any order. You can follow them with a calculated ad sequence that will be building their desire bit by bit until they finally make up their minds.

You could also use them for your sales funnel and so forth.

You’re the person to decide on how sophisticated you want the ad sequence to be. This is where you put your thinking into good use. Where you can’t come up with something creative, you have the option of outsourcing the service from a retargeting company that could help you figure out the right sequence to set your ads.

 

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Ultimate Guide to Retargeting and Getting Sales

Retargeting is a form of online marketing strategy implemented to close sales that didn’t happen. This strategy helps your brand constantly be on top of your audience’s mind after leaving your site. For a vast majority of websites, only 2% of the visitors convert the first time. Retargeting is a means to help your business reach 98% of the visitors who did not convert initially.

When Should You Consider Retargeting?

Retargeting campaigns start when a user does not complete the desired call-to-action on a specific conversion funnel, which may vary depending on the company’s goals. Each of these goals helps online marketers to determine the user’s intent to buy. 

A specific retargeting campaign can start off depending on which micro-funnel the user is part of; remember, the user doesn’t have to revisit your store. Ensure they are reminded of the product or the cart they have abandoned. 

One way to retarget a user is through the use of Display Ads. These Ads show users the products they viewed or liked everywhere they visit on the web with the help of cookies. 

Retargeting boosts your brand’s awareness. By reaching users and potential buyers who are already interested in your product. Every time the customer sees your brand, they are reminded of your product. Thus, they are encouraged to revisit your site or make a purchase.  

How Does Retargeting Work?

By Use Of Identity Tracking

Advertising Technology or Ad Tech refers to all technologies used for delivering, controlling, and targeting online ads. AdTech tracks users’ identities as they browse through the internet. The user’s identity can be anonymous in a cookie, an email, push notification, or device id. Retargeting can use various types of identities, such as;

• Email address or Mobile number
• Anonymous 

• Device ID – mainly used for mobile retargeting applications
• Cookie – third party services such as AdRoll are used in display retargeting by dropping a cookie
• Push Notifications Subscription- a unique browser token is generated every time a user subscribes to a notification. 

 

Using Deep User Profiling

User profiling helps online marketers accurately create retargeted ads. Small businesses depend on first-party data to implement retargeting campaigns. However, as their business grows, they are presented with a need to prioritize their Ad campaigns. 

 

Here are a few relevant questions that you can consider;

• Which of the business products should be given a retargeting priority?
• Which of the target audience are worth retargeting?
• How can the brand enrich the user profile for better decision-making when retargeting

Retargeting Platforms

Since we explored how retargeting works, let’s have a look at some of the retargeting platforms that marketers can use to reach potentials customers:

Google Display Network

Google Display Network (GDN) covers two million+ websites, videos and applications. Since more than 80% of people worldwide access the internet, you are assured of reaching your target audiences efficiently. 

Google display shows ads targeted across GDN to the audience interested in your products or brand by using your applications, visiting your website, or watching a video that you have uploaded.

Google retargeting campaign uses tracking cookies. All your site visitors get a piece of code from a tracking cookie which is embedded on your website. The code display ads based on the visitors’ behaviour on your website.

 

You can build a retargeting campaign in two ways:

1. Use Google Analytics
2. Use Google Adwords

 

How To Create Retargeting Ads on Google Analytics

• First sign in to Google analytics account. 
• Create retargeting lists in Google Analytics account. Ensure that your Google Ads are linked to Google Analytics.
• In Google Ads account, select Tools > Linked Accounts then under Google Analytics section select Details.
• Link the Google Analytics property by just clicking on Link.
• In the Google Analytics dashboard, Go to Admin; find the Property column, click Audience Definition > Audiences > +New audience.

Create a new audience definition, import existing audience segment, or you can select from the list of pre-configured audience definitions: All Users, Smart List, New Users, Returning Users, Users who completed a transaction e.tc. 

