96% of visitors who come to your website are not yet ready to buy. This means you can probably convince only 4% of the traffic to buy what you offer when they first come to your website. That's a large proportion of visitors you are missing out on. Fortunately, there is one thing you can do to bring back lost visitors: running retargeting campaigns.
What is retargeting?
With retargeting, you can keep your business in front of your potential customers after they leave your website and persuade them to reconsider your offer when they need it.
Retargeting campaigns allow you to target specific visitors with specific ads to persuade them to convert for your offer. These campaigns work because they allow you to show ads to those visitors who have already shown interest in your product/service. Using search engines and social media channels, you can remind them that they wanted to solve a problem and why your product/service offers the best solution.
Why you should pay attention to this now
Building traffic organically is getting harder than ever. It can be done, but it requires much more effort than before.
But you can also buy traffic. Traffic is quite a commodity these days and I believe the way to build is in a mix of paid traffic and organic traffic.
The point is that even buying traffic has become more expensive and it is likely to get worse. With traffic democratised and more and more people going to the traffic shop, demand has driven up prices. Interest-based targeting is certainly feasible, but is harder (and more expensive) in some markets than others.
The "cuter route" to this is retargeting. Then you advertise only to people who have been to your site before. This is much cheaper and more effective.
But there is still limited inventory available. As more and more people get in on this, it may reach a point where it is too expensive to generate paid traffic for many people with smaller budgets - unless they have a retargeting audience.
This is why you should build your target audience now - even if you don't plan to advertise for them yet. It creates a database that you can turn on when you are ready.
Collecting data
Unlike search ads, retargeting ads are not prompted by user searches. To make sure the right audience sees your ads, you can use the following three methods to collect data (audiences) for your campaigns.
1. Use a pixel
Pixel-based retargeting is the most common form of audience collection. It works by using JavaScript code (a pixel) that you place on your website or landing page after clicks. After you add the pixel, every time a visitor arrives on your website or landing page after clicking, the pixel places an anonymous browser cookie in the visitor's browser.
When the visitor leaves your page and continues browsing on other websites, the pixel lets your provider such as Google AdWords or Facebook know that these visitors should start seeing your ads.
Pixel-based targeting ensures that your ads are seen by people who have viewed your website or clicked through to your landing page after clicking. Another advantage of pixel-based targeting is that it starts immediately, visitors can immediately see ads that can convince them to return to your offer.
2. Use retargeting lists
With list-based targeting, you use lists of your existing customers or visitors who have given you their email address and show specific ads to them. Perhaps you want your blog subscribers to download a whitepaper that they ignore the pop-up ad on your homepage, or you want your free trial users to upgrade to a paid subscription. Both situations would be suitable for retargeting campaigns.
To start list-based targeting, simply upload the list of email contacts you have to the retargeting platform and your audience should see your ads as they browse the internet. You can also send your audience personalised emails to persuade them to revisit the offer they have shown interest in.
Why a blog is perfect for building an audience
Many blogs - even less popular blogs - still get much more traffic than many non-blog sites.
So your blog is a powerful medium to build your audience. Just by a random person on the internet visiting your blog once via a Google search, you can bring them into your targeting audience and possibly contact them at a later date.
Blog marketing without retargeting is like marketing in first or second gear. Blog marketing combined with retargeting is like shifting your blog up a gear.
Even if you don't plan to spend a penny on this right now, you should still take the time to install a pixel on your blog and start building your targeting audience. At least then it will be there for you when you are ready.
Retargeting campaign goals
There are two basic goals you can set for your remarketing campaigns:
- Awareness: Awareness campaigns are used to inform visitors about your product/service and other announcements. This is a less targeted goal because it is aimed at visitors who have not had much interaction with your business. You can run awareness campaigns as a precursor to your conversion campaigns.
- Conversion: Conversion campaigns are used for visitors who are more familiar with your business and products/services. But they still haven't committed to an offer, so you want them to click on the ad, lead them to a destination page after clicking and convince them to convert.
Retargeting is a great way to keep your potential customers engaged and to communicate with people who have already shown interest in your business.
While it may seem like a simple concept, there are many aspects of a retargeting campaign that need to be worked out. Make sure you take enough time to create your lists, set targets and types of campaigns, determine which platforms your ads will be displayed on and link the entire conversion path together.
Read here How to reduce your Facebook ad costs!
