Retargeting is an online marketing strategy that re-positions your brand in front of users who have stopped visiting your site lately. A tracking pixel is an excellent idea that can be placed on your website to remind them about your exciting collection of products or services when they visit a different unrelated site to make a subtle attempt of persuading them to come back over.
This is often done through search retargeting, in which ads are targeted based on recent searches, and email retargeting, where scripted emails are triggered based on specific user behaviors.
In recent years, retargeting has continued to grow as an effective way to acquire new leads and customers. Here are some stats to consider: retargeted customers are three times more likely to click on your ad, and 70% more likely to convert. As a result, half of the marketer’s plan to increase their marketing budget by next 6 months, and 20% have a dedicated budget for retargeting.
In this blog, we will give a snapshot of the trending patterns of the digital marketing landscape in 2018, discuss what’s changed and what’s new, and shed light on where your marketing strategy be focused towards.
Content Is still at the core
The aim to retarget the customers is to drive conversions, but there must be some substance to go ahead with that process and for people to come back to your site.
The good thing about retargeting with content is it provides a fresh opportunity to connect with your prospects and try convincing them to reconsider your products, who aren’t yet ready to buy ; however in a very subtle manner. For someone who is presently showing a casual interest in your products, a whitepaper or eBook at the right time could do the work of moving them towards purchase. Assuming you have a good repository of content already created for various purposes, this tactic should come without an additional cost.
To decide which pieces of content to use for your campaign, figure out what your top performers are based on behavior data. How you define that is up to you—time on page or views/downloads can be good places to start.
If you have the competence, sort your content by multi-touch revenue created; if an asset has a proven track record facilitating conversion, it’s perfect for retargeting ads. Next is segmentation of your content, so that users are receiving the right thing at the right time.
Here’s how Marketo segments their content for retargeting:
| Buyer Stage | Ideal Assets |
| Awareness: users know about your brand, but have yet to engage | Infographics, cheat sheets, slides, case studies |
| Engagement: users have demonstrated interest with downloads or form-fills, but are not quite ready to buy | Ebooks, whitepapers, definitive guides, webinars |
| Conversion: users are prepared to buy, and are choosing between you and your competitors | Competitive reports, Magic Quadrants, live demos |
Through the process of segmentation of your best performing content like this, you are positioned in the best way closer to pulling the trigger.
Timing is the key
Even with the best of your master content you positioned for the right audiences, your retargeting strategy will fall flat if you fail to keep a tab on the timing of it. If you happen to wait longer, you run into the risk of losing and if you send frequently then chances are high of annoying them.
The timing of your retargeting efforts should be spot-on which again depends on the type of audience member you are targeting and the type of product you are offering.
Some best practices are:
Strike fast: Your first retargeting ad should show up soon after first contact. Catch these first-time visitors before they forget about you and go with your rival brand products.
Then, you need to take it slow. After your introduction, slow down, so you don’t become pushy after the welcome. Establish a “frequency cap” that controls the tempo of your display ads. And for those who successfully convert, make sure you have controls in place to pull them out of your ad stream.
Sync with key events: Important occasions are a great way to reactivate your audience without coming across as too pushy. Consider retargeting with some discount coupons or offering a sneak peek into your latest products.
Monitor behavior: Use a tool that can track how users are using your website to ensure that your retargeting efforts reflect recent behaviors like page visits, form fills, and recent downloads.
Attribution Matters
A decade ago, the norm was two touchpoints before purchase—now that number is up to six. If you are giving full conversion credit to the first or last ad a user clicked on, you are mistaken. By oversimplifying the sales process, you deny yourself the opportunity to optimize spend in the right channels. Furthermore, without the ability to point to the tangible impact of various marketing efforts, you risk having budget reallocated to “higher performing” departments.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution for revenue attribution, as that will depend on your buyer journey. This can be difficult, however, with research from AdRoll finding that the biggest barriers to attribution implementation are lack of knowledge and technology limitations. So how do you solve the revenue attribution puzzle? Consider investing in marketing attribution software like Bizible, which combine behavioral and ad data with sales outcomes to help you make the right marketing decisions. Gaining this data gives you the insights needed to properly optimize your retargeting campaigns. Without this information, you are shooting in the dark, spending your money randomly instead of putting it to its best use.
Conclusion
Remember that most website visitors do not convert on their first visit, so retargeting them is essential to keep in touch and stay top of mind until they are ready to buy. With the right message and the right timing, you are in the driver’s seat to accomplish this goal. And with meticulously measured attribution, you are in position to prove it’s all worth it.
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