Retargeting Ads: How to Convert Website Visitors into Customers
Learn how retargeting ads help bring back website visitors, improve conversions, and boost ROI with effective strategies for your business.
10/26/20266 min read
What happens when you go to the website, browse some product or service and exit without buying anything? Well, you might come across an ad by the same firm when you start surfing through your social media pages or watch a video. This is retargeting.
A lot of people look at the websites but never take any immediate action. They could be evaluating different options, searching for price information or just simply are not ready to take action.
In this case, retargeting ads prove useful for the businesses as these would enable them to reconnect with the previous visitors of their website and make them come back and convert their actions.
For digital marketing companies, retargeting is one of the best ways that can help the clients in maximizing the utility of the existing website traffic.
What Is Retargeting?
Retargeting is an online marketing technique that targets previous visitors to your website who did not complete the desired conversion action.
For instance, a user may come to your site, check out what you offer, and go away without submitting the contact form. Retargeting enables you to present those people targeted ads in order to make them return to your site.
Ads may be shown via:
Facebook and Instagram
Google Display Network
YouTube
Other sites and applications that allow advertising
Retargeting usually utilizes web tracking, advertising platform audiences, or customer data to find eligible users. Depending on the platform, retargeting techniques may vary.
It's all about keeping your business in sight for interested people.
Why Do Website Visitors Leave Without Converting?
It is crucial to know the factors that make users abandon their visit to the website without any conversion before designing the retargeting campaign.
Some of them are:
They are still doing some research. People usually compare different brands, prices, and services before purchasing something.
They do not need it right now. The user may be interested in something you offer, but he or she needs more time for considering the purchase.
They are distracted. Some phone calls or messages may distract the customer from his or her purchasing intentions.
They are looking for answers. Users leave websites because they want to get more information regarding pricing, services, etc.
They are not sure. They do not have enough information about you to proceed with a purchase.
It allows companies to create more relevant ads rather than send out the same generic messages.
How Do Retargeting Ads Work?
The concept of retargeting is relatively simple. Organizations make use of advertisements via websites in order to target their existing audiences that had interacted with their website previously.
How it is done:
A visitor lands on your website: This could happen because they clicked an ad, searched for you, or reached the site through any other way.
The visitor peruses your website: They look at the products you offer, your services page, or put a product in their cart.
The visitor leaves your website: Without buying a product, filling out a form, or making any other conversion action.
An audience is created: Depending on the applicable legal standards, certain aspects of user experience are used in order to create a retargeting audience.
Your ads are shown: The visitor sees your ads on various available advertising platforms.
The visitor comes back: Depending on whether the ad is appealing enough, they come back to your website and make the conversion.
Relevance is the key. An ad that fits the visitor's previous interests will be more relevant than an irrelevant one.
Types of Retargeting Campaigns Businesses Can Use
Each firm has unique marketing objectives. The selection of the best approach will be determined by several factors including the audience and the desired conversion.
1. Retargeting for Website Visitors
This is the process of targeting the eligible individuals who have previously visited the firm’s website.
For instance, the digital marketing company may reach out to the individuals who checked out its SEO page but did not fill out the enquiry form.
2. Product Retargeting
Product retargeting proves very helpful for online stores.
If a customer looks at a certain item of footwear or puts an item into the cart but does not buy anything, the company may show an ad related to the product when supported.
Displaying such a product reminds customers of what they like and motivates them to come back again.
3. Social Media Retargeting
Facebook and Instagram let companies build their audiences using different kinds of interactions, such as visits to specific websites, watching videos, and using social networks.
For instance, the company can retarget users who viewed its promotional video or interacted with its content on social networks.
4. Search and Display Remarketing
Businesses can use eligible Google Ads campaigns to re-target former visitors on their websites using eligible advertising placements.
Display ads can help keep visibility high as people visit participating websites and apps. A search-oriented approach is also possible if companies want to reach eligible audiences searching for particular products or services.
Eligible options will depend on various factors, including the campaign type.
6 Best Practices for Effective Retargeting Ads
A retargeting campaign is not merely about repeated advertising. A successful campaign needs to have appropriate messages, targeted audience, and continual optimizations.
