Retargeting and Remarketing

What Is Retargeting?

By adding pixels (a short snippet of code) to your website, you will be able to track the user’s actions through cookies placed in their browser. That means you will know what the user has done on your website and where to find them online so you can show them new, personalized ads.

By “following” them around the Internet, you ensure that your brand is seen by them often enough that when they’re ready to make that purchase, they think of you and return to your site. The key to retargeting is that your ads are aimed at those website visitors who have already demonstrated an interest in your products – not new prospects.

What Is Remarketing?

Although both of these strategies are designed to bring back customers who have bounced from your website after performing a certain action, remarketing generally uses email rather than ads.

Remarketing entails gathering your site visitors' info and then sending them emails to persuade them to return to their abandoned shopping cart on your website and complete a purchase.

Why Should You Use Retargeting?

Many companies end up focusing their efforts on reaching new customers and forget to nurture the existing relationships with current customers.

Customers who have already visited your website understand your products and your aim, so you don’t have to create a completely new message for this audience. Since they are already familiar with your brand, they trust you, which makes communication with them easier.

In fact, it is not just that they understand you, but, more importantly, you understand them. You know what kind of products they like, what they don’t like and where they are in the purchase funnel. This will help you create customized ads for these people which will help them to convert better.

Retargeting basically allows you to give the specific customer the right kind of attention in the best manner.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Remarketing Strategy

Use Personalization

The best part of retargeting is the information you have about your audience, which is not available through the insane amount of buyer personas that one makes.

We know exactly what the potential buyer is looking for and this is a gold mine for the communication you can then use. You can create content that can directly engages the customer. 78% of users say that personally relevant content from brands increases their purchase intent.

Offer Discounts and Other Promotions

An important aspect of remarketing is including a promotional offer that will compel the customer to take action. Offers like free shipping, discounts and “buy-one-get-one-free” are tactics that will grab their attention.

As mentioned above, some of the reasons why a person might abandon a shopping cart could be that they were price comparing or they wanted to calculate the cost of shipping. So a discount on products or free shipping via an email reminder might be just the thing to convert an uncertain potential customer into an actual customer.

Leverage Your Best Content

Content marketing is the ultimate contributor to push a user further down the sales funnel. When a brand’s content is engaging and offers something of value, the remarketing strategies will automatically be successful. With the data you’ve gathered from your site visitors, you can create specific content that appeals to specific people at every stage of your marketing funnel.

Tips for Retargeting and Remarketing

1.Communicate with the Audience Appropriately

Whether you’re targeting potential customers or current customers, don’t overwhelm them with too many ads. Understand that they will get irritated by seeing the same ad again and again.

Unless you have a proper strategy regarding the number of times you want to show them the same ad, your remarketing process will not work and you will overburden the audience with the same annoying ads. This will ruin your chances of getting them to convert.

2.Understand Your Audience

If you don’t understand which kind of customers you are talking to, you may get the message wrong. Let’s say that you are remarketing to people who have not made a purchase on your website with ads that say “Make another purchase.” This can go horribly wrong and make your audience completely uninterested in interacting with your brand.

This is why it is important to analyze the data you have gathered and further segment this list so that you can send the correct message to the correct prospect.

3.Try Out Different Ads

A user sees hundreds or thousands of posts and ads a day on their social media feeds, in their email inboxes, and all over the web. Clearly, the competition is high, so your job as a marketer is to stand out from the crowd and create engaging content that will attract your audience.

If you’re not seeing the kind of conversions you’d like, explore what kind of ads work the best with the audience you are targeting with A/B testing.

4.Have a Clear Objective

You need to make sure that you are clear on what action you want your audience to carry out after clicking on your ads. If it is signing up or buying a product, you have to create the right call to action and have the right communication for this outcome. If a visitor gets to your ad’s landing page and doesn’t know what you’re offering or how to go about buying it or learning more, you’ve messed up a great opportunity.

Remarketing & Retargeting Are Essential for Success

In a nutshell, the difference between retargeting and remarketing is the approach: Retargeting involves showing ads via browser cookies to prospects and remarketing involves collecting prospects’ info and sending them sales emails. The goal to both approaches is to get the prospect to convert.

With more and more consumers online with access to almost unlimited information and products, retargeting and remarketing have become important for all brands. These tactics allow you to place your brand in the mind of the user and is one of the easiest ways to spread brand awareness.

Although retargeting and remarketing aren’t exactly the same, they do go hand in hand. It is integral to a good digital marketing strategy to carry out both strategies, as this is how you will foster and nurture relationships with your audience – whether they are potential customers or already converted customers.