 

• Click Create New to create a new audience definition. 

 

Consider these audiences to create a retargeting campaign around:

1.High-Value users

These types of users convert frequently, who have recently converted, and often engage your business in high-value conversions. The objective of retargeting them is to initiate new conversions by reminding them of products they have not yet purchased, showing them products that are similar to what they have already purchased, and showcasing new products based on their previous purchases.

2.Users that did not convert after searching

Retarget audience that searched for product name that matched your site, brand, or products but didn’t end up converting. Reach these types of audiences by using Condition Filters.

3.Users that abandoned carts

You can use a Condition filter to reach all your target audience that abandoned their carts hence didn’t complete the purchase process. 

 

• After defining your audience, select where to publish them.
• Save your audience in both Google Analytics and Google Ads, so you have them ready and easily accessible when creating retargeted campaigns for your brand. 

How To Create Retargeting Ads on Google AdWords

• Log into Google Adwords 
• Click Tools > 
• Under shared Library Click on Audience Manager 

 

Two tabs appear under this section: Remarketing Audience List and Custom Audiences.

• Click plus button to create a new remarketing list. Create a list based on the following audiences:

• Customer List
• App users
• Website visitors
• Custom combination
• YouTube audiences 

• After choosing one above, insert a list name then select the type visitors from List Members.
• Adjust your target audiences then click Create audience

 

Set Up a Google Retargeting Campaign

Having set up your retargeting lists, you can build a Google retargeting campaign display for your audience.

• Sign in to Google Ads account
• Click campaigns, and click the (+) add button to create a new campaign.
• Click New campaign
• Choose a goal for your campaign then click continue
•  In the Campaign Type section, choose Display, select Standard display campaign, then enter Business URL, and click continue.
• After selecting all the appropriate variables of your campaign 
• Go to Audience under People section, Choose Browse tab, then click how they have interacted with your business, find your retargeting list.
• Choose and select create your campaign Ads now or later.
• Then, Click Create Campaign

Facebook Retargeting

Facebook is used as a retargeting platform by online marketers, just like Google. Using Facebook to run retargeted Ads can present an effective way to increase sales for your business and reach past website visitors. 

Facebook has around 1.3 billion active users every day. More interestingly, it owns Instagram making it even more effective to run retargeted ads on Instagram too.

 

How It Works;

1. An audience engages with your brand or product.
2. The Facebook algorithm identifies that audience Facebook account
3. If they are part of a retargeted audience, then they will see your Facebook Ads.

How To Set Up a Facebook Retargeting Ad;

To set up a Facebook retargeting ad, consider following the campaign process below;

1. First, set up Facebook retargeting audiences by creating Facebook Custom audiences.
2. Create a new Facebook marketing campaign Ad.
3. Set up a campaign ad set that targets your audiences.
4. Under the ad set, Add your ad creatives.
5. Set the retargeted campaign live.

Before you set up a Facebook retargeting campaign, ensure you have the Facebook tracking pixel setup.

 

Below are some best practices for setting up Facebook retarget ads.

1. Always keep at least one retargeting campaign Ad live to build audience interest in your brand.
2. Use clear and precise messages that match your marketing funnel.
3. Test and use high-value retargeting audiences.
4. Set up dynamic ads.
5. Add special offers and discounts for your retargeting audiences.
6. Eliminate all the audiences that have already converted.

Email Retargeting 

Emails can be a good platform for market retargeting because emails send a lot of information and visuals, where marketers can get detailed product information like price, material, etc. 

While creating an email marketing retargeting list, approach audiences when they visit your website. Request them to share their emails to get updates on upcoming offers or products discounts or an update when a new product is launched; this will help them know what to expect from your emails.

Create retargeted emails that are creative and contextual to the user. Ensure to capture your audience’s attention and lure them into opening the emails. Use videos and gifs to entice and get your audience acquitted with your product.

Read more on how to create effective email retargeting campaigns to boost your sales.  