1. Segment Your Audience
Everyone who lands on a website does not have an equal interest.
A person landing on the homepage of a site might be interested in knowing more about the brand while a person who put the products into the shopping cart is ready to make a purchase.
Some of the segments could be:
General website visitors
Site visitors of particular services or products page
People who dropped off from the shopping carts
People who filled up part of the form but did not finish it.
2. Create Relevant Ad Creatives
The ads that you run need to resonate with the previous interests of the visitor.
For instance, a visitor who has looked at your services for social media marketing will be more receptive to an ad that talks about social media management services rather than an ad which is about all the services provided by your company.
The headline, visuals, and call-to-action must be compelling enough for the visitor to understand the value of your offering.
3. Offer a Reason to Return
In some cases, it is required that visitors get a little extra push to do something.
Depending on the kind of business you run, it might be worth considering:
Free consultation
Product demonstration
Downloadable guide
Time-bound offer, if it is legitimate
Customer testimonials/case studies
Service-based businesses may find that proving their expertise and giving a helping hand is better than any discount.
4. Control Ad Frequency
Repetitive display of the same advertisement might annoy your potential customer base and also result in the wastage of your marketing budget.
Control the frequency appropriately, watch out for the response from the audience, and then change your creative whenever there is a drop in its performance.
This would help you stay memorable without overburdening your audience.
5. Exclude Current Customers Where Required
If your targeted customer has already achieved the goal, displaying the same conversion-oriented advertisement to him/her will be a complete wastage of your budget.
For instance, in an online store, current customers could be excluded from a campaign focused on recovering abandoned carts.
It does not mean that your current customer base is completely worthless. You should select your exclusions depending upon the objective of the campaign.
6. Test and Optimize Your Campaigns
A well-targeted advertisement should be regularly analyzed and optimized.
Use different headlines, visuals, offers, audience, and call-to-action to test what works best. Analyze their performance and see which combinations give you a good result.
Check some metrics like:
Click-through rate (CTR)
Cost per click (CPC)
Conversion rate
Cost per conversion
Return on ad spend (ROAS) if there is any measurement of your revenue
Do not evaluate your campaign based on clicks. Your goal is to get something really valuable from it.
Common Retargeting Mistakes to Avoid
Even an otherwise well-conceived campaign will fall flat if certain key points are missed.
Here are some common pitfalls to watch for:
Appealing to everyone with one message: There is always going to be varying interest levels.
Advertising for too long: The old leads may not care about your product any more.
Ignoring mobile traffic: Make sure your advertisements and landing pages are optimized for mobile devices.
Creating poor landing pages: A good advertisement will not make up for a confusing website or complicated inquiry form.
Missing privacy rules: Respect data protection regulations, consents, and platform rules for advertising.
Not monitoring conversions correctly: Use the proper conversion tracking to see how well your campaign is performing.
Avoiding these pitfalls allows companies to make more relevant campaigns and spend their money wisely.
How Digital Marketing Agencies Can Help with Retargeting
The management of a retargeting campaign entails more than just setting up the target audience and placing ads. A business needs to have an effective strategy, good creative resources, accurate tracking mechanism, and performance analysis.
A digital marketing agency can assist businesses in:
Determining the target audience based on their web activity and marketing objectives.
Creating advertisements to suit the needs of the customers.
Setting up proper tracking mechanisms and conversion tracking.
Budget optimization, segment optimization, and creative optimization.
Campaign performance analysis and optimization.
Through proper use, retargeting could be integrated into the wider digital marketing strategy including SEO, content marketing, PPC and social media advertising campaigns.
However, not every person who visits the website will become a customer right away. It takes some more time and other things for him/her to make a final decision.
With retargeting ads, companies have another chance to reach out to interested visitors and encourage them to take the necessary actions.
By analyzing audience behavior, designing relevant advertisements, managing frequency and measuring results, companies can increase the efficiency of their existing traffic.
When talking about improving the digital advertising efforts of a company, retargeting should be taken into consideration.
The main idea behind it is to find the ways not just to draw the visitors but to create something that would make them come back.