Retargeting simply refers to showing ads to people that have been to your website or have engaged with your content.
Ads appear based on previous browsing history.
You essentially show someone an ad of a product that they saw or reroute them to your website or landing page.  

About 92% of people aren’t ready to make a purchase the first time they are on your site – However that statistic varies, some websites go as high as 98%.

It depends on your niche and your brand.  

The goal of retargeting is to utilise the large amount of potential clients that don’t make a purchase when they are initially visiting your page.
In short, retargeting focuses on potential customers that are in the market for your product or service.
By implementing retargeting you create a presence and generate brand awareness.

How does ‘Retargeting’ work?

If you’ve surfed the web the chances of you experiencing retargeting are extremely high.

For instance, think of all the times you’ve Googled a product or service..

 ..days later you see ads related to that product or service constantly popping up on your news feed or websites that you browse.

You’re probably so use to it you don’t even notice them anymore…
Suss it out down below.. looks familiar huh? 

Retargeting Process:

1. You place a piece of code in your website called a Pixel.
   It’s not noticeable and doesn’t affect the user experience on the site.
   
   
2. Every time a product or service is viewed on the website, a snapshot is taken by the pixel, kind of like a photo documenting that event.
   The pixel is stored as a cookie.
   The visitors exact data isn’t stored just the browsing history.
   
   
3. The person then goes on another site later on.
   The cookie communicates the data (browsing history) to the designated ad network eg. Google and the relevant ad is shown on the new website.

Now you know how it works let’s dig a little deeper and look at the key parameters to be mindful of in a retargeting campaign:

Segmentations : This is essentially showing the right content to the appropriate person. Potential clients are in different stages of the purchase process.

It’s important to distinguish this and make sure that the right ads are targeting the right person. 

Therefore, showing the person in the checkout the product they viewed makes much more sense then showing them the ad for your landing page.

When to use Retargeting?

Retargeting is best used to supplement your digital marketing strategy and not as a stand alone technique. 
Retargeting can be thought of as a conversion tool – It helps to drive sales from warm leads that have already engaged with your business. 

‘Retargeting’ integrated into a strategy:

Let’s say you’re about to launch a new shampoo and you’re wanting to reach out to your target audience and tell them about your innovative new product.
 
Firstly you could start by setting up a Facebook campaign and targeting your key demographic. This gets the product exposure and awareness.
 
Secondly, you send a couple of bottles to some influencers that align with your business principles and objectives telling them to do a post.. Now you’re creating a buzz.
 
Thirdly, you would be to write a couple of blog posts for your website that have relevant keywords and valuable content for your potential clients to read over and engage with. Something along the lines of ‘why this shampoo is unique’ and ‘how it’ll benefit’ over the other products.
 
Lastly, you set up a separate campaign on Facebook promoting your new blog post.
 
After spending a few days running these campaigns and analysing results you may realise that you’re getting a lot of traffic to your website and people are hovering around the checkout but they’re not processing their carts as much as you’d like.
 
Now’s the time to apply retargeting to ramp up conversions.
 
You’ve built brand awareness and have given people a reason to buy your product, implementing a retargeting campaign at this stage of the customer journey generates brand presence and reminds your potential customer of your product .

Retargeting generates more online sales by keeping your brand identity at the forefront of your customers mind.
As a result click through rates of a retargeted ad is 10X higher then a regular display ad.
 
People best learn through repetition and retargeting allows your customers to get acquainted with your brand more efficiently by continuously engaging with them .

In short, every time your customer sees your retargeted ad, the brand becomes more and more familiar.
The item or product they are wanting to purchase keeps circulating in their mind.
It’s become a go-to technique in the marketing space with 70% of marketers using retargeting to boost brand awareness. 

Key Takeaways

By now you should have a crystal clear understanding of retargeting, how it works and how to apply it within your marketing strategy.

Here are the key takeaways from this article:

• Retargeting serves ads to customers that have been on your page or have interacted with your website or service.
• To effectively retarget you have to set Pixels up on your website that take note of events and browsing history on your page. The ad network uses the stored data to show relevant ads to the customers that have been browsing on your page. 
• It’s not a standalone technique because it doesn’t attract people to your website, it only engages people that have relevant browsing history. 
• Retargeting is a tool for sales conversion as well as brand recognition and awareness. 
• Retargeted ads are 10X more effective then regular ads
• Retargeting is best used in conjunction within a larger digital marketing strategy.
  

To conclude, a large portion of digital marketing agencies favour retargeting due to the mass amounts of click through rates and customer interaction.
Retargeting is best used within a larger digital marketing strategy – it’s not a stand alone tactic, more of a tool to drive conversions.

Retargeting is the secret spice in your digital marketing recipe. 
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Mesmerise  is a comprehensive digital marketing agency offering integrated strategies to help small and medium sized businesses grow.

Have you integrated retargeting into your campaigns? Get in touch and let us know.