96% of the visitors who come to your website are not yet ready to buy. This means that you will probably only be able to convince 4% of your traffic to buy what you are offering when they first arrive at your website. That's a big chunk of visitors you're missing out on. Fortunately, there is one thing you can do to bring back lost visitors: run retargeting campaigns.
What is targeting?
With retargeting, you can keep your business in the spotlight of your potential customers after they leave your website and persuade them to reconsider your offering as soon as they need it.
Retargeting campaigns allow you to target specific visitors with specific ads to convince them to convert to your offer. These campaigns work because they allow you to show ads to 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 the time is now to pay attention to this
Building online traffic naturally is getting harder than ever. It can be done, but it requires a lot more effort than it used to.
But you can also buy traffic. Traffic is a commodity these days and I believe the way to build is in a mix of paid traffic and organic traffic.
The thing is, even buying traffic has gotten more expensive and is likely to get worse. With traffic democratized and more and more people turning to the traffic store, demand has driven up prices. Interest-based targeting is certainly achievable, but it is more difficult (and more expensive) in some markets than others.
The “shortcut” to this is retargeting. Then you only advertise to people who have been to your site before. This is much cheaper and more effective.
But there is still limited inventory available for retargeting. As more and more people get into this, it will potentially reach a point where it's too expensive to drive paid traffic for many people on smaller budgets - unless they have a retargeting audience.
This is why you need to build your retargeting audience now - even if you don't plan on advertising them yet. It creates a database that you can turn on when you're ready.
Collecting data for retargeting campaigns
Unlike search ads, retargeting ads are not prompted by user searches. To ensure that the right target group sees your ads, you can use the following three methods to collect data (target groups) for your retargeting campaigns.
1. Use a retargeting pixel
Pixel-based retargeting is the most common form of audience collection. It works with the help of a JavaScript code (a pixel) that you place on your website or landing page after clicking. After you add the pixel, the pixel places an anonymous browser cookie in the visitor's browser every time a visitor arrives at your website or landing page after clicking.
When the visitor leaves your page and continues to browse other websites, the pixel tells your provider such as Google AdWords or Facebook that these visitors should start seeing your ads.
The pixel-based retargeting ensures that your ads will be seen by people who viewed your website or clicked through to your landing page after clicking. Another advantage of pixel-based retargeting is that it starts straight away, visitors can immediately see advertisements that can convince them to return to your offer.
2. Use retargeting lists
With list-based retargeting, you use lists from your existing customers or visitors who have given you their email addresses, and you show them specific ads. Maybe you want your blog subscribers to download a white paper and ignore the popup 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 get started with list-based retargeting, simply upload your list of email contacts to the retargeting platform and your audience should see your ads while browsing the web. You can also send your audience personalized emails to convince them to rethink the offer they have expressed interest in.
WHY A BLOG IS PERFECT TO BUILD A RETARGETING DATABASE
Many blogs - even less popular blogs - still get a lot more traffic than many non-blog sites.
So your blog is a powerful medium for building your retargeting audience. Just by a random person on the internet visiting your blog once through a Google search, you can bring them into your retargeting audience and potentially 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 putting your blog in a higher gear.
Even if you don't plan on spending a penny on this right now, you should still take the time to install a pixel on your blog and start building your retargeting audience. Then at least 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 lesser targeted goal as it is aimed at visitors who have not interacted much 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 company and products/services, but they still haven't committed to an offer, so you want them to click on the ad, take them to a landing page after clicking, and convince them to convert.
Retargeting is a great way to engage your potential customers and communicate with people who have already shown an 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 goals, and campaign types. Determine which platforms your ads will show on, and link the entire transformation together.
Read here how to reduce your Facebook advertising costs!
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