Search Retargeting

Search retargeting is the only form of retargeting that does not need a marketing list. It displays ads based on keyword search behaviour. Search campaign ads look for users that have searched keywords relevant to your business or products. For example, if your company sells black trousers and someone searches for “black trousers,” your ad can start appearing for the users.

It is an effective type of marketing because it’s purely based on connecting with potential customers online.

A custom audience is created through keyword lists with relevant terms for your products or business. The keywords can be exact, broad, or phrase-matched. Identify, bid, and optimize keywords that are searched while editing and reviewing them.

How To Set Up an Effective Retargeting Campaign

1. Figure out your marketing technology stack. 
2. Build your marketing list so that you start sending your retargeting campaigns, ensure they are relevant and within the context of your audiences. 
3. Set the right time and schedules for communications to generate positive reactions and responses from your audiences.
4. Ensure that your retargeting campaign messages are personalized in a way that captures the attention of your audiences.
5. Use a burn pixel to exclude all the users who have already converted and made purchases to avoid bombarding them with ads of the same products. 
6. Ensure creative optimization to capture the attention of your audiences and boost conversion rates.
7. Ensure you leverage the most effective devices and channels to reap the optimum benefits of retargeting campaigns.  

Retargeting Services

These retargeting marketing services give you access to more robust sites to streamline your retargeted campaigns on a single platform.

AdRoll

AdRoll gives 98% of the sites on the internet from their advertising partners like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Facebook.

AdRoll has advanced targeting techniques, such as geo-targeting, customer segmentation, etc. You can also create groups for users based on the behaviours, target or exclude visitors based on their actions, and set advanced conversion techniques.

It also provides an easy-to-use platform for customer retargeting on Facebook news feed ads. 

ReTargetter

ReTargetter offers many retarget marketing solutions, such as Facebook exchange, email retargeting, CRM retargeting, search retargeting, site retargeting and short tag.

You can design retargeted ads for your audience based on the customer’s intent, geographical location, or demographics.

They do not focus on one type of retargeting, making it more effective to choose from various options.

Significantly, it doesn’t restrict its inventory based on expenditure; hence you are guaranteed full network access to its resources.

 

Perfect Audience

The perfect audience tool is a simple to use platform for all your retargeting marketing campaigns. You are only required to add a piece of code to your site, create a few lists for the visitors you want to target and add campaign ads. 

It’s an excellent platform for small businesses as it doesn’t charge any setup or maintenance fees.

You can easily track your ads performance by the number of impressions, the number of clicks attained, and the number and names of the websites where your ads have been served. 

Best Practices for Retargeting Marketing

After you have chosen a platform to use for your retargeting marketing. Consider the following best practices as you set up your targeted marketing campaign:

• Segment your audience

Ensure you set up different methods to segment your audience. Such as a segment based on pages visited, demographics, geographic locations, time to segment your site visitors. Or use various pixels on other pages of your website; this will ensure you create specific retargeting messages that address the particular needs of your target audiences. 

Audience segmentation will enable you to approach different groups of people with different sets of Ads, helping them move closer to closing a purchase. 

• Determine your frequency 

Depending on what retargeting platforms or services you are using for your campaign, you can set up your retargeting Ads based on how long it has been since the visitor accessed your site. This way, you will be able to curate retargeted Ads for your potential customers in the first two weeks after they visit your site.

The idea is to keep running retargeted Ads frequently and consistently as you don’t know when a potential audience will complete a purchase; this can also boost brand awareness. 

• Rotate your campaign Ads regularly  

Ensure you rotate your retargeted Ad campaigns to avoid banner blindness. As your potential customers continue to see your Ads more frequently, it is easier for banner blindness to set in, making them ignore or bypass your Ads.

Regularly run A/B tests on retargeted Ads, to ensure you keep your messages up to date and within the context of your audience. Hence, addressing the needs of your audiences in a way that works for them. 

