Re-target marketing defined
Re-target marketing involves the use of diverse platforms or websites to draw attention to a product of service that propels potential buyers. The best way to do this is to ensure familiarity. The more the audience is familiar with the product, the more they are likely to consider purchasing the product.
The main objective of the retargeting campaign is to remind people about your products and services. Retargeting campaigns allow the company to show visitors relevant information in the form of visuals or texts. The design of the visual and verbal elements of the ads help to connect with the visitors through brand awareness and recognition.
Re-targeting differs from re-marketing, as the former mainly makes use of paid ads to target audiences who have visited your website or social media profiles. Re-marketing has the same objective as retargeting, however, it primarily uses email to target your visitors.
How retarget marketing works
Re-target marketing is a process that makes use of “cookies”, a small piece of data stored by the Web browser which remembers your webpage visitors because of some code – known as a pixel - placed on your website. The pixel adds the cookie in the visitor’s browser, which drops crumbs at every site they visit after leaving your site. The trail left by the crumbs allows you to retarget them with your ads.
Simply put:
When your target audience visit your website, and don’t perform an action required such as checking out to complete their purchase;
They leave your site and later decide to browse the internet again;
They spot your ad on a different site, reminding them about your brand or one of your products they’ll likely be interested in;
This then prompts them to visit your site again, the only difference being that they’re now ready to make a purchase.
When setting up a retargeting campaign, there are data points one needs to consider. Your retargeting campaign can either target people based on the items they’ve viewed on your site; the page they’ve opened or the amount of time they’ve spent viewing a product.
When to use retarget marketing
If you’re trying build awareness of your product and service offering, then retarget marketing is for you. That’s because most people feel the need to know your brand and business well enough to make a decision to buy your product or service, therefore retargeting ads will help keep your brand top of mind for those people who aren’t ready to purchase on their first visit to your website or social media platforms.
Re-targeting also works well if you have many monthly website visitors. It’s important to target your visitors based on the actions they’ve taken on your site. This avoids you sending the wrong message to visitors e.g., offering a free trial to a visitor who already purchased a product when you could have sent it to a bounced visitor.
Re-targeting on social media
Re-targeting on social media allows you to take advantage of already engaged users. It is where you also have access to a larger audience, allowing you to expand your reach.
Re-targeting strategies
The first retargeting strategy involves retargeting by specific URL visits. Rather than targeting anyone who visits your website, you can tailor your retargeting only to target those who have visited a specific web page.
Secondly, you could choose to retarget existing customers. By sending them re-targeted ads to purchase another product or service. This is a great strategy to use when you’re trying to up sell. When adding to your existing customer list, ensure that you remove those customers who are frequent purchasers of your products. It would be more beneficial to spend on retargeting ads directed at less frequent purchasers.
Lastly, lead-generation ads based on page engagement provide your target audience with information, products or services in exchange for information about them such as an email address or telephone number.
Conclusion: Using retarget marketing will help your business take advantage of the mere-exposure-effect, which states that people tend to grow fond of something the more they see it. It also reinforces brand salience as people become more familiar with your brand, logo, etc. Re-target marketing is also cost-effective, since the people you’re targeting have already shown an interest in your products or services. Lastly, because generally don’t convert on the first encounter with your brand, retarget provides that additional point of contact needed to convert an audience.