• Use view-through conversion windows.

You can track the impact of your retargeted ad campaign on brand awareness by setting a view-through conversion window. You can access and link an audience seeing your campaign ad to their conversion through this window regardless of the user having clicked on the Ad or not.

You can set the click view window for different durations depending on the platform or service you are using. An effective retargeting Ad should make an impression and influence an audience to convert. 

• Make use of a burn code.

Let’s face it; no one would like to be bombarded with ads of the products they have already purchased. You can avoid this by adding a pixel on your audience converting page so that you will be able to eliminate them from your retargeting campaigns Ads. 

 

How To Make Sure Your Retargeting Works for You

For your retargeting campaign to deliver your intended results, you have to develop ways to capture your audience’s attention.

You can use retargeting marketing to lead your potential customers to the point of conversion. To do this, you have to curate your marketing messages in a way that addresses your customers’ needs. 

 

Let’s explore some different ways to achieve that: 

• Address their needs

Most times, your potential customers are not willing to convert because they have unsettled concerns. They might not be ready to spend as much as you are asking, or they may be unwilling to give their personal information online to make a purchase more.  

Whichever reason makes sure your retargeted marketing campaign addresses these needs in the most effective way. 

• Lower your prices

94% of online shoppers spend most of their time in comparison shopping. Most likely, your potential customers are looking for a business that offers what they need at a lower price. 

One way to get your potential customers buying is through discounts; this solves the pricing concerns of a potential buyer. You can use terms such as “Offer valid until…” or “Get 15% off” to lure your customers into buying your products.

• Make shopping easy for them. 

While designing your retargeting campaigns, address your buyers’ concerns by offering them solutions. For example, a retargeted Ad to sell a phone can also provide a variety of covers for that phone. That way, a buyer does not have to look for another site to purchase Phone covers. 

This tactic can work well on eCommerce platforms, identifying what “extra” thing your customer requires or is likely to buy after purchasing a particular product. Then throw in a discount for those products, and you will end up having your audience in a ready-to-buy mode. 

• Make them return to your site.

An effective retargeting makes people who are not ready to convert. Retarget marketing doesn’t end with a sale. You have to ensure your customers buy again and again.

Once a potential customer purchases a product, give them a few months before retargeting Ads; that way, they are more likely to buy or recommend your products.  

Retarget Campaign Goals

What are some of the goals the retargeting marketing campaigns hope to achieve?

• Build brand awareness.

The more users see a brand they have purchased from their devices, the more connected they feel. Hence, increasing the likelihood of buying products from your brand and better still recommending them to their friends.

• To increase brand affinity.

Contextual retargeting increases users’ trust towards your brand. Potential customers and already existing customers are more likely to convert again by putting much thought into it because they trust your brand.

• Boost audience engagement

Retarget marketing campaigns keep your audience engaged. When customers are engaged, they are likely to visit your website or social channels to have a look at your products, and they are likely to convert once they spot something that interests them.

• Improved conversion rates

The fact that the users have shown interest in your products indicates a high probability of purchasing once retargeted. 

Renew a potential customers interest

A potential customer shows interest in buying your product once they visit your site; they can be distracted and get off your area before purchasing. Retargeting is a great tactic to spark interest again and bring them back to your site. 

 

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The Final Thought

Retargeting works for everyone with an online presence, regardless of whether you’re driving organic or paid traffic. So long as you have visitors who land on your site and leave without taking action, that’s enough reason to factor retargeting campaigns into your next marketing strategy.

Retargeting is what you use to remind the user that you still exist even after they left your site without doing anything. It’s what pushes them to take the action they had initially intended to take before finally pulling out. You can think of it as offering a second chance to a prospect that’s already familiar with your offer.

No one understands retargeting campaigns in Singapore better than us. So why not give us a call today or schedule a meeting with one of our customer representatives at MediaOne Marketing and let’s reason out together on how we make this marketing strategy work for you.